EVACUEE;  World has ‘abandoned’ Afghanistan’s new generation
By ARITZ PARRA

August 28, 2021

A Friday Aug, 27, 2021 selfie photo shows Afghan journalist Shabeer Ahmadi in an undisclosed city in Spain. Until last week, Shabeer Ahmadi was busy covering the news in Afghanistan. But after a hasty and excruciating decision to leave his Taliban-controlled country for an uncertain future in Spain, he’s helplessly glued to news feeds on his cellphone, following every twist in the dramatic end of the evacuation of Afghans from Kabul. The 29-year-old journalist and nine close relatives managed to board one of the evacuation planes and are now going through the lengthy asylum process while starting a new life in a northern Spanish city. (Shabeer Ahmadi via AP)


MADRID (AP) — Until last week, Shabeer Ahmadi was busy covering the news in Afghanistan. But after a hasty and excruciating decision to leave his Taliban-controlled country for an uncertain future in Spain, he’s helplessly glued to news feeds on his cellphone, following every twist in the dramatic end of the evacuation of Afghans from Kabul.

The 29-year-old journalist and nine close relatives managed to board one of the evacuation planes and are now going through the lengthy asylum process while starting a new life in a northern Spanish city. But the future of thousands of Afghans who have not been able to escape, including members of his own family, is now the focus of his fears, Ahmadi said.

“There is a feeling of desperation in Afghanistan,” he said. “Imagine if you had made a building for 20 years now, that building is getting destroyed and you cannot go out from that building. It feels very bad. Our education, our hopes for ourselves, for our children, for our future, for our country is all destroyed.”

Tolo News, the private Afghan outlet where Ahmadi worked as deputy head of news, has been a target of the Taliban. But it was not only him who felt under threat in his immediate circle: Ahmadi’s mother is an attorney. His father, a former journalist. And his brother, an engineer, worked on hydropower generation, a crucial infrastructure for the operation of the conflict-worn country.

Earlier this month, as the Taliban’s siege closed on Kabul, the family started applying for emergency visas to several countries. Spain was the first to react, thanks to the mediation of a Spanish journalist whom Ahmadi had befriended in Kabul.

Ahmad and his relatives spent a challenging day amid the crowds piling up outside Kabul’s airport — and another one inside, sleeping among hundreds on the ground — before the 10 were cleared to go, despite some of them lacking passports.

“When I boarded the plane, I was thinking that finally, thank God I’m safe. But what happens to other people who remain in Afghanistan?” he wondered, speaking via video conference from Huesca, where the group was relocated on Thursday, one day after landing in Madrid.

“There are people calling me saying that there’s no salary by the government or by the Taliban now. And banks are closed and they cannot afford their families’ evacuation,” the journalist said.

He explained that as foreign troops are pulling out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, many of his acquaintances are looking for alternatives to leave Afghanistan via Iran and Pakistan.

The former correspondent thinks that the future of Afghanistan is bleak. He blames, largely, the U.S. administration of Joe Biden for pressing ahead with the decision to pull out.

“Because it couldn’t negotiate a good deal with the Taliban, the U.S. handed over us to the Taliban, to a group that has ties to so many terrorist groups around the world,” he said. “They abandoned the new generation of Afghanistan.”

He fears that “a very bloody war” will break out between the Taliban and ISIS in the coming months and years, drawing foreign extremist fighters and leaving millions of innocent lives caught in the conflict.

That’s why leaving Afghanistan, he said, “hurts every moment.” But he couldn’t work for the future of his country while his life was at stake, he added. And yet, if things calm down to a degree, if a government is formed that guarantees certain conditions even while the Taliban remain in control, he’s pondering returning home.

“I always tell my friends that any strong country is strong because of the people who work for it, so we cannot leave our country forever,” Ahmadi said.

“We are a generation that has not seen any single day without war in Afghanistan, but if you want our future generations to see such a day, we have to work for our country.”

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

GOP rift widens amid growing hostility to Afghan refugees

By JILL COLVIN

August 28, 2021

In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, Finnish coalition forces assist evacuees for onward processing during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next year’s midterm elections.

