Trump has previously announced the defeat of the group, but sleeper cells of fighters have re-emerged. With no signs of fighting Wednesday, however, the long-running battle to retake the militants' last outpost in eastern Syria appeared to have reached its conclusion.

"The caliphate is gone as of tonight," Trump said in a speech at a factory in Lima, Ohio, where military tanks are assembled.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate, which at its height stretched across large parts of Syria and Iraq. Controlling territory gave it room to launch attacks around the world.

During his speech, Trump held up two maps of Syria — one covered in red representing territory held by the militant group when he was elected president in November 2016 and the other that had only a speck of red.

"When I took over, it was a mess. They were all over the place — all over Syria and Iraq," said Trump, who has said the U.S. will keep 400 troops in Syria indefinitely.

For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign against the group. But even after Baghouz's fall, IS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks and the encampment had proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of IS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January, according to Kurdish officials — took the Syrian Democratic Forces by surprise.

Ciyager Amed, an official with the Kurdish-led SDF, said they were searching for any IS militants hiding in tunnels in a riverside pocket in the village of Baghouz. The SDF has not yet announced a victory over IS.

Associated Press journalists saw SDF soldiers loading women and children into trailer trucks on the hilltop over Baghouz — a sign that evacuations were still underway Wednesday. Black smoke was rising from the village.

On Tuesday, the SDF seized control of the encampment held by IS after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, signaling the group's collapse after months of stiff resistance.

Teague made the introductions. Neither she nor Anderson wore a uniform, except for the patch on their jackets and the ID tags clipped to their shirts.

"I'm a social worker, and this is my partner, T-bone," she told the man. "We are from the VA. You're not in trouble."

Encounters such as this one represent a new approach to dealing with veterans in crisis. Against the backdrop and heartache of their persistently high suicide rates, authorities are touting the Los Angeles County program as a breakthrough in policing that could save lives.

At its core is the belief that veterans are often best equipped to talk brethren back from the brink - and to guide them to services. Since the program's launch in September, local law enforcement agencies answering such 911 calls have dispatched not only deputies or officers but also two-person teams from the Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach.

The duos have responded to more than 125 emergencies. A Vietnam vet whose thoughts had become so bleak he'd hung a noose in his backyard. A former soldier who'd run through traffic on a busy L.A. thoroughfare, swinging a knife and yelling at drivers that a voice was telling her to kill herself.

Vets "speak their own language," said Lt. John Gannon of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, who helped create the program and believes it's already made a difference. "It's a subculture."

On the call outside that transition house in a Los Angeles suburb, the distress was all too familiar: The man had PTSD and a brain injury suffered in combat. He also had a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

As Teague and Anderson learned, the veteran had spent the last three days wandering the streets. The home's operators refused to allow him back in given his repeated violations of their no-drugs rule. That's when he started shouting threats and kicking the door.

The pair coaxed him out of the squad car and into the back of their unmarked SUV to talk.

"It seems like you're having a rough morning," Teague said. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"You're probably going to laugh."

She remembers assuring him that she wouldn't judge him. He seemed exhausted. He apologized that his feet were smelly.

"I can see evil in people," he told her. "I can tell which people are evil."

Was anyone at the house evil? she asked.

"Yes."

What did he want to do to people who are evil?

"Cut their heads off."

—

The Veterans Health Administration runs about 170 medical centers across the country and employs roughly 4,700 sworn officers to patrol the grounds of its hospitals. With rare exceptions, officials acknowledge, they stay within their campus confines.

But the pilot program run by the VA Long Beach Healthcare System sends officers and clinicians off the grounds, either to respond to emergency calls or to check on veterans who have missed therapy appointments.

Supporters call the program the first of its kind and hope it will be replicated nationwide.

"Instead of telling veterans, 'Hey call the crisis line and then figure out a way to get to the hospital to get care,' we're going to change things up. . . . We're coming to you," said David Weiner, who recently retired as the Long Beach VA police chief.

About 20 veterans kill themselves every day in the United States - a suicide rate that is 1.5 times that of the civilian population, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. On average, officials say, nearly three-quarters of those veterans had not sought therapy, drug rehab and other services for which they are eligible.

Teague doesn't need statistics to understand the magnitude of the problem. Just in the past two years, three of the roughly 75 soldiers from her unit who served in Iraq have taken their own lives.

"It's really hard to be on Facebook and you see somebody starting to decline and showing those signs of, like, 'Dude I'm struggling really bad,' " she said. "And then, next thing you know, we find out he's passed."

She and Anderson make an interesting pair. She's 37, a social worker with two sleeve tattoos that end in messages at each wrist - Love God on the left, Love Others on the right. He's 55, tall and bald, a longtime cop whose demeanor seems as suited to teaching as policing.

Both faced their share of trauma while in the Marines. Anderson was shot at repeatedly during his tour of Lebanon, where he arrived just after 17 comrades from his company were killed in a 1983 terrorist attack. And Teague broke her neck during a training exercise before her unit's deployment in 2003.

As a rule, neither shares their war stories with the vets they assist, nor do they pry for details about their clients' combat histories.

"Sometimes you don't want to bring stuff up, because there are certain trigger mechanisms that can set people off," Anderson said.

The work that brought them together on the Veterans Mental Evaluation Team - VMET for short - was inspired by a tragedy in early 2018. As a former Marine who had been making threats was being arrested, he wheeled around and clocked a deputy. In the ensuing melee with other deputies, 47-year-old Jeremy Spencer started having trouble breathing. He died at the scene. (No cause of death has been released, and the county district attorney continues to investigate, a homicide detective confirmed.)

"Most of our people were not connecting with this guy on a personal level," said Gannon, who runs the Sheriff's Department Mental Evaluation Teams - also clinician-cop pairings dispatched to scenes where mentally ill people are posing a danger to themselves or others. He wondered whether that effort could add a veterans component and pitched the idea to area VA officials.

The Long Beach facility was receptive. Talks are underway about a similar program at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center. The VA in Spokane has also expressed an interest.

During VMET's first four months, Teague and Anderson - with help from a night crew of two VA officers - responded to about 275 calls. About half of them were urgent calls in the field; the other half were follow-ups monitoring the progress of vets they'd helped connect to services.

"When there are situations that could potentially lead to really bad outcomes, we need to be out there and we need to be getting our veterans the care that they need," said Larry Albers, chief of psychiatry at the Long Beach VA. He believes lives have already been saved, though the program is too new for any studies of its outcomes.

On at least one occasion, the situation was very far afield, involving a 27-year-old combat veteran in Phoenix who'd texted his brother a disturbing message and a photo of a shotgun. Their aunt knew Weiner and so contacted his office at the VA. The chief had Teague phone the vet, who'd recently lost two cousins - also combat veterans - to suicide.

"Him getting a call from the VA - the exact organization he feels has abandoned him - meant the world to him," April Peters said of her nephew. Teague persuaded him to try therapy.

—

Any intervention that keeps a vet safe is considered a success, yet there's no certainty for what happens after that. The veteran at that suburban transition house agreed to a psychiatric evaluation at the Long Beach VA and then was sent to an outside detox facility. By early March, he seemed to have disappeared.

Sometimes, though, a full transformation takes place.

Thirty-six-year-old Jermaine Petit was a tragedy waiting to happen when Teague and Anderson first met him.

As an Air Force medic in Germany during the early 2000s, he'd treated U.S. soldiers gravely wounded in Iraq. But when he returned to Los Angeles after his tour, his life began unraveling. He started using crystal meth. He'd often wander the streets, homeless, paranoid and delusional, armed with hatchets and knives. He was arrested more than a dozen times, with police once subduing him with a Taser.

The VA team got called late one night after Petit had a confrontation with some men his mother feared were gang members. The team drove 30 miles to her home, arriving to find the veteran clutching a hammer. They eventually persuaded him to set it aside and go with them to the VA hospital in Long Beach.

Teague and Anderson began visiting Petit there in the psychiatric ward. At first he was nonresponsive. "He felt we kidnapped him," Anderson remembers.

Yet in rehab, he started focusing on goals and even mentoring others. These days he hugs his visitors.

"When you see someone at one of their lowest points and you see them in such desperation, and then to be able to kind of follow them through their journey of recovery, to see them at a point where they are flourishing - it's really heartwarming and gratifying," Teague said.

Petit is now in a transitional living house. He wants to go to school, find a place of his own and rekindle his relationship with his estranged 14-year-old daughter.

He says he is trying to reinvent himself: "I don't want my mom to die from a broken heart."

Charlotte Blackwell is grateful. Her son "sounds like the old Jermaine," she says. Without the VA program's help, he "would be out there on the streets, dead."

Intercontinental Terminals Company spokeswoman Alice Richardson said at a news conference Wednesday that crews were cleaning up the facility in Deer Park, located southeast of Houston, so the investigation can begin into what caused the blaze.

The fire, which started Sunday , sent a huge, dark plume of smoke thousands of feet into the air before being extinguished at 3 a.m. Wednesday. The tanks that caught fire contained components of gasoline and materials used in nail polish remover, glues and paint thinner. ITC said 11 of the 15 storage tanks located in the area where the fire occurred were damaged.

The blaze briefly flared up late Wednesday afternoon. The flare-up, which sent flames and smoke into the air, was contained within 30 seconds by firefighters, the city of Deer Park said in a tweet.

The Environmental Protection conducted air quality tests throughout the Houston area, both on the ground and from a small airplane, and "measured no levels of hazardous concentrations," said agency official Adam Adams.

The EPA also reviewed data collected by ITC, Harris County, where Houston is located, and by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and that data did not show hazardous concentrations of volatile organic compounds, Adams said.

The state environmental agency said in a statement Wednesday that the benzene levels it found near and around the storage facility do not pose a health concern.

But some residents who live near the storage facility said Wednesday they don't have confidence in the air quality test results.

"Everything has been wrapped up in this nice perfect bow in saying that there were no problems. Every air quality was perfect. Every wind was perfect blowing it away. And if everything was so perfect, why did it happen?" longtime Deer Park resident Terri Garcia said.

Bryan Parras, an organizer in Houston with the Sierra Club, said some residents who live near the facility have experienced various symptoms since the fire, including headaches, nausea and nose bleeds. He said his environmental group has concerns not just about the air quality, but about potential impacts to the environment and the fishing industry if chemicals from the storage facility or foam used to fight the fire leaked into the Houston Ship Channel, which leads to the Gulf of Mexico.

"This issue isn't over just because the fire is out. We want systems in place that will protect our communities," Parras said.

The EPA and the TCEQ said they are waiting for test results of water samples to determine any potential impacts from the foam used to fight the fire on waterways next to the storage facility, including the Houston Ship Channel.

Sema Hernandez, who lives in Pasadena, just west of Deer Park, said all four of her children have experienced headaches since the fire started Sunday. But she has not been able to take them to a doctor because she doesn't have health insurance.

"This shouldn't have happened. ... But it did. My question is, what do we do now?" Hernandez said.

The Harris County Public Health Department said in a statement Wednesday that based on current health-related data from multiple sources, "there continues to be a low health risk for the general public."

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who took office in January, said she understands the fears and concerns some residents have had but she and other officials have worked to be transparent with the public.

"From the beginning of taking office, I said we need to move toward a place of transparency and we need to move toward a place where we recognize our environment and our health as a human right," said Hidalgo, the county's top administrator.

Richardson said her company has been in Deer Park for more than 40 years and would work to regain the community's trust.

"We want to operate safely with minimal impact around us," Richardson said. "We're sorry for what has happened."

Garcia said she fears that she and other residents will be dealing with the impacts of the fire long after people have forgotten about it.

"We are going to be the ones figuring out what was really in the air ... because our families are the ones going to be sick," she said.

___

Associated Press writer David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.

A recipient of the Silver Star, Cowart brushed it off, assuming someone wanted to send him an invitation to an event. A second phone call later that day from the Pentagon triggered his curiosity. He was told to expect a third call from a senior ranking official in the next day or two – and that it was good news.

The next day, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey called to congratulate Cowart — his Silver Star would soon be upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest award for valor.

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“I had no idea my award was under review,” said Cowart, who now lives in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. “The Distinguished Service Cross is a great honor.”

Cowart’s award is one of a dozen Silver Star medals announced recently by the Army for upgrade through a review process of post-9/11 valor awards that began in 2016. All military departments have completed their respective reviews, said Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, Pentagon spokeswoman. However, there are a few Army cases still pending final decision or announcement. Of the Army’s 12 awards announced this year, only five names have been released.

The review encompassed about 100 citations of the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and Air Force Cross and about 1,000 Silver Star recommendations.

It has resulted in 57 upgrades: four Medals of Honor, 16 Distinguished Service Crosses, 12 Navy Crosses, two Air Force Crosses and 23 Silver Stars, Gleason said.

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“The Army is currently in the process of scheduling the associated award presentation ceremonies,” she said.

When then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the review, the Pentagon established a definition for combat that all services now use: “The definition will encompass meritorious service while personally exposed to hostile action or while under significant risk of hostile action.”

So far, three of the Medals of Honor have been presented and the fourth ceremony to honor the late Staff Sgt. Travis Atkins will take place at the White House on March 27. Atkins died June 1, 2007 while deployed near Bagdad, Iraq, with the 10th Mountain Division. He saved the lives of three other soldiers by shielding them from a suicide bomber.

Distinguished Service Cross presentations for the late Maj. Thomas G. Bostick and Capt. Andrew L. Bundermann took place earlier this year. A service for Sgt. Robert K. Debolt will take place March 28 at Fort Riley, Kan., and for the late Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker on April 5 in Pittsburg, Pa.

Cowart said Dailey told him during their call that he sat on the review board for Cowart’s medal review and the process took about one year.

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Cowart’s medal was awarded based on his actions May 13, 2007 in Samarra, Iraq, while serving as gunner with 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment — part of the 1st Cavalry Division. At a traffic checkpoint operated by his platoon, two occupants from a vehicle exited a car — one opened fire on the soldiers and the other was wearing a suicide vest.

Cowart tackled the man in the vest, who ultimately detonated the device. While his actions limited damage from the explosion, Cowart’s platoon leader 1st Lt. Andrew Bacevich Jr., who was nearby, died as a result of the blast. Cowart lost his left leg.

"After the explosion, it starts to get a little blurry,” Cowart said in an Army new release. “I know I didn't see a weapon. I didn't see a suicide vest. I wasn't just going to shoot an unarmed guy. But I knew he was a threat and had to do something. We had a struggle, but then it was all black and I woke up in a hospital in Ballad [Iraq].”

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Eventually, Cowart was moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he would spend the next 15 months.

Jonathan Free served in Cowart’s platoon and was there that day. Cowart served as Free’s sergeant and described him as the type of leader who was actually looking out for his soldiers.

“It was such an intense moment,” said Free, who traveled from Colorado to witness the pinning ceremony. In the moments following the attack, “I felt if I wasn’t with him, he wasn’t going to be OK. That’s how I feel today with him getting the award.”

Craig Hall, a member of the platoon who was wounded two weeks before Cowart, was there with him at the medical center in San Antonio. Together, the two mourned the loss of their lieutenant and recovered from their wounds.

“(Cowart) is one of the only guys I was able to speak to afterward. We are mentally and spiritually connected. He’s a lifelong friend,” said Hall, who flew to Texas from Massachusetts for the ceremony because he felt he owed it to Bacevich.

The award upgrade “is a testament to the guy (Cowart). Really is. He’s selfless and he cares about everyone,” Hall said.

<element>

Returning to Fort Hood for the ceremony this week, the 1st Cavalry Division rolled out the red carpet for Cowart and his family. They were given access to view military vehicles up close, tour the museum and stables, and his 14-year-old twin daughters rode horses from the division’s Horse Cavalry Detachment.

“I am honored and humbled,” Cowart said Wednesday at the podium during his ceremony, standing before hundreds of active-duty servicemembers who filled the bleachers and spilled onto the surrounding grass.

Free and Hall were joined at the ceremony by about a dozen other veterans who served alongside Cowart, who poke of the joy of seeing his fellow soldiers again, as well as the difficult memories it conjured.

“Reuniting also brings sadness. Sadly, one member of the crew isn’t here,” he said, referring to Bacevich. “I think about those events every day.”

thayer.rose@stripes.com
Twitter: @Rose_Lori

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Transguard Group says its employee, who was not identified, made the comments on his personal Facebook page under an assumed name. Transguard says the employee was stripped of his security credentials, fired and handed over to authorities.

It says the UAE, where the official religion is Islam, deported him. Transguard, which is part of the Emirates aviation group in Dubai, did not elaborate.

The UAE's National newspaper said Wednesday the employee was believed to be a security officer whose Facebook post celebrating Friday's shooting included reference to a deadly attack on Indian soldiers in Kashmir last month.

<related>
 

Court proceedings for Nouran Ahmad Shiba Sueidan were held before Judge Robert T. Numbers in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Court documents filed Tuesday show that Sueidan faces seven charges that include: three counts of resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer by refusing to provide identification documentation; resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer by refusing to comply with instructions to “stand still''; resisting to be placed in hand restraints; operating a vehicle without a proper license; and operating a vehicle with a suspended or altered license or registration plate.

An affidavit of the criminal complaint filed against Sueidan states that he attempted to access Fort Bragg at 10:30 a.m. on March 12 without proper identification and repeated requests to tour “the special operations facility.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said Sueidan’s lawyer asked for a continuance to “pursue a forensic psychologist.”

Court documents state the request was granted, and the defense has to provide a written statement to the court by the close of business Friday.

The affidavit states that Sueidan provided an expired Jordanian passport, an expired Texas driver’s license, expired vehicle registration and no proof of vehicle insurance to gate guards on March 12, after originally refusing.

The gate guard expressed concern about the passport and visa’s legitimacy, which appeared to have handwritten modifications, an investigator with Fort Bragg’s Military Police Investigations and Provost Marshal Office wrote in the affidavit.

When going to the nearby visitor’s center, officials noticed Sueidan’s vehicle registration was expired and confirmed that his driver’s license was expired. Officers detained him for his safety and the safety of others, the investigator said.

Sueidan repeatedly made comments about needing to enter the installation and "take a tour of the special operations facility, the investigator wrote.

Sueidan was in the custody of U.S. marshals as of last week.

A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said a detainer was issued against Sueidan last week. The detainer requests local authorities to notify ICE if Sueidan is released from criminal custody.

“(ICE) will seek to take him into custody for removal proceedings following the resolution of the criminal charges he currently faces,” Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the agency’s southern region, said last week.

rriley@fayobserver.com

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Despite a fireball and an explosion powerful enough to buckle the car's doors, the victim miraculously escaped injury when the bomb was detonated as he drove down a Bronx street in 2016.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said he would have sentenced Richard Laugel to 20 years in prison if not for his military heroism, which included two stints in Iraq.

"I want to thank you for your service to your country," Engelmayer said. "You have been a hero, and you have it in yourself to be that way again."

But the judge also said PTSD does not excuse Laugel's crime and he was "incredibly fortunate no one was hurt" when he tried to settle an ongoing feud with a neighbor who had quarreled with him over a parking spot.

"It's a rare person who tries to blow up their adversary's car with a pipe bomb," Engelmayer said.

Prosecutors said the March 2, 2016, attack came after Laugel put a pipe bomb in the rear tire well of his Bronx neighbor's car. They said he followed the car in his own vehicle a few blocks before activating the bomb remotely.

The loud explosion created a fireball that blew out the car's air bags and buckled the car doors, though it failed to ignite the gas tank. An FBI analysis showed the bomb was loaded with nails.

Arrested on state arson and attempted murder charges in March 2016, Laugel remained incarcerated until February 2018. A May 2018 narcotics raid on his residence revealed he was manufacturing firearms and silencers in his garage, prosecutors said.

In court papers, attorney Troy A. Smith said his client suffered from classic post-traumatic stress.

He described one instance in which Laugel heard fireworks outside his then-California residence and ran outside in his underwear with his licensed firearm, "completely under the assumption he was in Iraq and defending himself and his fellow marines from harm."

"He was also experiencing nightmares containing images of combat and would wake up screaming and drenched in sweat," Smith wrote.

Engelmayer said it was "blatantly obvious" Laugel suffers from PTSD.

He read a letter in which Laugel said: "I constantly suffered from survivor's guilt."

The judge also cited a letter from Laugel's former platoon commander, retired Sgt. Maj. M. Dallas Miller, saying Laugel provided security during the initial invasion of Iraq for former Secretary of Defense James Mattis who led a Marine division at the time.

Miller said Laugel helped train, plan and execute high-risk missions in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005.

He said it is easy for people to write someone off with PTSD.

"What we should be doing is wrapping our arms around him, help him address his issues that led him to make a poor decision, and help him get back on track," Miller said.

Torrential rains were expected to continue into Thursday and floodwaters were still rising, according to aid groups trying to get food, water and clothing to desperate survivors. It will be days before Mozambique's inundated plains drain toward the Indian Ocean and even longer before the full scale of the devastation is known.

People have been clinging to trees and huddling on rooftops since the cyclone roared in over the weekend, and aid groups were desperately trying to rescue as many as they can. The United Nations humanitarian office said the town of Buzi, with some 200,000 people, was at risk of becoming at least partially submerged.

"Floodwaters are predicted to rise significantly in the coming days and 350,000 people are at risk," the U.N. office said.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa received a somber welcome in the hard-hit mountain community of Chimanimani near the border with Mozambique. Zimbabwean officials have said some 350 people may have died.

"We do not want to hear that anyone has died of hunger," Mnangagwa said.

Clutching a bag of his few remaining possessions, Amos Makunduwa described the devastation with one stark sentence. "There is death all over," he said.

"It is beginning to smell really bad," he added. "The whole area is like one big body of water, huge rocks and mud. There are no houses, as if no one ever stayed here."

The force of the flood waters swept some victims from Zimbabwe down the mountainside into Mozambique, officials said. "Some of the peasants in Mozambique were calling some of our people to say, 'We see bodies, we believe those bodies are coming from Zimbabwe,'" said a local government minister, July Moyo.

Entire villages were swept away, said Gen. Joe Muzvidziwa, who was leading the military's rescue efforts in Zimbabwe. Some people had been out at beer halls when the cyclone hit and came home to find nothing left.

Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi said late Tuesday that more than 200 people were confirmed dead in his country. After flying over the affected region on Monday, he said he expected the death toll to be more than 1,000.

Aid workers were shocked as they arrived in the Mozambique port city of Beira, estimated to be 90 percent destroyed. The 500,000 residents of the city, which has some neighborhoods that are below sea level, were scrambling for food, fuel and medicine.

"The power of the cyclone is visible everywhere, with shipping containers moved like little Lego blocks," said Marc Nosbach, Mozambique country director for the aid group CARE.

In footage shot by South African broadcaster eNCA, food and other supplies were dropped from a helicopter to a survivor standing waist-deep in water outside Beira. Another man clinging to a tree branch was hoisted to safety. Rescuers cradled small children, keeping them warm.

Meanwhile, international aid started trickling in.

"Everyone is doubling, tripling, quadrupling whatever they were planning" in terms of aid, said Caroline Haga of the Red Cross in Beira. "It's much larger than anyone could ever anticipate."

The United Arab Emirates pledged $4.9 million to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, the Emirates News Agency reported, citing the Emirates Red Crescent. Norway said it was providing $700,000.

The chairman of the African Union Commission said it would provide $350,000 in immediate support to the countries, and the United Nations allocated $20 million.

The European Union released $3.9 million in emergency aid, and Britain pledged up to $7.9 million. Tanzania's military has sent 238 tons of food and medicine, and three Indian naval ships have been diverted to Beira to help with evacuations and other efforts.

Sacha Myers of the nonprofit Save the Children described overflowing rivers and dams, and said getting in aid was difficult, with roads and bridges washed away or submerged in the region.

Hunger and illness were growing concerns, with crops destroyed and waterborne diseases likely to spread.

"There are large areas where people are really finding it difficult to find sources of clean water," said Gert Verdonck, the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Beira.

"On top of all of that, there's the issue of how to treat people who fall sick, with so many health centers damaged or destroyed."

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Meldrum and Cara Anna in Johannesburg and Matt Sedensky in New York contributed to this report.
 

Trump enumerated a list of grievances against McCain, who died in August, including that he had wrongly supported the war in Iraq, failed to “get the job done” for veterans and “badly” hurt the Republican party and the nation by voting against repealing Obamacare.

The president also complained that McCain had turned over the so-called Steele dossier to federal authorities during the 2016 presidential campaign instead of alerting Trump himself. The dossier is a private, uncorroborated intelligence report alleging ties between Trump and the Russian government.

“He got it, and what did he do? He didn’t call me, he turned it over to the FBI, hoping to put me in jeopardy,” Trump said.

Trump’s criticism of the late senator came after senior Republican lawmakers offered implicit and explicit criticism of the president for remarks earlier this week attacking McCain.

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Johnny Isakson called Trump’s attacks “deplorable” in an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Political Rewind” radio program earlier on Wednesday.

“That’s what I called it from the floor of the Senate seven months ago,” Isakson said, when the senator criticized the Trump administration for lowering the White House flag to half-staff for only a single day following McCain’s death. “It will be deplorable seven months from now if he says it again and I will continue to speak out.”

The flag was returned to half-staff following Isakson’s criticism.

Trump recalled the controversy over McCain’s memorial services during his remarks Wednesday, claiming that he “gave him the kind of funeral he wanted” but “didn’t get a thank you.” McCain laid in state at the U.S. Capitol — a decision made by congressional leaders, not Trump — before his burial last year.

Other Republican senators also weighed in on Trump’s fresh attacks on McCain, the former Armed Services Committee chairman who died of brain cancer. McCain, an Arizona Republican who had served in Congress since 1983, was a onetime Navy pilot who was North Vietnam’s most prominent prisoner of war.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised McCain in a tweet Wednesday that didn’t mention the president or his criticisms. McConnell, R-Ky., wrote that he missed McCain every day and added, “It was a blessing to serve alongside a rare patriot and genuine American hero in the Senate.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who was just elected to a six-year term, said on Twitter, “I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., long McCain’s best friend in the Senate, tweeted praise for McCain without mentioning Trump. Graham has become perhaps Trump’s most important ally in the Senate, changing his tune dramatically from before Trump’s election, when the senator predicted that he would destroy the Republican Party.

Most Republicans go to great lengths to avoid criticizing Trump to keep from also becoming targets of presidential tirades on Twitter. Trump remains immensely popular among Republican voters, which makes such a move especially risky. Former senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee both tussled with Trump and retired rather than face tough Republican primary challenges in 2018.

Isakson, R-Ga., is somewhat insulated from political pressure because he won his third Senate term in 2016 and won’t be up for re-election until 2022. Still, he needs Trump for issues important to his state, such as a disaster-relief package scheduled to be on the Senate floor next week.

“We’re all Americans,” Isakson said on the radio program. “There aren’t Democratic casualties and Republican casualties on the battlefield, there are American casualties, and we should never reduce the service that people give to this country.”

Trump, as a candidate in 2015, picked a fight with McCain, declaring that the Navy veteran was “not a war hero” for spending five years being tortured in a Vietnamese prison and refusing advantages offered to him because his father was a prominent military leader. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Twitter he will reintroduce his legislation to rename the Russell Senate Office Building after McCain, whom he called an “American hero.” The building was named in 1972 after Georgia Democratic Senator Richard Russell, a proponent of racial segregation who fought the Civil Rights Act.

Isakson rejected Schumer’s call to rename the Russell building, saying Schumer is “just playing politics.”

The ruling brings to nearly $10 billion the fines imposed against Google by the European Union. And it comes at a time when big tech companies around the world are facing increasing regulatory pressure and fierce political attacks over privacy violations, online misinformation, hate speech and other abuses.

Still, the latest penalty isn't likely to have much effect on Google's business. It involves practices the company says it already ended, and the sum is just a fraction of the $31 billion in profit that its parent, Alphabet, made last year.

Alphabet stock rose 2 percent on Wall Street on Wednesday.

The EU ruling applies to a narrow portion of Google's ad business: when Google sells ads next to Google search results on third-party websites.

Investigators found that Google inserted exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google's rivals.

As a result, advertisers and website owners "had less choice and likely faced higher prices that would be passed on to consumers," said the EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager.

Anyone who suffered from Google's behavior can seek compensation through national courts, she said.

EU regulators opened their investigation in 2016 — seven years after Microsoft filed a complaint — though by that time, Google had already made some changes to give customers more freedom to show competing ads. For that reason, regulators did not require a specific remedy to restore competition.

But Vestager said it appeared rivals haven't been able to catch up, and some are "quite small." By contrast, the EU said, Google has more than 70 percent of the European market for selling ads that run alongside search results on third-party websites.

Google did not say whether it would appeal.

"We've already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the commission's concerns," Google's senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said in a statement. "Over the next few months, we'll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe."

E-marketing analyst Bill Fisher noted a "growing wave of sentiment" toward curbing the influence of Big Tech and said that even if the EU's rulings apply only to Google's European operations, Google should "begin to open up, become more transparent and possibly look to alter some of its business practices" worldwide.

Earlier this month, a British expert panel recommended the government curb the dominance of giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google. In the U.S., Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has proposed breaking up the biggest American tech companies, accusing them of wielding too much power.

This week, as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other activists, Facebook agreed to overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing, credit and employment ads.

The EU has led the way in promoting tougher regulation of big tech companies. Besides cracking down on antitrust breaches by Microsoft and Intel, it has enforced stricter data privacy rules that affect Facebook and other social media companies.

U.S. regulators haven't been as tough, though the Federal Trade Commission recently created a task force focused on anti-competitive behavior in the industry.

Last year, Vestager fined Google a record $5 billion at the time for forcing cellphone makers using the company's Android operating system to install Google search and browser apps.

In 2017, she penalized Google $2.7 billion for manipulating online shopping search results and directing visitors to its comparison-shopping service, Google Shopping, at the expense of its rivals.

Google, which is appealing those two earlier fines, has said it has since made adjustments to its shopping results and will start asking European users of Android phones if they want to use other search or browser apps.
 

The investigation will determine whether Shanahan has promoted Boeing, where he worked for more than 30 years before arriving at the Pentagon in 2017, or disparaged the massive aerospace firm’s competitors, an IG statement said Wednesday. When Shanahan was sworn in as the deputy defense secretary in July 2017, he signed an ethics pledge, vowing he would recuse himself from any issues that could impact Boeing.

The probe follows a complaint issued last week by an independent and nonpartisan government watchdog group based in Washington, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, which questioned Shanahan’s actions as the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian and as the acting secretary, his job since since Jan. 1.

The acting secretary has been informed of the investigation, said Dwrena Allen, a spokeswoman for the IG.

Shanahan has previously denied any wrongdoing and told lawmakers last week that he welcomed the probe.

“Acting Secretary Shanahan has at all times remained committed to upholding his ethics agreement filed with the DOD,” Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said Wednesday. “This agreement ensures any matters pertaining to Boeing are handled by appropriate officials within the Pentagon to eliminate any perceived or actual conflict of interest issue with Boeing.”

In its March 13 complaint, CREW cited several media reports that indicated Shanahan in private meetings had promoted Boeing products to his subordinates and had disparaged Lockheed Martin, which was chosen over Boeing to build the F-35 Lightning II advanced fighter jet.

Shanahan, 56, was named acting defense secretary by President Donald Trump on Jan. 1 after serving as the Pentagon’s No. 2 under former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis since July 2017. He had previously been employed at Boeing since 1986, working on military-related programs as well as commercial aviation. He was serving as the company’s senior vice president for supply chain and operations when he left to work at the Pentagon.

Shanahan has been considered among Trump’s top choices to be nominated to the defense secretary post, but Pentagon and White House officials have declined to comment publicly about him or others who could be tapped to fill the position.

