The first 2 children are rescued from a cable car dangling hundreds of feet in the air in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Military commandos in helicopters have rescued two children from a cable car dangling hundreds of meters (feet) above the ground in a remote part of Pakistan. They were were working on Tuesday to save four more children and two adults. The occupants were trapped for hours before rescuers arrived in helicopters to try to free them. One of the cables snapped while the eight people were crossing a river canyon in Battagram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The children had been on their way to school, and villagers frequently use cable cars to get around Pakistan’s mountainous regions.
How Trump’s attacks on prosecutors build on history of using racist language and stereotypes
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s response this week to his fourth criminal indictment in five months follows a strategy he has used for years against legal and political opponents: relentless attacks, often infused with language that is either overtly racist or is coded in ways that appeal to racists. The former Republican president and 2024 candidate has repeatedly hinted at race in his verbal broadsides. The district attorneys in New York and Georgia who have charged him with state crimes are Black. The tendency to make such attacks both animates his base and raises safety concerns among advocates who worry he could be worsening online vitriol and inspiring violence.
As Tropical Storm Hilary shrinks, desert and mountain towns dig themselves out of the mud
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Crews worked to dig roads, buildings and care home residents out of the mud across a wide swath of Southwestern U.S. desert Monday, as the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years headed north, prompting flood watches and warnings in half a dozen states. The National Hurricane Center said only vestiges of a weakened system was moving over the Rocky Mountains. Hilary first made landfall as a hurricane in Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula on Sunday before becoming the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years. Officials warned it still could cause severe flooding and mudslides in areas.
How a mix of natural and human-caused factors cooked up Tropical Storm Hilary’s soggy mess
Scientists figure a natural El Nino, human-caused climate change, a stubborn heat dome over the nation’s midsection and other factors cooked up Hilary’s record-breaking slosh into California and Nevada. Cooked up is the key phrase because hot water and hot air were both crucial in growing Hilary quickly and then steering the storm on an unusual path that dumped 10 months of rain in just one weekend in some normally bone-dry places. Nearly a foot of rain fell along a couple of Southern California mountains while cities easily exceeded summertime records.
Former Thai leader Thaksin goes to jail as political party linked to him wins vote to take power
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s divisive former prime minister made a dramatic return home on to face an eight-year prison term, just as a party linked to him won a vote in Parliament to lead to the country. It was the latest turn in nation’s tumultuous politics. The move by Thaksin Shinawatra indicates he is hoping that a friendly government will be able to cut short his sentence. He has said his decision to come back had nothing to do with the Pheu Thai party’s bid for power. Thaksin’s return after 15 years in self-imposed exile was an emotional moment for supporters of the 74-year-old billionaire. He won the loyalty of millions with populist policies that directed attention and funding to the country’s largely rural, impoverished north before being removed in a coup.
Russia’s Putin stays away over arrest warrant as leaders of emerging economies meet in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will be notably absent when Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economies begin a three-day summit in South Africa on Tuesday. The bloc, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is holding its first in-person meeting since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But Putin will participate via video call after his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for him in March over the abduction of children from Ukraine. Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend in person.
Maui confronts the challenge of finding more than 800 missing people after the deadly wildfires
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Maui authorities say more than 800 people remain unaccounted for two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century destroyed the community of Lahaina. It’s a staggering number that presents huge challenges for officials who are trying to determine how many of those people perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven’t checked in. As of Monday the toll of confirmed dead was 115. A list of the missing was published after a 2018 wildfire killed 85 people in Paradise, California, and officials were able to reduce the number of names from 1,300 to just about a dozen within a month. But Maui officials are not making their list public.
Greek authorities say the bodies of 18 people have been found in an area struck by a major wildfire
ALEXANDROUPOLIS, Greece (AP) — Authorities say Greek firefighters found the bodies of 18 people in an area of northeastern Greece ravaged by a major wildfire burning for days. Greek police Tuesday activated the country’s Disaster Victim Identification Team to identify the bodies, which were found near a shack in the Avanta area in the northeastern Alexandroupolis region. That’s according to Ioannis Artopios, a spokesman for the fire department. Given no reports of missing people had been filed in the area, authorities were examining the possibility that the casualties were migrants who had entered the country from the nearby border with Turkey, Artopios said.
Europe’s sweeping rules for tech giants are about to kick in. Here’s how they work
LONDON (AP) — Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe are facing one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people encounter online. The first phase of the European Union’s groundbreaking new digital rules will take effect this week. The Digital Services Act is part of a suite of tech-focused regulations crafted by the 27-nation bloc. The biggest platforms must start following the DSA starting Friday. The law is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service. Some online platforms have already started making changes, and they could have worldwide effects.
From MLK to today, the March on Washington highlights the evolution of activism by Black churches
The March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was a crowning moment for the long-term civil rights activism of what is sometimes referred to as the “Black Church.” At the march, King indeed represented numerous other Black clergy who were his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But the march was the product of sustained activism by a broader coalition. Moreover, the Black Church was not monolithic then nor now. In the decades before and after 1963, Black churches and denominations have had diverse priorities and political approaches.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