Little more than a week ago, as the Taliban’s stunning takeover of Afghanistan still was snapping into focus, former President Donald Trump issued a statement saying “civilians and others who have been good to our Country ... should be allowed to seek refuge.” But in more recent days, he has turned to warning of the alleged dangers posed by those desperately trying to flee their country before an end-of-month deadline.

“How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America?” he asked.

As Republicans level blistering criticism at Biden during his first major foreign policy crisis, some are turning to the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric perfected by Trump during his four years in office. It’s causing dismay among others in the party who think the U.S. should look out for those who helped the Americans over the last two decades.

“I think these false narratives that these are a bunch of terrorists are just — they’re completely baseless in reality,” said Olivia Troye, a former White House homeland security adviser who currently serves as director of the Republican Accountability Project. “There’s no basis for this at all in terms of the intelligence and national security world.”

Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects “a general, overall increase” in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban — not just in the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a year or two down the road.

“There’s just a sense that we are less safe as a country as a result of this,” he said.

The Biden administration has stressed that every person cleared to come to the U.S. is being thoroughly vetted by officials working around the clock. But the refugees have become an emerging flash point, with Trump and his followers loudly demanding that Americans be prioritized for evacuation and warning of the potential dangers posed by Afghans being rescued in one of the world’s largest-ever civilian airlift operations.

That talk intensified Thursday after a suicide bombing ripped through the crowd at the Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and well over 150 Afghans.

“How many American military personnel have to die to evacuate unvetted refugees?” tweeted Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. “Get American citizens out and bring our troops home.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday toured the Doña Ana Range complex at Fort Bliss, where many refugees will be housed, and later tweeted the U.S. “should rescue Afghans who’ve assisted the US military, but they should go to a neutral & safe third country.

“They should NOT come to US w/o a FULL security vetting,” he said.

That followed a call Wednesday by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee, for the administration to brief lawmakers on their efforts to vet Afghan refugees and prevent terrorists from entering the country.

“In the chaotic situation left in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, we are particularly concerned that terrorists and others who wish to harm the United States may seek to infiltrate the country disguised as those who provided assistance to coalition forces in Afghanistan,” he wrote in letters to the secretaries of state and homeland security.

Still others, including Republican governors and members of Congress, have taken a different stance, welcoming refugees to their states and working furiously to help those trying to flee. On Capitol Hill, the effort to help Afghan friends and family of constituents is the rare undertaking that is consuming legislative offices of members of both parties.

The United States and its coalition partners have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,100 American citizens. While the administration’s explicitly stated priority is to evacuate Americans, the numbers reflect the demographics of those trying to flee.

U.S. officials believe about 500 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country; others are believed to want to stay. And many of the Afghans, including those who served as American interpreters and fixers and in other support capacities, are desperate to escape, fearing they will be prime targets for retribution by the Taliban once the U.S. leaves.

But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from accusing the Biden administration of failing to put Americans first.

“We’re actually prioritizing Afghan refugees more than we’re prioritizing our own citizens,” said Republican J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio and has made repeat television appearances blasting the administration’s approach.

On Fox Business Network, he claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. has “no knowledge” of 90% of the people being evacuated and said some have shown up on wide-ranging terror databases.

“They put Americans last in every single way, but Americans pay for it all,” echoed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has shot to prominence with incendiary statements.

Trump and his former policy adviser Stephen Miller, along with conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson, have taken things even further, using the same anti-immigrant language that was the hallmark of Trump’s 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

“You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn’t allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights,” Trump said. “Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world.”

Carlson has warned about Afghans invading America.

The rhetoric underscores the transformation of a party once led by neoconservatives who championed interventionist nation-building policies and invaded Afghanistan — followed by Iraq — nearly 20 years ago.

But not Republicans all are on board.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose office has been working around the clock to rescue the “countless” Afghans he says deserve evacuation, chastised those in his party invoking “terrorist” rhetoric.

“I would say that they need to do their homework,” he said. “When you talk to the people that we’ve spoken with, when you look at their service record ... when you recognize that they sleep in the same tents, they carry arms together, they’ve been in live firefights, how dare anyone question whether or not they deserve to come to this country or to a safe third country?”

“We’re not talking about just walking down the street and picking and choosing people,” Tillis added. “We know these people. We know who their children are. We know what their service record was. And quite honestly, somebody taking that position, each and every time they do, is insulting a service member who considers these people like brothers and sisters.”