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He shared his journey and message with both Georgia Military College and Prep School cadets throughout the day Monday. The local military college and school for grades 4-12 often brings servicemembers onto campus to speak with the cadets, and Dwyer provided a different perspective from most.

A third-generation military man — his father was in the Air Force and his grandfather served in the Navy — Dwyer was commissioned into the Army from Furman University in 1998 before joining Special Forces four years later. In 2006, while on his third tour in Afghanistan, a rocket-propelled grenade attack caused Dwyer to lose both his left hand and his left eye.

“Of course, it was challenging,” Dwyer said of coming back from his injuries. “Fortunately, I was surrounded by a ton of positive influences, and I ignored all the negative ones, which is always a bonus.”

Near the end of his recuperation, Dwyer ran an idea by one of those positive influences, his wife, Jennie. He said he wanted to remain in the Special Forces, go back to Afghanistan, and do everything he had done before his injuries. It was at this point in his story that he took a break from his interview with The Union-Recorder and turned to the GMC cadets he was eating lunch with, and shared another important message.

“The most important decision you will ever make in your life is who you’re going to spend the rest of it with,” Dwyer said. “I’ve made two good decisions in my life and a ton of bad ones. I picked the perfect woman to marry, which was good decision No. 1, and I joined the United States Army. Those two decisions set me up for where I am.”

With the support of his wife, Dwyer remained in the Army and now serves as the garrison commander at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah.

“The primary reason is the camaraderie and the brotherhood that I feel for the guys I’ve served with,” he said on why he stayed in the service. “I would do anything for them, and I know that they would do anything for me. I also want the people around me — my soldiers, superiors, peers, my kids, and everybody around me — to realize it’s not OK to quit doing what you love just because life is hard. That’s the time to double down and just make it happen.”

Some people wear their heart on their sleeve, but Dwyer wears at least a portion of his in his eye. The Special Forces crest is embedded into his left eye full-time, not just when he’s out on speaking engagements.

“I wear it as a tribute to my guys, and I wear it so people will ask me about it,” he said. “I want to tell them how proud I am of everything my guys have accomplished.”

His message to GMC cadets Monday was one of overcoming adversity and having the tools necessary to do so — not just as individuals, but as leaders to help them develop “resilient, bulletproof teams.”

“He’s what every infantryman aspires to be,” said Franco Videla, a GMC cadet from Roswell, Ga. “I know most infantrymen love their job. It doesn’t matter whether they’re hurt or not, they’ll always want to do it. Hearing his (Dwyer’s) story, I know that I’m not going to complain if I’m given a dumb task. I’m going to give it my all like I should be doing.”

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The Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron’s “Rise Above” Traveling Exhibit opened Wednesday and will be on display through Sunday to showcase the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, also known as the Red Tails because of the distinctive red-tailed P-51 Mustang aircraft they flew during World War II.

The free exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily at the airport at 2020 Executive Airport Way in Fort Lauderdale.

Among other things, the exhibit features a movie theater with a 160-degree panoramic screen housed inside an air-conditioned 53-foot semitrailer with expandable sides and equipped with a ramp and a hydraulic lift for wheelchair users.

The movie helps audiences experience what it was like to be among America’s first black military pilots and their support personnel as they worked toward their goal of becoming Army Air Corps pilots in the early 1940s.

After the movie, audiences can take a virtual flight in the cockpit of a P-51 Mustang, the iconic aircraft of the Tuskegee Airmen.

A fully operational, twice-restored Red Tail P-51C Mustang also is on display as part of the exhibit. The aircraft is one of only four like it that are still flying, organizers said.

Retired Tuskegee Airmen pilot Lt. Col. George E. Hardy will be on site Thursday and Friday. He’ll be speaking about his experiences as a Tuskegee Airman at 11 a.m. on Saturday, during the executive airport’s annual Aviation Safety Expo.

Now in his mid-90s, Hardy is the youngest of the 13 known living Red Tail combat pilots.

More information can be found online at flyfxe.com or redtail.org.

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The White House meanwhile announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be welcomed in Washington over two days next week with Israel just two weeks from the April 9 polls.

Standing together, neither Netanyahu nor Pompeo made mention of the heated Israeli election campaign. But Netanyahu, facing a tough challenge from a popular former military chief and reeling from a series of corruption allegations , has repeatedly sought to focus attention on his foreign policy record and strong ties with President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu thanked Pompeo for the Trump administration's strong stance against Iran, which Israel regards as an existential threat.

The prime minister also accused Iran of attempting to set up a terrorist network to target Israel from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967. He used the incident to repeat his goal of international recognition for Israel's claim on the area.

"You could imagine what would have happened if Israel were not in the Golan," he said. "You would have Iran on the shores of the Sea of Galilee."

Pompeo did not mention the issue, but the administration is considering recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan. Last week, in its annual human rights report, the State Department dropped the phrase "Israeli-occupied" from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it "Israeli-controlled."

Israeli and U.S. officials say they expect an announcement on U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan could come as early as Netanyahu's visit to Washington next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been made public.

While Pompeo avoided the issue of sovereignty over the Golan, he touted last month's Mideast conference in Poland , where he said dozens of countries discussed ways "to stop Iran's regional rampage."

Accusing Iranian leaders of seeking the "annihilation and destruction" of Israel, he pledged continued American support. "With such threats a daily reality of Israeli life, we maintain our unparalleled commitment to Israel's security and firmly support your right to defend yourself," he said.

Netanyahu considers Iran to be Israel's greatest threat. In recent years, Israel has carried out many airstrikes in Syria to halt what it says are Iranian arms transfers to the Hezbollah militant group, and to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent military presence in the country. Iranian and Hezbollah forces have been supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops since the early days of the eight-year civil war.

Netanyahu said he was working closely with the U.S. "to roll back Iranian aggression" in the region and around the world. "There is no limitation to our freedom of action and we appreciate very much the fact that the United States backs up our actions," he said.

He also welcomed last year's U.S. withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran, as well as tough U.S. sanctions that were re-imposed on the country.

"This pressure is working," he said. "We need to increase it. We need to expand it."

Netanyahu is one of Trump's strongest backers on the global stage. Since taking office, Trump has upended U.S. policy and taken a series of steps welcomed by Israel, most notably by recognizing contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.

The step prompted the Palestinians to sever ties with the White House. Trump also has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians and shuttered the Palestinians' de facto embassy in Washington.

The Palestinians have pre-emptively rejected a peace plan the White House is said to be preparing, saying that the Trump administration is unfairly biased toward Israel.

The White House said Netanyahu would be welcomed next Monday and Tuesday with both a working meeting and a dinner with Trump.

Netanyahu said he was looking forward to making the relationship "even stronger" during the visit.

Pompeo arrived in Jerusalem after a stop in Kuwait, where he renewed calls for a resolution to a festering dispute between Qatar and four other Arab nations, all of them America's partners in the Middle East. Kuwait has been attempting to mediate an end to the crisis.

Pompeo said the dispute, which has roiled the Gulf Cooperation Council for almost two years, is hindering efforts to combat regional threats posed by Iran, the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations.

In Israel, Pompeo also attended a summit of Mediterranean natural gas producers Israel, Cyprus and Greece.

From Israel, he is to travel to Lebanon.

___

Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed to this report.
 

Justin Walters, 32, who served as an infantryman during two tours in Afghanistan, shot his wife Nichole Walters, 27, multiple times on July 9, 2017. Nichole died of her wounds inside the home, located in Theresa, about 80 miles outside of Syracuse.

Walters also fatally shot 36-year-old Joel Davis, a trooper and married father of three who had responded to the home.

A jury found Walters guilty Wednesday morning on 52 counts – including two counts of first-degree murder, as well as attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. He did not display a reaction when the verdict was read.

Rather than argue that Walters had not committed the crime, his attorney Ed Narrow, argued – along with a psychiatrist, his only witness – that Walters was not responsible for the crimes due to PTSD, alcoholism and childhood trauma, rendering him incapable of controlling himself on that tragic night, WWNY-TV reported.

Davis, who had been a member of the force for four years, was responding to a 911 call citing an argument at the residence.

Upon arrival, he heard gunshots and ordered backup. Though he reached for his own weapon, a semi-automatic rifle, he was shot in the chest before he could defend himself, according to police. The trooper then fell into a ditch, making it difficult for his colleagues to locate him.

It wasn’t until after Walters surrendered that the troopers were able to locate Davis. He was taken to Watertown’s Samaritan Medical Center where he was pronounced dead within the hour.

Nichole’s friend, Rebecca Finkle, was also shot but survived.

At the time of the shootings, Walters was an active-duty soldier stationed at Jefferson County’s Fort Drum. He was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division.

Gov. Cuomo instructed that government buildings lower their flags to half-staff following Davis’ death.

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"Let it come out, let people see it," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Wednesday for a trip to Ohio. "Let's see whether or not it's legit."

Mueller is expected to present a report to the Justice Department any day now outlining the findings of his nearly two-year investigation into Russian election meddling, possible collusion with Trump campaign officials and possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

Mueller is required to produce a confidential report that at a minimum explains decisions about who was and was not prosecuted. Attorney General William Barr is then expected to produce his own report for Congress and has said he wants to make public as much of Mueller's findings as he can under the law.

Trump said he was personally looking forward to reading the findings, even as he scorned the fact that Mueller was empowered to write the report in the first place.

"I just won one of the greatest elections of all time in the history of this country. ... And now I have somebody writing a report that never got a vote?" Trump said. "It's called the Mueller report. So explain that because my voters don't get it. And I don't get it."

Trump went on to mischaracterize the effort, saying "it's sort of interesting that a man out of the blue just writes a report."

The House voted unanimously last week for a resolution calling for any report in Mueller's investigation to be made public. It was a symbolic action designed to pressure Barr into releasing as much information as possible.

Trump and his outside attorneys have worked for months now to undermine Mueller and cast doubt on his eventually findings. Trump continued that effort Wednesday, calling Mueller "conflicted" and criticizing the lawyers who have worked on the case.

Though Mueller's office has said nothing publicly about the timing of a report, several prosecutors detailed to Mueller's team have left in recent months, suggesting the investigation is winding down.

Trump, for his part, said he had no idea when the report would be released, but maintained his innocence, saying there was "no collusion" and "no obstruction. There was no nothing."

"With all of that being said," he added, "I look forward to seeing the report."

__

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

The Army’s March 8 budget request scratches the Chinook upgrade, stops production of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and reduces planned purchases of Joint Strike Force vehicles, .50-caliber machine guns and forklifts, among other familiar war tools.

Instead, the military plans to spend billions of dollars more on new assault helicopters, robotic vehicles, digitally connected weapons, space communications and short-range missile defenses, among other priorities to cope with improved Chinese missiles and Russian missile defenses and cyberattacks, Army undersecretary Ryan McCarthy said in a March 11 talk at the Brookings Institution.

Though Chinooks were deployed more than 50 years ago in the Vietnam War, the heavy-lift helicopters are now “the youngest fleet in the Army,” given previous upgrades, McCarthy added. “The Army has over 10 percent more Chinooks than required.” Work is to continue on Special Forces helicopters now being upgraded at Ridley and on a separate production line for V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Boeing officials still want to save the program. “Delaying CH-47F Block II production funding would have significant detrimental impacts for fleet readiness, the defense industrial base, and taxpayers, and hamper soldiers’ abilities to carry critical payloads,” the company warned in a statement sent in an email sent by spokesman Andrew Africk.

Defending the plant’s contracts kept former U.S. Reps. Patrick Meehan and Curt Weldon, both Pennsylvania Republicans, riding to the rescue during the past couple of decades to save Chinook upgrades and the construction of Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. A spokeswoman for freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., whose district includes the plant, didn’t respond immediately to messages seeking comment.

McCarthy said military leaders had reviewed Chinook upgrades and hundreds of other programs before deciding what to cut. “Nothing was sacrosanct,” he said at Brookings. In all, he said, the Army cut or reduced 186 programs, including some at Army headquarters.

The retreat on Chinooks appears to have developed just this winter. “The Army announced in January it was set to award a contract for low-rate initial production of a maximum 14 CH-47 Block II aircraft” in fiscal 2021 and 2022, “but no award was made,” Inside Army, a publication that covers military contracting, reported earlier this month.

The Ridley plant completes work on about four Chinooks and one to two Ospreys per month, for the U.S. and also for allied military forces from countries including India, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. UAW local president Mike Tolassi was in a plant meeting and was unavailable for comment at midday Wednesday, his assistant said.

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Darlington entered a plea deal in a military court at Marine Corps Base Quantico in June 2015, pleading guilty to seven charges, including violating a protective order taken out against him by Campbell, strangling her "with a force likely to produce death" and inserting a loaded handgun into her mouth "while holding her down by the throat,"court papers state.

The decision Friday to send Darlington back to a re-entry management program was made by the commanding general of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune after a hearing held Monday on Campbell's request to have her ex-husband's suspended sentence reinstated.

The commanding general was not present, Campbell said, but made his decision based on the recommendation of a lieutenant colonel, who was present.

"I am livid. [Darlington is] being shown he can break the rules and all he gets is a slap on the wrist," Campbell said Tuesday.

In 2015, Darlington was dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps and sentenced to 11 years in prison, with all but five suspended, after pleading guilty to the seven charges, which included domestic violence.

According to the plea deal, the six additional years were to be reinstated if Darlington committed any misconduct or violated any terms of suspension. There was also a protective order in place prohibiting Darlington from contacting Campbell or their children.

Campbell argues that he violated that order by sending her more than 300 letters from jail and committing multiple disciplinary infractions, including threatening guards and prisoners.

Campbell tried for two and a half years — aided by at least six different attorneys assigned to her by the Marine Corps' Victim's Legal Counsel program — to get the Marine Corps to hold a hearing to see whether Darlington violated the terms of the pretrial agreement.

In late February, she learned that Camp Lejeune had agreed to a hearing. After being postponed twice, it was held March 11.

Campbell said she requested to attend, either in person or via video.

"They said, 'No, it's not that kind of hearing,'" she said. "The lieutenant colonel said he was just there to check boxes."

She said the defense attorney also argued that she not be allowed to read the impact statement she wrote.

As Campbell listened to the hearing in the Marine Corps Base Quantico office of her attorney, she learned that Darlington's defense attorney had brought Darlington's father, boss, fiancée, future sister-in-law and a Catholic priest to give character statements. Darlington also spoke on his own behalf.

"Everyone spoke but me," Campbell said.

Campbell said her attorney requested that since character statements were given on Darlington's behalf, the convening authority should also consider her impact statement.

"The [lieutenant colonel] said that was reasonable," she said. "But I have no idea if he really read it."

In her impact statement, Campbell wrote that after Darlington's original trial, she took "solace in that I knew he would have to conduct himself accordingly [or violate the terms of the pretrial agreement]."

"The fact remained, though, that I was and am terrified of him," she continued. "In a controlled environment such as prison, though, I expected some level of freedom from him for the coming years. I was wrong. How quickly I was wrong.

"I believed that the Marine Corps would fight for injustices," she added. "I am asking the Marine Corps to hear me now.

To see the violations that Darlington has made; to see how these repeated violations affect me; and be the one to show Mr. Darlington that one cannot continually get away with breaking the rules, and face no punishment."

Campbell said that as far as she can see, her case is done.

"I can't change my case," she said. "But if I can prevent this from happening to another military wife, I will."

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Abigail Spanberger have both reached out to Campbell in the past few weeks, she said, and she hopes she can work with them to bring forward legislation that might change how domestic violence is prosecuted in the military.

—
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The man, whom The Palm Beach Post is not naming, died about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner confirmed.

Citing privacy laws, the VA would not identify the man nor say which branch of service he’d served in, nor when, and would not provide any details about his death.

The suicide took place 15 days after a patient opened fire in the center’s emergency room, injuring two people. The medical center, at Military Trail and Blue Heron Boulevard, has not said what safeguards, if any, it would add as a result of that incident.

It also occurred as several VA centers across the nation have had to respond to patients who have taken their own lives. The Washington Post reported in January that 19 suicides occurred on VA campuses between October 2017 and November 2018; seven of those were in parking lots.

Kenita Gordon, a spokeswoman at the Riviera Beach center, said Tuesday in an email that the center’s staff has stopped two on-campus suicide attempts in the past five years.

“Patient deaths deeply affect the entire West Palm Beach VA Medical Center staff — especially the health care team members involved with a veteran’s care. Whenever an unforeseen patient death occurs, we conduct an internal review of the case,” Gordon said in an email.

“As a result of this incident, West Palm Beach VAMC is reviewing its processes and has changed certain patient monitoring protocols,” Gordon said. She did not elaborate.

The man’s mother declined Tuesday to provide details or to comment.

Gordon said the VA is working with the Defense Department and other agencies “to deploy suicide prevention programming that supports all current and former service members — even those who do not come to VA for care.”

The agency said any veteran in distress can call the veterans crisis line anytime at 800-273-8255, Option 1.

“One life lost to suicide is one too many,” Gordon said.

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been campaigning for local elections due at the end of the month, suggested this week that Australia and New Zealand had sent troops to fight in WWI's Gallipoli campaign due to their opposition to Islam.

In more inflammatory comments, Erdogan said any Australians and New Zealanders traveling to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in coffins "like their grandfathers" were in the Gallipoli campaign.

The battle, marked by heavy casualties on both sides, was a disastrous defeat for the allies against the then Ottoman Empire. Although the battle later helped cement friendship between the three countries, more than a century later it remains a highly sensitive subject in both Australia and New Zealand.

Australia was aghast at Erdogan's comments, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison summoning Turkey's ambassador Wednesday and demanding Erdogan take the comments back, saying "all options are on the table" if he did not.

On Wednesday, a senior Turkish official said Erdogan's words "were unfortunately taken out of context."

"As he was giving his speech at the (Gallipoli) commemorations, (Erdogan) framed his remarks in a historical context of attacks against Turkey," said Fahrettin Altun, director of communications for the Turkish presidency, on Twitter.

"Turks have always been the most welcoming and gracious hosts to their Anzac visitors," he said.

It is not the first time Erdogan has sparked outrage abroad by making controversial statements about foreign countries, particularly during pre-election periods to stir up nationalist sentiment and consolidate his support base. He has sought to patch-up relations after the elections.

In 2017, in the run-up to a referendum on expanding the powers of Turkey's president, Erdogan had lashed out at the Netherlands and Germany, comparing them to Nazis after they barred Turkish officials from holding campaign rallies there.

He also recently engaged in a war of words with Israel's prime minister and frequently slams the European Union over its immigration policies and what he says is rising Islamophobia.

Local elections are set to be held in Turkey on March 31. With the economy struggling, Erdogan's party risks losing the capital, Ankara, to the opposition. Such an outcome would be a severe blow to the president, whose ruling Justice and Development Party and its predecessor have run the city for the past quarter century.

On Wednesday Erdogan, inaugurating a theme park in Ankara as part of his pre-election campaign, called for votes for his ruling party candidates as a response to "occupiers who attempt to threaten our nation from tens of thousands of kilometers away."

Australia has issued a travel advisory warning people visiting the Gallipoli battlefields for remembrance ceremonies during next month's anniversary of the campaign to exercise caution.

Erdogan has also sparked outrage abroad by screening at his campaign rallies excerpts of a video taken by the gunman who killed 50 people in mosques in Christchurch, to denounce what he has called rising hatred and prejudice against Islam. Three Turkish citizens were among the dozens wounded in the attack.

Erdogan, whose party has roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, has also been showing parts of a manifesto said to have been left by the gunman in which he threatens Turks and Erdogan himself.

New Zealand has been trying to prevent the use of the videos. New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters is due in Istanbul this week for a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation to discuss the mosque shootings and was expected to take up the issue during the visit.

In Australia, Turkish ambassador Korhan Karakoc said he had a "frank" conversation with Morrison when the envoy was summoned to Parliament House on Wednesday.

"Remarks have been made by the Turkish President Erdogan that I consider highly offensive to Australians and highly reckless in this very sensitive environment," Morrison told reporters in Canberra, Australia's capital.

"They are offensive because they insult the memory of our Anzacs and they violate the pledge that is etched in the stone at Gallipoli," he said, referring to a promise made by the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, that those who are buried rest on friendly soil.

"I do not accept the excuses that have been offered for those comments," Morrison said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu later held a telephone conversation with his Australian counterpart, Marise Payne, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said. They did not provide further details about the call.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Wednesday, Erdogan said the attacker in New Zealand is no different from the Islamic State group. He also called on Western leaders to learn from "the courage, leadership and sincerity" of New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and "embrace Muslims living in their respective countries."

____

Elena Becatoros contributed from Athens, Greece.
 

Though tariffs have taken a toll on jobs and confidence, Trump has tried to compensate with an infusion of military spending. The tank factory he will visit in Lima, operated by General Dynamics, nearly closed six years ago; Army officials told Congress that they didn’t need any more of the heavy M-1 Abrams tanks it produces because they are less geared toward modern wars against insurgents.

But Trump, who has increased military spending significantly, signed a spending bill authorizing more than $2 billion for the tank, adding hundreds of jobs to a town that long had been heavily dependent on the defense industry.

He also will hold a fundraiser in Canton, but is bypassing Lordstown and is hoping to shift the story line.

“The story of the day may be about how the Trump administration saved the Lima plant from a near-death experience under President Barack Obama,” Peter Navarro, a Trump trade adviser, wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday in the New York Times.

Late last year, General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra cited Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, which have cost her company and Ford roughly $1 billion each, when announcing the closure of the company’s Lordstown plant in northeastern Ohio. The result was a loss of 1,600 jobs there, plus hundreds of other jobs at suppliers and related companies.

In recent tweets, Trump put pressure on GM to reopen the plant and blamed its closure on local United Auto Workers leader David Green, who heads the chapter that represents workers at the Lordstown plant.

“I want action on Lordstown fast,” the president tweeted. “Stop complaining and get the job done! 3.8% Unemployment!”

Trump’s re-election prospects would take a blow if he is not able to win Ohio, a long-time electoral bellwether that favored him in 2016. Ultimately, his success in the state in 2020 likely hinges more on local manufacturing jobs, which have been hurt by tariffs in his ongoing trade war with China, than the broader state of the nation’s overall economy.

Since he took office, Trump has seen his net approval rating in Ohio drop by 19 percentage points, according to a Morning Consult tracking poll.

While the national unemployment rate did drop to 3.8 percent in February, Ohio’s economy, which was hit harder by the recession, lagged behind. In January, the most recent month for which data is available, the state’s jobless rate was at 4.7 percent, continuing an uneven recovery that began before Trump took office. Job growth in manufacturing has picked up, as it has nationally, but service employment growth has been weak. If factory closures continue, the overall picture could sour.

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Now, one of those is threatening the other.

Contamination seeping from the Camp Grayling National Guard base is polluting local lakes and groundwater and is threatening the iconic Au Sable River — an internationally recognized trout-fishing mecca and one of the largest tributaries of Lake Huron.

Known as PFAS compounds, the chemicals bioaccumulate in humans and other animals and don’t break down in the environment. They’ve been linked to diseases like cancer, thyroid disease, hormone disruption, developmental problems in children and more.

Groundwater pollution isn’t good for the health of any community, but officials in Grayling and Oscoda — a downstream Au Sable River town also struggling with PFAS — are concerned the persistent nature of PFAS also will manifest as a long-term economic drain.

“Would you buy a house somewhere your well could be contaminated?” said Lacey Stephan, the Grayling Township manager.

The concern is not unique. Across Michigan, municipalities are now either budgeting for PFAS response where chemicals are found in drinking water or wastewater, or are casting a worried eye as the number of contaminated sites continues to climb.

The majority of contaminated sites in Michigan are linked to industrial sources, both active businesses and others that folded up long ago. But in Grayling and Oscoda, the contamination was caused by the military, meaning the U.S. government is the polluter.

That presents unique challenges, as the military has fought Michigan’s efforts to enforce state environmental laws by invoking sovereign immunity protections, and has been lobbying the White House to raise the threshold for remedial action by more than six times its present level.

In Oscoda and Grayling, the military has provided either bottled water, filters or municipal hookups to some properties, but local officials say more homes need that than the Department of Defense is willing to acknowledge. That’s forcing both communities to shoulder the burden of expanding infrastructure to provide PFAS-free water themselves.

In Grayling Township, officials are now taking steps to build an entirely new municipal water system to serve residences with drinking water contaminated by PFAS either at levels below what the military considers worrisome enough to warrant spending tax dollars to fix, or outside the existing regulatory framework for the class of so-called “forever chemicals.”

According to state data, PFAS were detected in the water at 565 homes around the Grayling Army Airfield and nearby Lake Margrethe, but only about 20 of them were above the Environmental Protection Agency advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA, which are only two of numerous PFAS compounds showing up in test results.

The EPA stands behind that threshold, but a growing number of public health advocates, independent scientists and state toxicologists argue that it isn’t protective enough, citing human studies and an analysis by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) that suggests levels should be much lower and cover more compounds.

In both communities, a PFAS chemical called PFHxS has been found in many samples. The long-chain compound is closely associated with fluorochemical plumes caused by the type of aqueous film-forming foam used for decades by the military to train for emergencies.

According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, PFHxS has been detected in 369 residential wells around Grayling, ranging in concentration up to 1,040 ppt.

Neither the state nor the federal government regulates PFHxS, although there’s been some groundwork laid toward that outcome. That means, for now, neither the DEQ nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can force the Department of Defense to take action to address PFHxS found at any level in drinking water.

“When contaminants aren’t defined as ‘hazardous’ by state or federal law, that make it much more challenging,” said Oday Salim, director of the Environmental Law & Sustainability Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.

The DEQ has some options it could pursue to designate contaminants like PFHxS as hazardous, but those are not quick or simple steps to take.

“The state would have to make a scientific assessment that those substances satisfy the characteristics of a hazardous substances even if they’re not already listed,” Salim said.

“That’s a hurdle.”

In Oscoda, local officials estimate it could cost $10 million to bring municipal water to all areas affected by contamination from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.

The Air Force has connected a couple of Oscoda homes to municipal water, but, as in Grayling, the military won’t run pipes to homes that test below 70 ppt. That has forced local officials to seek grants and to cobble together money to try to get the job done.

“We’re sinking a lot of time into handling this problem when we’ve got other issues to handle,” said Aaron Weed, Oscoda Township supervisor.

Weed gets daily phone calls about the PFAS problem and said it’s eaten up between 30 percent and 90 percent of his work time during the past couple of years. As a single issue, it’s an order of magnitude larger than anything else happening in the township, he said.

Oscoda Township has an annual budget of between $6 million and $7 million, most of which goes to fund local fire services and law enforcement. Weed said real estate values are falling and the township is having trouble enticing businesses to invest in the area due to the contamination.

“Really, the Department of Defense needs to take care of this problem,” Weed said. Instead, “they seem to be trying to avoid as much (responsibility) as possible.”

“My impression is the Air Force legal team feels that if they contribute something to helping Oscoda, then they have to do that everywhere.”

“We’re not asking to be treated special,” Weed said. “We just want the problem taken care of.”

The military’s rigid adherence to minimum requirements for taking action has bred some resentment among those in a military-friendly area. Some must juggle feelings of support for the armed forces with frustration at the Pentagon, which has pinched pennies and generally has moved at a sluggish pace when investigating or cleaning up contamination.

Reluctance to allocate more resources to Michigan are seen as reflective of budgeting concerns as PFAS contamination mounts at current and former bases across the globe.

Stephan said many in Grayling want Congress to allocate additional funding for military cleanups rather than redirect conventional defense spending. Many also are frustrated the military isn’t more generous with the money it does have.

“They are responsive, but when you start bringing up the cost of covering this expense, it’s like running into a brick wall,” Stephan said.

In Grayling, officials are concerned that as work progresses, the military won’t install water system mains large enough to serve more than the small number of homes on its list.

Stephan and township leaders began meeting with engineers this month to develop a feasibility study on a new municipal system; a $15,000 expenditure that could double if they want to use the study to pursue state or federal grants to defray the project cost.

If the system ends up serving homes around Lake Margrethe, which is a couple of miles west of the affected homes around the airfield, Stephan said the total cost could increase.

A new water system could mean an increase in property taxes, which is sure to be unpopular.

“People don’t make a lot of money up here,” he said. “This is northern Michigan. We try to do everything we can to not spend their money.”

This story was reported in conjunction with Detroit Public Television’s Great Lakes Now initiative and was produced with the financial assistance of the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

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It's pulling the troops away from President Donald Trump's border protection efforts and devoting them to fire protection, another area where Trump has been critical of California's Democratic officials — even repeatedly threatening to cut off federal disaster funding.

Starting in April, 110 California National Guard troops will receive 11 days of training in using shovels, rakes and chain saws to help thin trees and brush, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said.

They will be divided into five teams that will travel around the state working on forest management projects, mainly clearing or reducing trees and vegetation in an effort to deprive flames of fuel.

"They will be boots on the ground doing fuels projects alongside CalFire crews," Mohler said. "We've had them out for flood fighting, several different operations, but this would be the first time their mission would be fuels thinning and forest management."

They have helped fight fires before, however.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first in recent decades to deploy California National Guard troops as firefighters. That occurred on July 4, 2008, after lightning storms sparked hundreds of fires, Guard Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma said.

He referred questions about the latest effort to CalFire, which is directing the Guard's new assignment.

The training is similar for firefighting and fire protection. Mohler said the troops also will receive some training in forest management, "so they're not just out there cutting brush" but understand why they're doing what they're doing.

For instance, firefighting crews generally cut fire lines down to mineral earth during active wildfires, while fuels management crews often do less-intensive thinning of trees and chaparral to slow advancing flames.

That often involves creating fuel breaks. They can range from stripping away all woody vegetation on wide strips of land to thinning larger trees and removing shorter trees, brush and debris to discourage fires from climbing into treetops and jumping from tree to tree.

Critics say the work damages forests and can be useless against wind-driven fires, like the one that jumped a river to rain embers on the Sierra Nevada foothills community of Paradise last year, killing 85 people in and around the Northern California city of 27,000 people.

"CalFire is taking the Trump approach, logging the forest and weakening critical environmental protections, and that's the exact opposite of what we need to be doing," Center for Biological Diversity scientist Shaye Wolf said.

She said the better approach is to make homes more fire resistant while pruning vegetation immediately surrounding homes.

CalFire this month listed 35 fuel-reduction projects it wants to start immediately, covering more than 140 square miles (362 square kilometers) — double the acreage in previous years. But state officials estimate 23,438 square miles (60,704 square kilometers) of California forestland need thinning or other restoration.

"It's not a problem that's going to get fixed overnight," Mohler said.

Such thinning operations are getting more attention in recent years, with the U.S. Forest Service estimating last month that 18 million trees died in California over the last year.

The agency estimated that more than 147 million trees have died across nearly 15,625 square miles (40,469 square kilometers) during a drought that began in 2010, while about 1.5 million dead trees have been cut down.

Moreover, investigations have often blamed recent wildfires on utilities not doing a good enough job of clearing vegetation around power lines and equipment. Democratic state Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa has proposed legislation that would require CalFire to tell utilities which trees and brush to remove and then inspect the work.

Aside from Guard troops, CalFire also is creating 10 civilian fuels management crews this year. The 10-member crews could help with initial fire suppression if need be but will primarily reduce fuels, Mohler said.

"It's going to be a pretty amazing sight to see as these crews get out there on the ground," he said. "There's hundreds of, unfortunately, Paradises cross the state, (so) the public needs to understand this."

Three years on, here is a look back at the agreement and the effect it's had on migration.

WHAT DID THE EU-TURKEY DEAL SAY?

