CZAR PUTIN'S CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

MH17 investigations team appeals to Russians for information

FILE- In this Wednesday, May 26, 2021, file photo the reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, is shown at the Gilze-Rijen Airbase, southern Netherlands. The international team investigating the downing seven years ago of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine appealed Thursday for Russians in the city of Kursk to come forward with information about the deployment of the missile that the investigators say downed the plane, killing all 298 people on board. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine seven years ago appealed Thursday for Russians in the city of Kursk to come forward with information about the deployment of the missile that investigators say downed the plane, killing all 298 people on board.

The call for witnesses included an emotional video featuring the parents of one of the victims, 29-year-old Australian Victor Oreshkin.

His mother, Vera Oreshkin, called her son a “gift from God.”

“This tragedy has blown a hole in my heart and it will never be filled. Ever,” she says in the video.

The appeal comes days before the resumption on Monday of the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with multiple murder for their alleged role in shooting down on July 17, 2014, the Boeing 777 that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The plane was blown out of the sky over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, where government forces were battling pro-independence rebels.

None of the suspects has been extradited to the Netherlands to face justice and the trial that started in March 2020 is continuing in their absence. It is expected to continue into next year.

In this Wednesday, May 26, 2021, file photo trial judges and lawyers view the reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, at the Gilze-Rijen military airbase, southern Netherlands. The international team investigating the downing seven years ago of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine appealed Thursday for Russians in the city of Kursk to come forward with information about the deployment of the missile that the investigators say downed the plane, killing all 298 people on board. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Investigators say the Buk missile and its launcher, known as a Telar, were trucked into Ukraine from the Russian 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade, which is based in Kursk. Russia has steadfastly denied involvement in downing the plane.

The appeal says that the information now sought is not to bolster the case against the four suspects on trial, but for the investigation into who ordered the missile sent to Ukraine and the crew of the Telar.

Speaking in Russian, Oreshkin says: “The truth must be established and made known to everybody.”

Her husband, Serge, holding a framed photograph of their son, adds: “We would like to see somebody take the responsibility for what happened.”

Investigators said they are seeking “pictures, videos, relevant email messages or military orders.”

In an open letter to the citizens of Kursk, the investigators said: “Our investigation is already at a very advanced stage, but it is not yet complete. We would like to hear from everybody, also from the Russian soldiers, about what really has happened.”

‘Lean In’ circles help women in construction face bias

By ALEXANDRA OLSON

Sheet metal worker Carey Mercer assembles ductwork at Contractors Sheet Metal on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in New York. The construction industry is fighting to recruit more women into a sector that faces chronic labor shortages. As spending on infrastructure rises, construction firms will need to hire at least 430,000 new skilled laborers in 2021, according to an analysis of federal data by the Associated Builders and Contractors. Right now, only 4% of construction laborers in the U.S. are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)


NEW YORK (AP) — Bethany Mayer didn’t want to go back to work after learning that a fellow ironworker insinuated that women like her didn’t belong there.

Jordyn Bieker, an apprentice sheet metal worker in Denver, said she felt uncomfortable that her foreman asked her pointed questions about being gay.

Yunmy Carroll, a veteran steamfitter, said a worker at a training session declared that women in construction are “whores.”

The three women shared their stories over Zoom during a Lean In Circle for Tradeswomen, one of 76 launched nationwide and in Canada this year by the North America’s Building Trades Unions and Lean In, the women’s advocacy group started by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

About 700 tradeswomen are participating the program, designed to help them navigate persistent bias and harassment on construction sites, from unwanted sexual advances to being assigned lesser duties like traffic control or fire watch.

It’s a culture industry leaders are fighting to change in the hopes of recruiting more women into a sector with an aging workforce that faces chronic labor shortages.

As spending on infrastructure rises, construction firms will need to hire at least 430,000 new skilled laborers in 2021, according to an analysis of federal data by the Associated Builders and Contractors.

Right now, only 4% of construction laborers in the U.S. are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We are really only employing from half the workforce,” said Brian Turmail, the Associated General Contractors of America’s vice president of public affairs, who also spearheads workforce development. “We are struggling with labor shortages with one hand tied behind our back.”

This comes at a time when the pandemic has exacted a disproportionate toll on jobs where women dominate, like restaurant servers and cashiers. Nearly 2.5 million women lost jobs and stopped looking for work during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, much of the construction industry was deemed essential, sparing it from mass layoffs. For advocates, it is evidence that more women should aspire to construction careers, which start with paid apprenticeships and can lead to unionized jobs with middle-class wages.

The median salary for plumbers and electricians, for instance, is about $56,000 a year, with the top 10% of earners making $98,000. But only about 2% of plumbers and 3% of the country’s electricians are women.