Many of the Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. are doing so under the Special Immigrant Visa program designed specifically for individuals who worked with U.S. forces. Adam Bates, policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said that, due to their work, those individuals were extensively vetted by U.S. authorities before applying to the program — and are again extensively vetted “by a wide array of federal agencies” before the visas are granted.

Troye, who has spent significant time on the ground in Afghanistan over the years, said Americans became extremely close to the Afghans with whom they served.

“These people became like family to many of us,” she said. “It’s really shameful to see some of these Republicans speaking in this way about people who really risked their lives to help us, who were really our allies on the ground.”

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

THIRD WORLD USA

Anxious tenants await assistance as evictions resume

By MICHAEL CASEY and MICHELLE LIU

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2021 file photo, tenants' rights advocates demonstrate outside the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston. States have begun to ramp up the amount of rental assistance reaching tenants but there are still millions of families facing eviction who haven't gotten help. The Treasury Department says just $5.1 billion of the estimated $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance, or only 11%, has been distributed by states and localities through July. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, file)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Six months after Congress approved spending tens of billions of dollars to bail out renters facing eviction, South Carolina was just reaching its first tenants. All nine of them.

Like most states, it had plenty of money to distribute — $272 million. But it had handed out just over $36,000 by June. The pace has since intensified, but South Carolina still has only distributed $15.5 million in rent and utility payments as of Aug. 20, or about 6% of its funds.

“People are strangling on the red tape,” said Sandy Gillis, executive director of the Hilton Head Deep Well Project, which stopped referring tenants to the program and started paying overdue rent through its own private funds instead.

The struggles in South Carolina are emblematic of a program launched at the beginning of the year with the promise of solving the pandemic eviction crisis, only to fall victim in many states to bureaucratic hurdles, political inertia and unclear guidance at the federal level.

The concerns about the slow pace intensified Thursday, after the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some 3.5 million people in the U.S. as of Aug. 16 said they face eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

“The Supreme Court decision undermines historic efforts by Congress and the White House to ensure housing stability during the pandemic,” Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in a statement.

“State and local governments are working to improve programs to distribute emergency rental assistance to those in need, but they need more time; the Supreme Court’s decision will lead to many renters, predominantly people of color, losing their homes before the assistance can reach them.”

The Treasury Department said this week that just over $5.1 billion of the estimated $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance — only 11% — has been distributed by states and localities through July. This includes some $3 billion handed out by the end of June and another $1.5 billion by May 31.

Nearly a million households have been served and 70 places have gotten at least half their money out, including several states, among them Virginia and Texas, according to Treasury. New York, which hadn’t distributed anything through May, has now distributed more than $156 million.

But there are 16 states, according to the latest data, that had distributed less than 5% and nine that spent less than 3%. Most, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, are red states, often with tough-to-reach rural populations. Besides South Carolina, they include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Florida, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Mississippi and New Mexico.

There are myriad reasons for the slow distribution, according to the group. Among them is the historic amount of money — more than the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual budget — which required some 450 localities to create programs from scratch. Getting the money out is also complicated by the fact that checks aren’t sent directly to beneficiaries like, for example, the child tax credit.

States and localities have also struggled with technology and staffing, as well as reaching tenants without access to the internet, or small landlords unaware of the help. Some have applications so complicated they scare off prospective applicants or have income documentation and pandemic impact requirements that can be time-consuming.

Efforts to use coronavirus relief money for rental assistance last year faced similar challenges.

“A lot of states are lagging behind,” said Emma Foley, a research analyst with the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The fact that this many states still have distributed so little is worrisome.”

In South Carolina, lawmakers were slow to roll out the state’s program, waiting until April to charge the state housing authority with distributing the money. It took weeks to set up its program, with the first help not going out until June.

Housing advocates have also criticized the reams of documentation required and the months of waiting for tenants to find out whether they qualify.

Shaquarryah Fraiser applied in May and is still waiting to hear whether she will get help paying months of back rent for the mobile home she rented with her mother for $550 a month in Sumter, South Carolina. Fraiser’s mother died of COVID-19 last year, and the 29-year-old fell behind after getting sick herself with pneumonia and losing her phone survey job.


“It’ll take a lot of stress off of me. I won’t be so anxious about this situation,” said Fraiser of the prospect of getting the help.