One of the main provisions of the deal, which came into effect on March 20, 2016, was that all those arriving on Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast — the preferred route at the time — would be detained and returned to Turkey unless they successfully applied for asylum in Greece. They wouldn't be able to move on to the Greek mainland, from where hundreds of thousands before them had made their way through the Balkans and on to central and northern Europe.

However, the deportations didn't go as planned. Instead of waiting to apply for asylum in their preferred European country, new arrivals applied as soon as they arrived on the islands, which delayed deportations and created a massive backlog in Greece's asylum system. In practice, actual deportations have been very few and far between.

DID THE AGREEMENT WORK?

On a very basic level of reducing the number of asylum-seekers heading to other European countries, the deal was very effective.

More than 1.2 million people registered for asylum in EU member states in 2015 and again in 2016, at the height of the crisis. That number fell by half the following year, with just over 654,000 new asylum applications in 2017 and even fewer — just over 580,000 — in 2018, according to the EU's statistics office Eurostat. Germany continues to be the most popular country for those seeking refugee status, followed by France and Greece. The main countries of origin of the applicants are Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the reduction in numbers has come at a cost.

Aid groups have repeatedly slammed the deal as inhumane, noting it has left thousands stranded in miserable conditions. On the eve of its third anniversary, 25 human rights, medical aid and volunteer groups signed an open letter calling on European leaders "to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy."

It has also not completely stopped arrivals on Greek islands, although the numbers are far lower than the thousands per day in 2015 and early 2016.

WHAT IS THE SITUATION ON THE ISLANDS?

The stipulation of new arrivals being held on the islands has left thousands languishing in crammed camps. Samos island has seen the worst overcrowding, with around 4,000 people vying for space in a camp with a capacity of 648. The largest camp in the eastern Aegean, Moria on the island of Lesbos which holds more than 4,800 people in facilities designed for 3,100, has come under the severest criticism from rights groups and even local officials over poor living and security conditions.

Greek authorities note that the terms of the EU-Turkey agreement prevent them from moving people off the islands en masse. Instead, they have tried to ease overcrowding by sending to the mainland those designated as vulnerable — such as the sick or very elderly, families with young children or single parent families.

But with dozens, sometimes hundreds, arriving each week, that hasn't been enough to definitively deal with the problem. As of Monday night, a total of 14,742 people were being held on the islands, most of them on Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos.

"Greece has become a dumping ground for the men, women and children that the European Union has failed to protect," Emmanuel Goue of the Doctors Without Borders medical aid group said in a statement on the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal.

"What was once touted as a 'refugee emergency' has given way to inexcusable levels of human suffering across the Greek islands and on mainland Greece," Goue said. "The EU and Greek authorities continue to rob vulnerable people of their dignity and health, seemingly in an effort to deter others from coming. This policy is cruel, inhumane and cynical, and it needs to end."

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF EUROPE?

The increased difficulty heading into Europe from the Greek islands meant migrants and refugees soon sought out alternative routes to get into the EU. With more than 57,000 unauthorized arrivals by sea in 2018, Spain became the No. 1 route to the EU by sea. The figure was more than double the number of arrivals in 2017 at 21,000. NGOs and the Spanish government itself blamed the increase on the EU-Turkey deal and on later agreements with Libya which essentially shut down the central Mediterranean route which had seen boats head from Libya to Italy.

There has, however, been a sharp decrease in the number of arrivals by sea in Spain in late 2018 and the first three months of this year.

More people are also dying. According to the International Organization for Migration, around 2,300 people died crossing the Mediterranean Sea last year, almost double the year before. Nearly one third of them perished in the so-called Western Mediterranean, which links the northwestern African coast with European coasts in Spain.

____

Aritz Parra in Madrid, and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, contributed to this report.
 

Brig. Gen. John Kubinec, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, announced the ambitious plan in August. At Tuesday’s State of the Base luncheon, he said 886 people have been hired, while another 276 are in the hiring process.

“We had a lot of people say there’s no way you’ll get 1,200 people hired in 12 months. It can’t be done,” he told an audience of 350 people at the Museum of Aviation. “Well, it can be done and we are doing that because of the support we get.”

He said he expects to hit the 1,200-hires goal by the end of May.

“We are not going to stop there,” he said. “We are going to continue to hire. We have attrition in the complex of approximately 30 every month, so we’ve got to stay ahead of that.”

The complex handles overhaul maintenance for aircraft that includes the F-15, the C-130, the C-17 and the C-5. Positions being filled are mostly skilled jobs, including aircraft mechanics and engineers.

Hiring is done at workatrobins.com. The 21st Century Partnership, a community group that supports the base, created the website and Kubinec gave credit to that for the success of the hiring program.

Kubinec is in his third year of command, and is the first commander since 1995 to serve in that role beyond two years. Col. Lyle Drew, the 78th Air Base Wing’s commander, mentioned in his comments that Kubinec is now slated to stay at Robins for a fourth year.

“This is not for any reason than that the Air Force has total confidence in his leadership and what he has done,” Drew said.

Drew’s two-year stint is ending this year, and he announced that Col. Brian Moore will be his successor. Moore is vice commander of the Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

Drew also talked about the growth at Robins, and said the total workforce of more than 23,000 people there now is the highest since 1968, and that’s only going to increase.

“The growth in 2019 is going to be the highest that we have ever seen,” he said.

The luncheon is put on each year by the Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce. Speakers included some of the top military and civilian leaders at the base. April Bragg, president of the chamber, said attendance was about 100 more people than last year.

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Officers from a specialized arrest team detained a 40-year-old man in Utrecht on Tuesday and released two other men detained earlier, said police spokesman Joost Lanshage.

The alleged shooter, 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis, remains in custody.

Prosecutors have until Friday to question the Turkey-born suspect before he must appear before an investigating judge who could extend his detention.

Monday morning's attack saw a gunman opening fire on a tram in a residential neighborhood, killing two men and a woman and seriously injuring three others.

Fearing more than one shooter was active, authorities locked down the city for hours — halting public transport and advising residents to stay indoors — until Tanis was arrested.

Prosecution spokesman Ties Kortmann said that the investigation was continuing into the motive of the suspects and into the possible involvement of the man arrested Tuesday.

"We are looking at the role of the new suspect," he added. The suspect's identity was not released.

Prosecutors have said they are seriously considering an extremist motive after finding a note in a suspected getaway car after the attack, and because of the nature of the shooting. They have not ruled out other possible motives.

"We are looking into every lead there is," Lanshage said.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that investigations had not yet determined any relationship between the alleged shooter and the victims.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding initiative to pay for the funeral of one of the victims had already attracted nearly 60,000 euros ($68,000) by early Wednesday morning.

On a crowd-funding website, a neighbor of the 19-year-old woman killed in the attack appealed for donations saying the victim's father "is not well off."

"To prevent him having more financial concerns because of the unfair death of his daughter, I want to support him financially by collecting money," wrote the neighbor, who was identified on the funding site as Martje Beniest-Kleppe.
 

The North Macedonian prosecutor's office said late Tuesday the men on trial in a Skopje criminal court were arrested last August in Syria by members of the international coalition fighting ISIS.

They were subsequently handed over to North Macedonian law enforcement agencies.

All were charged with membership of an extremist group, while one also allegedly recruited for ISIS.

If convicted, they face up to five years in jail.

The prosecutor's office said verdicts will be announced on Thursday.

North Macedonian authorities say more than 130 of the country's nationals have joined ISIS. The predominantly Orthodox Christian Balkan state has a large Muslim minority.
 

“It’s heartbreaking, you know, for everyone that has fought in the war; it is very disrespectful,” said Southie resident Mary Ellen Sarro. “… This is history and it’s a real shame.”

State police said the vandalism was reported Monday about 11:30 a.m. and troopers found “some type of oil” splashed or poured onto the memorial. The giant, stone slabs — which sit near Castle Island — hold the 216 names of soldiers from South Boston and Dorchester who were killed during World War II.

Tom Troy said all he felt was anger as he was watching the news Monday night and saw his uncle’s name desecrated by the vandals. He called the act “cowardly.”

“When I first saw it, I was angry,” Troy said. “You almost wish you had seen the perpetrator, caught up with them and squared up.”

“It is an awful thing they did. To see the beautiful memorial, it is tough to believe someone would actually do this,” he added.

His uncle, Eddie Troy, was beloved by his family and neighbors. A South Boston High graduate and one of seven children, Troy joined the Army Air Force, his nephew said.

During the war, his plane was shot down over Belgium and, assigned to retrieving the craft’s black box, he was last to leave the plane and ultimately perished.

“He was a live wire. He was pretty funny and when he died, it was tough for my father, especially,” Troy said. “And to have his memorial desecrated now is terrible.”

Crews were at the memorial Monday and Tuesday, trying different solutions to clean the oil off. Adriana Correa from Select Demo Services said they had tried vinegar with baking soda, soap and water; Comet; power washers; and more, without luck.

“Different people have tried different ways and nothing is working,” Correa said. “It is good people are trying. People care because for them, it is very important.”

“It’s terrible, it’s like going to a cemetery and seeing someone’s headstone desecrated,” said Boston resident Dennis Martin. His father, Thomas, had a bench at the memorial, dedicated to him, that was unharmed.

“I’m pretty sad, it is terrible when people do things like this,” he added.

But 22 kindergartners from the Oliver Hazard Perry School took the opportunity to visit and to learn about respect, sacrifice and honor. Judy Nee said she decided to take her students down to the memorial as a teaching moment.

“We try to be civic-minded and teach things that go beyond the ABCs. … It was the perfect opportunity to talk about sacrifice, why the names are there, talk about bad people and also how we can overcome bad things,” Nee said. “It was a lesson in empowerment and honor and despite the fact someone tried to ruin it, it won’t keep us from remembering.”

While there, they posted American flags, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and made crayon rubbings of the names on the memorial. She said even though the students were young, they were able to recognize that it was a serious matter and to learn about Southie’s history.

“It is important to teach empathy and growth in their hearts and not just their minds,” Nee said.

A spokesperson with the state police said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information or tips should call 617-740-7710.

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More than a century on from the carnage that saw around 44,000 Allied soldiers killed and an estimated 250,000 Turkish casualties, memories of the Gallipoli campaign have resurfaced in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings that saw 50 people killed.

On the campaign trail for local elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has caused a major diplomatic furor by criticizing New Zealand and Australia for sending troops to Turkey in April, 1915, as part of a British-led attempt to take the Ottoman Empire out of the war.

"What business did you have here? We had no issues with you, why did you come all the way over here?" Erdogan said. "The only reason: We're Muslim, and they're Christian."

Erdogan also suggested that anyone who comes to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in coffins, "like their grandfathers were" during the Gallipoli campaign.

Australia has demanded Erdogan retract his incendiary comments. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said "all options are on the table" if the Turkish leader does not.

The Gallipoli campaign, which lasted some eight months, was a shattering defeat for the allies with costly losses of British, Irish, Australian and New Zealander troops. Toiling in terrible conditions, with disease rampant, allied soldiers were often gunned down close to the coast where they were under siege.

Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty, had devised the plan in an effort to force the Ottoman Empire, allied with Germany, out of the war. It was a major victory for Turkey and a then young military man called Kemal Ataturk who later ascended to the leadership of the modern Turkish republic that he founded in 1923. Ataturk is still revered in Turkey today.

ANZAC day is solemnly commemorated as a national day of remembrance every April 25 in Australia and New Zealand.

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The long-running battle to retake the last outpost held by ISIS in eastern Syria appeared to have reached its conclusion, with no signs of battle Wednesday, although officials said a few remaining ISIS militants still had not surrendered.

Ciyager Amed, an official with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said they were searching for any ISIS militants hiding in tunnels in a riverside pocket in the village of Baghouz. The SDF held back on announcing victory over ISIS.

Associated Press journalists saw SDF soldiers loading women and children into trailer trucks on the hilltop over Baghouz, in a sign evacuations were ongoing Wednesday. Black smoke could be seen rising from the village.

The SDF on Tuesday seized control of the encampment held by ISIS after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, signaling the group's collapse after months of stiff resistance. Fighters celebrated after months of grueling battles and an on-again off-again offensive that saw thousands of people, many of them women and children, evacuated from the pocket.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse.

The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate, which at its height stretched across large parts of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign against the group. But even after Baghouz's fall, ISIS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks and the encampment had proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of ISIS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January, according to Kurdish officials — took the SDF by surprise.
 

That was one moment among others that Isakson has said is a pattern of President Trump’s attacks on McCain that “drive me crazy.” And after an escalation of bitter words from the president this week, Isakson is ready to deliver what he calls a whipping on Wednesday.

“I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better. I don’t care if he’s president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world,” Isakson told the Bulwark, a conservative news website.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us.”

Trump unloaded on the legacy of McCain, who died of brain cancer last year, in several tweets this week. On Tuesday, he decried McCain’s vote against repealing Obamacare.

“I think that’s a disgrace, plus there are other things,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.”

Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” blasted Trump and defended her father on Wednesday.

Her father “would think it was hilarious that our president was so jealous of him that he was dominating the news cycle in death,” she said.

Trump’s attacks also have appeared to unleash trolls targeting the McCain family. Soon after the president’s Oval Office remarks, Cindy McCain posted a profanity-laced message she received on Facebook.

A woman called John McCain, a former Navy pilot who endured years of torture as a prisoner in Vietnam, “traitorous” and celebrated his death.

“I want to make sure all of you could see how kind and loving a stranger can be,” Cindy McCain wrote on Twitter, referring to the woman.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, joined his Republican colleague in a rebuke Wednesday.

“I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God,” Romney wrote on Twitter.

Isakson, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, is a general supporter of Trump but often extends more criticisms of the president than many Republican lawmakers.

After last year’s controversy over the raising, lowering and re-raising of the flag, he took to the Senate floor to blast the perceived insult to McCain, although he did not single out the president in his remarks.

“Anybody who in any way tarnishes the reputation of John McCain deserves a whipping because most of those who would do the wrong thing about John McCain didn’t have the guts to do the right thing when it was their turn,” he said.

The focus has since narrowed to Trump. Isakson watched Trump’s Tuesday remarks and their impact.

“These kids are out there listening to the president of the United States talk that way about the most decorated senator in history who is dead, it just sets the worst tone possible,” he told the Bulwark.

Officers broke glass windows in the back of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle, authorities said.

As he was apprehended, the driver said he was protesting migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, Commander Luca De Marchis told Sky TG24.

De Marchis told Sky TG24 that the driver, an Italian citizen of Senegalese origin in his 40s, threatened the passengers, telling them that "no one would survive today" as he commandeered the bus carrying two middle-school classes to a nearby gym in Cremona province, some 25 miles from Milan.

ANSA quoted one of the students as saying the driver took all their phones and ordered the chaperones to bind the students' hands with cable ties, threatening to spill gas and set the bus ablaze. ANSA said the chaperones only loosely bound several students' hands, not everyone's.

One of the middle school students described his terror in an interview with La Repubblica TV, his face obscured due to his age. His name was not given.

"We were all very afraid because the driver had emptied the gas canister onto the floor (of the bus.) He tied us up and took all the telephones so we could not call the police," the student said.

"One of the telephones, belonging to a classmate, fell to the ground, so I pulled off the handcuffs, hurting myself a bit, and went and picked it up. We called the Carabinieri and the police."

Authorities said that an adult called an emergency operator, while one of the students called a parent, and they alerted authorities, who set up roadblocks. The bus was intercepted on the outskirts of Milan by three Carabinieri vehicles, which were able to force it into the guardrail, De Marchis said.

"While two officers kept the driver busy — he took a lighter and threatened to set fire to the vehicle with a gasoline canister on board — the others forced open the back door, breaking two windows," De Marchis said. While the evacuation was still underway, the driver started the blaze.

De Marchis credited the officers' "swiftness and courage," for getting out all the children and their teachers "with no tragic consequences."

Some of the passengers were treated at a hospital, mostly for cuts and scratches related to the evacuation, he said.

The driver was apprehended and was being treated for burns. ANSA identified him as Ousseynou Sy, and said he was being investigated on suspicion of kidnapping, intention to commit a massacre, arson and resisting law enforcement. The prosecutor's office later said they would add terrorism as an aggravating circumstance, since the event caused panic.

De Marchis said he had previous convictions, but did not specify their nature.

ANSA reported that Sy, who became an Italian citizen in 2004, had been convicted in 2007 and 2011 of drunken driving and sexual molestation of a minor. Sky TG24 said that the driver had worked for the bus company for 15 years without any employment-related issues.

"Investigators must clarify how the transport company permitted such a delinquent ... to drive a bus, especially one carrying children," said Riccardo De Corato, a Milan provincial official for security.

Video showed firefighters dousing the bus that had been completely gutted by flames, leaving only the charred metal frame.
 

Karadzic showed almost no reaction as presiding judge Vagn Joensen of Denmark read out a damning judgment, which means the 73-year-old former Bosnian strongman will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.

In increasing the sentence, Joensen said Karadzic's original 40-year sentence "underestimates the extraordinary gravity of Karadzic's responsibility and his integral participation in the most egregious of crimes."

Defense lawyer Peter Robinson said Karadzic vowed to fight on to clear his name.

"He says that politics triumphed over justice today," Robinson said. "The appeals chamber whitewashed an unjust trial and an unfair verdict."

Robinson said Karadzic felt "moral responsibility" for crimes in Bosnia, but did not believe he was criminally responsible.

Karadzic had appealed his 2016 convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as his sentence for masterminding atrocities in his country's devastating 1992-95 war — Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

The former leader is one of the most senior figures tried by the Hague war crimes court. His case is considered as key in delivering justice for the victims of the conflict, which left over 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.

Joensen said the trial chamber was wrong to impose just a 40-year sentence given what he called the "sheer scale and systematic cruelty" of Karadzic's crimes.

Applause broke out in the public gallery as Joensen passed the new sentence.

Families of victims who traveled to the Hague welcomed the verdict. Mothers of victims, some elderly and walking with canes, wept with apparent relief after watching the ruling read on a screen in Srebrenica.

Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic was also awaiting an appeal judgment of his genocide and war crimes conviction, which earned him a life sentence.

Both men were convicted of genocide for their roles in the slaughter by Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnia's eastern Srebrenica region in July 1995.

Last week, Bosnian war wounds were revived when it was revealed that the white supremacist suspected in the mosque shootings that left at least 50 people dead in New Zealand appeared to show admiration for Karadzic and his legacy. In a video, the self-proclaimed white supremacist is seen driving apparently on his way to the attack and listening to a wartime Bosnian Serb song praising Karadzic and his fight against Bosnia's Muslims.

Prosecutors had appealed Karadzic's acquittal on a second count of genocide, which saw Serb forces drive out Muslims and Croats from Serb-controlled villages in a 1992 campaign. Judges on Wednesday rejected that appeal.

At an appeals hearing last year, prosecution lawyer Katrina Gustafson told a five-judge panel that Karadzic "abused his immense power to spill the blood of countless victims. Justice requires that he receive the highest possible sentence — a life sentence."

Karadzic has always argued that the Bosnian Serb campaigns during the war, which included the bloody siege of the capital, Sarajevo, were aimed at defending Serbs.

After his indictment by the tribunal in The Hague, Karadzic remained at large for years before he was arrested in Serbia in 2008 disguised as a new-age therapist.
 

The funerals of Khalid Mustafa, 44, and Hamza Mustafa, 15, came five days after a white supremacist methodically gunned down 50 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch — a massacre that he broadcast live on Facebook. Police said Wednesday they believe he was on his way to a third attack when officers ran him off the road and arrested him. They declined to release any more details, citing the active investigation.

During the funerals, Hamza's high school principal described the student as compassionate and hardworking, and said he was an excellent horse rider who aspired to be a veterinarian.

Those present included Hamza's younger brother, 13-year-old Zaed, who was wounded in an arm and a leg during the attack. The boy tried to stand during the ceremony but had to sit back in his wheelchair, one mourner said.

"We tried to not shake his hand, and not touch his hand or his foot, but he refused, he wanted to shake everybody's hand, he wanted to show everyone that he appreciated them. And that's amazing," said Jamil El-Biza, who traveled from Australia to attend the funeral.

The Mustafas had moved to New Zealand last year after spending six years as refugees in Jordan. Mustafa's wife, Salwa, told Radio New Zealand that when the family asked about New Zealand they were told "it's the safest country in the world, the most wonderful country you can go ... you will start a very wonderful life there."

She added, "But it wasn't."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the family should have been safe.

"I cannot tell you how gutting it is to know that a family came here for safety and for refuge," she said.

Four other burials were under way on Wednesday evening. Those victims include Junaid Ismail, Ashraf Ali and Lilik Abdul Hamid. The fourth victim's name was suppressed by court order.

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Families of those killed had been awaiting word on when they could bury their loved ones. Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police have now formally identified and released the remains of 21 of those killed. Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible.

Also on Wednesday, a man accused of sharing video footage of Friday's massacre was jailed by a judge until his next court appearance in mid-April. And Bush said he believes police officers stopped the gunman on his way to a third attack.

Ardern has been arguing against giving the accused gunman notoriety followed his move to represent himself in court, raising concerns he would attempt to use the trial as a platform for airing his racist views.

She revisited that concern during a visit Wednesday to the high school Hamza and another victim attended, where she asked students not to say the attacker's name or dwell on him.

"Look after one another, but also let New Zealand be a place where there is no tolerance for racism," she told students at Cashmere High School. "That's something we can all do."

Another Cashmere student, 14-year-old Sayyad Milne, also died in the attack.

Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, has been charged with murder and is next scheduled to appear in court on April 5. Police have said they are certain Tarrant was the only gunman but are still investigating whether he had support from others.

Ardern previously has said reforms of New Zealand's gun laws would be announced next week and she said an inquiry would be convened to look into the intelligence and security services' failures to detect the risk from the attacker or his plans.

New Zealand's international spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau, confirmed it had not received any relevant information or intelligence before the shootings.

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Philip Arps, 44, appeared in a Christchurch court Wednesday on two charges of distributing the killer's livestream video of the attack on the Al Noor mosque, the first mosque that was attacked, a violation of the country's objectionable publications law. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Arps, heavily tattooed and dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, hasn't entered a plea. He remained expressionless during the hearing, his hands clasped behind his back.

Judge Stephen O'Driscoll denied him bail.

Charging documents accuse Arps of distributing the video on Saturday, one day after the massacre.

Most details of bail hearings are suppressed under New Zealand law. The judge made an additional suppression order regarding the police summary of facts in the case, limiting reporting of the accusations to the charges themselves.

Bush, the police commissioner, said they believe they know where the gunman was going for a third attack when officers rammed his car off the road but won't say more because it's an active investigation.

In a 74-page manifesto he released before the attack, Tarrant said he was going to attack two mosques in Christchurch and then one in the town of Ashburton if he made it that far.

Bush also revised his timeline, saying officers rammed the suspect's car 21 minutes after the first emergency call, rather than 36 minutes. Bush said FBI agents have traveled to New Zealand to help with the investigation.

Abizar Valibhai, of Christchurch, said Wednesday's burials marked an important moment.

"It's not only for the Muslim community, but for the whole of New Zealand, and the world as well," he said. "If we don't show our support at this time, when are we going to show it?"

He said there would be many waves of emotions to come for the families of the victims.

"They are fathers, they are mothers, they are brothers, they are sisters, they are wives," he said. "There are a lot of things that will be shattered."
 

The Korean Herald reported that since launching in November, the site sold monthly subscriptions, raking in more than $6,000. It had more than 4,000 users, 97 of whom paid add-on fees for additional features like video replay.

Authorities discovered the hidden cameras inside TV boxes, wall outlets and hair dryer stands in 42 hotel rooms, the National Police Agency said in a statement obtained by CNN. The miniature recording devices, which filmed approximately 1,600 guests, had been installed in 30 hotels throughout 10 South Korean cities.

According to the Herald, Seoul law enforcement arrested two of the individuals. Under local law, they face up to five years in jail and substantial fines.

South Korea is no stranger to misconduct involving surreptitiously filmed videos; some have even called it an “spy cam epidemic.”

In January, the owner of a local revenge-porn website was sentenced to four years in prison. Wednesday’s news also comes amid a Korean spy-cam sex scandal involving two K-pop celebrities, one who confessed to secretly filming women during sex and circulating the videos to others.

In the past five years, cases of illegal filming in South Korea have skyrocketed by the thousands. There were upward of 6,400 reported incidents in 2017, according to CNN.

Wednesday’s arrest was the first case that involved live-streaming the footage on the internet.

The World Happiness Report, produced by the U.N Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens see themselves to be.

It's based on factors including economic wealth, life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices and levels of government corruption.

The index, published Wednesday, showed the other Nordic countries did well again this year, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland taking the next spots. The remaining top ten nations were The Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria.

The United States dropped from the 18th to 19th place despite enjoying a booming economy in the past few years.

The 134-page report noted that, in general, happiness levels have decreased worldwide despite continued economic growth. That's partly explained by "dramatic falls" in happiness in population dense countries like the United States, Egypt and India, it said.

"The worldwide tendency of a considerable decline in average happiness, despite the general growth in GDP per capita, is proof that measuring happiness and life satisfaction in terms of economic wealth alone is not at all sufficient," said Meik Wiking, CEO of think tank The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, who took part in the report.

Wiking believes the erosion of happiness in the United States can be blamed on a "social crisis" where many Americans are increasingly feeling that they cannot trust their fellow citizens and feel "they have no one to count on in times of need."

"The divide between rich and poor also creates an erosion of the cohesion and trust between people, which is so vital for the feeling of safety and security and therefore for the overall happiness level of the American people," Wiking said.

"By most accounts, Americans should be happier now than ever," wrote Professor Jean M. Twenge from the San Diego State University, referring to low U.S. unemployment and violent crime rates, improved living standards and income level.

She suggested that a factor could be the substantially increased time Americans are spending on electronic devices and social media, habits that have led to low in-person social interaction and decreased sleeping time, among other things.

The report noted that happiness has declined the most drastically in the past ten years in the 108th placed Venezuela, a South American nation currently in economic turmoil with a severe political crisis.

Out of the bottom ten countries in the index, six are African nations. South Sudan is the least happy country, followed by Central African Republic and Afghanistan.

The report was compiled by prominent economists John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs.
 

In mid-2006, a Capt. Smith, who had married recently, borrowed a cellphone from Dane Kirkwood, a Pease Greeter, while awaiting deployment at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease. He left parting words in a voice message to his wife, Malinda, in California. Attempting later to call her husband back, Malinda left a voicemail on the loaned phone, though his flight already had taken off. Her words, described as “inspirational, magnificent and heartfelt,” were the impetus for Malinda’s Room.

On Tuesday, the Pease Greeters and Service Credit Union hosted a ribbon-cutting for the newly refurbished Malinda’s Room in the airport terminal, a center where troops traveling to or from Portsmouth can call anywhere in the world for free.

Malinda’s Room was created officially after an executive was invited to listen to Malinda Smith’s phone call while touring Pease.

“He was overwhelmed, literally to tears,” said Pease Greeters Chairman Frank Lasorsa. “When he heard that a handful of greeters were giving up their cellphones for unlimited use, he immediately decided to improve that situation and within 24 hours, he had installed, at corporate expense, on a permanent basis, a bank of 18 phones to use voice over internet protocol to allow calls anywhere, free of charge.”

The all-volunteer Pease Greeters organization, founded in 2005, has welcomed or sent off more than 1,500 flights carrying troops.

“Even though we all are in the age of relying on cellphones and we don’t really need land lines anymore, the soldiers usually do,” said Judy Santin, a 10-year greeter. Santin said troops arriving from overseas likely have had their phones shut off for the entirety of their deployments, or those who have international calling have little to no battery life.

“I always say, ‘Go over and dial 1-800-Mom,’ ” Santin said, adding first calls for those returning, and last calls for those departing, are almost always to moms, dads and spouses.

“A lot of them call back to Afghanistan and say, “Ha-ha, I’m here and you’re not,” laughed Pease Greeter Richard DellaPaolera. He said a flight of international generals once arrived at Pease, all of them using the land lines to call back to their native countries, in various languages. “I thought it was the United Nations,” he said.

The phone room now sports five land lines, a new counter, wall outlets and charging stations, large military appreciation banners and flowers. Lasorsa called it “nicely dressed.”

A financial gift by Service Credit Union allowed for the renovation of Malinda’s Room. SCU also regularly provides water donations to the Pease Greeters for flights.

“To see what we’ve done here for the troops, I think it’s fantastic,” said SCU CEO David Araujo, who credited SCU’s Michele Saccoccia with the heavy lifting in making the project come to life.

“To see what the (greeters) here do, at 3 in the morning, at 3 in the afternoon, on Christmas, on Thanksgiving,” said Airport Director Paul Brean, adding he had tears in his eyes when he experienced his first Pease Greeters flight years ago.

“I think the final product is great,” Brean said of the new Malinda’s Room.

Lasorsa said the refurbishment of Malinda’s Room is another way to carry out the greeters’ mission that veterans will not be forgotten.

“After (the troops) hit the bathrooms, they jump on the phones,” Lasorsa laughed. “(They) always have their priorities straight.” He said the new phone room allows the greeters to “have some permanence.”

©2019 Portsmouth Herald, N.H.
Visit Portsmouth Herald, N.H. at www.seacoastonline.com/portsmouthherald
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Macron said the military will secure government buildings and other sites to allow police forces to focus on maintaining public order, in comments reported Wednesday by government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux Wednesday.

About 7,000 soldiers, most armed with automatic weapons, are already deployed across the country in what the military calls Operation Sentinel, which was created to protect sensitive sites following deadly attacks in 2015.

The French government announced on Monday new security measures and a ban on yellow vest protests along the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris and in two other cities following riots on Saturday that left luxury stores ransacked and charred from arson fires.

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The military says several explosive devices were hurled on Wednesday morning at soldiers securing Jewish worshippers at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Troops opened fire and killed two of the assailants.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified them as 21-year-old Raed Hamadan and 20-year-old Zeid Nouri.

Late Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian suspected of carrying out a weekend stabbing and shooting attack that left two Israelis dead near a West Bank settlement. The military says 19-year-old Omar Abu Leila was fatally shot when he opened fire on soldiers trying to arrest him.

The two-day manhunt for Abu Leila had raised tensions in Israel and the West Bank following a period of calm.
 

Of the 117 changes the reports recommended — later trimmed to 103 — 91 were put in place, according to a Feb. 25 memorandum to Congress by Adm. William Moran. Those changes were meant to address years of underfunded operations, an increased pace of operations and an erosion of safety standards, according to the reports.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer ordered the reports to identify problems that led to the separate tragedies involving ships of the Japan-based 7th Fleet. He tasked the Navy with conducting a comprehensive review in August 2017 and the following month asked an independent team of subject matter experts to conduct a separate strategic readiness review.

The USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine container ship in June 2017, killing seven sailors. Two months later, the USS John S. McCain ran into a Liberian merchant vessel, resulting in the deaths of 10 sailors. Both destroyers sustained millions of dollars in damages.

A little more than year after the reports came out, Moran in his memo declared the service “currently safe to operate and a more effective Navy than we were a year ago.”

While the memorandum provides the most detail yet on the changes made after the tragic collisions, some in Congress are pushing for more information to ensure safety standards are being met.

In a heated exchange last month, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, challenged Adm. Philip Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, for more detail about the progress of the implementation of the recommendations.

“I would like to see specific data on where we stand with issues like certification of sailors and personnel on the ships, training rules, staffing levels — and I want real numbers,” King told Davidson at an Armed Services Committee hearing Feb. 12. “I don’t want general, ‘we’re working on staffing or we’re working on more training’ because these were avoidable tragedies.”