“We see this all the time. When jobs are higher paid, when jobs have more security, when jobs have higher benefits, they often go to men,” said Sandberg, who partnered with NABTU to bring her signature “Lean in Circles” program to tradeswomen after meeting Liz Shuler, now the president of the AFL-CIO, and Judaline Cassidy, a New York plumber and union leader who had formed a Lean In Circle on her own in 2017.

 

Tools used by sheet metal worker Carey Mercer to assemble ductwork are laid out on the floor of Contractors Sheet Metal on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in New York. The construction industry is fighting to recruit more women into a sector that faces chronic labor shortages. Women make up only 4% of skilled construction laborers in the U.S. and often face discrimination on jobs sites. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)

The good news is that gains already made by women appear to have held steady during the pandemic, in contrast to the Great Recession that hit the industry hard.

The number of women employed in construction had reached a high of nearly 950,000 in 2007 before plummeting to a Great Recession-low of 711,000 in 2011, according to the BLS. It took nearly a decade for their numbers to recover, eventually reaching new highs of about 970,000 at the onset of the pandemic.

But this time, the ranks of women dipped just briefly in the spring of 2020 before continuing their rise — surpassing more than 1 million for the first time in history in April. The share of women employed in the industry also rose, reaching 13.2% in 2020, compared to 12.5% in 2016.

Since those figures include office roles, it not clear how much of those gains were made by skilled laborers. But the number of women who graduated from NABTU’s pre-apprenticeship programs has also increased, reaching an all-time high of 23% of graduates this year, said NABTU Secretary-Treasurer Brent Booker.

Pre-apprenticeship programs targeting women and minorities have proliferated over the past decade, while several thousand women gather each year for NABTU’s 10-year-old annual conference for tradeswomen. In sign of their growing influence, the Iron Workers Union became the first construction union to adopt paid maternity leave in 2017.

The most uphill challenge is changing cultural attitudes in the field.

Kelly Kupcak, executive director of Oregon Tradeswomen, said she recently got a call from an apprentice plumber whose foreman, using racial slurs, said he didn’t care if she was Black or Hispanic because he just didn’t like that she was a woman. That was a year after Kupcak galvanized local unions and contractors to launch an anti-discrimination efforts after another apprentice found a noose at a construction site.

More subtle slights also take their toll.

Mayer, apprentice welder from the Cincinnati area, had been excited about a new job where a raising gang would erect the columns on a new site. But then she learned about the co-worker who said women shouldn’t ironworkers. And she was put on fire watch for weeks.

“I don’t even want to go in tomorrow,” Mayer told her Lean-in circle, a group of six women who meet over Zoom once a month.

The women, at the May meeting and later group texts, encouraged her to be direct and remind her foreman of her skills as a welder. By the time they met in July, Mayer had pushed successfully for welding duties.

Patti Devlin, the circle leader, turned the July conversation to a perennial issue: constantly having to prove yourself in an industry where job sites change.

Veronica Leal, a Chicago painter who teaches an apprenticeship program, told the group she has faced that problem for 27 years. At first, she said it was amusing to watch skeptical clients eventually lavish praise on her work.

But four years ago, she was irate when a client at an upscale apartment building told her she couldn’t possibly handle a difficult paper hanging job because she was a woman, and closed the door in her face.

Leal’s supervisor told her to stay put while he called the client. Leal refused, telling her supervisor she would never work with that client.

“I just got so angry. I’ve been doing this for 24 years and I’m done proving myself,” Leal said.  

‘Last mile’ solution for Brazilian favela born from pandemic

By TATIANA POLLASTRI and DAVID BILLER


Logistics company Favela Brasil Xpress deliveryman Jonathan Arcanjo, cycles through alleys to deliver orders in the Paraisopolis favela of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Favela Brasil Xpress, a startup created six months ago, reached the milestone of 100,000 packages delivered in areas that are not properly served by the postal service or by traditional transport and delivery companies, while ensuring the arrival of food, medicine and home supplies to people in the community. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)


SAO PAULO (AP) — Workers in Brazil’s biggest city unloaded an air fryer, a gaming chair and a 40-inch television from a truck and carried them into a small distribution center where they’d soon be sent to nearby homes.

Their speedy dispatch would be nothing special in most of Sao Paulo. But these items were bound for homes in Paraisopolis, one of the sprawling, low-income neighborhoods known as favelas that have been largely left out of the global delivery revolution.

Packages have just started reaching doorsteps there, thanks to a bespectacled 21-year-old with a degree in information technology.

Inspired by community-led distribution of food kits and donations during the pandemic, Giva Pereira founded a logistics startup to handle what retailers call “the last mile” in his hardscrabble community, which delivery drivers have been loath to enter.