In Arizona, delays have led to plenty of finger-pointing.

Arizona’s House Democrats this month blamed the state for the delays in getting the money out — less than $7 million of its $900 million through July.

Arizona’s Department of Economic Security points out the federal money has been allocated to 13 different jurisdictions, not just the state, and blames cities and counties for the slow rollout.

“We have offered to assist overwhelmed jurisdictions with their workloads,” the department’s director Michael Wisehart wrote in a response to lawmakers. “Regrettably, no jurisdiction has chosen to partner in this way.”

Meanwhile, Arizona landlords and housing nonprofits blamed much of the problem on regulatory requirements tied to the money.

Mississippi, which has given out $18.6 million of its $200 million through Aug. 23, has struggled to reach smaller landlords and renters, many of whom live in rural areas without internet access. In addition, the state has no data base of renters — prompting it to hold events statewide to connect with potential applicants.

The Mississippi Home Corporation, which runs the program, also sent a letter to judges asking them not to allow an eviction if someone has applied for help and to inform landlords they won’t get help if they evict after the moratorium ends. The agency also relaxed documentation requirements in 50 of its counties. But the program will still require proof of income and other documents in 32 other counties.

“You’re trying to walk this line of speed and diligence,” said Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Home Corporation. “We are trying to make sure there is no fraud, waste and abuse and that we’re only giving assistance to the people who are entitled to it.”

The Treasury Department has repeatedly tweaked its guidance to encourage states and local governments to streamline the distribution of funds. The Biden administration has also asked states to create eviction diversion program s that aim to resolve disputes before they reach the courts.

On Wednesday, Treasury released additional guidance to try to speed up the process. This includes allowing tenants to self-assess their income and risk of becoming homeless among other criteria. Many states and localities, fearing fraud, have measures in place that can take weeks to verify an applicant qualifies for help.

Treasury also said money can be distributed in advance of funds being approved as well as to tenants who have outstanding rental debt in collection, making it easier for them to find new housing.

“There is no question we are seeing a level of excessive caution in getting the money out that does not seem to reflect either the flexibilities Treasury has provided or the fact we are facing a true public health and eviction emergency,” said Gene Sperling, who is charged with overseeing implementation of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package.

He said the new guidance is “going the extra mile to provide even more clarity and strong encouragement to put getting immediate relief out ahead of unnecessary and time-consuming paperwork.”

___

Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Anita Snow in Phoenix and Leah Willingham in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.

ISRAEL SHOOT TO KILL ORDERS

Gaza protesters clash with Israeli troops near the border
By WAFAA SHURAFA

August 28, 2021

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Protesters take cover next to tires on fire near the fence of Gaza Strip border with Israel during a protest east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. Hundreds of Palestinians on Wednesday demonstrated near the Israeli border in the southern Gaza Strip, calling on Israel to ease a crippling blockade days after a similar gathering ended in deadly clashes with the Israeli army. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of Hamas-backed activists on Saturday launched what they said was the first in a series of nighttime protests along the Israeli border, throwing explosives toward Israeli forces who responded with live fire.

Organizers said the gatherings, which are to continue throughout the week, were meant to step up pressure on Israel to ease a crippling economic blockade on the Gaza Strip.

“The occupation will not enjoy calm unless the siege on our beloved land is lifted,” said Abu Omar, a spokesman for the protesters.

Israel and Egypt have maintained the blockade since Hamas, a group sworn to Israel’s destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won Palestinian elections.

The blockade, which restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, has ravaged the territory’s economy. Israel has tightened the closure since an 11-day war in May, demanding the return of the remains of two dead soldiers and freedom for two Israeli civilians believed to be in Hamas captivity.

Amateur footage and photos from inside Gaza showed hundreds of Palestinians protesters engaged in Saturday’s gathering. Some appeared to be throwing explosives and chanting in celebrations as blasts sounded.

The Israeli military said troops responded to the explosives by firing live rounds toward the protesters. It said there were no injuries on the Israeli side.

Gaza health officials said three protesters were wounded by Israeli fire.

Earlier Saturday, Gaza health officials said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died from head wounds after being shot during a similar demonstration a week earlier.

Another Palestinian man, identified as a member of Hamas’ military wing, was also killed in that protest, while an Israeli soldier was shot in the head from point-blank range by a protester. The soldier remains in critical condition.