Davidson directed King to Moran’s report and said those numbers “were all readily available.”

The report highlighted several recommendations that have been implemented and offered some numbers, but Moran did not list all changes in his memo.

Moran broke down the recommendations into three tiers of importance: safety, followed by operations effectiveness and, finally, “strengthening the culture of operational excellence.”

Safety issues

At the time of the collisions, ships were sent to sea to keep up with a fast pace of operations despite having fallen behind on required maintenance and mandatory training for their crews.

The practice of waiving those requirements — called Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plans — was eliminated in October 2017 while the reviews were underway. In their place, the Navy conducted Ready-for-Sea Assessments to evaluate the manning levels, training certifications and equipment status on operational vessels.

In Japan, 15 of 18 ships passed these assessments, while three were “sidelined for additional training and maintenance prior to getting underway.”

The report did not identify the sidelined ships, and 7th Fleet officials declined to release their names for security reasons.

The November 2017 comprehensive review also recommended changing crew sleep schedules to better accommodate circadian rhythms and reduce fatigue, which Navy reports identified as a contributing factor in both collisions.

Moran in his memo said all ships reported implementing the suggested sleep schedules since the policy was rolled out in November 2017, but “anecdotal feedback indicates uneven compliance during manpower-intensive operation scenarios.”

Effectiveness and culture

To reduce workloads, the Navy last year put the need for manpower on ships and on shore in overseas locations ahead of the need at U.S. bases, Moran’s memo states.

That meant assigning some personnel to temporary duty overseas and putting some operations on hold to make sure forward-deployed ships “went to sea with the manpower they needed,” he wrote. Moran said that on average, 100 percent of overseas billets are filled, compared to the Navy-wide 95 percent.

However, a Government Accountability Office official told Congress in December that ship manning still needed improvement.

GAO Defense Capabilities and Management director John Pendleton said many sailors on two Yokosuka-based ships he visited on a research trip last fall reported heavy workloads and 100-hour workweeks.

“I’m concerned that this reveals an underlying problem still facing the Navy — that it simply is not putting enough sailors on the ships to cover the workload,” Pendleton said at a Dec. 12 congressional hearing.

Meanwhile, the Navy increased incentives for sailors to remain overseas longer to boost stability, and in May 2018 increased the standard tour length by one year for Japan, Guam and Spain. Incoming sailors at those locations are now serving up to four years.

When Vice Adm. Robert Burke, chief of naval personnel and deputy chief of naval operations, announced the change last year at a townhall meeting in Yokosuka, he said the intent was to avoid having commands “in a state of continuously having to train up their people and not having a seasoned, experienced crew that can train up the new junior folks.”

In the past year, the Navy has also issued several assessments of leadership, including fleet-wide officer-of-the-deck competency checks. Results revealed “deficiencies in practical applications of the Maritime Rules of the Road,” but 91 percent of test takers passed the assessments, according to the memorandum. As a result, the Navy developed two new junior officer-of-the-deck courses for training.

Another assessment of surface warfare officers was improved to better gauge the proficiency of prospective commanding officers. Of the 103 officers who were assessed, five were removed from the command pipeline, according to the memorandum.

More information wanted

King, after reviewing the report, continues to seek out more data related to the Navy’s changes.

In a March 10 interview with Defense News Weekly, he said the Navy has “made a good-faith effort to respond” to him and that officials had met with him at the Pentagon. He also commended the service for being “responsive to this tragedy.”

Still, King wants more specific data instead of “general reassurances.”

“My age-old question is ‘does it work and how do you know?’ And until I see ship specific data, I’m not going to be satisfied that we’re really making the progress that we should be,” he told Defense News Weekly.

doornbos.caitlin@stripes.com
Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
 

“We are still in recovery mode,” said Ryan Hansen, spokesman for the 55th Wing, which oversees operations of the base located just west of the Missouri River.

Flooding began Friday at Offutt, as well as across Nebraska and other states along the Missouri River. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated and many farms impacted. Areas south and also along the Mississippi River are bracing for possible flood waters.

At least 17 high-water records have been set across Nebraska, where 660 people are in evacuation shelters and the National Guard and State Patrol have had to rescue more than 175 people, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said in a statement, reported The Associated Press.

The water at Offutt receded enough to allow the base to reopen a previously closed access gate and all personnel returned to work Tuesday, Hansen said. About 10,000 personnel report to the base each day, and about 6,500 are active-duty servicemembers.

Flood waters are expected to continue to recede through the week and Hansen said base officials plan to have environmental crews along with engineers and the fire department determine building safety and survey damage. About 30 buildings flooded and at the water’s peak, one-third of the base was covered.

Preventive measures to mitigate fuels leaks at the airfield appeared to be successful, as no leaks or line breaks have been detected, according a news release posted to Offutt’s Facebook page.

“After reviewing aerial photos of the areas of the installation affected by flooding, base officials identified a sheen on top of the flood water near the fuel storage area. More than 3,700 feet of boom was deployed to ensure any possible fuel leak was contained,” the release stated. “Closer examination, by boat, at the site, leads base officials to suspect the sheen is actually caused by residual fuel from submerged equipment. Again, there is no evidence of a ruptured tank or a fuel line leak.”

One of the base’s older storage tanks collapsed in the water, but it was empty and no longer in service, the release stated.

“We are continuing to monitor the area with support from members of the [Environmental Protection Agency] Region 7 emergency response team,” said Col. Michael Manion, 55th Wing commander. “There is no threat to personnel at this time and we are committed to ensuring compliance with all environmental procedures moving forward.”

Officials continue to test the base’s drinking water and it remains safe to drink, the release stated.

To focus on recovery, an annual air show scheduled for June was canceled. It typically draws about 150,000 people to Offutt to view the 55th Wing’s RC-135s, fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft, along with aircraft from across the Air Force and other branches of the military, Hansen said. The Air Force Thunderbirds were scheduled to appear at the show.

Camp Ashland, a National Guard training site about 25 miles west of Offutt on the Platte River, was completely underwater earlier this week and remains inaccessible.

About 200 members of the Nebraska National Guard also continue to support recovery efforts across the state, said Master Sgt. Michael Houk, spokesman for the National Guard. Missions include traffic control, administrative support to the state’s emergency operations center, and aircraft drops of sandbags at Cooper Power Station, two levees and Lincoln Power Station. Three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and one UH-72 Lakota helicopter remain on standby for search and rescue and medevac missions.

thayer.rose@stripes.com
Twitter: @Rose_Lori

“I was like, ‘Well, this might be a mistake,’ ” she said Tuesday with a laugh.

Goodwin, now a senior, is singing soprano this week at the annual DODEA-Europe Honors Music Festival, her third year participating in the select choral group. The experience, she said, has changed her life.

“I was totally on an engineering track and from being in choir and coming to things like this … I’m now going to study musical theater in London next year,” she said. “This has pushed me towards my new life.”

Goodwin’s passion for music is the norm among the nearly 140 students from 18 Department of Defense Education Activity schools from across Europe partaking in the festival — the military school system’s equivalent of all-state choir and band.

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As this year’s festival T-shirt says, it’s “Eat, sleep, music repeat” — and the students said they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I keep coming back because it’s really, like, the greatest musical experience available for kids overseas,” said senior Donovan Compton, a bassoon player from Vicenza High School in Italy who is participating in his fourth and final festival.

This year, 76 vocalists and 62 band members were chosen from more than 350 blind auditions.

They’re holed up this week at a hostel overlooking the Rhine River rehearsing for a concert they’ll put on Thursday in Bingen.

On Tuesday, the place was jamming.

The band at one point rehearsed “The Jig is Up,” a lively American composition that sounds like a traditional dance tune until it doesn’t, said Tim Robblee, the band’s guest conductor.

“It’s a very predictable jig until it kind of jostles and surprises you,” he said. For the kids, it’s challenging to play because they have to figure “out how it’s changing and make it cohere in their brains.”

“’The Jig is Up’ is just a really fun song to play, in general,” said Ramstein senior Alex Sims, a percussionist who this week is playing the bongos, the maracas, the cabasa, the vibraphone, the bass drum and the timpani.

Meanwhile, there were some clapping and foot-stomping going on in the choral room, while the choir members sang and swayed their hips to “Nda Wana,” an African folk song that is sung in the Bantu dialect.

The song required a similar energy as “Worthy to be Praised,” a gospel tune that earned high praise from the students after a mini-rehearsal with Ramstein Middle School music instructor Giovana Kingsberry.

“I always get excited when we do gospel music,” said Stuttgart senior Tito Mercado, a tenor in the choir who loves the musician Bruno Mars. “I always smile when I’m singing it.”

The festival offers the students a diverse lineup of musical compositions intended to challenge and sharpen their skills while further kindling their love of music, said the guest conductors.

Every year, DODEA brings in two new guest conductors, usually from the states, to lead the band and the chorus with help from DODEA music instructors. Robblee is the director of bands and associate professor of conducting at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Va.

This year’s guest choir conductor, Justin Lewis, has ties to both Germany and the Air Force. An Air Force officer now posted to the Pentagon, Lewis previously was the associate director of the Air Force band at Ramstein and directed the Rheinland-Pfalz International Choir.

His background in Europe gives him a perspective on the importance of Europe-wide school events.

“As the U.S. military’s footprint in Europe expands and contracts, they (DODEA) need to continue to be flexible to give students the opportunity to learn, especially when they’re geographically separated from a lot of other students their age,” he said.

That’s especially true for students such as Hayden Davis, a trombonist from tiny Alconbury in the U.K.

“My band has, like, seven people,” the senior said. “I always miss the feeling of playing with a super-large band and having that big sound you just can’t get with a few people.”

svan.jennifer@stripes.com
Twitter: @stripesktown
 

The man was found early Tuesday on the pool deck of the MSC Divina. It was about 100 miles off the coast of Atlantic City at the time.

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An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City and an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., were launched to assist in the rescue.

The helicopter crew was able to load the man onto a stretcher and safely hoist him up to the aircraft. He was taken to a hospital, but his name and further details on his condition were not disclosed.

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“The forces already assigned will remain assigned,” said Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, referring to the roughly 85,000 soldiers in the theater, primarily stationed in South Korea, Hawaii, Washington and Alaska.

“We will bring forces from [the mainland] over,” he said during a media roundtable at U.S. Army Pacific headquarters that included Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Gen. James McConville, vice chief of staff of the Army.

Brown said the number of troops to be tapped annually has not yet been set and would vary depending upon circumstances and the preferences of allies and partner nations hosting the troops.

“It would be a division headquarters and several brigades — you know, 5,000, 10,000 rotating over,” he said. “I would hesitate to throw a number out. It’ll depend on the scenario. It’ll depend on the exercise. There will be a continued focus on the assigned forces staying and the additional forces to come.”

McConville described the planned rotations as part of Dynamic Force Employment, a key component of the National Defense Strategy released by the Pentagon last year, which emphasized America’s shift to so-called “great power competition.”

“We’re talking about moving troops into a place with certain capabilities based on the partners we’re dealing with — move them out and move them back,” he said. “And then have the agility to move around the globe and in this theater the way we need to in response to our partners.

“They’re expeditionary. They’re rotational. They’re not long-term. They’re not permanent. But we can move them the way we need to, depending on the mission requirements.”

The beefed-up rotations would dovetail with U.S. Army Pacific’s evolving plans for Pacific Pathways and the new Multi-Domain Task Force.

Pacific Pathways, which launched in 2014, strings together already established Army exercises with allies and partner nations throughout the Pacific as a way of keeping U.S.-based troops and equipment deployed beyond the International Date Line for extended periods.

During the first several years, the rotations were a matter of a few weeks.

This winter, soldiers spent 3 1/2 months in Thailand and are now in the Philippines for four months of joint training, Brown said.

“Next year it will be six months,” he said.

The Army’s Multi-Domain Task Force program was piloted in the Pacific and this year is moving on to Europe for its second phase.

During the Pacific pilot, an artillery brigade stood as fires headquarters while integrating with an intelligence, cyber, electronic warfare and space detachment. The task force was first tested at a ship-sinking exercise during last summer’s Rim of the Pacific drills in Hawaii.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has since directed the Multi-Domain Task Force be built up to counter potential attempts by adversaries to deny access in those domains by U.S. forces.

Brown said the multidomain concept is crucial because any conflict scenario in the Pacific would require a “joint solution” involving all service branches.

“Any issue that would develop in the South China Sea, all the forces are going to have to work together to be successful to handle that," Brown said. “Nobody’s asking for that. Competition doesn’t mean conflict; we don’t want that. But in any scenario you can come up with in the Pacific, it would be a joint solution.”

Positioned on any of the theater’s 25,000 islands, the Army could potentially enter any fray with long-range weapons.

“Those islands make a difference,” he said. “Land will play a role — as all domains will in a joint manner.”

McConville emphasized that the U.S. is not at the point of placing “long-range precision fires” in partner nations in the Pacific.

“I think they are ‘open to the discussion’ is probably the way to put it,” he said. “They’re certainly open to us being there working with them, absolutely.”

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Dubbed the “ship-in-a-box,” the full-scale fishing dhow inside a warehouse has become a key training tool in efforts to combat threats in Middle East waters, such as drug trafficking that funds extremists in places like Afghanistan.

It’s run by the Maritime Engagement Team, a group of 10 U.S. Coast Guardsmen who specialize in maritime enforcement operations.

Known as the MET Facility, the compound also includes a pair of stacked shipping containers simulating cargo aboard a ship and is in high demand from U.S. and partner forces.

The team recently took Stars and Stripes on a walkthrough of the facility to show how they use it to practice safety sweeps, close-quarter battle techniques, quick exits and searches.

“They’re searching for illicit materials and we’re trying to deter illicit activities,” said Coast Guard Capt. John Gregg, the team’s commander. “Sometimes there are narcotics that are found, and we have had experiences where boarding teams have found weapons.”

The facility has been around since 2003, mainly to keep Coast Guard members up-to-date on qualifications, but it has recently become a valuable training environment where the Americans and partner countries can share best practices. The team’s 2019 calendar is already fully booked, officials said.

“We realized that we really had the capacity here, and as we began to build our own capability with this facility, it really had a lot of promise,” Gregg said. “So, we started to have engagements with partners and that demand signal grew.”

Last year, 27 countries sent nearly 800 participants to the facility.

Earlier this year, security forces from four Gulf countries came together with the Americans at the facility for an exercise in ship-boarding tactics.

“Each country has unique methods when it comes to inspection and approach,” said Capt. Saleh Alfodary of the Kuwaiti coast guard, in a U.S. Army video in January highlighting the exercise involving Kuwaiti, Saudi, Bahraini and Emirati teams. “This exercise was held on the basis of standardizing methods of inspection, uniting our understanding and theories and creating a foundation for cooperation and relationships between the largest nations in the Arabian Gulf.”

The increased demand for the facility comes as boarding parties, known as visit, board, search and seizure teams, have scored some of the largest smuggling busts since the Combined Maritime Force here transitioned from a U.S. force to a multinational counterterrorism and maritime security coalition after 9/11.

Just before Christmas, the British destroyer HMS Dragon boarded a pair of dhows carrying nearly 11 tons of illegal drugs — the largest CMF bust so far. In December and January, the U.S. destroyer USS Chung-Hoon busted two more vessels hauling about 10 tons of hashish in the Gulf of Aden.

To hone their skills prior to the busts, Chung-Hoon’s boarding team had trained at the ship-in-a-box and had received training onboard their own ship.

“I am grateful that Chung-Hoon was able to play a small part,” Cmdr. Brent Jackson, the ship’s skipper, said in a statement following one of the drug busts.

Although the MET trains for many scenarios, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Philip Cook said that most boarding parties encounter cooperative crewmembers. During practice runs, participants have fun with role-playing and hand-to-hand combat exercises that add authenticity to the experience and prepare them for less compliant crews.

Any flagless vessel is deemed “stateless” under international law and patrols seek out such vessels for boarding, using a checklist to assess red flags, or what the team calls “tripwires,” that represent threats or questionable behavior and set the tone for a boarding.

“Our job is to establish positive control,” said Cook, who said he enjoys sharing tips on how to find hidden compartments.

Positive control could mean dealing with combatant crew members, clearing spaces with “questionable” cargo or providing medical assistance, he said.

Many partner navies in the region conduct coastal operations as part of their daily missions, a sharp contrast to the deep-water U.S. Navy, officials said. The MET specializes in those coastal engagements, which is what draws regional partners to work with them.

“They are great at partnering with regional navies and coast guards,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Adan Cruz, commodore of all surface patrol forces in the 5th Fleet. “Because of the Coast Guard presence here, it makes it easier to engage with the other regional coast guards who are doing similar operations.”

Of the 20 U.S. ships permanently stationed in Bahrain, six of them are Coast Guard cutters.

“Most navies are not in the business of power projection. They’re in the business of enforcing sovereignty,” Gregg said. “Most other countries, whether it’s navy or coast guard, are in the business of fisheries enforcement, countersmuggling, search and rescue — missions that very much dovetail with what the U.S. Coast Guard does.”

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Moon and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats “held wide and in-depth discussions and exchanged opinions on issues concerning South Korea and the United States,” the presidential office said in a statement.

It did not provide more details, but Coats’ visit came three weeks after the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended without an agreement over efforts to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

Moon, who is eager for peace with the North, has directed his administration to get Pyongyang and Washington back to the table.

Trump and Kim left Hanoi, Vietnam, after failing to bridge the gap between the North’s desire for relief from punishing economic sanctions and U.S. demands for complete denuclearization.

North Korea has warned that it’s considering ending nuclear talks and lifting a long-range missile testing moratorium if the United States doesn’t reciprocate for steps already taken toward denuclearization.

Trump, who has consistently cited the suspension of missile and nuclear tests as an indicator of diplomatic progress, said he would be disappointed if that happens.

Kim will decide on the moratorium soon, the North’s vice foreign minister Choe Son Hui said earlier this month.

In January, Coats welcomed the fact that the North had “halted its provocative behavior” with the testing moratorium.

But he told senators at an intelligence committee hearing that the communist state was “unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons” because it sees them as key to regime survival.

North Korea already has rebuilt a launch site that it had partially dismantled as part of disarmament steps last year, according to recent satellite images.

However, no new activity has been detected since the reconstruction was spotted at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“There has been no activity of significance at the vertical engine test stand or launch pad since our last report,” which was on March 9, the think tank said Tuesday.

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The cutter Bertholf arrived March 3 at Sasebo Naval Base, according to a statement issued Monday by U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed a number of economic sanctions on North Korea in response to its developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The Coast Guard helps enforce those sanctions by keeping a lookout for prohibited ship-to-ship transfers of fuel, such as coal, and goods.

The Coast Guard did not say whether the Bertholf had interrupted any illicit transfers.

The Bertholf, first of the Coast Guard’s new National Security cutters, left its homeport of Alameda, Calif., with its crew of 170 on Jan. 20 for deployment in the Western Pacific.

The cutter’s presence also reinforces the U.S. commitment to keeping the East China Sea open to navigation, according to the Coast Guard.

“The United States is a Pacific nation,” Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area, said in the statement. “We have deep and long-standing ties with our partners in the region, and more importantly, we share a strong commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, governed by a rules-based international system that promotes peace, security, prosperity and sovereignty of all nations.”

Prior to its patrol in the East China Sea, the Bertholf hosted Japan Coast Guard officers aboard the ship during a visit to Yokosuka.

“The U.S. Coast Guard is proud to operate with our Pacific counterparts,” Fagan said. “Together we are dedicated to enhancing our capabilities and strengthening maritime governance and security while promoting individual sovereignty.”

The Bertholf is operating under the tactical command of the 7th Fleet during its Pacific deployment.

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Wilson announced earlier this month that she was resigning as soon as her new position is finalized, but the former congresswoman faced backlash from UTEP students and local activists over her past voting record on LGBTQ rights, immigration and federal Pell Grants.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents voted March 8 to select Wilson as the only finalist for the job. UTEP has an enrollment around 25,000 students, with about 80 percent Latino.

UT system spokeswoman Karen Adler said in an email Tuesday that Wilson plans to return to UTEP after spring break, which is this week, and meet with students, faculty and staff, and community and business groups.

"The format will allow Secretary Wilson to meet face-to-face with all groups, and she intends to meet with as many as she can, both on the UTEP campus and the broader El Paso community," Adler said.

Democratic state Sen. Jose Rodriguez of El Paso said he wants to hear what his constituents have to say before giving "any kind of unqualified statement about my support or nonsupport for her."

"I'm hoping that she goes and faces the community and the community's concerns, especially the LGBTQ community's concern about her voting record and views toward the LGBTQ community," Rodriguez said.

During a press conference at UTEP last week, Wilson said her "general approach with respect to LGBT issues is to treat everyone with dignity and respect." She also praised the school for being a binational and bicultural university.

Michael Gutierrez, a 21-year-old freshman in the school's Queer Student Alliance, said he doesn't believe Wilson represents the school or its values. Gutierrez said neither his group nor Wilson have made an effort to meet with each other.

"We had a protest this past Monday when she visited the campus, she had time to go up to us and chose to go through the backways of our school and avoid us," Gutierrez said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, who chairs the House's LGBTQ Caucus, said the concerns demonstrate the need for a re-examination of the selection process.

Gonzalez said her caucus will be meeting with Chancellor James B. Milliken on Wednesday to further discuss Wilson's nomination.

Wilson has headed the Air Force since May 2017, making her President Donald Trump's first Senate-confirmed service secretary.

She also served as a U.S. representative from New Mexico from 1998 to 2009, and was president of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology from 2013 to 2017.

Wilson would be replacing Diana Natalicio who has served as UTEP president for three decades.

An equine team, which also helps with other conservation efforts, consists of four registered quarter horses and six patrolmen. It helps protect the nearly 99,600 acres that make up VAFB, which is the third-largest Air Force base in the U.S. and is home to a wide variety of plants, wildlife and terrain.

The equine unit, which is one of just four conservation units overall in the Air Force, is an essential part of installation conservation when it comes to patrolling areas that are not as easily accessible by motor vehicles, according to 30th Space Wing Public Affairs.

“We are able to go through creeks and water with the horses [and] high hills that we wouldn’t be able to get through with off-road vehicles,” said Senior Airman Michael Terrazas, a 30th Security Forces Squadron conservation patrolman. “There are places we’ve gone where the water is so deep that my boots are wet while on horseback, but the horses can walk through with no problems.”

While conservation is the main goal, the unit is also crucial to matters involving the installation’s environmental footprint, such as during the nesting season for the Western snowy plover, a bird species listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service under the federal Endangered Species Act and as a “species of special concern” by the state of California.

The plovers breed and nest along portions of the beaches on VAFB property, including the public Surf Beach, as well as Minuteman and Wall beaches, which are only available to people with base access.

During plover season, which typically lasts from March through September, specific portions of the beaches are closed off to allow a safe nesting environment, according to VAFB officials. Human violations of the restrictions during the season are tracked by the Military Working Horse law enforcement team, and when the beaches reach a certain number of violations, the remaining portions of the beaches are closed for the remainder of the season.

“We are allowed to ride the horses in enclosed plover areas to monitor, but we stick strictly to the wet sand,” said Airman 1st Class Payton Mculley. “The reason we are allowed to take the horses and not [all-terrain vehicles] is because horses have a smaller biological footprint on the beaches.”

The team also monitors and patrols hunting and fishing areas throughout each respective season to ensure it is done responsibly and safely.

“We enforce fish and game laws and the horses help us walk off the beaten path to complete our mission,” Terrazas said. “We have even responded to lost hunters and hurt animals.”

Along with fish and game laws, the patrolmen are also tasked with enforcing state and federal laws. Each conservation officer attends a four-month land management training program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and receives federal credentials upon graduation.

“People see that we are conservation and assume that we can’t pull them over on the highway,” Terrazas said. “However, we are federally accredited officers and can perform those duties as well.”

For the Security Forces Squadron patrolmen who aspire to join the equine team, being chosen for the job can be a lengthy, difficult process, but there are a few ways for them to become a more competitive candidate.

“This is unique within Security Forces,” Terrazas said. “We work 12-hour shifts, but we are always on call. Whoever is working feeds and cares for the horses. Before this program, I had never ridden a horse before, but I came in every day and rode and volunteered.”

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This article includes information and reporting from Airman 1st Class Hanah Abercrombie, 30th Space Wing Public Affairs.
 

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With these words, the Vandenberg chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars opened its second annual luncheon honoring World War II veterans in San Luis Obispo County on Tuesday.

The luncheon brought together 16 living San Luis Obispo County veterans to be recognized for their service during the Second World War, while also honoring those who have since died.

“Theirs is the story that provides the rationale, the very reason, for our pride in being Americans,” said Maj. James Murphy during the ceremony. “They are the real heroes, the real idols, the real icons.”

Military well represented

Sporting walkers and baseball caps proclaiming their service, the group of elderly men joked with each other and with family members at the San Luis Obispo Country Club while chowing down on a lunch of meatloaf and cheesecake.

Among these men were Purple Heart recipients, fighter pilots, former prisoners of war and witnesses to the battle of Iwo Jima, one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles in the entire war. Virtually all branches of the military were represented, from the Marine Corps, the Army and the Navy to the Merchant Marines and the Coast Guard.

“I just want to say, I think it is so great, that you people are doing this,” Cpl. Joseph Hale said during the luncheon. “I can remember the first day I got home after World War II, I ran into one of my old teachers and he said, ‘Oh you’re back.’ And that’s kind of the way things were, even until recently. So I think it’s great we’re doing this.”

Hale was an artillery forward observer with the Marine Corps at the battle of Iwo Jima. He witnessed the aftermath of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.

Portrait of living history

Later in the luncheon, the veterans all gathered for a group photo; as they lined up for the snapshot, it was unavoidable to wonder if this was possibly the last time that some of them would be assembled together in one room.

Lt. j.g. Joseph Brocato, the emcee of the luncheon and a retired Navy veteran, joked with the group to stay healthy so they could make it to next year’s luncheon.

“Hopefully!” one gleefully shouted from the back row while posing for the photo.

“These tributes are to pay them back,” Brocato told The Tribune after the event. “It is my fervent hope that every single one of them here today will be back next January.”

According to Brocato, three of the 10 veterans who attended the luncheon in 2018 have since died.

This year, 17 veterans were expected to attend, though only 16 were present on Tuesday (and 15 appeared in the group photo).

This year, the group of attending veterans was a bit larger, he said, because of a more concerted effort to reach out to local service men and women, and recognize them for their participation in the war.

“It’s to keep the flame alive,” Brocato said. “If you guys — if we, the newspaper, the media — don’t keep it alive, it dies. Because nobody will remember. The new generation, they’re not taught military history, or even just history. It’s just not taught anymore.

“It’s just a way of saying, ‘Thank you for your service,’” he added. “What other way can you do it?”

Staff Sgt. Leo Dumouchelle — who served in the Army between 1942-46 and participated in eight campaigns, including North Africa where he served under the renowned Gen. George S. Patton — said he enjoyed Tuesday’s luncheon.

“Oh yes, it was fine,” he said as he pushed his walker out the foyer of the country club. “Everything was great.”

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©2019 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
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It was a Thursday in March 2013, the glow of the afternoon tucking in for the day behind the trees. She said he stood tall, at least 6-foot-3, perhaps 220 pounds and certainly muscular, wearing a formfitting tan colored uniform, boots and gloves.

Paralyzed with fear, she said she watched as what she believed to be an alien appeared to climb invisible steps, stopping often to snatch glances at her from where she sat on her back porch, fumbling with her phone to appear as though she couldn’t see him.

When he was about 10 feet off the ground, he turned his back to her and pulled himself up — “into a UFO?” she thought — and was gone.

Bishop sat stunned. “I’ve got a freaking alien in my backyard,” she thought.

It would be four years before she told anyone her story, before she’d discover the Mutual Unidentified Flying Objects Network, a nationwide organization 50 years old, and file her report under case number 84886 with the local Florida chapter.

But she worried: Who would believe her?

These days, more people than you’d think.

Across restaurants and meeting rooms in the United States, MUFON groups still gather every month to discuss cases like Bishop’s with the enthusiasm that once gripped the nation during the Cold War, when UFO sightings still made a splash on the front page.

The Space Coast group, made up of some former NASA employees and engineers, has 118 members, the largest in the state. Across the U.S. they number 3,500, with additional offices in 42 countries.

For many years, they were alone entertaining UFO theories. No more.

In the past two years, scientists, politicians and professionals have increasingly been willing to touch the taboo subject and perhaps lend a little credence to those who still believe.

In December 2017, the New York Times uncovered that the U.S. had gone so far as to fund a secret, $22 million, five-year project to study UFO claims.

Since then, respected researchers, from the chairman of Harvard University’s astronomy department to at least one scientist at NASA, have come out with theories, albeit controversial ones, that suggest closer study of the role extraterrestrials may play in certain phenomena.

What’s changed, said Robert Powell, an executive board member on the non-profit Scientific Coalition for Ufology, is our understanding of the universe. As scientists have discovered more Earth-like exoplanets and begun to delve into the options for interstellar travel — one idea includes using a laser-propelled, microchip-shaped probe — the conversation has been shifting.

“We still think of ourselves, as a species, as the center of everything,” Powell said. “Once you ...at least start to discuss interstellar travel, you have to admit that, if there is intelligent life out there, then they have to be able to travel interstellar, too.”

Science weighs in

The challenge with UFO and alien sightings has always been the lack of evidence. Bishop said she was too scared to take a photo of her alien. Little to no consequential evidence exists in other cases.

Psychology can explain some of it. Common explanations include a person projecting their unconscious desires onto something, or a predisposition to believe in conspiracy theories informing what a person thinks they saw, said Alvin Wang, a psychology professor at the University of Central Florida.

People who believe they witnessed something may seek out others who reaffirm that belief, like “being in an echo chamber,” Wang said.

“People tend to hold on to that particularly if it fits in with their worldview and their belief system that there are other beings that inhabit the universe,” Wang said. “And they get ...confirmation support, when they are members of UFO believers community.”

But Bishop stands by what she said she saw. She works a government security job with three area contractors and said she has no reason to lie.

And she’s on the hunt for ET now. After reporting her case in 2017, she bought three hunting trackers on eBay and set them up in her backyard. They’re motion activated, and sometimes they’ll go off in the night and capture 6,000 images — but there’s nothing in the frame. She once caught a Tic Tac-shaped blur in the sky she believes to be a UFO.

“I just think it's a belief thing until you actually see them,” Bishop said. “You always gotta wonder.”

Some people, like Kathleen Marden, have been wondering all their lives.

It was September 1961 when the then 13-year-old got the call: Her aunt, Betty Hill, and her uncle, Barney Hill, said they’d seen a UFO on their drive through the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

Betty’s dress was torn and Barney’s shoes were scuffed. There were two hours they couldn’t account for and Barney was sure he’d seen eight to 11 figures dressed in black shiny uniforms that were “somehow not human,” said Marden, who now lives outside Orlando.

It wasn’t until the Hills were put through a hypnosis session by Boston psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon that their stories of being taken into a UFO and physically examined were revealed.

“They were interested in the skin, in the skeletal structure, in the joints,” said Marden, MUFON’s director of experiencer research. “They examined their hands, they took their shoes off, they examined their feet, they did tests on them that appear to be testing their nervous systems, as well.”

The Hills’ alleged abduction was made public in 1965 — and the story gripped the nation. “Did They Seize Couple?” the Boston Traveler posited. “I Was Quizzed in ‘Space Ship,’” read another headline.

Marden has dedicated her life to uncovering the truth behind she said was government tampering with the Hills’ case and has written four books about her aunt and uncle and flying saucers. She’s seen the change in perception about UFOs in the public and scientific community first hand.