Like others across the world, Brazilians quarantining during the pandemic started buying more online — not just food and pharmaceuticals, but also electronics and household goods.

But favela residents who fill out order forms with their zip codes are often informed companies don’t deliver to their neighborhood.

Those who manage to place orders can receive excuses rather than products: notes with dubious claims they weren’t home when the delivery came, or that their address wasn’t located.

And indeed, identifying a specific house in the serpentine alleys is no small feat for an outsider, especially in favelas as densely populated as Paraisopolis, home to nearly 100,000 people. Mapping apps provide little help and, complicating matters further, some areas are dominated by heavily armed drug traffickers.

Paraisopolis, which is the combination of the words "Paradise" and "Metropolis," stands next to the upper class Morumbi neighborhood, top, in Sao Paulo. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

While Brazil’s postal service delivers letters and bills to some streets in Paraisopolis, it often leaves them at shops, bars or collective mailboxes for residents to pick up later — a system that doesn’t work for many e-commerce purchases.

Even brick-and-mortar stores charge more to deliver appliances or furniture to favelas, or leave shipments at waypoints like residents’ associations.

Enter 21-year-old Pereira, a Paraisopolis resident who graduated college last year and sensed opportunity. Favela Brasil XPress was born.

His fledging company got financing from a small, favela-focused lender, G10 Bank, and partnered with one of Brazil’s biggest retailers, Lojas Americanas. He hired locals familiar with Paraisopolis’s twists and turns. They started deliveries in April using compact trucks and bicycles, and have processed as many as 1,300 packages per day.

“It resolves the problem of mapping and this issue of breaking down the barrier of prejudice among people or logistics companies, who should deliver here inside, but don’t,” Pereira told The Associated Press. “Bringing companies from outside the favela into the favela totally breaks that paradigm that favelas only have bad things, and we show it is different.”

Operators handle orders purchased via e-commerce, at the Favela Brasil XPress distribution center (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)

In Sao Paulo’s metropolitan region, more than 2 million people live in the crowded favelas. Paraisopolis has longstanding issues like water shortages and lack of basic sanitation, with open sewers in some isolated areas that have been recently populated. It’s home to waiters and house cleaners, builders and bus drivers.

There are young people like Pereira, too, whose family moved from the poor northeastern state of Paraiba when he was 12, hoping for a better life.

“We came because of difficulties we went through in Paraiba. We had difficulty here, too,” said Pereira. He began to think of ways to help the favela.

A client receives a parcel from the hands of Favela Brasil Xpress deliveryman Jonathan Arcanjo. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)

His project is reminiscent of another started several years ago in Rio de Janeiro’s biggest favela, Rocinha. Former census takers mapped the hillside neighborhood and established a base to receive mail from the postal service. For a monthly fee, the company distributes letters and bills to residents, though they still have to retrieve parcels.

While Pereira’s concept for deliveries isn’t groundbreaking, the level of organization, planning and logistical infrastructure is, said Theresa Williamson, executive director of a favela advocacy group, Catalytic Communities.

“Residents find creative ways to meet that need in many communities, but it’s never at the scale or quality that it needs to be, and it’s often informal,” Williamson said. Favela Brasil XPress “could pave the way for a model that can be followed around the country, creating small businesses around this.”

Or, she said, it could show the government how to step up and meet the community’s need.

At an event Tuesday to commemorate delivery of his company’s 100,000th package, Pereira looked jubilant, if somewhat surprised by the sudden success. He said the company has set up distribution bases at six other favelas, including Sao Paulo’s largest, Heliopolis. It has signed contracts to distribute for other retailers, too.

Gilson Rodrigues, Paraisopolis’ community leader and president of the bank whose loan got Pereira’s startup off the ground, said being able to receive a package at home after so many years of being boxed out provides a sense of freedom.

“They told us this wasn’t possible in a favela,” Rodrigues said. “This is an example, a slap in the face to society that excludes favelas, that wants to see favelas as needy, never as potent.” ___ David Biller reported from Rio de Janeiro.

Logistics company Favela Brasil Xpress deliveryman Jonathan Arcanjo, cycles through an alley in Paraisopolis. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)

GO BACK TO THE BARGAINING TABLE

German train company seeks injunction to end drivers’ strike


Traveller walk on an empty station platform at the main station in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. A nationwide, five-day train strike has brought big parts of the German railway and commuter system to a standstill. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

BERLIN (AP) — German train company Deutsche Bahn sought an emergency injunction Thursday to stop a strike by some train drivers that has disrupted rail traffic in the country for a third time this summer.

Deutsche Bahn said it considers the latest strike by the GDL labor union to be illegal. The company noted that it has increased its offer in negotiations with the union and is now offering a one-time “coronavirus bonus” of up to 600 euros ($700) to members.