Hamas-linked operatives also launched a number of incendiary balloons from Gaza Saturday afternoon, sparking two fires in southern Israel, according to the Israeli fire service.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought four wars and numerous skirmishes since 2007. Israel says the closure is necessary to prevent Hamas from gathering arms while critics say the blockade amounts to collective punishment.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a longer-term cease-fire that would ease the blockade and appeared to be making progress last week when it pressured Hamas to restrain a border protest on Wednesday.

The following day, Israel said it was easing some of the commercial restrictions on Gaza, allowing vehicles, goods and equipment for rebuilding projects to enter the Palestinian enclave. Israel said the easing could expand further if things remain quiet.

The Israeli government reached an agreement with Qatar on Aug. 19 allowing the Gulf country to resume aid payments to families in Gaza, a move aimed at reducing tensions with Hamas. Israel suspended aid payments in May, saying the move was necessary to ensure Hamas did not benefit from cash injections.

But Saturday night’s protest indicated violence could soon escalate again.

At least 260 Palestinians were killed during May’s Gaza-Israel war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.

Relatives of Palestinian Omar al-Nile, 12, who was shot on Saturday during a violent demonstration on the eastern border between Gaza and Israel, react during his funeral in the family home in Gaza City, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

'March on for voting rights' on anniversary of March on Washington


Demonstrators rally Satuday before marching to the National Mall on the 58th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A "March on for Voting Rights" demonstration was held Saturday in cities across the country to mark the 58th anniversary of the historic "March on Washington" when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Organizers of Saturday's march, including Martin Luther King III, his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, said in a statement they are demanding that the "I Have a Dream" speech "be deferred no longer."

Specifically, the march is calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For the People Act and bypass the filibuster if necessary. Millions are expected to join the march in Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston and Miami, another statement shows.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2013, dealt a blow to a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law to prohibit racial discrimination in voting in August 1965. The provision required states with a history of discrimination to obtain federal permission before changing voting procedures.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For the People Act seek to restore the strength of the VRA of 1965. The "March on For Voting Rights" event also calls for the passage of the D.C. Admission Act for D.C. statehood, which would allow voting representation for residents in the capital.

McPherson Square filled up Saturday morning as people prepared to march to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., NBC Philadelphia reported. An estimated 75,000 people were expected to join the march in the capital.

A plan to mitigate COVID-19 spread is in place, including "everything from requiring masks to social distancing," National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterist told NBC Philadelphia.

RELATED House Democrats pass John Lewis Voting Rights Act

King III, Waters King, Sharpton, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, youth organizers and community organizers were among the people scheduled to speak on the stage.

Bowser led the crowd in a chant "Free D.C.!" in call for D.C. statehood.

"Some 58 years later, we're still fighting for voting rights and equal rights," said Henry Lewis, brother of the late civil rights activist John Lewis, who received a fractured skull after Alabama state troopers beat him during the so-called "Bloody Sunday" march for voting rights in 1965.

"That kind of tells me that it's not a weeklong fight, or a month, or a year, it's a lifelong fight."

Other speakers included King Jr.'s granddaughter and activist Yolanda King; Philonise Floyd, activist and brother of George Floyd; and NAACP President Derrick Johnson.

"Coretta Scott King told us, 'Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation," Waters King, who is also president of the Drum Major Institute, which carries on Dr. King's non-violent work, said in a statement to CNN. "Now is the time to earn and win our sacred right to vote. It is up to us to remind Congress they represent the people, and the people demand the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act."

The "March on for Voting Rights" will protest 389 bills introduced in 48 states "that amount to shameful, outright voter suppression," another statement on the march's website said.

"These laws suppress voting methods that enrich our democracy and lead to high turnout: banning ballot drop boxes and mail-in voting, reducing early voting days and hours, restricting who can get a mail-in ballot, prohibiting officials from promoting the use of mail-in ballots even when voters qualify, even criminalizing the distribution of water to voters waiting in the long lines these laws create," the statement said.

Leaders of the "March on for Voting Rights" said they are carrying the same resilient spirit as leaders in the civil rights movement who kept marching for voting rights after leaders in the movement, such as Medgar Evers and Jimmie Lee Jackson, were killed, CNN reported.