“I absolutely do think that there is a shift, that people are giving more credence to this they did in the past,” she said, pointing to the 2017 New York Times story on the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program as the turning point.

The program was run by military intelligence official Luis Elizondo and put together at the request of then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid. It ran from 2007 to 2012 in partnership with businessman Robert Bigelow’s company Bigelow Aerospace, which studied cases of American military personnel observing unknown objects.

One case in particular garnered attention when it was declassified because videos showed a craft with no apparent propulsion moving at alarmingly fast speeds. It was filmed in 2004 by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets off the coast of San Diego.

Navy pilot Commander David Fravor, who witnessed the Tic Tac-shaped craft, told the Washington Post in late 2017 that he maintained it was “something not from Earth.”

Then came Harvard’s astronomy department chair, Avi Loeb, a renowned scientist who Time Magazine named one of the 25 most influential people in space in 2012.

He, along with colleague Shmuel Bialy, wrote in a publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters that a thin interstellar object seen passing through our solar system called Oumuamua “is a lightsail, flowing in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment.”

Loeb went a step further, theorizing that, “alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.” The theory has provoked the ire of the scientific community, but Loeb has stood by it.

Is it aliens, for sure? Loeb can’t say. He just says he can’t find another explanation.

At NASA Ames Research Center in California, scientist Silvano Colombano has gone on record suggesting the space agency look at all explanations in its approach to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as SETI. Historically, NASA has not weighed in on the issue much, most recently opening a Center for Life Detection Science that is more about finding biosignatures than analyzing alleged UFO sightings.

But Colombano argued in a March 2018 white paper that the scientific community should be more open about looking at the evidence that is already there, “consider the UFO phenomenon worthy of study” and engage in “speculative physics” grounded in solid scientific theories but with some “willingness to stretch possibilities as to the nature of space-time and energy.”

Essentially, he said, it was time NASA had a more open mind.

The Believers

While science dukes it out, the members of the MUFON’s Space Coast chapter take their places at their monthly meeting in the back room of an old-fashioned BBQ joint in Palm Bay called Memaw’s to discuss what they all believe to be a universal truth.

Many believers come to the meetings because someone they know saw something they couldn’t explain, or because they’ve nursed an interest in the subject since the days of the Cold War, when UFO sightings and abduction claims spiked. Some say they have seen things. Others put stock in more eccentric theories.

They are what’s left of a movement that once captured the interest of thousands, inspired books like Carl Sagan’s “Contact,” long-running TV show “The X-Files,” and made Betty and Barney Hill the stars of a 1975 film starring James Earl Jones.

There are many people like Barbara Stusse, who says her mother saw a UFO in 1947 and kept it from her children for 30 years. Stusse remembers waiting for her copy of the Boston Herald every day for a week in 1965, when the Hills’ story unraveled in three to four pages of newsprint a day.

“I read that and I thought, ‘I believed it,’ ” said Stusse, 80, who has been coming to MUFON meetings for three years.

And there’s Bill Fisk, who is always at meetings taking notes. He’s in charge of taking in reported sightings like Bishop’s and trying to explain them. Could weather have played a role? Could the person have dreamed it?

Fisk, who has been hooked since the moment he saw a light in the sky make a sharp 90-degree turn when he was 9 years old, joined the local MUFON chapter in 2015.

He went all in, taking 100 hours of online classes over three months to get certified as a field investigator for MUFON. He learned how to read flight plans, how to measure longitude, latitude and cloud altitude, how to use a Geiger counter to measure ionizing radiation.

Sometimes he gets hoaxes. One man copyrighted an image he took of the sky through a window because he was convinced it was a UFO. Turns out, it was just the reflection of his hotel room’s ceiling light on the glass. Chinese lanterns in the sky are often confused with flying saucers. And one woman even claimed an alien came into her house and had sex with her.

“A lot of it is that people don’t look up, they don’t pay attention to the sky, the last time they read a science book was in 12th grade,” Fisk said. “It’s just one of those things that sometimes you just have to bring them along, give them the information, the education to do something with what they saw, put it into a framework.”

A customer solutions representative for CareerSource Brevard, Fisk works on cases at lunch or after work. He can close most in three to four days, write them off as someone thinking Venus was a UFO, but sometimes he gets one he can’t crack.

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“I have long relied on the work of Hoover to supplement my understanding of the critical challenges facing our country and to help guide tough decisions. I believe we have an obligation to pass on the lessons we’ve learned so that future generations can study, learn and become better. Hoover has made this part of its mission, and I look forward to returning,” Mattis said in a statement posted to the Hoover Institution’s website Thursday afternoon and shared to his Facebook page.

The Richland native first joined the Hoover Institution as an Annenberg Distinguished Fellow in 2013, following his retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps.

He became the Davies Fellow in 2015. During his initial tenure, he applied his deep military experience to national security topics, focusing on the effective use of force in the Middle East.

He co-edited the book “Warriors and Citizens.”

Left Hoover to assist Donald Trump

He left in December 2016 when Donald Trump, then the president-elect, nominated him for the nation’s 26th Secretary of Defense. Mattis was confirmed a month later.

Mattis resigned from the post in late 2018, telling the president he deserved a secretary with views better aligned with his. Mattis had intended to serve through a transition period, but Trump dismissed him at the end of December.

“The wealth of knowledge and experience of an already extraordinary career has been made even richer by General Mattis’ latest endeavor as Secretary of Defense, and we are fortunate to once again be beneficiaries of his acumen,” said Tom Gilligan, director of the Hoover Institution, in the release posted to the website.

The announcement said Mattis plans to focus his research and writing on domestic and security policy. He will participate in programs and events at Hoover’s California campus and its office in Washington, D.C.

Mattis’ national prominence has made him a celebrity in his hometown. Mattis sightings regularly make the rounds on social media and sparked a “Mattis for President” campaign by an admiring city councilman.

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The administration said on March 8 that it would issue a memorandum implementing the ban next month, citing the government’s U.S. Supreme Court victory that lifted two nationwide injunctions against the policy. A third injunction that wasn’t part of that case was subsequently lifted on March 7. A fourth injunction, however, hasn’t budged.

“The nationwide preliminary injunction issued by this court remains in place,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington said in a notice Tuesday. “The fact that the three other nationwide preliminary injunctions which had been in place are now stayed has no impact on the continued effectiveness of this court’s preliminary injunction.”

The judge said her ruling would remain in effect until at least March 29, the deadline for plaintiffs to request a rehearing of a dispute they lost before the Supreme Court ruling. The dispute hinges on whether the February 2018 ban crafted by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, which allows some transgender troops to serve “in their biological sex,” was technically different from Trump’s initial tweet announcing the policy, which barred all transgender Americans from serving “in any capacity.”

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But that's not his biggest worry. He and other farmers have worked until midnight for days to move grain, equipment and fuel barrels away from the floodwaters fed by heavy rain and snowmelt. The rising water that has damaged hundreds of homes and been blamed for three deaths has also taken a heavy toll on agriculture, inundating thousands of acres, threatening stockpiled grain and killing livestock.

In Fremont County alone, Jorgenson estimates that more than a million bushels of corn and nearly half a million bushels of soybeans have been lost after water overwhelmed grain bins before they could be emptied of last year's crop. His calculation using local grain prices puts the financial loss at more than $7 million in grain alone. That's for about 28 farmers in his immediate area, he said.

Once it's deposited in bins, grain is not insured, so it's just lost money. This year farmers have stored much more grain than normal because of a large crop last year and fewer markets in which to sell soybeans because of a trade dispute with China.

"The economy in agriculture is not very good right now. It will end some of these folks farming, family legacies, family farms," he said. "There will be farmers that will be dealing with so much of a negative they won't be able to tolerate it."

Jorgenson, 43, who has farmed since 1998, reached out to friends Saturday, and they helped him move his grain out of bins to an elevator. Had they not acted, he would have lost $135,000.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has declared a disaster in 41 of Iowa's 99 counties, said she planned to press Vice President Mike Pence for a federal disaster declaration during his stops in Omaha to tour flooded areas along the Missouri River.

"It will be helpful for him to see it. I've reached out, and we've told him it's catastrophic," she said.

Pence said the Trump administration would expedite presidential disaster declarations for Nebraska and Iowa. He said he spoke to the governors of both states shortly after arriving to assure them federal aid will soon be on the way.

The flooding is expected to continue throughout the week in several states as high water flows down the Missouri River. Swollen rivers have already breached more than a dozen levees in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

The flooding, which started after a massive late-winter storm last week, has also put some hog farms in southwest Iowa underwater. The dead animals inside must be disposed of, Reynolds said.

The water rose so quickly that farmers in many areas had no time to get animals out, said Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University.

"Places that haven't seen animal loss have seen a lot of animal stress. That means they're not gaining weight and won't be marketed in as timely a manner, which results in additional cost," he said.

In all, Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson estimated $400 million of crop losses from fields left unplanted or planted late and up to $500 million in livestock losses.

In a news release issued Tuesday, Gov. Pete Ricketts said there have been deadlier disasters in Nebraska but never one as widespread. He said 65 of the state's 93 counties are under emergency declarations.

In neighboring Missouri, water was just shy of getting into Ryonee McCann's home along a recreational lake in Holt County, where about 40,000 acres (16,188 hectares) and hundreds of homes have been flooded. She said her home sits on an 8-foot (2.5-meter) foundation.

"We have no control over it," the 38-year-old said. "We just have to wait for the water to recede. It's upsetting because everything you have worked for is there."

The Missouri River was forecast to crest Thursday morning at 11.6 feet above flood stage in St. Joseph, Missouri, the third highest crest on record. More than 100 roads are closed in the state, including a growing section of Interstate 29.

Leaders of the small northwestern Missouri town of Craig ordered an evacuation. The Holt County Sheriff's Department said residents who choose to stay must go to City Hall to provide their name and address in case they need to be rescued.

In nearby Atchison County, Missouri, floodwaters knocked out a larger section of an already busted levee overnight, making the village of Watson unreachable, said Mark Manchester, the county's deputy director of emergency management/911.

Officials believe everyone got out before thousands of more acres were flooded. But so many roads are now closed that some residents must travel more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) out of their way to get to their jobs at the Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska, he said.

"It's a lot harder for people to get around," Manchester said.

River flooding has also surrounded a northern Illinois neighborhood with water, prompting residents to escape in boats. People living in the Illinois village of Roscoe say children have walked through floodwaters or kayaked to catch school buses.

Flooding along rivers in western Michigan has damaged dozens of homes and businesses.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Louis, Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

U.S. Africa Command has expanded its counterterrorism mission in Somalia with the number of airstrikes tripling since April 2017 — a spike that coincides with a Trump administration policy to grant military commanders broader authority. During that time, AFRICOM public statements announcing strikes have repeatedly said that no civilians were believed to have been caught in the raids.

However, Amnesty International in a report released Wednesday found five incidents in which 14 civilians were killed and eight injured in strikes. During its investigation, Amnesty said it found “credible evidence” that U.S. strikes in Lower Shabelle — an administrative region in southern Somalia — were responsible for four of the incidents and that the fifth was “most plausibly” caused by a U.S. airstrike.

The reported attacks happened between April 2017 and December 2018.

“In the incidents presented in this report, civilians were killed and injured in attacks that may have violated international humanitarian law (IHL) and could, in some cases, constitute war crimes,” Amnesty International said in its report called “The Hidden U.S. War in Somalia.”

Hours before the release of the Amnesty report, AFRICOM announced that it carried out another strike in Somalia, which it said killed three terrorists.

“Also, we are aware of reports alleging civilian casualties resulting from this airstrike,” AFRICOM said in a Tuesday statement. “As with any allegation of civilian casualties we receive, U.S. Africa Command will review any information it has about the incident, including any relevant information provided by third parties.”

Regarding the Amnesty report, AFRICOM said Tuesday: “Our assessments found that no AFRICOM airstrike resulted in any civilian casualty or injury. Our assessments are based on post-strike analysis using intelligence methods not available to non-military organizations.”

During its investigation, Amnesty International said it interviewed retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, former head of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, who described targeting methods to the group.

While Bolduc did not oversee the five incidents detailed in the report, Amnesty said targets were considered to be lawful based on four criteria: “age, gender, location, and geographical proximity to Al-Shabaab,” the report said.

“According to General Bolduc, all military-aged males observed with known Al-Shabaab members, inside specific areas — areas in which the US military has deemed the population to be supporting or sympathetic to Al-Shabaab — are now considered legitimate military targets,” Amnesty reported.

In a response to the AI report, AFRICOM said “BG Buldoc’s [sic] purported articulation of targeting standards does not accurately reflect the targeting standards of AFRICOM or the [Department of Defense].”

The report spotlights a military campaign that has steadily intensified for several years, generally away from the public eye.

While AFRICOM publicizes its many airstrikes in the country, its assertions about no civilian casualties are getting more scrutiny. Amnesty also said not all strikes are publicly acknowledged by AFRICOM. In its response to Amnesty’s allegations, AFRICOM said in four of the strikes at issue, civilian casualties were unlikely “based on contradictory intelligence that cannot be disclosed because of operational security limitations.”

AFRICOM denied carrying out the fifth incident listed by Amnesty.

Amnesty called on the U.S. to conduct an independent investigation, acknowledge civilian casualties and offer compensation to the families of survivors.

The Pentagon says it has about 500 military personnel in Somalia, where AFRICOM conducted 47 airstrikes in 2018 and 35 the year before. So far, AFRICOM has launched about 30 strikes in 2019.

Somalia has emerged as AFRICOM’s main effort during the past three years. U.S. special operations troops also serve on the front lines in the country as advisers to government forces.

The military push comes ahead of the anticipated departure in 2020 of a multinational African force, which has led the decadelong battle in Somalia against the insurgents. The U.S. aim is to weaken the group and prepare government forces to lead the fight once the African Union force ends its deployment.

Amnesty said security concerns and access restrictions prevented it from doing on-site investigations for its probe. Instead, interviews took place in-person or over encrypted voice calls placed from phones located outside al-Shabab-held territory, the organization said.

Amnesty said it interviewed 65 witnesses and survivors of the five alleged U.S. airstrikes at issue.

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Dickson, a former executive at Delta Air Lines, would replace acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell.

The FAA has been under interim leadership since January 2018, following the departure of Michael Huerta, whose five-year term had expired.

The announcement comes as the agency faces increasing criticism and scrutiny over what some viewed as its slow response to the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner and questions over whether it did enough to ensure the aircraft involved in the crash, a Boeing 737 Max 8, was safe to fly.

The March 10 crash, which killed all 157 people aboard, was the second involving the Boeing 737 Max 8 in less than five months.

Also Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who had been a supporter of Dickson getting the permanent post, asked her department's Office of Inspector General to launch an audit to "compile an objective and detailed factual history"of activities that led the FAA to certify the 737 Max 8.

Chao's announcement of the request emphasized that Boeing had applied for its certification for the plane in January 2012, and that the FAA granted it in March 2017 - shortly after she took over as secretary.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who heads the aviation subcommittee, on Tuesday also asked the Inspector General to examine questions concerning the FAA's approach to certifying the 737 Max 8.

Among them: how new automated features of the plane were "tested, certified, and integrated"; what safety assumptions "led to the FAA's decision not to revise pilot training programs and manuals" to reflect the automated features; how the FAA's delegation of authority to Boeing may have impacted the certification process; and what corrective actions have been taken since the initial accident in October 2018.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called Chao's request "inadequate and incomplete." He asked the inspector general to investigate the Trump administration's "lackluster" response to an earlier crash in Indonesia last year, as well as whether FAA or Boeing employees had engaged "in any unethical, improper or criminal activity during the certification process."

A spokesman for the inspector general said the office is preparing to launch an audit. Asked what time frame and areas of inquiry would be covered, the spokesman said the "scope and objectives"of the review are being determined.

Elwell, a former American Airlines pilot, has been acting administrator since Jan. 7, 2018. He also served as deputy administrator and in other capacities at the FAA.

Some critics have questioned why it has taken so long to fill such an important job. Trump wanted his longtime personal pilot, John Dunkin, at the helm of the agency, but the president lacked the needed support on Capitol Hill for the nomination, which contributed to delays in nominating a permanent administrator, according to a former FAA official.

"He wanted his guy there. There's no question about that. It became something of a standoff," according to the former official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the process.

Dickson, who must be confirmed by the Senate, previously served as an airline captain and senior vice president for flight operations at Delta Air Lines. In that role, he was responsible for the safety and performance of the airline's global flight operations. He was also an Air Force pilot.

Dickson graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, and also holds a law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law.

The Justice Department's criminal division is looking into the Boeing 737 Max 8, though the parameters of that inquiry remain unclear.

Apart from the audit, the Inspector General's Office of Investigations, which handles criminal and other matters, has also sought details about FAA's certification of the plane and its training materials, according to a person with knowledge of that effort.

Chao said the audit she requested is necessary "to help inform the Department's decision-making and the public's understanding, and to assist the FAA in ensuring that its safety procedures are implemented effectively."

"Safety is the top priority of the Department, and all of us are saddened by the fatalities resulting from the recent accidents involving two Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia," Chao said.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — the "Trump of the Tropics"— ran an unabashedly pro-Trump, pro-American campaign last year, emulating Trump in tone and style. It seems to have paid off for Bolsonaro on his first official trip to Washington.

At a joint news conference, Trump announced that he'd agreed to designate Brazil a "major non-NATO ally" — something Brazil had pursued to smooth U.S. weapons purchases and military coordination. Trump even said he'd be open to granting full NATO membership to Latin America's largest and most populous nation, even though Brazil doesn't quality to join the North Atlantic alliance.

The showing was the latest example of the premium Trump puts on personal relationships and the extent to which he's willing to work with those who sing his virtues. And it renewed focus on the growing wave of populist strongmen who have captured voters' support with blunt admonitions of "political correctness" and hardline immigration views.

As they sat down for the first time, Trump hailed Bolsonaro's run as "one of the incredible campaigns," saying he was "honored" it had drawn comparisons to his own 2016 victory. And he predicted the two would have a "fantastic working relationship," telling reporters at a joint press conference that they have "many views" in common. The two also exchanged soccer jerseys in a sign of their budding friendship.

Bolsonaro was equally complimentary, predicting Trump would win re-election in 2020 and drawing parallels between their efforts.

Standing side-by-side in the White House Rose Garden, Bolsonaro said their two countries "stand side by side in their efforts to ensure liberties and respect to traditional family lifestyles, respect to God, our Creator, against the gender ideology or the politically correct attitudes and against fake news."

"I'm very proud to hear the president use the term 'fake news'," Trump later remarked.

The embrace represents a shift in U.S.-Brazilian relations. In 2013, leaks from Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency had wiretapped conversations of former President Dilma Rousseff, leading to several years of tense relations between the nations.

Bolsonaro had arrived in the U.S. with a half a dozen ministers and a goal of expanding trade, diplomatic and military cooperation between the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere. And Trump appeared eager to deliver.

He announced he would back Brazil's effort's to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, while floating the idea of full NATO membership, though he said he'd "have to talk to a lot of people" for Brazil to join the organization.

However, James Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral who was the Supreme Allied Commander at NATO from 2009 to 2013, said Brazil does not qualify for full membership under the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949.

"The idea of formal membership is a nonstarter in every dimension — the treaty doesn't allow it, the Brazilians wouldn't want it and the Europeans wouldn't approve," Stavridis said in an email exchange.

The efforts came as both countries continue to denounce the crisis in Venezuela and called on members of the Venezuelan military to end their support for President Nicolas Maduro. Both the U.S. and Brazil have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader, and Trump reiterated that "all options" to address Venezuela's economic and political crisis remain on the table.

The leaders also were expected to discuss a range of other issues, including expanding trade relations and increasing U.S. private-sector investment in Brazil.

Bolsonaro has much in common with Trump. He, too, ran an insurgent, social media-powered campaign. And like Trump, he has blasted unflattering stories as "fake news" and used Twitter and Facebook to bypass mainstream news organizations.

As a congressman, Bolsonaro frequently made disparaging comments about gays, women, indigenous groups and blacks, and he has praised torture and killings by police and waxed nostalgic for Brazil's old military dictatorship. While such comments have drawn sharp criticism, they have also generated attention and fed into his narrative as a leader unencumbered by political correctness.

Bolsonaro has also echoed Trump's hardline immigration policies, calling immigrants from several poor countries the "scum of the world" and saying Brazil cannot become a "country of open borders."

In an interview with Fox News Monday, Bolsonaro said he supported Trump's immigration policies and his efforts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The majority of potential immigrants do not have good intentions or do not intend to do the best or do good for the American people," he said.

Bolsonaro also had the support of Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has since parted ways with the White House. While Bolsonaro has dismissed reports that Bannon played a key role in his campaign, Bolsonaro's son Eduardo approached Bannon in July of last year and the two struck up a friendship. In August, Eduardo posted a picture of the two of them on Instagram with a caption that said Bannon was an "enthusiast" of his father's candidacy and that they would "unite forces against cultural Marxism." It was one of several meetings, Bannon said.

On Sunday, Bannon joined Bolsonaro for a dinner at the Brazilian Embassy along with various Cabinet members and other leaders, where they discussed subjects including the country's economic plans.

Bolsonaro, Bannon told The Associated Press, "understands the Trump program and understands President Trump" and said both represent a "tectonic plate shift in the world of politics" toward blunt, politically incorrect leaders in the model of Trump.

"This is a new kind of global political moment," he said.

In advance of the meeting, the countries signed several bilateral agreements, including one that allows the United States to use Brazil's Alcantara Aerospace Launch Base for its satellites. Brazil also announced an end to visa requirements for U.S. tourists who visit the country, while Trump agreed to Brazilian participation in the Trusted Traveler "Global Entry" program.

Days after taking office on Jan. 1, Bolsonaro, a former army captain, said Brazil would consider letting the U.S. have a military base in the country as way to counter Russian influence in the region, particularly related to Brazil's neighbor Venezuela.

That statement was roundly criticized, including by former military members of his government, and the administration backed off.

___

Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writers Mauricio Savarese in Madrid and Ben Fox, Robert Burns, Matthew Lee, Catherine Lucey and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

What are levees?

A: Levees are earthen flood barriers typically covered in grass. They generally don't have bushes or trees because the roots can create structural weakness and provide crevices where water can get in. Sometimes rocks are added to help prevent erosion.

Levees are different than floodwalls, which are typically concrete, but floodwalls are sometimes part of levee systems. In Hannibal, Missouri, for example, a levee protects Mark Twain historic sites from the Mississippi River, but the levee has openings allowing street traffic to the riverfront. When floodwaters threaten, concrete floodwalls slide into place to fill the gaps.

How many levees exist in the U.S?

A: The Army Corps of Engineers oversees 2,148 levee systems totaling 14,150 miles. But there are many other small levees too, some privately owned, as well as a few operated by other federal agencies. The National Committee on Levee Safety estimates there are more than 100,000 miles of levees nationwide.

California has the most, with 9,144 miles of levees in 3,291 systems. The Mississippi and Missouri river basins in the Midwest and South are dotted with thousands of miles of levees. Missouri alone has 318 levee systems stretching a combined 2,038 miles, according to the Corps.

Who operates levees?

A: The Corps of Engineers operates and maintains only a small percentage of levees, just some of the big ones. About 85 percent of the 14,150 miles of levees under the agency's oversight are actually operated by counties, cities or designated levee districts. The vast majority of the other 86,000 miles of levees have no federal oversight.

For non-federal levees, it's up to the operator to take care of maintenance, keeping drains and wells in working order and making sure the turf (and sometimes rock) isn't compromised. In times of flooding, it's also up to the local operator to patrol the levee, shore up any trouble spots with sandbags and to inform the community of any dangers.

How susceptible are levees to flooding?

A: It ranges broadly. Some small agricultural levees are meant to hold back only minor flooding and, in fact, are expected to succumb to higher water. Other levees are built high and wide with the goal of protecting against even catastrophic floods.

But there are no guarantees. Extreme weather has increased in recent decades, and so has serious flooding. Consider Clarksville, Missouri, a scenic Mississippi River town, where seven of the 10 worst floods on record have happened since 1993.

Then there's Chesterfield, Missouri, a well-to-do St. Louis suburb along the Missouri River. The massive 1993 flood swamped a 7-mile long valley in Chesterfield, destroying most everything in its path.

After the levee was rebuilt bigger and stronger, hundreds of millions of dollars of development emerged in the Chesterfield valley, including shopping centers, big box stores and restaurants.

Levees like Chesterfield's shouldn't create a false sense of security, said Scott Vollink, a levee safety program manager for the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The public needs to understand that no levee system is flood-proof," Vollink said. "Levees reduce that risk of flooding, but no levee system is going to eliminate all that flood risk."

How bad is levee damage from the current flood?

A: It's bad, particularly in Nebraska and Iowa and northwestern Missouri. Corps of Engineers officials say around two dozen levee systems have sustained either breaches (holes in the levee) or overtoppings (water flowing over the levee) since the flood began. The Corps said virtually every Missouri River levee along a 100-mile stretch south of Omaha was breached or overtopped.

There is no estimate of the cost of the repairs, nor is it clear how much the federal government will help fund.

What is the repair plan?

A: Vollink said the agency hopes to have all of the damaged levees fully repaired by the spring of 2020. But with more flooding certain this spring, Vollink said the Corps will work with levee operators to expedite interim repairs.

"If there's a levee breach, if we could get some intermediate level of levee back into place very, very quickly while we develop the final detailed design to restore back into the original condition, that would be considered," Vollink said. "But it's very situational. It's hypothetical until we see what's out there."

Does the Corps of Engineers keep tabs on levee conditions?

A: The Corps maintains the National Levee Database, and it is working with states and levee operators on a new national review of the levee system. The database includes information on inspections, levee conditions and flood risks. It isn't clear when the review will be complete since Congress has not authorized funding.
 

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committees, accused his rivals from the internationally-recognized government of misinterpreting the deal. He says the Houthis have agreed to withdraw their forces but will remain in control.

He said the Saudi-backed government "couldn't get (the port) by force and they won't seize it by tricks."

"We agree on the redeployment according to the presented mechanism, but withdrawal as they are promoting, is impossible," he said in an interview conducted in undisclosed location in Sanaa, after relocating to avoid airstrikes.

Hodeida is the main entry point for humanitarian aid to Yemen, where nearly four years of war has spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The two sides have agreed to withdraw their forces from the port, but are divided over who will run it once they pull out. The U.N.-brokered deal was vague on that point, saying a "local force" would take over without specifying who would lead it.

U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths said Tuesday "significant progress" has been made on the withdrawal of forces from Hodeida.

He said in a statement that "operational details" of the agreement on phase one of the redeployment will be presented to a U.N. committee shortly. Griffiths said he looks forward to the committee's "swift endorsement of the plan."

A mutual pullout from Hodeida, which handles about 70 percent of Yemen's imports, and the two smaller ports of Salif and Ras Issa, was agreed to in Sweden in December and was seen as an important first step toward ending the conflict.

But a lack of trust between the government and the Houthis hampered agreement on details of the withdrawals. Each side has accused the other of violating the Hodeida cease-fire, and fighting has continued in other parts of the country.

"This is a process that will take a lot of patience so I don't want to sound over-confident about this, but any progress in getting the parties to agreement is welcome, and that is why today's developments are welcome and a positive step forward," U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

"Whether we can get to the final step of actually having the withdrawals occur, that remains to be seen," he added.

The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by the Iranian-backed Houthis. A Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been fighting the Houthis since March 2015.

The fighting in the Arab world's poorest country has killed an estimated 60,000 people and left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has said about 80 percent of Yemen's population — 24 million people — need humanitarian assistance, including nearly 10 million "just a step away from famine" and nearly 240,000 "facing catastrophic levels of hunger."

Last month, Griffiths said that forces will initially be withdrawn from Salif and Ras Issa, followed by a pullout from Hodeida and critical parts of the city. That would allow access to the Red Sea Mills, a major U.N. storage facility holding enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month.

The U.S.-backed and Saudi-led coalition allied with the government views the Houthis as an Iranian proxy. A U.N. panel of experts said earlier this year that Iran finances the war through illegal oil shipments to rebels. Both Iran and the Houthis deny Tehran has armed them.

Al-Houthi, who is considered the deputy leader of the movement, denied the rebels receive any aid from Iran, saying only that they have shared goals.

He said there was still a "big chance for peace" but only if the other side is committed to it.

"My message is that there is a big chance for peace despite the terrorism we face." But, he added, "if you decide to go for war, you will find us fierce warriors."

__

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

<related>

The missile test in southern Israel was conducted Tuesday by the Israeli Ministry of Defense along with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Rafael, an Israeli defense technology company.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the tests, noting that Israel has earned a place "among global leaders" in the development of missile defenses.

The test follows a temporary U.S. troop deployment in Israel during the installment of an advanced American missile defense system earlier this month.

The countries' close military cooperation against the backdrop of tensions with Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah reflects their shared concerns about Iran's development of long-range missiles.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer was awarded to the Maine shipyard in September 2018 as part of a multi-year procurement.

Charette, who was from Ludington, Michigan, joined the Navy in 1951 and served in the Korean War in the Fleet Marine Force as a hospital corpsman attached to Company F, Third Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, according to the Navy.

Charette was presented the Medal of Honor for his actions on March 27, 1953, when he threw himself on top of an enemy grenade to protect a wounded Marine from the explosion in North Korea, according to the Navy.

The blast knocked Charette unconscious. When he awoke, he continued to care for other Marines, using torn parts of his uniform to dress wounds and his battle vest to shield a wounded Marine. Amid enemy gunfire, he carried wounded Marines to safety.

“The actions of Hospital Corpsman William Charette will neither be forgotten or diminished,” Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer said. “Charette put himself at extreme risk during intense combat to render aid to Marines in need. His efforts saved lives and I am honored that his legacy will live on in the future USS William Charette [DDG 130].”

Of five enlisted sailors — all hospital corpsman attached to the Marine Corps — to receive the Medal of Honor for actions during the Korean War, only Charette was alive to receive the honor. He died on March 18, 2012, due to complications from heart surgery.

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The justices, by a 5-4 vote, agreed that Congress authorized mandatory detention of noncitizens who were subject to deportation because they had committed crimes ranging from violent felonies to drug possession. And they may be taken into custody by immigration agents long after they are released from state or local custody, the court said.

The ruling in Nielsen vs. Preap is based on an interpretation of a 1996 law, but it takes on added significance because the Trump administration has been more aggressive in arresting and jailing legal immigrants with crimes on their records.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., speaking for the court’s conservatives, said Congress believed it would be “too risky” to allow dangerous criminals and terrorists to remain free on bail while their deportations were pending. But he went on to describe the law as requiring mandatory detention for noncitizens who had committed crimes “including, for example, any drug offense by an adult punishable by more than one year of imprisonment as well as a variety of tax offenses.” He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer, speaking for the four liberals, read his dissent in the courtroom. “The greater importance of the case lies in the power that the majority’s interpretation grants to the government. It is a power to detain persons who committed a minor crime many years before,” he said. “And it is a power to hold those persons, perhaps for many months, without any opportunity to obtain bail.”

He said the Constitution gave all people the right to a hearing if they were held by the government. “I would have thought that Congress intended to adhere to these values and did not intend to allow the government to apprehend persons years after their release from prison and hold them indefinitely without a bail hearing,” Breyer said.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union had brought a class-action suit in California on behalf of lawful immigrants who faced mandatory detention long after they had been released for relatively minor crimes.

Eduardo Padilla, one of the named plaintiffs, came to the United States in 1966 as an infant and became a lawful permanent resident in the Sacramento area. He has five children and six grandchildren, all of whom are U.S. citizens. Padilla had two convictions for drug possession, in 1997 and 1999, and served 90 days in jail in 2002 for having an unloaded pistol in a shed.