The strike, which began with freight trains Wednesday and was extended to passenger trains Thursday, is due to last until Sept. 7.

If it continues it will affect many travelers returning from summer vacation in two German states

FTC orders company to quit surveillance app business


This Jan. 28, 2015, file photo, shows the Federal Trade Commission building in Washington. The Federal Trade Commission has for the first time banned a company that makes so-called stalkerware — software used to surreptitiously track a cellphone user's activities and location — from continuing in the surveillance app business. The action Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, applies to the marketer of SpyFone, Puerto Rico-based Support King LLC, and its CEO, Scott Zuckerman. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

BOSTON (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission has for the first time banned a company that makes so-called stalkerware — software used to surreptitiously track a cellphone user’s activities and location — from continuing in the surveillance app business.

Wednesday’s action applies to the marketer of SpyFone, Puerto Rico-based Support King LLC, and its CEO, Scott Zuckerman. Such commercial surveillance products secretly obtain unfettered access to someone’s smartphone, leading to serious harm, the FTC said in a statement on its website.

Support King marketed SpyFone as a tool to monitor the activities of children and employees. But it neglected to prevent stalkers and domestic abusers from using it for surveillance, the FTC said.

The company’s products let the installer monitor a person’s online activity, including text and video chats and, in a premium version, even secretly activate the device’s microphone to record phone and video conversations.

The FTC found that not only is SpyFone sneaky — no icon appears on a phone after it is installed — but its developers also were negligent in protecting the data it collected on unsuspecting victims from hackers. It said information from about 2,200 people had been compromised in a hacker’s breach of the company’s server.

There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment sent to the only contact address on the SpyFone website.

“Federal agencies have long been lax when it comes to allowing companies to peddle surveillance products with impunity,” FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra said in a statement.

Online watchdogs led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto have long complained of rampant abuse of stalkerware, particularly in targeting victims of domestic violence.

“Practically speaking, this is a bold move by the FTC but now they will have to follow through and enforce it,” said Eva Galperin, cybersecurity director at EFF, via email. “It might be the beginning of the end for stalkerware, but even if that is true, it’s a long process and there is a lot that can go wrong between now and then.”

Chopra said civil action by the FTC is not enough to “meaningfully crackdown on the underworld of stalking apps.” He urged the use of criminal laws including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, to combat its use.

Under the proposed settlement, SpyFone’s sellers will have to delete all information collected by their stalkerware apps and alert people victimized by the products, the FTC said.

REST IN POWER

Greek music great Mikis Theodorakis dies at 96

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Mikis Theodorakis, the beloved Greek composer whose rousing music and life of political defiance won acclaim abroad and inspired millions at home, died Thursday. He was 96.

His death at his home in central Athens was announced on state television and followed multiple hospitalizations in recent years, mostly for heart treatment.

Theodorakis’ prolific career that started at age 17 produced a hugely varied body of work that ranged from somber symphonies to popular television and the film scores for “Serpico” and “Zorba the Greek.”

But the towering man with trademark worker suits, hoarse voice and wavy hair also is remembered by Greeks for his stubborn opposition to postwar regimes that persecuted him and outlawed his music.

  

1. Mikis Theodorakis - Wikipedia

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikis_Theodorakis

   • Overview
   • Biography
   • Political views
   • Work
   • Scores
   • Internationally available CD releases
   • Written works
   • Further reading

   

   Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis is a Greek composer and lyricist who has contributed to contemporary Greek music with over 1000 works.
   He scored for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973). He composed the "Mauthausen Trilogy", also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen", which has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust" and possibly his best work. He is viewed as Greece's be…

   Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license

2. Mikis Theodorakis, Greek Composer and Marxist Rebel, Dies ...

   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/arts/music/mikis-theodorakis-dead.html

   3 hours ago · Mikis Theodorakis, the renowned Greek composer and Marxist firebrand who waged a war of words and music against an infamous military junta …

4. Mikis Theodorakis: Greek Patriot, Renowned Composer Dead at 96

   https://greekreporter.com/2021/09/02/mikis-theodorakis-dead

   4 hours ago · Mikis Theodorakis, the greatest Greek composer in history, whose music has touched generations, died on Thursday at age 96 in Athens. He had been hospitalized in 2019 in the private Iatriko Kentro clinic in a northern suburb of the capital after suffering from heart problems.

5. Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis dies aged 96 | Music | DW ...

   https://www.dw.com/en/greek-composer-mikis-theodorakis-dies-aged-96/a...

   3 hours ago · Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis dies aged 96 The renowned "Zorba the Greek" composer has died. His musical and political voice has cut through Greece's checkered history of war, dictatorship and...