Prior to the historic "I Have a Dream" speech, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith killed Evers, an NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader who organized voter registration drives in his driveway in June 1963.

In February 1965, months before the passage of the VRA, James Bonard Fowler fatally shot Jackson, a church deacon, as he tried to protect his mother during a voting rights march in Marion, Ala.

Marchers across US call on Congress to bolster voting rights
By BRIAN SLODYSKO and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN

August 28, 2021

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The Rev. Al Sharpton, third from right in front, holds a banner with Martin Luther King, III, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, second from right, and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, right, among others, during the march to call for sweeping protections against a further erosion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of voting rights advocates rallied across the country Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws that would wipe out voting restrictions advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot.

Many activists view the fight over voting rules as the civil rights issue of the era. But frustrations have mounted for months because two expansive election bills have stalled in the U.S. Senate, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans and the measures lack the votes to overcome a GOP blockade.

The rallies, which were held in dozens of cities, were intended to increase pressure on Democrats to rewrite procedural rules that would allow Democrats to muscle the legislation through without Republican votes. But they were also aimed at coaxing President Joe Biden to become a more forceful advocate on the issue.

“You said the night you won that Black America had your back, and that you were going to have Black Americans’ backs,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize the national demonstrations, said at a rally in Washington. “Well, Mr. President, they’re stabbing us in the back.”

More than a thousand people turned out in sweltering heat on the National Mall on Saturday, the 58th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

His son Martin Luther King III used the occasion to call on the Senate to scrap the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes for most legislation, including the voting bills, to advance.

“Our country is backsliding to the unconscionable days of Jim Crow. And some of our senators are saying, ‘Well, we can’t overcome the filibuster,’” King told the crowd. “I say to you today: Get rid of the filibuster. That is a monument to white supremacy we must tear down.”

At one point, nearly a dozen state lawmakers from Texas who had sought to block changes to their state’s elections laws, strolled onto the stage at the National Mall and were hailed as patriots.

“Texas is the worst state to vote in, in the entire nation,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Houston.

Even as rally participants pushed for stronger protections, Republican lawmakers in Texas were on the brink of passing an overhaul of its voting laws, including restrictions on voting by mail, limits on when voters can cast ballots and other measures that Republicans say would improve the integrity of its elections.

Texas would be the latest state to pass new laws, following moves in other Republican-controlled states like Arizona, Florida and Georgia to put in place similar restrictions — efforts driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Congressional Democrats have responded to the Republican efforts to make it harder to vote by approving legislation earlier this week that would restore sections of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. The bill would require the Justice Department to once again police changes to voting laws in states with a history of restricting the vote, a practice that was put on hold by the Supreme Court in 2013.

But unless Democrats make changes to the Senate procedural rules, passage of the bill, as well as a separate measure that would establish national election standards, remains unlikely.

In a video posted on Twitter earlier in the day, Vice President Kamala Harris urged Congress to pass legislation that she said was needed to push back against Republicans in Texas, Florida and other states.

“The country is changing. The demographics are changing. And (Republicans) think that if they don’t get ahead of it and suppress the vote, they ain’t gonna have a say in it,” said Ken Jones, 72, of Atlanta, who traveled to Washington with his wife, Paula, to attend the rally.

Angela Hill, 61, who lives in the Washington area, attended the rally with her daughter because she is “alarmed” by Republican efforts to make it harder to vote. In spite of Trump’s false claims of a stolen victory, Republican and Democratic election officials across the country certified the outcome and Trump’s own attorney general said he saw no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

“Why was it necessary for Republican states to try and make it more difficult to vote? Things went well in this election,” Hill said.

Marches were also scheduled for Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and other cities under the banner of “March On for Voting Rights,” organized by Sharpton and King. Because of concerns over the fast-spreading delta variant of COVID-19, a march in Houston did not go on as planned.

A daughter of the late civil rights leader, Bernice King, led the march in Atlanta. In an interview with The Associated Press, she called for “new levels of civil disobedience” to push against voting restrictions.

“We’re going to have to disrupt some things. We’ve got to disturb this country to the point that people who are still uninvolved and on the periphery to get involved in some fashion,” she said.