In 2013, federal agents arrested him for those past crimes and held him for deportation. But he went free after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the “mandatory detention” provision did not apply to immigrants such as Padilla. He was released on a $1,500 bond because a judge decided he did not present a danger and was not likely to flee.

The lead plaintiff in the case, Mony Preap, had come from Cambodia as a child and been a lawful resident since 1981. He was taken into custody for two convictions for possessing marijuana in 2006, but an immigration judge later canceled his deportation and he was released.

ACLU Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang, who argued the case, criticized the ruling. “For two terms in a row now, the Supreme Court has endorsed the most extreme interpretation of immigration detention statutes,” she said, “allowing mass incarceration of people without any hearing, simply because they are defending themselves against a deportation charge. We will continue to fight the gross overuse of detention in the immigration system.”

Tuesday’s decision overturns a ruling of the 9th Circuit Court that had extended bail hearings and possible release to immigrants who had served time for their crimes and were living and working in their communities.

The legal dispute turned on a provision of the law that said the mandatory federal detention was triggered “when an alien is released” from state prison or local jail. Based on that clause, the 9th Circuit judges said the mandatory detention rule did not apply to immigrants who had been released months or years earlier.

But Alito said the first provision of the law said the government “shall take into custody any alien” with certain crimes on their record, and that the duty to arrest and hold these people did not end simply because they were not taken into custody immediately.

The high court heard arguments on the case in mid-October during the same week Kavanaugh took his seat. He spoke up in defense of the Trump administration’s view that the law was intended to authorize federal agents to arrest and hold immigrants with past crimes on their records regardless of when they were released. He questioned whether “we should be putting in a time limit” on taking immigrants into custody.

Both sides in the case agreed that the mandatory detention rule applied both to immigrants who were in the country legally as well as to those here illegally.

Early last year, the high court broadly upheld the government’s power to detain immigrants in jail for months or years as they fight deportation. In a 5-3 decision, the court ruled federal law gave these detainees no right to a bail hearing and a chance to go free. The decision, in Jennings vs. Rodriguez, did not resolve whether this indefinite-detention rule was constitutional. Dissenting, Breyer emphasized that the Constitution said “no person shall be … deprived of liberty” without due process of law, which he said required a hearing.

The case decided Tuesday was a follow-up to last year’s ruling and was more limited in its scope. It involved only detained immigrants who had been earlier released from custody.

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The easing of fish consumption restrictions on the Cuyahoga was lauded Monday by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine as an important step toward ultimately delisting the river altogether as an area of concern. Seven impairments remain to be addressed before that can happen.

"This is an example of the progress that can be achieved when you collaborate and dedicate resources to improving the quality of water in our state," DeWine said in a statement. "We need to continue to invest in our water resources so that we can see additional improvements."

The announcement came as DeWine is pushing a state budget that includes nearly $1 billion for water quality projects aimed at cleaning up toxic algae in Lake Erie and protecting other lakes and rivers in the state.

The Cuyahoga River was already one of the most polluted rivers in the country at the time of the fire on June 22, 1969, close to where the river empties into Lake Erie, according to the Ohio History Connection. The fire was neither the first nor the worst the river had experienced.

But the 1969 fire on the river, where industrial waste and sewage were regularly dumped, drew national media attention that made it an instant poster child for water pollution at a time when the country was becoming more environmentally aware.

"As we approach the 50th anniversary of the most infamous Cuyahoga River fire, we reflect on the progress that has been made," said Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, CEO of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose creation was inspired by the Cuyahoga River fire, gave the thumbs-up to easing the fish consumption restrictions.

Regional administrator Cathy Stepp called it "a huge step" in the agency's work to improve water quality.

The U.S. EPA agreed with Ohio EPA's recommendation that restrictions on fish consumption be eased from Gorge Dam near Akron to Lake Erie in Cleveland. State regulators proposed the change last year judging by improvements observed through fish tissue sampling.

Ohio EPA Director Laurie Stevenson said in a statement, "If you safely can eat the fish, we know that's a great indication that water quality is improving."
 

With little tolerance for dissent, the Islamic militant group has responded with heavy-handed tactics. It has arrested dozens of protesters, beaten activists and violently suppressed attempts by local media to cover the unrest.

Hamas has accused the rival West Bank-based Palestinian Authority of orchestrating the protests — a charge that organizers vehemently reject.

"There is no political agenda at all," said Amin Abed, 30, an organizer who has been forced into hiding. "We simply want to live in dignity," he said by telephone. "We just ask Hamas to ease the economic hardships and tax burdens."

Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade, a step meant to prevent Hamas from arming.

The blockade, and three wars with Israel, have ravaged Gaza's economy but done nothing to loosen Hamas' grip on power.

Unemployment is over 50 percent and much higher for young university graduates like Abed. Tap water is undrinkable, electricity is limited and travel abroad severely restricted. Hamas' cash-strapped government recently raised taxes on basic goods like bread, beans and cigarettes.

Protesters accuse Hamas of corruption and imposing the hefty taxes to enrich itself. They used social media to organize protests last week with the slogan "We want to live!"

The protests come just as Hamas marks the one-year anniversary of its weekly demonstrations along the frontier with Israel. The demonstrations, aimed largely at easing the blockade, have accomplished little, even as some 190 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded by Israeli fire.

This is not the first time people have taken to the streets against Hamas. Two years ago, protesters demonstrated against the chronic power cuts on a cold January day before Hamas violently dispersed them. This time around, the sporadic rallies have continued for five days, despite a similarly violent response.

"These protests were the largest, the longest and the most violent in terms of Hamas' suppression," said Mkhaimar Abusada, political science professor at Gaza's al-Azhar University.

"This was a message of anger to Hamas that the situation is unbearable and that it must reconsider all its policies," he added.

On Monday, Amnesty International reported that hundreds of protesters have been beaten, arbitrarily arrested, tortured and subjected to ill-treatment. Journalists and human rights workers, including a researcher for the London-based organization, were also roughed up, Amnesty said.

"The crackdown on freedom of expression and the use of torture in Gaza has reached alarming new levels," said Amnesty's Middle East deputy director Saleh Higazi.

Osama al-Kahlout, a journalist with the local news site Donia al-Wattan, last week published a photo of a protester on crutches raising a sign that said "I want to live in dignity." The next day, he was detained as he went live on Facebook during another protest.

Al-Kahlout said police smashed furniture, seized his belongings and beat him on the way to the police station.  "I'm a journalist," he said. "I don't regret covering it."

He said he was released after a meeting with the police chief in which officials "advised" journalists not to cover the protests.

Heba el-Buhissi, 31, who filmed the raids at her family home, said a policeman fired a warning shot in the air as others cursed and yelled at her after she started filming. Her videos show a group of Hamas police beating her cousin with wooden batons.

Other amateur videos have shown protesters burning tires and hurling stones toward Hamas forces. Hamas gunmen can be seen jumping out of vehicles and beating people with clubs. Other videos show Hamas going door to door and carrying out mass arrests.

El-Buhissi filmed the incident last Thursday when she saw Hamas dispersing some of her neighbors who had hoisted banners against tax hikes. Her family opened the home to allow youths to escape the police.

"This is what drove the police crazy, and that's why they stormed our houses," she said. "I felt I have to film to prove what was going on."

The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists reported Monday that 42 Palestinian journalists "were targeted" by Hamas forces in the past five days. The abuses included physical assaults, summons, threats, home arrests and seizure of equipment.

The official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa reported Monday that the spokesman of Abbas' Fatah movement in Gaza, Atef Abu Saif, was badly beaten by Hamas.

It showed pictures of Abu Said with a bandaged leg, bruises and blood-stained clothes lying on a hospital bed.

Ammar Dwaik, director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza, said Hamas forces have dispersed 25 protests with excessive force and arrested about 1,000 people. He said some 300 people remain in custody.

"This is worst crackdown in Gaza since the Hamas takeover in 2007 in terms of its scope and cruelty," Dwaik said.

On Tuesday, Hamas issued a brief statement "rejecting the use of violence and repression against any Palestinian for practicing his legitimate right of expression."

But Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, used tougher language in a Twitter post, accusing Israel and the Palestinian Authority of conspiring to organize protests. "The attempts of the Palestinian Authority and the occupation to drive a wedge between the people and the resistance have failed," he said.

The demonstrations appeared to subside on Monday, but organizers say the protests will continue until Hamas cancels taxes on dozens of goods, creates a national employment program and releases everyone who has been arrested in the crackdown.

Abed, the protest leader, said Hamas has stormed his family's house and delivered an arrest warrant for him to his father.

"Hamas doesn't want us to scream. It wants us to die in silence," he said.
 

The decision greatly disappointed abuse survivors, given that Barbarin had traveled to the Vatican on Monday to present his resignation following the March 7 verdict and six-month suspended sentence he received.

The Vatican spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, said Tuesday that during the audience, Francis didn't accept the resignation and instead asked Barbarin to do what he thinks is best for the archdiocese. Barbarin has decided to take time away and has asked his deputy in Lyon, the Rev. Yves Baumgarten, to assume leadership of the archdiocese, Gisotti said.

"The Holy See repeats its closeness to victims of abuse, to the faithful of the archdiocese of Lyon and the French church who are living in a particularly difficult moment," Gisotti said.

The French court found that Barbarin had an obligation to report the Rev. Bernard Preynat to civil authorities when he learned of his abuse. Preynat, who is scheduled to be tried on sexual violence charges next year, confessed to abusing Boy Scouts in the 1970s and 1980s. His victims accuse Barbarin and other church authorities of covering up for him for years.

Barbarin has appealed the conviction, which could have influenced Francis' decision to not immediately accept his resignation. Francis has been loath to take such measures lest they influence the outcome of trials.

But the decision nevertheless left French abuse victims disillusioned, particularly given Francis' recent comments about ending cover-up that he pronounced at the end of a high-level Vatican summit last month.

Bertrand Virieux, a victim and co-founder of the association La Parole Liberee (Lift the Burden of Silence), told France Info radio he doesn't understand Francis' decision and doesn't expect anything anymore from the church.

He noted the disconnect between the "strong words pronounced a few weeks ago that might have given hope to victims and to those who want some change within the church" and "the daily reality in the church."

Another victim, the president of the association Francois Devaux, called Francis' decision a mistake.

"It shows that we are right and that the problem is inherent to (religious) dogma," he told French media.

Last year, Francis reluctantly accepted the resignation of one of his key supporters, Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, after he was implicated in cover-ups from decades ago.

The cases were revealed by a Pennsylvania grand jury report. Wuerl was never criminally charged, but he determined he could no longer effectively lead the archdiocese after he lost the trust of the flock and some of his priests.

Francis also accepted the resignation last year of Philip Wilson, archbishop of Adelaide, Australia, after he was convicted of covering up abuse. Wilson's conviction was reversed on appeal, but he had already had been replaced. His future status is unclear.
 

The experts also called for the U.N. health agency to create a database of scientists working on gene editing. The recommendation was announced Tuesday after a two-day meeting in Geneva to examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges of such research.

"At this time, it is irresponsible for anyone to proceed" with making gene-edited babies since DNA changes could be passed down to future generations, the experts said in a statement.

Last year, Chinese researcher He Jiankui rocked the scientific community with his announcement that he helped make the world's first gene-edited babies, altering the DNA of twin girls to try to make them resistant to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

WHO's announcement comes after an international group of scientists and ethicists called for a temporary ban on gene-edited babies in the journal Nature last week.

Margaret Ann Hamburg, co-chair of the WHO panel, and her colleagues declined to call for a similar prohibition.

"I don't think a vague moratorium is the answer to what needs to be done," she said. "What we're trying to do is to look at the broader picture."

She said the experts envisioned a WHO-directed database where journal publishers and funders of gene editing research would require scientists to sign up — but acknowledged they had not yet worked out how to reprimand any scientists who refused to register.

Earlier this year, Chinese investigators said He had dodged supervision of his work and broke research norms because he wanted to be famous. The report said He could face consequences, although it didn't specify which regulations he may have violated.

WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the formation of the panel in early December after He revealed his experiment.

"We have to be very, very careful" about how to proceed, Tedros said at the time. "We have a big part of our population who say, 'Don't touch.'"

Gene editing is intended as a more precise way to do gene therapy. Trying it in adults to treat diseases is not controversial and the DNA changes do not pass to future generations. But most scientists think gene editing to make babies is too risky to be tried at the moment because of the danger of damaging other genes and because unknown DNA alterations could be passed on.

___

Cheng reported from London.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
 

Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, said that authorities want to lift the immunity of three judges and four prosecutors, who "unlawfully deprived of freedom" those protesting the 1981 communist-imposed martial law and the authorities of the time.

Ziobro, who is also the prosecutor general, said the aim was to bring the officials to justice for what he described as "court crimes." He did not disclose their identities, other than to say that two of the judges were active until recently in the Supreme Court.

The motions, written by special history-focused prosecutors of the government-controlled Institute of National Remembrance, or IPN, were sent to disciplinary courts on Tuesday.

Head of the institute's investigative arm, Andrzej Pozorski, said the probe into the martial-law era imprisonments was their biggest so far.

Poland's right-wing ruling Law and Justice party, which has introduced controversial charges to the justice system that are strongly criticized by the European Union leaders, has sought to punish and remove from public life justice officials of the communist era. It argues it is acting in the interest of the victims.

The IPN says that at least 10 people were unlawfully sent to prison in 1981-82, including two high school students caught painting anti-regime graffiti. The verdicts had a very negative effect on their lives.
 

Speaking to parliament, Conte said that Italy's signing of a memorandum of understanding for the infrastructure-building venture, which is due to happen during the Chinese premier's visit this week, would not "in the least" put into question Italy's position within the strategic trans-Atlantic alliance or with European partners.

Italy's signature would be considered a major legitimation of the project that envisions overland and maritime routes connecting China with Europe. A White House official has warned Italy against joining, calling it a Chinese "vanity project."

European governments declined to sign a joint declaration on the "Belt and Road" at a forum last year in Beijing. They argued it lacked standards on financing and transparency.

In his first remarks to lawmakers on the deal on the eve of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit, Conte said the details have been worked out over months of consultations at every level of government. He emphasized that the memorandum is not legally binding and that it would give Italy access to an enormous market.

"We want to first and foremost rebalance our trade, which is not favorable to us now. Our exports to China are far lower than other European countries," Conte said.

"The infrastructure will redefine commercial traffic routes. We will have new airports, new trade corridors, and it will certainly influence our economic growth. We don't want to lose any opportunity."

In parliament, the opposition attacked the planned memorandum and the lack of detail provided to lawmakers, warning that the deal could be a Trojan horse for China to undermine Italian industries. Concerns also center around whether the accords include 5G access.

Even lawmakers from the right-wing League, part of Conte's coalition, say their support for the memorandum is conditional on it not harming Italy's relations with its partners.

"If it opens exports for Italian companies, it is great. The only constraints are security, the control of Italians' data, and energy. I would not like someone to wake up on the other side of the world and turn off the switch," League leader Matteo Salvini said this week.

"If the Chinese want to invest in railways and ports, fine. What is important that control remains in Italian hands."

Francesco Sisci, a China expert currently working as a researcher at Renmin University in China, said the biggest problem with the deals with China is that Italy pursued them without properly keeping its allies informed.

"There was a lack of professionalism and political know-how. Whatever the deal is, they need to speak first with the Americans and the Europeans, agreeing to a common approach, then speak with China," Sisci said.

"Italy is part of NATO. It is part of the European Union and shares a currency. How do they not speak with their allies? It is crazy," he said.

____

Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed.
 

The social media giant released new details about its response to the video in a blog post. It said the gunman's live 17-minute broadcast was viewed fewer than 200 times and the first user report didn't come in until 12 minutes after it ended. Fifty people were killed at two mosques in Christchurch.

Facebook removed the video "within minutes'" of being notified by police, said Chris Sonderby, Facebook's deputy general counsel.

"No users reported the video during the live broadcast," and it was watched about 4,000 times in total before being taken down, Sonderby said. "We continue to work around the clock to prevent this content from appearing on our site, using a combination of technology and people."

Facebook has previously said that in the first 24 hours after the massacre, it removed 1.5 million videos of the attacks, "of which over 1.2 million were blocked at upload," implying 300,000 copies successfully made it on to the site before being taken down.

The video's rapid spread online puts renewed pressure on Facebook and other social media sites such as YouTube and Twitter over their content moderation efforts. Many question why Facebook in particular wasn't able to more quickly detect the video and take it down.

On Tuesday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed frustration that the footage remained online four days after the killings. She said she had received "some communication" from Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg on the issue. "It is horrendous and while they've given us those assurances, ultimately the responsibility does sit with them."

Facebook uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect objectionable material, while at the same time relying on the public to flag up content that violates its standards. Those reports are then sent to human reviewers who decide what action to take, the company said in a video in November , which also outlined how it uses "computer vision" to detect 97 percent of graphic violence before anyone reports it. However, it's less clear how these systems apply to Facebook's live streaming.

To report live video, a user must know to click on a small set of three gray dots on the right side of the post. When you click on "report live video," you're given a choice of objectionable content types to select from, including violence, bullying and harassment. You're also told to contact law enforcement in your area if someone is in immediate danger.

Before the company was alerted to the video, a user on 8chan had already posted a link to copy of it on a file sharing site, Sonderby said. 8chan is a dark corner of the web where those disaffected by mainstream social media sites often post extremist, racist and violent views.

In another indication of the video's spread by those intent on sharing it, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a group of global internet companies led by Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft and Twitter, said it added more than 800 different versions to a shared database used to block violent terrorist images and videos.

The group said it added "digital fingerprints" for visually distinct versions of the video to its database. The move came in response to attempts by internet users to share the video by editing or repackaging versions with different digital fingerprints to avoid detection.

"The incident highlights the importance of industry cooperation regarding the range of terrorists and violent extremists operating online," said the group, which was formed in 2017 in response to official pressure to do more to fight online extremism.

In a series of tweets a day after the shootings , Facebook's former chief security officer, Alex Stamos, laid out the challenge for tech companies as they raced to keep up with new versions of the video.

"Each time this happens, the companies have to spot it and create a new fingerprint," said Stamos. "What you are seeing on the major platforms is the water leaking around thousands of fingers poked in a dam," he said

Stamos estimated the big tech companies are blocking more than 99 percent of the videos from being uploaded, "which is not enough to make it impossible to find."
 

The long-range strategic bombers with the 2nd Bomb Wing out of Barksdale Air Force Base, La., arrived at the British base last week along with about 600 airmen and their equipment.

The B-52s will operate out of Fairford, U.S. Air Forces in Europe — Air Forces Africa’s forward operating location for bombers.

“While here, the bombers will integrate into our U.S. and allied forces to demonstrate the strength of NATO operability of joint and combined arms teams,” Harrigian, USAFE’s deputy commander, told reporters.

Deployment of the bombers to Europe is part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which is aimed at reassuring NATO allies concerned about Russia’s military assertiveness. During the post-Cold War era, it was relatively rare to send long-range bombers to Europe, but recent tensions with Russia have prompted the Air Force to incorporate the aircraft into more alliance exercises.

Last year, three B1-B Lancers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, deployed to Fairford for a month in May for NATO exercises BALTOPS and Saber Strike. A B-52 from Barksdale arrived in September for Saber Strike.

And in May 2017, a flight of Stratofortresses from the 2nd Bomb Wing deployed to RAF Fairford for similar exercises across Europe.

Unlike in past years, the B-52s deployed to Europe this spring are slated to conduct training events simultaneously with B-52s deployed to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, in what U.S. European command said earlier this week was a “clear and visible demonstration of U.S. commitment to global allies and partners.”

Since 2004, the U.S. has rotated B-1, B-52 and B-2 long-range bombers out of Guam to conduct training missions in Asia as part of the INDOPACOM’s “continuous bomber presence.”

In recent weeks, the bombers have garnered headlines after flying a series of flights over the South China Sea.

EUCOM and INDOPACOM closely coordinated the cross-command training effort with U.S. Strategic Command, along with USAFE in Germany, Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii and Air Force Global Strike Command in Louisiana, EUCOM said.

“The ability to operate in the different environments at the same time and demonstrate global reach and the capacity to do that in a timeline that synchronizes our efforts is really a tremendous opportunity for our collective teams in both theaters,” Harrigian said.

howard.william@stripes.com
Twitter: @Howard_Stripes
 

The taking of the ISIS camp was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz, the last village held by the extremists where they have been holding out for weeks under siege, according to Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Still, fighters from the force were starting to celebrate anyway.

"I'm happy it's over. Now I know my people are safe," said a fighter who identified himself as Walid Raqqawi who fought in the camp Monday night. He said he is returning to his hometown of Raqqa to rest. Comrades from his unit sang and danced in celebration at an outpost in Baghouz, all saying they were looking forward to going home.

An unknown number of ISIS militants still clung to a tiny sliver of land trapped between the Euphrates River and the encampment now held by the SDF, officials in the force said.

The militants have been putting up a desperate fight, their notorious propaganda machine working even on the brink of collapse. On Monday, ISIS issued a video showing its militants furiously defending the encampment, a junkyard of wrecked cards, motorcycles and tents. In the footage. They shoot nonstop with AK-47s and M-16s from behind trucks, vehicles and sand berms.

A group of children could be seen at one point amid the fighting.

"My Muslim brothers everywhere, we did our best, the rest is up to God," a fighter said to the backdrop of black smoke rising from behind him.

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The complete fall of Baghouz would mark the end of the Islamic State group's self-declared territorial "caliphate," which at its height stretched across much of Syria and Iraq. For the past four years, U.S.-led forces have waged a destructive campaign to tear down the "caliphate." But even after Baghouz's fall, ISIS maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells that threaten a continuing insurgency.

The battle for Baghouz has dragged on for weeks — and the encampment has proven a major battleground, with tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels.

The siege has also been slowed by the unexpectedly large number of civilians in Baghouz, most of them families of ISIS members. Over past weeks they have been flowing out, exhausted, hungry and often wounded. The sheer number who emerged — nearly 30,000 since early January according to Kurdish officials — took the Kurdish-led SDF by surprise.

In the last two weeks, many ISIS militants appeared to be among those evacuating. But SDF commanders have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don't know how many more may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

In the seizure Tuesday of the encampment, hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment, Bali, the SDF spokesman, said in a Twitter post. Still, he cautioned, "this is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight."

There were conflicting reports from SDF commanders on the ground about the extent of the ISIS surrender.

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Commander Rustam Hasake said SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last ISIS fighters surrendered at dawn.  He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained.

Another commander, however, said some ISIS militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.

AP journalists in Baghouz reported sporadic gunfire echoing in Baghouz and jets circling overhead. At a command post in Baghouz, a Humvee pulled up and unloaded weapons captured from ISIS on Tuesday, including sniper and hunting rifles, pump action shot guns and grenades and ammunition.

Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them. At least 100 people, nearly all of them children, have died in the truck trips from Baghouz on the way to a camp in northern Syria, or soon after reaching it, according to the International Rescue Committee — a sign of how miserable conditions were inside Baghouz during the siege as supplies ran out.

Bali, in a separate Twitter post Tuesday, said the SDF captured a group of suspects involved in a January suicide bombing that killed four Americans in the northern town of Manbij. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or whether they were among the most recent militants to surrender.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast outside a popular restaurant in Manbij, which killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.

As they make their final stand, the ISIS militants have issued a string of statements this month claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the SDF.

In an audio posted online Monday, the ISIS spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, issued his first message in six months, calling for revenge attacks by Muslims in Western countries in retaliation for the shooting attack on two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people.

He also ridiculed U.S. declarations of the defeat of the Islamic State group, calling the claim of victory a "hallucination."

But SDF fighters celebrated as if the final collapse were imminent. At the SDF outpost in Baghouz, a commander danced with his soldiers. Fighters said remaining ISIS militants didn't put up much resistance.

"We fired on them with our rifles and heavy weapons and they didn't shoot back. So we walked into the camp and they didn't shoot at us," said Orhan Hamad, from the northern province of Hassakeh.

"I tell the martyrs, it wasn't for nothing. With God's permission, we've finished Daesh."

___

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed reporting.

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The tremendous loss of digital artifacts, such as the Flickr photo annihilation, the Tumblr porn purge and the coming Google+ disintegration, highlights the impermanence of the Web, and the ease with which files and posts that helped define Internet culture and history can be so readily discarded.

In the case of Myspace, the loss of the uploads appears accidental. "As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace," the company said in a statement. "We apologize for the inconvenience."

But in other prominent examples of disposed Web content, the deletions and bans were and will be intentional.

Google decided to shutter its social network after a security flaw compromised hundreds of thousands of accounts, potentially exposing the personal information of its users. Google+ users were given 10 months to download and move their data ahead of the site's planned shutdown in April.

In December, Tumblr gave only two weeks' notice of its intent to ban all explicit adult content and nudity from its website. Last month, in Flickr's most recent update, the photo storage site announced that any files uploaded beyond the 1,000-item threshold for free accounts risked deletion.

Taken together, the bans, purges and deletions of years' worth of online material represent a loss that's hard to absorb - blending the disappearance of intangible artifacts, art, music, communities and novel forms of communication.

Some archiving experts see the Myspace episode as another sign of the risk of relying on Internet platforms to host people's cherished content. As Vox reported, the Internet Archive's Jason Scott sees Myspace as a harbinger of things to come. "Anyone who doesn't think this is going to happen with YouTube is kidding themselves," he said recently on Twitter. Scott criticized both Myspace's handling of its now lost files, and Google's decision to shut down Google+.

Myspace and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before it was sold and resold, Los Angeles-based Myspace was a popular, pioneering social network before Facebook swelled into the juggernaut of the web. The lost files had been uploaded from 2003 - the year of the company's birth - to 2015, representing more than 50 million songs by 14 million artists.

In response to the shuttering of Google+, the nonprofit Internet Archive and a collection of archivists, programmers and writers known as the Archive Team announced an effort earlier this month to preserve public posts on the social network before they are shuttered in April.

The confiscated property and equipment, belonging to two international companies that were awarded maintenance and operations contracts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is worth more than $780,000, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report published Monday.

There were times when the Afghan employees of the contractor Exelis, Inc. — previously known as ITT Systems Corp. — tried to remove their equipment from work sites, but were “held against their will at gunpoint and locked in containers for extended hours” by Afghan forces, company officials told SIGAR.

Contractor staff were “often detained” by Afghan troops to force them to repair equipment that was outside the scope of contract requirements and wouldn’t release them until the equipment was fixed, the report said, citing USACE.

Exelis submitted more than 400 incident reports to USACE from across 800 facilities between 2011 and 2013 alone, the company told SIGAR. Of those, 71 regarded abuses, threat, intimidation, and confiscated property, USACE said.

SIGAR launched its investigation — which examined two contracts held by U.S.-based Exelis, covering a period from 2010 to 2015, and a third contract held by IDS International Government Services that began in 2015 and finishes this month — after complaints from USACE employees. The three contracts total more than $1 billion. IDS International is also a U.S.-based company.

The property and equipment confiscated from the contractors included a variety of items, such as batteries, exhaust fans, air conditioners and air and fuel filters, SIGAR said.

Most of the confiscated property has been reclaimed, USACE said, but the Army engineering command has paid over $325,000 to Exelis for items it could not recover at several sites. It’s still reviewing a payment for missing IDS property worth more than $450,000, SIGAR said.

Afghan forces “apparently believed they had the right to confiscate the equipment” as it was located on their bases, the watchdog said, adding that problems continue to plague the one remaining contract.

“The theft of contractor-owned property and verbal abuse and harassment of contractor staff by (Afghan forces) is still occurring despite actions taken by USACE and CSTC-A to address these issues,” SIGAR said. “Since the national maintenance contract is ongoing, it is possible that additional equipment may have been confiscated, resulting in further costs to the U.S. government.”

CSTC-A, or Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, is the primary liaison between the United States and the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. It sets the requirements for both construction of ANDSF infrastructure and the operation and maintenance support to Afghan installations.

Despite repeated complains of abuse and theft, “CSTC-A has not issued any financial penalties against the ANDSF for stolen property or contractor mistreatment, reporting that it has not done so because withholding funds ‘harms ANDSF forces more than it would tend to change behavior,’” SIGAR said.

However, after learning of SIGAR’s findings, Maj. Gen. Paul Ostrowski, CSTC-A’s deputy commanding general, sent a letter warning Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdullah Habibi that if some of the missing property isn’t returned, the equivalent value will be deducted from the international assistance provided to the Afghan military. The U.S. and its allies provide about $4 billion to $5 billion each year to fund Afghanistan’s defense budget, much of it on Defense Department contracts to equip, train and maintain the security forces.

wellman.phillip@stripes.com
Twitter: @pwwellman

The high administrative court in Muenster did not order a ban on Germany allowing U.S. bases to relay drone data, as three Yemeni citizens had sought in a court filing. The three plaintiffs said they lost family members to U.S. drone strikes in 2012.

The court’s findings run counter to years of military denials that Ramstein Air Base plays a part in Middle East drone warfare.

The court said in a statement that there were “substantial indications” known to the German government that the U.S. drone missions assisted from Ramstein are at least in part “violating international law.”

The court added that the German parliament’s investigation into the National Security Agency’s activity in Germany and official information the court examined prove “the central role” of Ramstein Air Base’s satellite relay station for “continuing armed U.S. drone missions in Yemen.”

The drone allegations began when a former sensor operator said in 2013 that the technology used at Ramstein transfers data between drone pilots in the United States to aircraft on missions in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa.

Air Force officials at Ramstein on Tuesday, when queried about the court’s ruling, said no drones are launched or operated from the base as part of counterterrorism activities.

“We greatly value our longstanding and close relationship with Germany and remain in close dialogue with our German counterparts on all matters related to our bases here and our mutual efforts to support German and European security,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa said in a statement Tuesday.

The 86th Airlift Wing also said in 2017 that “no data is relayed through Ramstein for the operation of drones.”

A USAFE-AFAFRICA spokeswoman could not immediately confirm late Tuesday whether that was still the case.

The court said that armed drone strikes are only “legitimate under recognition of the guidelines of humanitarian international law and international human rights protection.”

The U.S. military has conducted drone strikes in Yemen as part of its fight against al-Qaida and extremist groups. That isn’t illegal, even if it did use a base in Germany as part of the effort, the court said.

But statements by U.S. officials cast doubt on whether the drones were focused solely on targets with a “continuous combat function,” the court said. Targeting civilians associated with militant groups but not actively fighting for them could result in extrajudicial killings, the court stated.

Germany’s assumption that the U.S. has not violated German or international law is based on an “inadequate investigation of facts and is finally legally not sustainable,” the court said.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which brought the case forward for the three Yemenis, said in a statement that the ruling was “an important step to place limits on the U.S. drone program via Ramstein, which is contrary to international law.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Jennifer H. Svan contributed to this report.

kloeckner.marcus@stripes.com

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"This is the worst humanitarian crisis in Mozambique's recent history," said Jamie LeSueur, head of response efforts in Beira for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. At least 400,000 people were left homeless.

The rapidly rising floodwaters created "an inland ocean" in Mozambique, endangering tens of thousands of families, aid workers said as they scrambled to rescue survivors of Cyclone Idai and airdrop food, water and blankets.

Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi said the death toll could reach 1,000.

Emergency workers called it the region's most destructive flooding in 20 years. Heavy rains were expected to continue through Thursday.

"This is a major humanitarian emergency that is getting bigger by the hour," said Herve Verhoosel of the World Food Program. Many people were "crammed on rooftops and elevated patches of land outside the port city of Beira" and WFP was rushing to rescue as many as possible, he said.