6. 'Our Mikis has gone': 'Zorba the Greek' composer ...

   https://nationalpost.com/pmn/entertainment-pmn/our-mikis-has-gone...

   2021-09-02 · Mikis Theodorakis, 

 

China orders ride-hailing firms to correct unfair tactics

The logo for Didi is seen on the headquarters in Beijing on July 16, 2021. Chinese regulators have ordered ride-hailing platforms to correct unfair market tactics amid a crackdown on the internet sector that has spooked investors and shaved billions off the valuations of some of China’s biggest technology companies. The ride-hailing industry led by Didi Global and Meituan employs millions, and platforms often jostle for market share by offering discounts and incentives. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)


BEIJING (AP) — Chinese regulators have ordered ride-hailing platforms to correct unfair market tactics amid a broad crackdown on the internet sector that has spooked investors and shaved billions off the valuations of some of China’s biggest technology companies.

The transport ministry, internet watchdog and other regulators on Wednesday ordered 11 such platforms by year’s end to stop unfair competition tactics and practices such as recruiting unlicensed drivers, according to a statement published Thursday.

The ride-hailing industry led by companies such as Didi Global and Meituan employs millions of drivers who are part of China’s growing gig economy, and platforms often jostle for market share by offering passengers and drivers discounts and incentives.

The Chinese government has expressed concern over the exploitation of such workers, as they often work long days and lack basic welfare benefits. China’s state union in July called for better protection of labor rights and encouraged gig economy workers to form unions to boost protections.

Sector leader Didi has nearly 90% of the market in China, but China’s internet watchdog is investigating alleged data privacy violations.

Competition among its rivals intensified as they try to gain customers amid the Didi investigation.

The 11 companies were told to inspect their own business practices, form a compliance plan and correct any issues by the end of the year to “promote the healthy and sustainable development” of the ride-hailing industry.

Chinese authorities have in recent months targeted sectors such as e-commerce and online education, after years of rapid growth in the technology sector amid fears that they may have outsized influence on society.

Beijing launched a barrage of anti-monopoly, data security and other enforcements beginning in late 2020, as it sought to tighten control over internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Effort underway to rescue girls soccer team from Afghanistan

By ALEX SANZ and TAMMY WEBBER

today

1 of 6

In this photo provided to The Associated Press, members of the Afghanistan national girls youth soccer team and their families are seen in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sun., Aug. 29, 2021. International efforts to rescue them and soccer federation staff suffered a crushing setback last week after a suicide bomb detonated at the Kabul airport and the CIA blew up its last remaining outpost to keep sensitive information and equipment from falling into the hands of the Taliban. (AP Photo)


They move from place to place at a moment’s notice in a desperate bid to evade the Taliban — girls whose lives are in danger simply because they chose to play a sport they loved.

An international effort to evacuate members of the Afghanistan national girls soccer team, along with dozens of family members and soccer federation staff, suffered a crushing setback last week after a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members during a harrowing airlift.

Now, frightened and desperate, the girls worry whether a far-flung coalition of former U.S. military and intelligence officials, congressmen, U.S. allies, humanitarian groups and the captain of the Afghanistan women’s national team can get them and their loved ones to safety.

“They’re just unbelievable young ladies who should be playing in the backyard, playing on the swing set, playing with their friends, and here they’re in a very bad situation for doing nothing more than playing soccer,” said Robert McCreary, a former congressional chief of staff and White House official under President George W. Bush who has worked with special forces in Afghanistan. “We need to do everything that we can to protect them, to get them to a safe situation.”

The airport suicide bombing was carried out by Islamic State militants who are sworn rivals of the Taliban. The U.S. military has acknowledged that during the airlift, it was coordinating to some extent with the Taliban who set up checkpoints around the airport for crowd control and in the final days facilitated the evacuation of American citizens.

The Taliban have tried to present a new image, promising amnesty to former opponents and saying they would form an inclusive government. Many Afghans don’t trust those promises, fearing the Taliban will quickly resort to the brutal tactics of their 1996-2001 rule, including barring girls and women from schools and jobs. The Taliban have been vague on their policy toward women so far, but have not yet issued sweeping repressive edicts.

Most members of the Afghan women’s team, formed in 2007, were evacuated to Australia last week.

But the girls, ages 14-16, and their families also could be targeted by the Taliban — not just because women and girls are forbidden to play sports, but because they were advocates for girls and active members of their communities, said Farkhunda Muhtaj, who is captain of the Afghanistan women’s national team and lives in Canada.

“They are devastated. They’re hopeless, considering the situation they’re in,” said Muhtaj, who keeps in contact with the girls and urges them to stay calm.