In Phoenix, the Rev. Terry Mackey, the pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, urged those attending an indoor rally to honor those who fought and shed blood for voting rights.

“I want you to stand up and fight,” he said, “until every person in this state has the same voting rights as anybody else.”

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Calvan reported from New York. Associated Press writers Alex Sanz in Atlanta and Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Bernie Sanders sells big government’s virtues in red states

By WILL WEISSERT and DARRON CUMMINGS

August 27, 2021

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during town hall at Tippecanoe County Amphitheater, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, in West Lafayette, Ind. “My Republican colleagues are telling everybody that Bernie Sanders and the Democrats are going to raise taxes. You're right, we’re gonna raise them on the richest people in this country,” Sanders said to the cheers of about 1,500 who braved sweltering heat and humidity at the outdoor amphitheater. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)



WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Bernie Sanders has long argued — but not proved — that his big government populism can win over voters in the largely white, rural communities that flocked to Republican Donald Trump in recent elections.

Now, as the chief Senate shepherd of a $3.5 trillion budget proposal, Sanders believes he has another chance to test the theory.

The Vermont senator is in Trump country this weekend, promoting a budget plan packed with progressive initiatives and financed by higher taxes on top earners. He’s targeting two congressional districts where Trump’s vote totals increased between 2016 and 2020.




“My Republican colleagues are telling everybody that Bernie Sanders and the Democrats are going to raise taxes. You’re right, we’re gonna raise them on the richest people in this country,” Sanders said to the cheers of more than 2,000 who braved sweltering heat and humidity at an outdoor amphitheater in West Lafayette, Indiana on Friday evening.

Sanders has a similar event set for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday. He’s noting the difference between the two parties since congressional Republicans in years past approved tax cuts for wealthy Americans but are expected to universally oppose a plan Sanders calls “the most consequential piece of legislation” since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.

It could be a tough sell for the face of the progressive movement. Republicans have already begun using Sanders — along with fellow democratic socialist and New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez — in ads warning voters that the country is edging toward socialism.

Sanders saw his political star first rise to national prominence by nearly winning the 2016 Democratic Iowa caucus, and he won that year’s Indiana Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. As he pushed his party to the left and drew in voters frustrated by mainstream Democrats, Sanders and his supporters advocated for reaching beyond the traditional base by making appeals to the white, working class that can attract Republicans or nonvoters.

“He has a lot of credibility with a lot of audiences that aren’t just progressive,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the progressive advocacy group the Working Families Party. “He an outsider. He’s a populist. And, in fact, the thing that we’ve always said works best against rightwing populism is progressive populism.”

But evidence that Sanders has particular sway with Trump voters is limited. According to data from the Pew Research Center, only about 3% percent of people who consistently supported Sanders during 2016 the primary season, and were confirmed to have voted in the general election, said they ultimately supported Trump, compared to 81% who reported voting for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in February 2020 found that 17% of Republicans had a favorable view of Sanders, roughly the same share of Republicans who had a favorable view of Biden.

Sanders is making his case anew based on a budget proposal that promises universal pre-kindergarten and tuition-free community college, while increasing federal funding for child care, paid family leave and combating climate change. It also expands health care coverage through Medicare, creates pathways to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally and encourages states to adopt labor-friendly laws.

Republicans say the plan is loaded with unnecessary spending and tax increases. But Democrats, as long as they stay united, can use their narrow advantage in each congressional chamber to muscle it through anyway.

“This is the peoples’ budget. This is the budget that will impact tens of millions of lives in this country: the elderly, the children, the working families, the middle class,” Sanders said in an interview before Friday’s rally. “So it is appropriate to me that the chairman of the budget committee get out and around the country, hear what people have to say. Explain what we’re trying to do.”

Although Sanders is heading to red states, his trip isn’t exactly into hostile territory. His 2016 and 2020 presidential bids were popular with college students and West Lafayette is home to Purdue University. Many of Friday’s attendees were college-aged and wore Sanders shirts from his past campaigns. Some of the loudest cheers came when the senator said he supports canceling all student debt — even though the budget proposal doesn’t go nearly that far.

Sanders similarly remains popular in Iowa, which means Sunday’s event there may attract far more of his longstanding supporters than potentially persuadable Republicans.

Still Sanders scoffed at suggestions that his presidential campaigns were more successful at energizing wealthy liberals than at growing his party’s appeal with crossover voters.