Mozambique's Pungue and Buzi rivers overflowed, creating "inland oceans extending for miles and miles in all directions," Verhoosel said. Dams were at 95 percent to 100 percent capacity.

"People visible from the air may be the lucky ones and the top priority now is to rescue as many as possible," he said.

The extent of the damage was not yet known as many areas remained impassible. With key roads washed away, aid groups were trying to get badly needed food, medicine and fuel into hard-hit Beira, a city of some 500,000 people, by air and sea.

Cyclone Idai swept across central Mozambique before dropping huge amounts of rain in neighboring Zimbabwe's eastern mountains. That rainfall is now rushing back through Mozambique, further inundating the already flooded countryside.

"It's dire," Caroline Haga of the Red Cross told The Associated Press from Beira. "We did an aerial surveillance yesterday and saw people on rooftops and in tree branches. The waters are still rising and we are desperately trying to save as many as possible."

Satellite images were helping the rescue teams target the most critical areas, Haga said. Rescue operations were based at Beira airport, one of the few places in the city with working communications.

The waters flooded a swath of land more than 30 miles wide in central Mozambique putting more than 100,000 people at risk, said the aid group Save the Children.

"The assessment emerging from Mozambique today is chilling," said Machiel Pouw, Save the Children's response leader in Mozambique. "Thousands of children lived in areas completely engulfed by water. In many places, no roofs or tree tops are even visible above the floods."

"The full horror, the full impact is only going to emerge over coming days," Red Cross spokesman Matthew Cochrane told reporters in Geneva.

Torrential rain was still lashing the region on Tuesday, and Buzi town could be entirely submerged within 24 hours, the aid group said.

Hardest hit was Beira, where thousands of homes were destroyed.

The city and surrounding areas were without power and nearly all communication lines were destroyed. Beira's main hospital was also badly damaged. Large areas to the west of Beira have been severely flooded and flood waters have completely covered homes, telephone poles and trees, the Red Cross said.

Beira could face a "serious fuel shortage" in the coming days, WFP said, and its power grid was expected to be non-functional through the end of the month.

The nearby cities of Dondo and Chimoio were also badly affected.

In Zimbabwe the death toll rose to 98, the government said. The mountain town of Chimanimani was badly hit. Several roads leading into the town were cut off, with the only access by helicopter. Residents expected the death toll to rise.

"We did over 38 burials this morning," Absolom Makanga, a Salvation Army divisional commander, told the AP. "It is difficult. We have to walk long distances because the roads are cut off but also because sometimes the graves are then washed away."

Among those fleeing on foot was Luckmore Rusero, who carried a small bag with his remaining possessions. His wife carried their 1-year-old child while their 11-year-old son struggled to keep pace as they joined many others in seeking refuge.

"Thank God we survived. There are no roads, no transport, so we have been walking for more than 20 kilometers now through the forests and the mountains," Rusero said.

Some escaped with nothing but their lives.

"I fled naked," Tecla Chagwiza said. "I only received clothes in the morning from well-wishers who are also helping me with food." She said her family's home was destroyed and three neighbors were dead. Others were missing.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in the area on Tuesday, saying a number of countries, including the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola, were offering aid.

The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe said the U.S. was also "mobilizing to provide support" to partners in the three affected countries, but provided no details. The European Union and Britain also pledged aid.

Malawi's government confirmed 56 deaths, three missing and 577 injured in the flooding, which caused rivers to burst their banks, leaving many houses submerged and around 11,000 households displaced in the southern district of Nsanje.

Neighboring Tanzania's military airlifted some 238 tons of emergency food and medicine to the three countries.

___

Meldrum reported from Johannesburg.
 

The fourth suspect, apprehended in the city of Darmstadt, is a 33-year-old French citizen, prosecutors said Monday. Two other suspects — both brothers of the man who died of stab wounds following the break-in — already are in custody and have been charged with attempted robbery.

“Part of the investigation also is to find out how the fourth suspect is related to the brothers already jailed,” the Zweibruecken prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attempted robbery and whether the American acted in self-defense or used excessive force. German authorities did not say when they expected to conclude their investigation of the 41-year-old American, who works as an Army civilian.

In an interview with Stars and Stripes days after the attack, the American described a violent encounter in which he was forced to fight for his and his family’s life.

The confrontation began when the father opened his front door on a Sunday evening and four men forced their way in. The American fought off three of the men and managed to push them back out the door, which locked shut. But one man slipped past and ran upstairs, where the man’s wife and three children were hiding.

While the father fought, he heard his wife’s screams. At one point, the invader had pinned the wife down and was smothering her with one hand on her neck, the American said.

After forcing the other three men out of the house, the father grabbed a kitchen knife. As he charged up the stairs, he collided with the robber and the two scuffled. The American said he thought he had stabbed the intruder three times.

The culprit then fled and made it out the door. Police said the invaders drove away but stopped in the nearby village of Krickenbach. They laid the 43-year-old injured man on the sidewalk. One of the suspects, the older brother of the injured man, asked a witness to call for medical help, officials said.

The wounded man died at the scene from blood loss related to puncture wounds, investigators said, citing an autopsy result. His 51-year-old brother was arrested and charged with attempted robbery and another brother was arrested days later. The men are German nationals, the police said.

Police said the arrest of the fourth suspect was the result of “intensive investigations.”

There are no indications that the suspects are part of a larger criminal network, Zweibruecken lead prosecutor Iris Weingardt said.

Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this story.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver
 

Speaking at a campaign rally in the northern town of Eregli, Erdogan also criticized New Zealand and Australia for sending troops to Turkey in the World War I Gallipoli campaign, claiming their motive was anti-Islam-oriented. He called on New Zealand to amend its laws to ensure that the attacker is severely punished.

"What business did you have here? We had no issues with you, why did you come all the way over here?" Erdogan said. "The only reason: we're Muslim, and they're Christian."

Erdogan told supporters: "If New Zealand fails to hold the attacker accountable, one way or another we will hold him to account."

Since the weekend, the Turkish leader has been using clips of the Christchurch attack to denounce Islamophobia during campaign rallies, as he tries to stoke nationalist and religious sentiments ahead of March 31 local elections.

The video, which was blurred but had clear sounds of automatic gunfire, has been shown to thousands of people at the rallies and aired live on Turkish television, despite efforts by New Zealand to halt its spread.

The video prompted widespread condemnation. Facebook said it removed 1.5 million versions of the video in the first 24 hours after the attack.

Turkey's main opposition party has also criticized Erdogan for showing the clip "for the sake of (winning) three or five votes" at the elections.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Monday he told his Turkish counterpart the video doesn't represent New Zealand. Peters is due in Turkey later this week to attend a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul as an observer.

The New Zealand Embassy in Ankara also said Peters had raised the issue with a Turkish delegation in New Zealand. It said the embassy in Ankara and as well as other embassies worldwide had requested that media outlets not show the footage.

In inflammatory comments on Monday, Erdogan suggested that anyone who comes to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in coffins, "like their grandfathers were" during the Gallipoli campaign. He made the comments in Canakkale province, northwestern Turkey which is home to the historic battlefields, on the anniversary of a World War I Turkish naval victory.

Hundreds of New Zealanders and Australians travel to Canakkale each year for Anzac Day on April 25, to mark the start of the battle of Gallipoli and to commemorate the dead.
 

Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Greg Steube, R-Fla., wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking for an investigation into “suspicious” social media accounts that could be impersonating veterans service organizations.

“Online influence and psychological operations against trusted civilian community leaders like our nation’s veterans are novel threats that demand law enforcement attention,” they wrote.

The request for an FBI investigation follows an announcement earlier this month from the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, which launched its own review into foreign actors using “shadowy practices” to disseminate false information to veterans, servicemembers and their families.

The committee is in a fact-finding stage and is planning to hold meetings with stakeholders about the issue.

Cisneros, a Navy veteran, is a member of the veterans affairs committee and the House Armed Services Committee. He asked for an FBI investigation “in order to identify and dismantle these cyber threats before they cause harm,” he said.

Vietnam Veterans of America, a congressionally chartered veterans service organization, has been looking into the issue since 2017, when it discovered a Facebook page using its name and logo. The page posted politically divisive posts and was followed by nearly 200,000 people – tens of thousands more than the official VVA page.

Facebook Inc. disabled the page after determining it violated VVA’s intellectual property.

Kristofer Goldsmith, associate director for policy and government affairs at VVA, has worked to shut down more fake accounts that target veterans and servicemembers with “divisive propaganda,” he said.

Though the issue has the attention of the veterans affairs committee, Goldsmith argued earlier this month that the FBI needs to become involved to track and identify the people behind the accounts.

“The problem is persistent, widespread, and presents a threat to the force and the veterans community,” Goldsmith said Tuesday in a statement. “We’re glad that Congressman Cisneros and the members are taking this issue seriously, and we hope that Director Wray will too. Depending on social media companies to stop bad-actors is not enough — we need to hold the people behind these fraudulent online avatars accountable.”

A study from Oxford University in 2017 found Russian operatives used Twitter and Facebook to disseminate “junk news” to veterans and servicemembers.

Researchers with Oxford’s Project on Computational Propaganda, which studied how Americans were affected by disinformation campaigns during the 2016 presidential election, found trolls and bots targeted military personnel and veterans with propaganda, conspiracies and hyper-partisan political content. The population of veterans and servicemembers contains “potentially influential voters and community leaders” because of the trust the public places in them, the study states.

In their letter, the four congressmen asked Wray whether the FBI was aware of the problem and if the agency had taken any action to combat it.

“As the federal law enforcement agency responsible for criminal and counterintelligence investigations, we respectfully request answers to our questions below about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s work to combat such predation,” the letter states.

The Military Coalition — a group of 32 military and veterans organizations that includes VVA, as well as Veterans of Foreign Wars and Wounded Warrior Project — listed cyber protection for veterans and servicemembers as one of their policy goals. The group said it wants to encourage Congress, the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense to investigate the online targeting of servicemembers and provide training and online protection where necessary.

wentling.nikki@stripes.com
Twitter: @nikkiwentling

A forensic investigation published in Journal of Forensic Sciences has identified the killer as Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish barber and prime suspect at the time.

Kosminski was previously named as a suspect over 100 years ago and once again in a 2014 book by British businessman and Ripper researcher Russell Edwards. But the latest finding marks the first time that Edwards' DNA evidence has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, according to the magazine Science.

“To our knowledge, this is the most advanced study to date regarding this case,” the study authors wrote.

Jack the Ripper is believed to have killed at least five women in the Whitechapel district of London between August and November of 1888. Researchers Jari Louhelainen and David Miller ran genetic tests on a silk shawl stained with blood and semen that investigators say was found next to the body of the killer’s fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, Science reported.

Researchers compared fragments of mitochondrial DNA — which the magazine noted is inherited from one’s mother — to samples from living relatives of Eddowes and Kosminski and found they matched those of Kosminski’s relative.

The study also includes an analysis of the killer’s appearance which suggests the killer had brown hair and brown eyes. which matches the only reliable witness statement, according to Science.

The study’s findings may not satisfy other Ripper experts who say the shawl may have been contaminated over the years. The shawl was given to Louhelainen by Edwards, a self-proclaimed “armchair detective” and author of "Naming Jack the Ripper," who bought it at an auction in 2007, according to the Guardian.

“I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case,” he told the newspaper in 2014. “I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was.”

©2019 USA Today
Visit USA Today at www.usatoday.com
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The Pentagon on Monday released a list of $12.9 billion worth of projects that could be defunded in some combination to divert $3.6 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The 21-page list highlights military projects worldwide that had not been awarded contracts as of Dec. 31.

More than $600 million in projects focused on deterring Russian aggression in Europe are potential targets identified by the Pentagon, including ammunition depots, fuel storage sites and rail network improvements centered on speeding the U.S. military’s ability to respond to a crisis.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former head of U.S. Army Europe, said cutting such projects would be a blow to efforts in countering Russia.

“These projects were selected based on a professional assessment of what was most needed in order to ensure effective deterrence by U.S. forces as part of NATO,” Hodges said Tuesday, referring to how the projects were originally chosen for funding. “They represent tangible manifestations of America’s commitment to Europe and to the alliance, which has unfortunately been called into question over the last couple of years.”

In Europe, several school construction projects could be in jeopardy, including plans for a new $79 million Spangdahlem Elementary School, a $56 million Clay Kaserne Elementary School in Wiesbaden and a $46.6 million new Robinson Elementary in Stuttgart.

Other long-planned efforts, such as the $43.9 million expansion of the Marine Corps’ headquarters in Stuttgart and a $31 million mission training complex in Grafenwoehr – the Army’s main training area in Europe – also are potentially on the chopping block.

A Defense Department fact sheet said no decisions have yet been made and that if the Pentagon’s 2020 budget request is enacted on time, no military construction projects would be delayed or canceled.

In Europe, the largest number of projects is related to the military’s ongoing efforts to deter Russian aggression through the European Deterrence Initiative, or EDI. While much of that military campaign has focused on funding operations, such as rotating armored brigades from the U.S. to serve as reinforcements in Europe, another dimension centers on logistics. Since Russia’s 2014 forced annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the United States and allies have spent billions trying to improve infrastructure that would be needed to move forces in response to a conflict.

“I cannot stress enough that U.S. (European Command’s) ongoing and future success in implementing and executing these strategies (to deter Russia) is only possible with Congress’ support, especially the sustained funding of the European Deterrence Initiative,” EUCOM commander Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti told lawmakers earlier this month.

Hodges said beefing up logistics networks is one of the ways the U.S. compensates for a smaller Army presence, which stands at roughly 32,000 soldiers on the Continent.

“We could only fill half of a football stadium with the number of troops we have here (in Europe),” Hodges said of the Army’s presence. “Our deterrence contributions rely on presence in Europe and on prepositioned equipment and logistical infrastructure that will enable rapid reinforcement.”

A focal point has been the setup of large ammunition depots scattered at strategic locations in Europe, improvements at ports where weaponry would be offloaded and at various railroad points where gear would likely be hauled. And there are scores of initiatives that have been funded, but for which contracts are yet to be rewarded. Some of the biggest plans are in Poland, where about $145 million is to be spent on ammunition and fuel storage sites, staging areas and rail extensions.

The Pentagon list also touches projects in central and Eastern European countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Areas of focus include military airfield upgrades and munition storage areas.

In addition to logistics efforts, a plan to build a $15 million special operations training center in Estonia is on the list. In southern Europe, $21 million to improve port facilities at the U.S. Navy’s hub at Rota, Spain, and $47.8 million to improve Navy logistics and mobility centers in Souda Bay, Greece, also are at risk.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver
 

To achieve about 3 percent growth for the next decade, Trump would need a big infrastructure bill, more tax cuts, additional deregulation, and policies that transition more people off government aid and into full-time jobs, according to the 2019 Economic Report of the President, released Tuesday by Trump's Council of Economic Advisers.

There's skepticism that Trump will be able to get all of these policies through Congress, especially with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leading the House.

"Washington is a really hard place to get things done," said Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, but he stressed that his biggest concern for growth is Trump's policies getting rolled back or Medicare-for-all becoming reality.

The report shows for the first time that the White House is predicting a lot weaker growth if all of those new policies do not come through. Growth would be about 2.5 percent in 2022 if no additional policies are implemented, according to White House calculations. By 2026, growth could fall to about 2 percent, the model suggests.

A lot is riding on whether Trump can achieve his promised 3 percent growth. Without it, his tax cuts would add substantially more to the debt than they already have and Democrats would have an easier time hammering his economic track record.

To achieve the higher growth rate, the White House assumes that the individual tax cuts will be made permanent (they're currently slated to expire after 2025) and that Congress will pass an infrastructure bill "commencing in 2019 with observable effects beginning in 2020," the report says. While there's widespread agreement that the United States needs a major infrastructure upgrade, there's a big gap between the Democratic and Republican visions of what to do.

The report calls it a "key downside risk" to the forecast if Congress doesn't pass the rest of the president's agenda.

The 3 percent White House growth prediction - which is used in the president's budget and has been criticized by outside experts as a "gimmick" - also assumes more deregulation, especially in the finance industry, and a push for "improving self-sufficiency" by placing more work requirements on recipients of government aid. Some of those initiatives might be possible to implement through executive action.

Trump is relying on a strong economy to drive his reelection campaign. He often takes a victory lap about his economic achievements on Twitter and at rallies, touting stock market gains, record-low unemployment numbers and a "booming economy."

Trump repeatedly called the Obama economy, which averaged just over 2 percent growth per year, mediocre, so Trump wants to be able to say he presided over faster economic growth.

Many economists have described the Trump economy as a sugar high. They have predicted that growth will spike after the president passed a large tax cut and drove up government spending, and that growth will return to about 2 percent by 2020 - or that the economy could tumble into a recession.

The White House has pushed back against the naysayers, arguing that the economy has exceeded expectations since Trump took office and shows little sign of slowing.

"For the second consecutive year, economic growth has either matched or surpassed my Administration's forecast, and the economy has growth at a 3.1 percent rate over the last four quarters," Trump wrote in the report.

Forecasting where the economy is headed is notoriously difficult, but Hassett and his team say that their predictions were almost spot on the past two years and that they think many on Wall Street are underestimating the Trump White House again.

"Everyone said we wouldn't get 3.1 percent," Hassett said. "We're relying on the same analysis because nothing has come up which suggests to us it's not going to happen."

Hassett says the corporate tax cut, which was the largest in U.S. history, is spurring a business investment boom that will lift the economy for years to come. But others disagree.

"We've not seen any meaningful pickup" in business spending "because of the tax package," former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who headed the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, said in a recent interview with Marketplace. "We had a period of remarkable growth in 2018, probably around 3 percent. That just isn't sustainable."
 

Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, N.Y., Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla.; Defense Intelligence Agency civilian Scott A. Wirtz, 42, of St. Louis, Mo., and interpreter Ghadir Taher, 27, of East Point, Ga., were among 16 people killed by a suicide bomber at a restaurant in Manbij in northern Syria.

The suspects were captured Tuesday when U.S.-backed forces took control of an ISIS encampment in the village of Baghouz, the last sliver of territory in Syria held by the extremists, Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a Twitter post.

He said the suspects were captured following technical surveillance by the Kurdish-led group. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects.

“This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight,” Bali said in a Twitter post. He said hundreds of wounded and sick militants were captured and have been evacuated to nearby military hospitals for treatment.

The servicemembers were at a restaurant near a crowded market for a meeting with local leaders, U.S. Central Command said after the January attack. Members of the Manbij Military Council, which has controlled the city since it was liberated from ISIS in mid-2016, were also reportedly among the other dozen people killed in the blast.

Kent, who left a husband and two sons, was the first female U.S. servicemember killed in action since December 2015, and the first killed in action in the anti-ISIS campaign. She was a cryptologist and cancer survivor who had lobbied on Capitol Hill for new protections for servicemembers and was slated to start a graduate program this year.

Farmer, whose survivors include his wife and four children, had served in the 5th Special Forces Group for most of his nearly 14-year career and had served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his Army career, he earned awards including the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with the combat “C” device, the Army Commendation medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and a Combat Infantry Badge.

Wirtz, a Navy veteran, is the first known Defense Department civilian killed in action in what has been called Operation Inherent Resolve since 2014. He spent most of his Navy career from 1998 to 2005 assigned to the Coronado, Calif.-based SEAL Team 5, where he specialized as a sniper. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and also deployed to locations in Africa, the Philippines and South Korea, according to his mother.He joined the DIA in 2017 as an operations support specialist, charged with overseeing operations to collect human intelligence. He served three deployments to the Middle East in the role, according to his DIA biography.

Taher was born and reared in the Syrian capital of Damascus and became a naturalized citizen after she immigrated to the United States with her brother in 2001. She joined a company that provides linguists to the U.S. military after studying at Georgia State University.

The ISIS-held village of Baghouz is the last pocket of territory in Syria controlled by the extremist group, which once held a vast area of Syria and Iraq, calling it an Islamic “caliphate.” Baghouz’s fall would mark the end of the devastating four-year campaign to end IS’s hold on any kind of territory, although it maintains scattered presence and sleeper cells in both countries.

The battle for Baghouz — including the encampment, a collection of tents covering foxholes and underground tunnels — has dragged on for weeks amid an unexpected exodus of civilians from the area.

U.S.-backed forces have stopped speculating when the battle may finally be over. Commanders say they don’t know how many more ISIS fighters may still be left, hiding in tunnels beneath the war-scarred village.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sr. Airman Shawn Mckeough Jr. and Sarah Terrano, natives of Westbrook, Maine, were nearing the three-year mark of their relationship. She had moved with him to Arkansas, where Mckeough was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base.

At the Valero Big Red store in North Little Rock, Mckeough and two friends went inside. Terrano stayed in the car. A moment later, she saw two other men run toward the entrance. It took her a minute to realize what was happening but she saw them raise their arms.

She didn’t see the gunshot, but she heard it. The two men left the store without taking the money they had come for. Terrano ran inside, but it was too late. Mckeough had died. He was 23.

Terrano, who spoke by phone Monday, said she’s still in shock.

“I really think he tried to get the robbers’ attention so that no one else would get hurt,” she said. “That’s just who he was.”

Family and friends were reeling Monday. Mckeough’s mother, Lisa Marie Hebert, who still lives in Westbrook, said in a telephone interview that she always worried about her son after he joined the military because she knew he could die young. But this, she said, was far worse.

“To fight for your country and then die like this … ” she said, letting the sentence end unfinished.

Video footage from inside the store during the robbery shows two individuals entering the store with handguns drawn. One is wearing a black Nike hooded sweatshirt with the drawstrings pulled tight around his face and dark Adidas pants.

On Monday, police identified one of the suspects in the shooting death of Sr. Airman Shawn Mckeough Jr., as Drequan Lamont Robinson. A Fox affiliate reported Robinson's arrest on Tuesday morning. A second man,  Keith Harris, Jr., was reportedly in the getaway vehicle and was also arrested Tuesday.

“They promised to get them,” Terrano said police told her, and she hopes they make good on it. “I want those two people to sit in jail the rest of their lives. I want them to think about this every day.”

Mckeough was a 2014 graduate of Westbrook High School, where he played hockey and soccer and made classmates laugh. He grew up mostly in Westbrook with his mother and step-father, Tom Hebert, and younger brother, Kyle Hebert. His father, Shawn Mckeough Sr., lives in Florida.

Karla Kent, who is best friends with Mckeough’s mother and whose son, Kaleb, was one of Mckeough’s best friends, said he was always adventurous but put others first.

“If my son climbed a 50-foot tree, Shawn would be the one on the ground telling him to come down,” she said.

Kaleb Kent said he and Mckeough were part of a close-knit group of friends from Westbrook. This isn’t the first time they have dealt with a death of one of their own.

“It doesn’t get easier,” he said. “But being together helps. I had six people sleeping in my living room last night.”

Mckeough enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after high school and already had deployed to Germany, Kuwait and South Korea. He had been in Arkansas since December and was serving as an aerial delivery operations specialist for the 19th Airlift Wing.

“We are heartbroken to have lost a valued member of our Team Little Rock family.” Col. Gerald Donohue, the unit’s commander, said in a statement. “Shawn’s death will be felt by each of us, and we are committed to supporting his loved ones and fellow Airmen during this very difficult time.”

Numerous other friends and military colleagues expressed shock and sadness on social media about Mckeough’s death.

Kristen Mononoke, who met him in 6th grade, remembered him as the boy who stood up for her when others called her names.

“I’m so, so sorry that this happened, the world is such a dark place but Shawn’s light will never burn out and we are all so lucky to bask in it,” she wrote.

Mckeough’s mother said she’s overwhelmed with support from friends in Westbrook and people he had met in the military from all over the world. Everyone, she said, remarked about how senseless his death was.

Authorities in Arkansas conducted an autopsy, but Mckeough’s body was expected to be transported to Maine by military escort on Tuesday or Wednesday, ahead of a funeral service, possibly as early as this weekend.

His mother agreed with Terrano that Mckeough died a hero.

“It was typical of Shawn to come to someone’s defense. That’s who he was,” she said.

Mckeough always tried to come back to Westbrook at least once a year, often as a surprise. Hebert said she remembered one year she was trying to reach him and he wasn’t answering his phone. It was because he was on a plane. He showed up at the house at 1 a.m.

He was last in Westbrook for Christmas. It was the first time he had been able to be home for the holiday since he enlisted.

He loved camping every summer with family. He loved the travel that came with a military life but didn’t love being away from family. He was selfless right up until his last breath.

“I keep thinking about him challenging two gunmen,” Kaleb Kent said. “I couldn’t have done it.”

Mckeough and Terrano had talked recently about the future. He was thinking of re-enlisting with the Air Force but hadn’t decided. They had just gotten two puppies. They were supposed to close on a house this month.

—
©2019 the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine)
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“I’m shocked somebody did this. It’s complete disrespect,” said Leoncello, 95, of Hyde Park, Mass. “I lost a lot of my friends in that battle that I’ll never forget. Why can’t people understand life is precious?

“To think I put my life on the line on the front lines to fight for my country I really love only to have someone do this,” he added.

Leoncello’s wife, Theresa, told the Herald her husband was crying when news broke that the beloved memorial had been doused with oil, which can seep in and permanently stain stone. State police are investigating and a professional cleaning crew will be back at the seaside site today with power washers, City Councilor Ed Flynn said.

Still, Leoncello — a Purple Heart recipient who served as a rifleman in Gen. George Patton’s Third Army — said the culprits need to think about those soldiers who died for their freedom.

The memorial, near Castle Island, commemorates the 216 solders from South Boston and Dorchester killed during World War II.

State police said the vandalism was reported Monday at about 11:30 a.m. and troopers found “some type of oil” splashed or poured on the memorial.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch said the damage done could be irreversible.

“It’s disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful,” Lynch said at the scene Monday. “These men gave their lives in fighting Nazi Germany.”

That includes Lynch’s wife’s uncle, Arnold F. Bailey, who was killed in April 1945 “in a jump over the Rhine just before the end of World War II.” He was one of the many Boston men, some of whom left high school to fight, Lynch added, who were disrespected.

“Why would someone, unless they’re Nazi sympathizers, come here and deface this monument? It’s a crazy world we live in. Saddening that these men who gave their very lives … that their memories would be defamed in this way,” Lynch said as volunteers scrubbed the stone.

“It’s a sign of the times. The world has just gone crazy,” Lynch added. “I’m just beside myself.”

Lynch said the oil has soaked into the granite and could “permanently deface” the monument.

Flynn said volunteers and veterans will gather at the memorial this morning to try anew to rid the granite of the oil stains.

“The South Boston community and veterans will not tolerate this and we will make sure this is cleaned up,” Flynn said. “The vets and military families deserve all the respect they’ve earned.”

John Leoncello said he couldn’t stop thinking all day about being back on patrol with his squad capturing Germans — “including one Gestapo” — and being wounded.

“They told me I was going home, but I didn’t get out. They treated my wound,” he said. “I’ve been thinking of that and all my friends who passed away over there. I want people to understand they didn’t get to go home. They deserve to be honored.”

—
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Administrators cited rising costs and declining enrollment for more than a decade as reasons for the closings. The news was announced on the school’s website.

The financial requirements associated with operation and maintenance of the military academy can’t be sustained, the announcement stated.

Howe, located in LaGrange County, is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school for grades 7-12. It has enrolled boys since 1884, and started enrolling girls in 1988.

"Fiscal challenges associated with a vast, but aging, campus, small class sizes, highly educated and qualified faculty and staff, and robust programming and student opportunities come at a very high cost — one that our business model is not able to support,” the statement announced.

School leaders said they will provide support and assistance to families, faculty, and staff in making alternative plans for the next school year.

©2019 the South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Ind.)
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The first suspect, identified as Mohammad Rafea Yassen Y., 28, is accused of carrying out 13 attacks on Americans with explosives between 2006 and 2008, and of more recent crimes as a member of the Islamic State group, including public executions. Officials did not release his or the other suspects’ last names for privacy reasons.

“In two cases, he secured executions at the village square at which members of the terror organization killed children, women and men,” German prosecutors said of the 28-year-old’s involvement in ISIS, adding that it began in 2014.

Before he joined ISIS, the suspect was already involved in the resistance. His first attacks were carried out near his hometown of Rutba in Iraq’s Anbar province, German authorities claimed on Monday. That province ranks among the deadliest for U.S. and allied forces in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in March 2003.

Among those killed in the attacks were “members of the U.S. Army, the local police and civilian bystanders,” the federal prosecutor’s office said. The Iraqi suspect is believed to have assembled the explosive devices with the help of other militants.

It’s not clear how many American deaths the man is purported to have caused — some 475 troops were killed in hostilities in Anbar province between 2006 and 2008, to include nearly 200 reportedly killed in incidents involving improvised explosive device blasts, according to an analysis of casualty data on the website icasualties.org, which tracks coalition deaths.

For example, Sgt. Michael D. Rowe, a 23-year-old soldier form New Port Richey, Fla., was killed in an IED attack near Rutba on March 28, 2006, the data shows. Two Marines were also killed in hostilities near the town — Lance Cpl. Shane P. Harris, 23, killed by enemy fire on Sept. 3, 2006 and Capt. Kevin Kryst, 27, killed in a mortar attack on Dec. 18, 2006.

Yassen Y. is accused more recently of being an accomplice in other killings and war crimes after joining ISIS about five years ago, though scarce details were provided. He acted as a guard and used his Kalashnikov assault rifle to carry out executions, authorities said.

The federal prosecutor’s office also pressed charges against two other Iraqis accused of being ISIS members: Muqatil Ahmed Osman A., 29, and Hasan Sabbar Khazaal K., 27. Osman A. attended military training and then participated in ISIS battles. Khazaal K. is believed to have produced and distributed propaganda material for ISIS.

“He filmed executions, punishments and missions of the terror organization,” and forced members of the local community in Rutba to watch the videos, prosecutors said.

In 2015, the three left Iraq for Germany. They were arrested in June 2018 and have been in jail since that time.

Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office has for years pressed charges against suspected Islamic radicals accused of committing acts of terror in other countries. The first sentence in a case where a foreign combatant was tried for having a role in attacks on U.S. forces abroad came in February 2018, when a German court sentenced an Afghan refugee to four years and 10 months in jail for carrying out attacks years earlier in Afghanistan.

kloeckner.marcus@stripes.com

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The nature of the Monday's attack and a note found in a suspected getaway car suggest a possible terror motive, prosecutors said in a statement, but they add that other possible reasons also are being investigated.

"Based on the letter, we think he had a terroristic motive," police spokesman Joost Lanshage told The Associated Press. He declined to elaborate.

Speaking in parliament, anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders said the note expressed support for the suspect's "Muslim brothers."

Prosecutors also said that investigations so far have not established any relationship at all between the main suspect, Gokmen Tanis, and the shooting victims.

Three people died: a 19-year-old woman from the neighboring town of Vianen, and two men aged 28 and 49 from Utrecht.

Three others were seriously wounded and four more suffered minor injuries, according to prosecutors.

Late Tuesday, police said they had detained a 40-year-old man in Utrecht on suspicion of involvement. Police said the man "is suspected of involvement in the shooting. His role is under further investigation." Police also released two other men arrested after the shooting and said they were no longer considered suspects. Tanis remains in custody.

Throughout the day, well-wishers placed flowers at the foot of a tree next to the intersection where the shooting happened. At the end of the afternoon, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus also laid bouquets and briefly talked to police officers at the scene.

Tanis, a 37-year-old man of Turkish descent, was being held on suspicion of "manslaughter with terrorist intent."