There have been at least five failed attempts to rescue the girls in recent days, as they were moved around for their safety, McCreary and Muhtaj said. They were “footsteps from freedom” when the suicide bombing occurred, Muhtaj said.

Complicating the rescue effort is the size of the group — 133 people, including the 26 youth team members as well as adults and other children, including infants. Many don’t have passports or other necessary documentation to board flights from Kabul.

McCreary said the mission — called Operation Soccer Balls — is working with other countries, with the hope the girls will eventually settle in the U.S. He said Australia, France and Qatar have expressed interest in helping. He also urged the Taliban to ease the exit for the group, saying it would create goodwill.

“If we can put a protective bubble around these women and young girls ... I really believe the world will stand up and and take notice and have a lot of offers to take them in and host them,” McCreary said.

Former U.S. women’s national soccer team captain Julie Foudy, a two-time World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, said the rescue efforts “raise the visibility of these young women and their importance to equality and democracy and all these things that we value in this country.”

“As many of us who can stand up as female athletes — as humans — and say, ‘This is a moment we need to come together and do what’s right,’ then we absolutely should,” she said.

In this photo provided to The Associated Press, members of the Afghanistan national girls youth soccer team and their families are seen in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sun., Aug. 29, 2021. International efforts to rescue them and soccer federation staff suffered a crushing setback last week after a suicide bomb detonated at the Kabul airport and the CIA blew up its last remaining outpost to keep sensitive information and equipment from falling into the hands of the Taliban 

Nic McKinley, a CIA and Air Force veteran who founded Dallas-based DeliverFund, a nonprofit that’s secured housing for 50 Afghan families, said he understood that the U.S. was focused on relocating Afghans who helped American forces, but that others need help, too.

“What about the little girl who just wants to kick a ball around a field and wants to do that well, and has worked hard to do that at a world class level who finds herself suddenly in jeopardy only because she just wanted to play a sport and had a passion for playing that sport?” he said. “The only thing that they had done wrong in the eyes of the Taliban ... is the fact that they were born girls and they had the audacity to dream of doing something.”

McCreary said the rescue team feels personally responsible because the U.S. helped the girls go to school and play soccer.

“We need to protect them now,” he said. “They should not be in harm’s way for things that we helped them do.”

__

Follow Alex Sanz on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/alexsanz

ECOCIDE

Photos show black slick in water near Gulf oil rig after Ida

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and GERALD HERBERT

Photos captured by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021 and reviewed by The Associated Press show a miles long black slick floating in the Gulf of Mexico near a large rig marked with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling. The company, based in Houston, did not immediately respond to requests for comment by phone or email on Wednesday. EPA officials said Wednesday hey were unaware of any leak requiring a federal response. (NOAA via AP)


PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) — Photos show what appears to be a miles-long oil slick near an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida, according to aerial survey imagery released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and reviewed by The Associated Press.

The government imagery, along with additional photos taken by the AP from a helicopter Tuesday, also show Louisiana port facilities, oil refineries and shipyards in the storm’s path where the telltale rainbow sheen typical of oil and fuel spills is visible in the water of bays and bayous.

Both state and federal regulators said Wednesday that they had been unable to reach the stricken area, citing challenging conditions in the disaster zone.

The NOAA photos show a black slick floating in the Gulf near a large rig with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling painted on its helipad. The company, based in Houston, did not respond to requests for comment by phone or email Wednesday.

Aerial photos taken by NOAA on Tuesday also show significant flooding to the massive Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery along the bank of the Mississippi River, just south of New Orleans. In some sections of the refinery, rainbow sheen is visible on the water leading toward the river.

Asked about reports of levee failures near the refinery Monday, Phillips 66 spokesman Bernardo Fallas said there was “some water” in the facility and stressed that operations were shut down in advance of the storm. Asked Tuesday about potential environmental hazards emanating from the facility, Fallas referred a reporter to a statement on the company’s website saying its response is focused “on ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and our surrounding communities.”

After the AP sent Phillips 66 photos Wednesday showing extensive flooding at its refinery and what appeared to be petroleum in the water, Fallas conceded by email that the company could confirm it had “discovered a sheen of unknown origin in some flooded areas of Alliance Refinery.”

“At this time, the sheen appears to be secured and contained within refinery grounds,” Fallas said Wednesday evening. “Clean-up crews are on site. The incident was reported to the appropriate regulatory agencies upon discovery.”

Fallas did not respond when asked whether the leak was reported after the AP sent the company photos four hours earlier.

Phillips listed the Alliance Refinery for sale last week, before the storm hit, citing poor market conditions.

All told, seven Louisiana refineries remained shuttered Wednesday. Combined, they account for about 9% of all U.S. refining capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Some refineries on the Mississippi River reported damage to their docks from barges that broke loose during the storm.

Jennah Durant, spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said Wednesday that the agency had received no reports of significant spills or other environmental threats after the Category 4 storm made landfall Sunday at Port Fourchon with 150 mph (240 km/h) winds

Three days after the storm moved through, Durant said Wednesday that no EPA personnel had yet deployed to the devastated region south of New Orleans. Asked if EPA staff had been reviewing the aerial photos taken by federal aircraft over the disaster zone, Durant said the imagery had not been provided to the agency.

The aerial imagery reviewed by the AP is readily available to the public on the NOAA website.

After the AP sent photos of the oil slick to EPA on Wednesday, agency press secretary Nick Conger said the National Response Center hotline operated by the U.S. Coast Guard had received 26 calls reporting leaks or spills in the storm zone but none had warranted an EPA response.

Conger reiterated that any person or organization responsible for a sizable release or spill of pollutants is required to notify the federal government.

The AP also provided photos of the oil slick to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, which regulates offshore drilling in state waters. Spokesman Patrick Courreges confirmed the agency had received an informal report of petroleum sheen in the waters south of Port Fourchon but said regulators “currently don’t have capabilities to get out there yet.”

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which regulates offshore oil and gas platforms, announced before the hurricane arrived that about half of the 560 staffed rigs in the Gulf had been evacuated. Those crews had only started to trickle back out by Wednesday and it was unclear whether the Enterprise Offshore rig was staffed.

  

Photos captured by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021 and reviewed by The Associated Press a large rig marked with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling is seen. The company, based in Houston, did not immediately respond to requests for comment by phone or email on Wednesday. EPA officials said Wednesday hey were unaware of any leak requiring a federal response. (NOAA via AP)

 

Damage to ship docking facilities are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Port Port Fourchon, La., Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

DIESEL, SEWAGE, WASTE WATER, BILGE TANKS

  

In this drone image released by NOAA, flood waters cover Tom's Marine & Salvage in Barataria, La., following the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. (NOAA via AP)

THAT IS POLLUTED WATER, SLUDGE OF GAS, OIL, HEAVY MACHINE OIL, BUNKER OIL

The bureau’s public affairs staff did not respond Wednesday after the AP sent photos of the black slick in the Gulf and asked if there were any reports of a spill.

Both state and federal environmental regulators said the emergency response to Ida had been hampered by blocked roads, washed-out bridges, electrical outages and a lack of communications. Both telephone landlines and mobile phone service in much of the region remained offline Wednesday.

“I think most agencies are kind of caught up in the whole ‘fog of war’ thing at the moment, with far more places we need to be than we can be,” Courreges wrote in an email. “It’s not as easy to respond to things right now.”

Port Fourchon, which took a direct hit from the storm, is the primary service hub for hundreds of oil and gas rigs offshore. The port also contains oil terminals and pipelines that account for about 90% of the oil and gas production from the Gulf.

Photos taken by the AP from a chartered helicopter Tuesday, as well as the NOAA imagery, show extensive damage to the sprawling facility, including sunken vessels, collapsed structures and more than a dozen large overturned fuel storage tanks.

Ida’s winds, equivalent to an EF3 tornado, peeled the roofs off large steel buildings in the harbor and toppled metal light poles. Trucks, cranes and shipping containers were piled into jumbled heaps.

Chett Chiasson, the executive director of Greater Lafourche Port Commission, told the AP late Tuesday that the companies based at Port Fourchon were entering what would likely be a lengthy recovery phase. A top priority, he said, will be clearing roads and removing sunken vessels so boats can safely navigate the harbor.

___

Associated Press Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Matthew Daly in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed.

___

Follow Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

THIRD WORLD USA
As Ida hit, homeless, other vulnerable people left behind

BY LEAH WILLINGHAM and JAY REEVES

1 of 15

 Homeless couple Angelique Hebert, and husband Wilfred Hebert, ask for help on a sidewalk as they try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Houma, La. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)


HOUMA, La. (AP) — With Hurricane Ida’s winds screaming and only a tent and tarp for shelter, Angelique Hebert clung to her husband under a bridge where the couple had sought refuge.

“We’re gonna die in this hurricane,” Angelique told him. But he said: “Just hang on, baby. It’s gonna be over.”

So she hung on, and she prayed.

It wasn’t that the couple wanted to ride out a major hurricane exposed to the elements. Homeless and with few options in the bayous and small communities of southern Louisiana, they said they simply couldn’t afford to get out of Ida’s path. With no car, they walked more than 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the coastal hamlet of Montegut to Houma to try to catch an evacuation bus. They missed it.

Despite mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders in south Louisiana parishes, many residents who wanted to flee were left to fend for themselves as the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. mainland ravaged Louisiana. For homeless people, those on fixed or low incomes, and others in the state’s most vulnerable groups, staying wasn’t a matter of choice — it was the only choice.