He was arrested Monday evening after an hours-long manhunt that nearly paralyzed the Netherlands' fourth-largest city and sent shockwaves through the nation. Police recovered a weapon when they arrested him.

In an unusual step, judicial authorities released details of Tanis' criminal past, and said he was released from jail on March 1 and faces trial in July on a rape charge. A court had approved his release after he pledged to cooperate with authorities.

In the past, he was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of illegal possession of a weapon and theft.

Wilders called on Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus to resign, saying that Tanis shouldn't have been released from jail.

"You are politically responsible for this," Wilders said during a parliamentary debate. "You have to resign, get out of here."

The tram shootings came just days after 50 people were killed when an immigrant-hating Australian white supremacist opened fire in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, during Friday prayers. There was no indication of any link between the two events.

In a ceremonial session in parliament, Rutte said that because of the attack in Utrecht, "we feel an even stronger bond with the people of Christchurch."

The Netherlands hasn't been hit by the kind of large-scale extremist attacks seen in recent years in other European countries like France, Belgium and Britain.

Rutte said the shooting "was not a bad dream but the hard reality with which we woke up."

Dutch and Turkish media citing his neighbors in Utrecht have speculated that the shooting may have been linked to a relationship, but that appears increasingly unlikely after prosecutors said none of the victims were known to the main suspect.

Dutch media published details of two of the victims killed Monday — the 19-year-old woman reportedly worked in a cafe in Vianen, and a father-of-three who volunteered as a soccer coach in Vleuten, a town west of Utrecht.

A phone call from The Associated Press to the cafe Tuesday morning went unanswered.

The soccer club posted a message saying they heard "with great dismay and astonishment" that the trainer of an under-19 boys' team and under-11 girls' team died in the shooting.

Dutch railroad infrastructure company ProRail confirmed that one of its employees was among the dead.

"The terrible events of yesterday and the loss of our colleague have hit us hard," CEO Pier Eringa said in a statement.

____

Mike Corder reported from The Hague. Peter Dejong contributed to this report.

According to police, Jasmyne Denise Russell-Dicker, driving a 2017 Toyota Corolla, hit a motorcycle operated by 22-year-old Spc. Patrick McDill, who died a short time later at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Strepay said.

Russell-Dicker was initially charged with driving while impaired and unsafe movement causing injury in the 3 a.m., collision on Yadkin Road between Santa Fe Drive and the Fort Bragg gate.

Those charges were upgraded Friday to felony death by motor vehicle, said Fayetteville police Sgt. Shawn Strepay.

The additional felony charge was added due to Russell-Dicker's alleged impairment, according to Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West.

Russell-Dicker's was re-arrested on the new charge Friday morning and released on a $15,000 secured bail.

McDill, originally from Illinois, was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. He joined the military in June 2015.

"The loss of SPC Patrick McDill is a tragedy. He is part of the one percent who volunteered to serve his country in a time of war and his loss will be a significant loss to the White Devil Team. Right now, our focus is on supporting Spc. McDill's family and his teammates," reads a statement from Lt. Col. Scott McKay, commander of 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

"Spc. McDill truly embodied the 82nd Airborne Division's motto of 'All the Way' as he put his best effort in every challenge given to him. Alpha Company misses his genuine smile, the care he gave to his fellow 'Blackhearts,' and his indefatigable energy. Alpha Company deeply mourns his loss and is focused on supporting his family and friends through this tragedy," McDill's company commander, Capt. Eric Kim, said in a statement.

©2019 The Sanford Herald (Sanford, N.C.)
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The move is the latest step by the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to suppress dissent. In recent years, Egypt has launched an unprecedented crackdown on reporters and the media, imprisoning dozens and occasionally expelling some foreign journalists.

The new regulations, published in the official gazette late Monday, allow the Supreme Media Regulatory Council to block websites and accounts for "fake news," and impose stiff penalties of up to 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,400), all without having to obtain a court order.

The nine-page document gave a broad list of prohibited topics, including "anything inciting violating the law, racism, intolerance, violence, discrimination between citizens or hatred."

Media outlets that continue to publish "offending material" will be fined up to five million Egyptian pounds (around $298,000).

Critics said some of the measures were stricter than those approved by lawmakers last July, which they said gave the government almost total control over the media.

Chief regulator Makram Mohammed Ahmed refused to comment.

Prominent Egyptian journalists called the measures unconstitutional, saying they grant far-reaching powers to authorities to censor the media, in violation of basic press freedoms.

Gamal Abdel-Rahim, a board member of the journalists' union, said the regulatory council had ignored all of the union's notes and comments on the new measures.

"Blocking websites is not included in the laws. The constitution itself states that websites and newspapers cannot be shut down without a court order," Abdel-Rahim said.

Another board member, Mohamed Abdel-Hafiz, said he and fellow members of the journalists' union will mount a legal challenge to the new measures, which he said "legalize media censorship."

Since late 2017, some 500 websites including news outlets and rights groups have been blocked, according to a recent report by an Egyptian watchdog group, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression.

Egypt remains among the world's worst jailers of journalists, behind China and Turkey, according to the press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Authorities say the measures are necessary to prevent instability as Egypt struggles to revive its economy and combat an Islamic insurgency in northern Sinai. El-Sissi has frequently suggested political rights are less important than the right to food, housing and other necessities, and has rolled back many of the freedoms won by the 2011 uprising against longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
 

Search warrants unsealed Tuesday in Cohen's case offer new insight into how Mueller and his team handed off a key part of the Cohen investigation to federal prosecutors in New York in early 2018, and how much evidence prosecutors already had against Cohen even before they searched his office, home, and hotel room in April of that year.

"In connection with an investigation then being conducted by the Office of the Special Counsel ("SCO"), the FBI sought and obtained from the Honorable Beryl Howell, Chief United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, three search warrants for emails and other content information associated with two email accounts used by Cohen, and one search warrant for stored content associated with an iCloud account used by Cohen," states one of the newly-unsealed affidavits.

The first such warrant was dated July 18, 2017. In early 2018 the special counsel's office referred a part of its Cohen investigation to federal prosecutors in New York. As part of that referral, on Feb. 8, 2018, the special counsel's office turned over relevant emails from its warrants to the New York prosecutors, according to one of the newly-unsealed affidavits.​

Cohen's home, office, and hotel room were searched nearly a year ago as the FBI ratcheted up its investigation of the lawyer's finances, and his work on behalf of Trump. That same day agents also executed a search warrant for a safe-deposit box used by Cohen.

The searches set off a protracted legal battle over how the files of Cohen, an attorney, would be reviewed by agents and prosecutors. A federal judge appointed an outside lawyer to review the material before Cohen's prosecutors to exclude any material that was covered by lawyer-client privilege or otherwise should not be shared with investigators.

Months later, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax violations, lying to a bank, and, during the 2016 campaign, arranging hush-money payments for women who claimed that they once had affairs with the future president.

Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in statements that concealed the true time frame in which he had sought a real estate development deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow - conversations that continued, contrary to initial claims, well into the Republican presidential primary.

At Cohen's December sentencing, U.S. District Judge William Pauley III said Cohen should serve three years in prison for "a veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct."

Cohen cooperated - partially - with federal prosecutors in New York, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller, in hopes of reducing the amount of prison time he would have to serve.

Cohen has provided information to investigators about Trump and the Trump campaign, but prosecutors said he refused to tell them everything he knew.

Since pleading guilty, he has publicly blamed Trump for his downfall, calling his former boss a con man, a racist, and a cheat. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly attacked Cohen as a convicted liar trying to save himself by speaking against his former boss.

In dramatic public testimony to a congressional committee last month, Cohen declared, "I am no longer your fixer, Mr. Trump."

Cohen is due to report to prison in May, and he is likely to serve his sentence at a federal lockup in Otisville, New York.

Tech. Sgt. Jacory Royster of the 36th Security Forces Squadron was found not guilty Friday of the most serious charge against him after a four-day court-martial, according to a trial report provided to Stars and Stripes.

Prosecutors alleged that Royster in July had touched a woman’s back, buttocks and leg without her consent.

Several people levied those accusations against Royster, 36th Wing spokesman Tech Sgt. Jake Barreiro said last month. Royster was not placed in pre-trial confinement pending trial.

However, Royster was found guilty of using indecent language and telling several servicemembers they could consume alcohol, as long as they did so out of his sight, a violation of Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the report said.

Royster will be reprimanded for his conduct and forced to forfeit $4,800.

burke.matt@stripes.com

Soldiers with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division began arriving in Berlin and will move on to training grounds in Poland for live-fire drills, U.S. Army Europe said.

“Our ability to rapidly surge combat-ready forces into and across the theater is critical in projecting forces at a moment’s notice to support the NATO alliance,” USAREUR said in a statement. “However, this deployment is not in response to any real world situation.”

The purpose is to “exercise the U.S. Army’s ability to rapidly alert, recall and deploy under emergency conditions.”

The sudden deployment is the latest sign of how the Pentagon’s “Dynamic Force Employment” strategy is altering how the Army operates in the U.S. European Command area.

The concept, developed by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, calls for more unpredictable deployments designed to showcase military agility to potential adversaries.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military also deployed an advanced missile defense system to Israel where it will operate from various locations in an effort to bolster Israeli defenses. That Army mission also tapped Fort Bliss soldiers, including the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

The force now arriving in Germany under the Dynamic Force Employment concept “makes our activities unpredictable to potential adversaries … while maintaining strategic predictability for our NATO allies and partners,” USAREUR said.

The soldiers will travel to Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, where they will use more than 700 pieces of equipment pulled from an Army pre-positioned equipment site in Eygelshoven, Netherlands. The soldiers will train with their Polish counterparts over the next few weeks, USAREUR said.

“The training will culminate with a gunnery and a combined live fire exercise. Once the exercise is complete, the unit will return to Fort Bliss and the equipment will return to Eygelshoven,” USAREUR said.

The Army relies on pre-positioned weapons stockpiles to make up for a smaller number of permanently based troops in Europe, where both manpower and weaponry were scaled back after the Cold War.

In response to concerns about a more aggressive Russia, the military in Europe has been building up weapons stockpiles, which forces rotating into Europe can draw from for training or in a crisis.

The weapons stocks “reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities and provide additional combat power,” USAREUR said.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver

The Maj. Gen. W.P.T. Hill Memorial Awards for Food Service Excellence were established in 1985 with the aim of improving food service operations and identifying the best expeditionary dining facility in the Marine Corps. The award winners — I MEF and II MEF cooks are also competing — are expected to be named in early April and will be able to attend a ceremony in Chicago in May.

Food specialists of the 37th Regiment presented a “build your own” meal of Okinawa taco rice to judges and patrons on Thursday. It’s an island lunchtime staple of ground beef or chicken, lettuce, cheese and tomatoes served on top of rice.

The competition involved more than a meal; the regiment also had to build a field mess tent fitted with a kitchen, serving line, seating area and physical security.

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The team dedicated its expeditionary field kitchen, or EFK, to Pvt. Howard P. Perry, who in 1942 became the first African-American to enlist in the Marine Corps. Construction started on Feb. 28 and builders overcame strong winds and heavy rains to finish the job.

“It took about three weeks to set up the site,” the regimental mess chief, Gunnery Sgt. Julia Criquimatura, told Stars and Stripes on Thursday. “The EFK itself can feed over 800 Marines, twice a day.”

On competition day, a three-person panel – two senior food-service specialists from Headquarters Marine Corps and a civilian representative from the National Restaurant Association – judged the regiment’s presentation. Servicemembers from various commands were invited to experience the field kitchen and taste the menu items.

“I am very impressed with what I am learning about the Marines in particular with the standards they adhere to, how they evaluate their performance, how they hold everyone accountable and the teamwork where everybody is a mentor for one another, helping each other grow,” Michael Pizzuto, a judge from the National Restaurant Association, told Stars and Stripes.

Pizzuto, on his first trip to Okinawa, said being a part of the judging panel held a special meaning for him. The island was his father’s last duty station while serving in the Army during World War II.

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This year’s competitors prepared the taco rice meal to highlight their connection with Okinawa, according to Col. Scott Johnson, commander of CLR 37.

“This year they brought it,” he said. “Not only the tactical setup, with the camo-netting and concertina wire, but also the internal setup with the best chow on the menu.”

The Marines put their own spin on the menu’s side items with names like “quarterdeck quesadillas,” “fire watch nachos” and “sea bag salad bar.”

Aside from judging the food quality and taste, the judges evaluated the entire process, from site layout, management and sanitation, to food preparation, maintenance, storage and financial accounting.

Pizzuto said the MEF that comes out victorious would most likely be close in final scores, but he said he was impressed by the quality and maturity of the Marines he evaluated, compared to the chefs he speaks to in civilian kitchens.

“The military travels on its stomach,” he said. “If they are not healthy and not well fed, they are not going to perform or get the mission done. But I don’t see that happening, especially with the kind of enhancements here.”

Competitors said winning the top award means recognition for the routine, daily work done in kitchens to feed Marines.

“I really hope we win,” said food-service specialist Lance Cpl. Carolina Campuzano. “This morning we gave our best, we put our love and everything into this meal and this whole set up.”

Criquimatura said the competition brought out the best in the regiment.

“The highlight of today was everybody’s mood; everybody was just really happy to be here, the cooks, the patrons, everything was amazing,” she said. “It was hard work. It was all worth it.”

vazquez.carlos@stripes.com
Twitter: @StripesCarlos

Bolinski's remains were returned to her hometown after an observance at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. American flags lined the roads as a motorcade escorted the 37-year-old’s remains back to Pinckneyville from the base. Near the entrance to the base, people lined up for blocks along the route, with servicemembers saluting and civilians holding their hands over their hearts.

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A separate flight arrived at St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Monday with the remains of Johnson, 20, of Hillsboro, Mo., reports say.

Bolinski and Johnson were both reservists assigned to the Illinois-based 657th Transportation Detachment. They were driving an SUV during a routine, authorized mission when a tractor-trailer ran a stop sign at a T-intersection and broadsided the vehicle they were in.

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A third soldier was airlifted from the scene and medically evacuated from Kuwait, a statement said.

An investigation into the accident is ongoing.

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The talks planned for September in Taipei will include a senior official from Washington, de facto U.S. ambassador to Taipei William Brent Christensen said Tuesday.

Christensen didn't say whether the consultations are meant to provoke China or push it to make changes. The U.S. has formal diplomatic relations with China but maintains strong ties with Taiwan though the American Institute in Taiwan, its de facto embassy in Taipei, which has recently undergone a major upgrade in facilities.

"We believe it's possible to have a good relationship with Taiwan and a good relationship with China at the same time," Christensen said at a news conference. "Things we do with Taiwan should not be regarded as things that we are doing because we are seeking to provoke China or vice versa."

President Donald Trump has elevated 40 years of informal ties with Taiwan through more open contacts and planned arms deals. Meanwhile, China and the U.S. are enmeshed in a dispute over trade, copyrights and tariffs, raising economic and political frictions to their highest level in a decade.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the "Indo-Pacific Democratic Governance Consultations" — as the dialogue is termed — would allow the two sides to "grow closer and more direct in their cooperation ... to protect regional freedom and legal order."

Taiwan has been democratically ruled for about 30 years. It allows freedom of expression and religion in contrast to China's tight restrictions under authoritarian Communist Party rule, and remains a close U.S. ally in the Asia-Pacific region.

While China insists that Taiwan is its territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, more than 70 percent of Taiwanese oppose China's goal of unification, the government's Mainland Affairs Council spokesman said in January. Many fear Beijing would eliminate Taiwan's democratic institutions.

While there was no immediate word from Beijing, China will "most definitely" protest the consultations, said Shane Lee, a political scientist at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan.

China has used military flybys, aircraft carrier movements and diplomatic pressure as warnings to Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen took office there in 2016. Tsai's party embraces greater Taiwanese independence from China, resulting in a strong backlash from China. Beijing has cut all formal ties with Tsai's government, blockaded the island's participation in international forums and persuaded five countries to cut diplomatic ties with it.

Washington switched its official recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979. But Taiwan still counts the United States as its staunchest informal ally, particularly as a source of advanced weapons systems. Last year Trump signed a bill encouraging more high-level exchanges between the two governments, inflaming China.

In another sign of stronger U.S.-Taiwan ties, Tsai is expected to stop over in U.S. territory once or twice during a trip starting Thursday to visit diplomatic allies in the South Pacific. China has protested to the United States against her previous stopovers.

Associated Press video journalist Johnson Lai contributed to this report.
 

Looking at the treasured object is still a novelty: The helmet was recently returned to Altieri decades after he lost it on the battlefield where he was almost killed by shrapnel.

"I have it next to me now and I use it like a teddy bear," Altieri said. "I look at it and I get teary-eyed from all the memories."

Argentina lost the war for the South Atlantic archipelago after its troops embarked on an ill-fated invasion nearly 37 years ago, an international humiliation that claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers.

Argentina still claims the islands, which it calls the Malvinas. Britain says the Falklands are a self-governing entity under its protection.

After decades of tense relations, though, both countries have experienced a thaw, including a deal that allowed a multinational team of experts to exhume and identify the remains of dozens of Argentine soldiers.

Today, veterans and relatives of those who died also say the recovery of objects taken as war trophies has helped heal their scars.

"I can't stop looking at it, thinking of what it did to stop the bomb shrapnel blowing my head off," Altieri said about his helmet, although he still lost an eye and part of his brain in a blast during battle for Mount Longdon on June 12, 1982, two days before fighting stopped.

In a parallel tale of reconciliation, Argentine veteran Diego Carlos Arreseigor announced March 7 that he is planning to return the blood-stained helmet of fallen British soldier Alexander Shaw, who was killed at Mount Longdon at age 25.

The helmet is expected to be delivered to Shaw's sister, Susan, in April or May.

"Susan touched me with her spirituality. She was 15 when her brother left for the war," Arreseigor told The Associated Press.

Arreseigor said he had picked up the helmet in a pile of discarded equipment and hid it from a British soldier by keeping it under his jacket.

"I kept it these 37 years, always considering it a trophy of war, a sort of consolation for the loss and the pain of so many fallen friends," he said.

Some years ago he became curious about who had worn it and noticed it had a last name written on one of its interior belts.

Arreseigor eventually found out Shaw's identity and learned he had been a victim of Argentine artillery.

"The story moved me. Knowing that he died just hours before the cease-fire. ... it's sad like all war stories," he said. "I just turned 60 and I demand our sovereignty over Las Malvinas, but I also pay homage to all of those who died — Argentine and British — because I think that's the way to rebuild."

For Altieri, having his helmet has helped him find similar closure.

After the war's cease-fire, Altieri's helmet was taken to London by a British paratrooper who had pulled it from a heap of military equipment. After the man passed away, it was kept by his family until it was put up for auction four years ago.

At the time, Altieri offered about $520 (400 pounds), but a British man who collects war objects paid twice that amount and Altieri failed to persuade him to sell it.

"He'd say: 'Even if the queen comes asking for it, I won't give it away,'" Altieri recalled.

Some days ago, however, the helmet briefly went up for auction again on eBay for about $13,000 (10,500 pounds). When it was taken off the site, Altieri feared he had lost it for good until he heard the news: An anonymous Argentine entrepreneur had bought it for Altieri.

"All the memories of what I lived in the Malvinas came back to me," Altieri said.

He now hopes to display it at home before donating it to a Falklands war museum. "I want people to see it and see what happened to us there."

Associated Press journalists Paul Byrne and Natacha Pisarenko contributed to this report.
 

The Union County Sheriff's Office said Monday that 44-year-old Matthew Hayden, of Phoenix, died Sunday night when the Cessna 421B multiengine plane crashed off Route 42 near the border of Union and Delaware counties, breaking into hundreds of pieces and scattering debris over a large area.

Hayden had his military identification with him, and Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said friends of Hayden's told authorities that he had recently retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.

According to a Luke Air Force Base biography, Hayden served as the commander for the 56th Training Squadron there. He had more than 2,500 flight hours in 30 types of aircraft, and he was an experimental test pilot in the F-16 and F-35.

In 2016, when he was 56th Fighter Wing chief of safety and pilot attached to the 61st Fighter Squadron, he became the first pilot at the base to reach 500 flight hours in an F-35. A statement from the base at the time described him as "one of the most experienced F-35 pilots in the world."

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Patton said Hayden took off from Dayton International Airport on Sunday evening and was headed to Delaware Municipal Airport in central Ohio when the plane crashed shortly before 6 p.m. A witness heard the plane's descent and crash, called 911 as he headed toward the scene and stayed on the phone as he came upon the wreckage.

"It just exploded, our power flickered out," the caller told a dispatcher. When asked if there are any survivors, he told the dispatcher, "Oh, there's no way."

Patton says the plane was owned by Classic Solutions Company Inc., out of Bakersfield, Calif.

An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said it was too early to determine what caused the crash or whether the snowy weather had an impact on the incident.

Material from The Associated Press and The Columbus Dispatch via Tribune News Service was used in this report.

Shamima Begum was a teenage schoolgirl in east London when she left home to join Islamic State; Hoda Muthana, an Alabama-born college student; Kimberly Gwen Polman, a 46-year-old single mom in Canada studying to be a children’s advocate. Now they’re held in a Kurdish-controlled prison in the hinterlands of eastern Syria, asking to be let back into their home countries.

The women branded “ISIS brides,” using initials for militant group, have become a focal point of fierce debate for governments worldwide: What are states’ responsibilities toward these women?

A central question in that debate is what exactly did the women do in the caliphate? Were they cloistered housewives largely ignorant of the group’s realities, or active participants in its genocidal acts?

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When Islamic State declared the establishment of its caliphate in 2014, it called upon all able-bodied Muslims to emigrate and engage in jihad, or struggle, to further its cause.

Initially, for women, that didn’t include combat, said Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London.

“The role of the Muslim woman ideally was to be a wife and bear children,” he said in a phone interview, “and as a wife and a mother they were participating directly in jihad because they’re creating the next generation of fighters.”

While its militants were waging what Islamic State called “offensive jihad” — blitz campaigns that saw the group put a third of Iraq and Syria each under its dominion — women were to be “bases of support” for husbands, fathers and sons, one wife explained.

Hayat Boumeddiene, the widow of Amedy Coulibaly, the Paris gunman who killed five people in two January 2015 attacks, offered advice for fighters’ wives during a interview in an Islamic State magazine.

“Be advisors to them. They should find comfort and peace with you,” she said in an article in the February 2015 issue of Dabiq. “Do not make things difficult for them. Facilitate all matters for them.”

Boumeddiene, who like her husband was born in France, is still at large and being sought by French authorities.

Women did claim more operational roles in suicide attacks outside Islamic State territories, said Devorah Margolin, a senior research analyst at the War Studies Department of Kings College London.

But most women who traveled to the caliphate intent on reaching the battlefield were unable to do so.

That changed to a degree as the group began to lose territory and many of its fighters were killed. It began to wage “defensive jihad.”

“By 2017 and 2018 they were proactively calling for women to engage in combat as well,” Winter said.

But there is little evidence women did so in large numbers.

Winter said there had been rumors of women given explosives and weapons training, but Islamic State never confirmed these reports.

There had been predictions women would increasingly take part in suicide bombings, since they generally have an easier time passing through checkpoints and whose faces could remain hidden under their garments.

There was also precedence for their deployment: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the spiritual godfather of Islamic State, dispatched Sajida Rishawi with a suicide vest to the Hotel Radisson in the Jordanian capital of Amman in 2005. She failed to detonate her bomb but was caught by authorities after her husband’s device killed 38 people.

Some carried guns in the religious police force

Islamic State’s religious police, known as the Hisbah, roamed its territory to ensure residents were complying with the caliphate’s harsh edicts. People found in violation faced imprisonment, whipping and amputation. An all-female police force known as the Khansaa Brigade was an integral part of the Hisbah.

“We saw women in the Hisbah. They were all armed,” said Saad Ubaidi, who owns a beauty salon with his wife in Mosul, Iraq.

“Iraqi women had guns, but the foreigners carried ghadaraat,” said Ubaidi, using the slang term for Uzi machine guns.

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Women may not have fought on the battlefield, but they helped Islamic State spread its message.

“They were very much part of the propaganda machine of this state-building process,” said Margolin, who is writing a report on women’s role in violent Islamist groups for George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

Women were some of Islamic State’s most active recruiters online, she said.

Blogs and social media accounts ostensibly held by foreign-born female adherents advertised their lives as if they were in an Islamist utopia. They encouraged others to do hijrah, emigrate to the caliphate.

Some would provide a guide on how to avoid being identified as someone traveling to Syria to join Islamic State. Others would suggest what to pack for life in the caliphate (makeup and Islamic clothing, according to one blogger), or offer quotidian details on how the group assigned housing to fighters and women.

Others would cheer for the group’s barbarism and gruesome tactics.

Muthana, the Alabama-born student and daughter of a Yemeni diplomat who joined Islamic State in 2014, exhorted Americans to follow her lead.

“Soooo many Aussies and Brits here,” she tweeted from her now-suspended account. “But where are the Americans, wake up u cowards.”

She encouraged those who couldn’t travel to Islamic State territory to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S.

“Veterans, Patriot, Memorial etc Day parades..go on drive by’s + spill all of their blood or rent a big truck n drive all over them. Kill them,” she tweeted.

Women took part in the enslavement of Yazidis

In August 2014, the extremists surrounded Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq. They began to hunt the Yazidis, an ancient religious minority long persecuted for their beliefs, which include elements of Christianity and Judaism. Islamic State viewed them as devil-worshipers.

Thousands of Yazidi men were slaughtered; women and girls were kidnapped and driven away to be sold in markets or given as gifts. In their enslavement, the women and girls would be servants to the household’s wife and raped by the husband.

One wife of an Islamic State member with a Yazidi enslaved in her household defended the practice in an issue of Dabiq. Her article was entitled “Slave-girls or Prostitutes?”

The woman, who called herself Umm Sumayyah al Muhajirah, cited religious texts and the works of scholars to construct an argument for taking Yazidi women as concubines. And she dismissed reports of abuse, attributing them to “devious and wicked slave girls” who “made up lies and wrote false stories.”

And whereas sex with a Yazidi slave is permissible, she adds, prostitutes in the West “openly commit sin.”

“Leave us alone with your burping,” she wrote of people judging the slave practice.

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Investigators looking for clues to the individual actions of each woman, away from social media, will have a difficult time gathering evidence admissible in a court of law.

“In the U.S., we’ve had 16 people who returned that we know of, 13 have been prosecuted in federal courts, so there’s a system to do it,” said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

But most of those were people who admitted their actions, he added. For those who don’t, investigators using Islamic State documents, for example, have to have a rock-solid chain of evidence, which is difficult to establish in the chaotic environment of a war zone.

Witnesses, often intelligence or security personnel, are often reluctant to testify in open court, and identifying women dressed in three-layer niqabs, the de rigueur face covering, will be unreliable.

Even the social media presence these women maintained is being lost. Blogging sites like Tumblr or Wordpress, and messaging platforms such as Telegram, have aggressively shut down the accounts of Islamic State-affiliated users.

In any case, said Margolin, the women probably weren’t lying when they said they had been mostly concerned with family matters, but that didn’t absolve them of responsibility.

“Yes, they were wives and mothers, but what that means isn’t like what we mean when we think of a housewife,” said Margolin.

As the bearers of the group’s ideology for the next generation of fighters, she said, they were pursuing a higher objective.

“They represented,” Margolin said, “the future and permanence of Islamic State.”

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©2019 Los Angeles Times
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The Hawaii congresswoman told a diverse crowd of less than 100 people in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon that she wants to end what she called "wasteful regime change wars" that are costing the U.S. trillions of dollars.

"Power lies within our hands to change course, to bend the arc of history away from war and toward peace," she said.

Gabbard, a combat veteran, said she would instead like to spend that money on health care, education and other needs in the U.S.

The 37-year-old's event at the Asian Cultural Center downtown came as she made her first trip as a presidential candidate to the early-nominating state of Nevada. She later held a luau-themed event west of the Las Vegas Strip attended by about 100 people, many from the city's Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations.

Gabbard has struggled to match the name recognition and fundraising of others in the crowded Democratic field such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke. The congresswoman said she's working to spread her message with grassroots support.

Before her town hall started, volunteers handed out fliers to attendees asking them to donate to her campaign and informing them that she needs to receive donations from 65,000 people in order to qualify for a spot in Democratic National Committee debates this summer.

Gabbard told reporters she's earned contributions from about 40,000 individual donors so far.

Gabbard, wearing a lei around her neck Monday afternoon, preached a peaceful, at-times spiritual message, describing a "corruption of spirit casting a shadow over our country" and a need for people to recognize the suffering of others and to come together to make a change.

Unlike other Democratic candidates, Gabbard didn't use her speech to criticize President Donald Trump, instead laying blame for problems like tensions with nuclear-armed countries on Republicans and Democrats, the establishment in Washington and entrenched special interests.

"It's important for us to step outside of just the political conversation and instead focus on people — the people who are being impacted by the policies that this administration is putting forward and that leaders in Congress are putting forward," Gabbard told reporters Monday night.

She said there are many decisions Trump has made that she disagrees with and thinks are damaging, such as his decision to withdraw from the nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The congresswoman said she also wants environmental protections, a reform of the criminal justice system including an end to the federal prohibition on marijuana and to pass a "Medicare for all" health care plan.

Richard Schunke has pleaded guilty to to felony cruelty to animals, and in exchange Norfolk prosecutors asked a judge to hold off on punishing him.

If Schunke stays out of trouble and brings proof he completed anger management counseling to a court hearing in March 2020, prosecutors said, they’ll let him plead guilty to misdemeanor cruelty to animals and won’t ask for jail time.

Schunke, a petty officer and gunner’s mate stationed on missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, faced up to five years in prison if convicted of the felony.

Schunke fatally beat his wife’s dog, Layla, an 8-year-old beagle who died on Dec. 10, 2017. A necropsy revealed Layla died from abdominal trauma.

“Her spleen was torn, a kidney was bruised, and the left lobe of her liver was split almost in two,” prosecutor Catherine Dodson wrote in court documents outlining her case against Schunke.

In a June interview, Schunke’s wife, Laura Jahn, said she’d been texting him throughout the afternoon of Dec. 10 while she was working as a leasing agent for a Virginia Beach property management company.

Schunke told her Layla wasn’t obeying him, Jahn said. He was especially frustrated because she wouldn’t go to the bathroom outside when he commanded her to.

Jahn said she replied by telling her husband to leave the dog alone. She’d be home soon and would handle it.

Then, Jahn said, her husband sent another text saying Layla had an accident in the house. Schunke said he was done, that Jahn had to choose between him and the dog because he no longer felt welcome in his own house.

Around 4 p.m., he texted again: Layla had bit him. He sent a picture of his hand with a single puncture mark on the web connecting his thumb and forefinger.

Eventually, he’d send a final series of texts: The dog wasn’t moving. He was taking her to the vet.

Jahn said she told Schunke to take the dog to a vet immediately, and she’d meet them there. They did, and a vet told her Layla was dead.

It was not the first time Schunke got mad about Layla, Jahn said. About a month before Layla died, Jahn said, she taped a conversation with Schunke, a recording she shared with The Virginian-Pilot. In it, a man can be heard yelling about carrying a dog outside and having to wait with it for 10 minutes before carrying it back inside.

”You want to know what, Laura, that was just the straw that broke the camel’s back,” the man yells.

Jahn and Schunke met in 2011 while going to college at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., Jahn said. They were friends and started dating in November 2016.

They got married April 17, 2017. Two months later, the couple moved to Norfolk because Schunke had been stationed here.

A day after Layla died, Jahn said, she called a lawyer to file for divorce. Within 48 hours, she moved back up to Connecticut to live with her mom.

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©2019 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
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