“People will say, ‘Well, I’m just going to ride it out,’” said Craig Colten, a professor emeritus at Louisiana State University who studies community resilience and adaptation to changing environments in coastal Louisiana. “But a lot of the time, people will ride it out because they don’t have the means to escape, and that, in large measure, means an automobile and enough money to buy gas.”

Experts have long been concerned that the increasing intensity and frequency of hurricanes — especially in Louisiana, where many residents return even after major storms — put people of lower means at higher risk. Even those who can scrape together resources to leave temporarily often return to find damaged or destroyed homes, jobs that no longer exist, and little immediate assistance.

“There’s a real concern among people who keep an eye on equity issues,” said Colten, who’s particularly worried that Ida — like Katrina — fell at the end of the month, when those who rely on retirement or government checks have already used most of their money.

“Their funds are pretty close to exhausted, these people who live hand-to-mouth, and so they didn’t have much choice but to stay,” he said. “They can’t go get a motel room. They can’t even buy a bus ticket. ... Many of them have infirm relatives or family members, they have pets.”

The Heberts used a two-person dome tent, settled in by a concrete pillar under a bridge that crosses the Intracoastal Waterway and hoped for the best. The tent collapsed, letting rain inside.

“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been through,” said Angelique Hebert, 53. Wilfred Hebert said he wanted to do more to protect his wife, but he couldn’t.

The couple has been staying at a shelter since the storm passed, but they don’t know what will come next. Broke, they panhandled along a road, with a sign: “Hurricane took everything.”

Also in hard-hit Houma, mother of two Kaylee Ordoyne, 26, said her family couldn’t afford to evacuate. Her truck — the family’s only vehicle — broke down days before the storm. She spent her last $30 on water, juice, cans of Chef Boyardee and soup, bread and sandwich meat. They left their trailer behind and took refuge in a relative’s apartment.

By Monday morning, that apartment would be in ruins.

As the storm ripped through the roof, Ordoyne held her kids, 2 and 4, singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and whispering nursery rhymes. The ceiling collapsed, and they were trapped in a corner of the kitchen with water up to their ankles.

“If I would have had the money to evacuate, I would have — for my babies,” Ordoyne said. “I cried once, and then had to hold my tears in after, no matter how bad I wanted to break down.”

They survived, but the family’s troubles are far from over. The $11,000 trailer Ordoyne spent her savings on was destroyed by the storm. She had lived there just two months and has no insurance. She also has no paycheck — she reviews and approves phone applications for a wireless company, a job she can’t do without internet or power.

“I’m so worried sick about what will be next,” she said.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said roughly half the population evacuated ahead of Ida. The other half — 200,000 people — remained. For them and those who’d returned to a city with a shattered power grid, officials opened cooling stations and gave out meals Wednesday.

At one center, Barbara Bradie, a work-from-home agent for Walgreens, and Rita Richardson, a research coordinator at Tulane Medical Center, enjoyed their hot meal: pork, peas and bread. They said they couldn’t have evacuated; neither has a car.

Richardson said she evacuated once, for Hurricane Gustav in 2008: “I was out of town 10 days, and I was broke by the time I got home. ... I’d rather just stay here and deal with it.”

Bradie added: “People think you just get up and go. You’ve got to have a car, put gas in the car, got to have a hotel.”

After Hurricane Katrina, the city partnered with a nonprofit to put together a “City-Assisted Evacuation Plan” where people would meet at designated neighborhood pickup spots — marked with 12-foot stainless steel sculptures— for a shuttle to shelters. But in Ida — a storm intensifying so fast the mayor said mandatory evacuation wasn’t possible — the system was not utilized, Colten said.

Even for families who were able to evacuate, the financial impact will be long-lasting and painful. Some spent their last dollars to get their families to safety.

Lesl Bell and her husband were already living paycheck to paycheck before they both tested positive for COVID-19 a month ago. They had to stay home and were soon behind on bills. Then Ida hit.

“We couldn’t work for that whole month, and now this?” Bell said.

They packed their car and left with their 3-year-old and their remaining cash for a Florida hotel. They were too scared to stay in Louisiana; Bell’s pregnant, and she worried for their toddler’s safety.

But the family started running out of money and was forced to make the drive home Tuesday, even as officials advised people to stay away.

“It’s crazy how they tell you to stay out when the cheapest hotel room is almost $200 a night,” she said. “How we going to afford to be out for so long?”

___

Willingham reported from Jackson, Mississippi. Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed.

___

Leah Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.




Homeless couple Angelique Hebert, and husband Wilfred Hebert, ask for help on a sidewalk as they try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Houma, La. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)