“Poll after poll shows that the American people want the wealthiest people, large corporations, to pay their fair share. This is not wealthy liberals, this is working class Americans,” Sanders said.

There is some bipartisan support for key parts of the budget proposal. A July AP-NORC poll found that at least 4 in 10 Republicans said they supported funding for free preschool, affordable housing, broadband internet, and local transit, and close to 3 in 10 reported supporting funding for free community college.

Sanders’ trip follows President Joe Biden and his allies traveling the country to promote the administration’s efforts to strengthen the post-coronavirus pandemic economy. There are no plans for Sanders and Biden, two former presidential campaign rivals, to travel together to promote the proposed budget, though Sanders said he wouldn’t oppose doing so.

The administration’s economic agenda has been overshadowed in recent days by violence and chaos in Afghanistan. But Sanders says Americans from across the political spectrum understand that what’s occurring there and with their pocketbooks back home “are separate issues.”

Republicans believe Sanders hitting the road could ultimately hurt his party during next year’s midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

“Democrats’ embrace of socialism helped us pick up seats in 2020,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Berg “and will continue to help us in the midterms.”

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AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

Jury finds man guilty of murder of Washington transgender teen


Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A jury has found a man guilty for the 2019 murder of a Washington transgender teen.

The jury convicted David Bogdanov, 27, Friday, of second-degree murder of Nikki Kuhnhausen, 17, in December 2019, and malicious harassment of her under the state's hate crime statute, according to Clark County Superior Court records, CNN reported.

Kuhnhausen went missing in June 2019 and her remains were found six months later in a heavily wooded area of Larch Mountain near Vancouver, Wash., KGW8 reported.

Police tracked down Bogdanov, who had been messaging with Kuhnhausen on Snapchat the day of her disappearance, through social media and phone records.

Bogdnaov became enraged after he found out Kuhnhausen was biologically male and killer her, prosecutors said.

Bogdanov was the only person to testify in his defense, and he argued he strangled Kuhnhausen with a cord of cellphone charger but it was in self-defense after she reached for a gun.

He also testified that he would be ashamed if his family found out he had been with a transgender woman.

Sentencing is slated for Sept. 9.

Outrage over Kuhnhausen's murder led to the passage of the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act, which limits a legal strategy known as LGBTQ+ "panic defense" based on victim identity such as disclosure of gender identity or sexual orientation in a romantic or sexual relationship.

Biden plans to raise federal civilian employee pay 2.7% next year

President Joe Biden announced plans to raise federal civilian employees pay next year. Photo by Pete Marovich/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden has announced plans to raise federal civilian employee pay on Jan. 1.
He announced the pay raise in a letter to congressional leaders Friday.

"Specifically, I have determined that for 2022, the across-the-board base pay increase will be 2.2% and locality increases will average 0.5%, resulting in an overall average increase of 2.7% for civilian federal employees," Biden said in the letter.

He added that the plan was consistent with his fiscal year 2022 budget.

In the letter, Biden cited federal code which allows him to adjust pay for federal civilian employees due to "national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare."

If lawmakers enact different pay increase rates, those would take precedent over Biden's plans, but otherwise the proposed pay increase will automatically take effect Jan. 1. Some 2.1 million executive branch employees would receive the raise. But it would not apply to the more than 600,000 U.S. Postal Service employees since their raises are established through bargaining. Cost-of-living for federal retirees would also be determined separately using Social Security benefits inflation measure.

Former President Donald Trump raised civilian federal employees pay 1% this year, without any change in locality pay despite a last-minute attempt to freeze the pay raise.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which has called for a 3.2% increase, said in a statement that it appreciated Biden's proposal, which was "a vast improvement over the previous administration's attempts to freeze federal pay."

"However, federal employee pay increases have lagged for years and there is still a very real gap between federal pay and comparable payment in the private sector," the statement added. "We will continue to urge Congress to implement an average 2.2% increase across the board, plus a 1% boost toward locality pay."

Biden signed an executive order in April that requires federal contractors implement a $15 per hour minimum wage by March 30.

U.S., France shaped Haiti's long history of political turmoil

By Jean Eddy Saint Paul, Brooklyn College

Rescuers search for victims and survivors on August 17, three days after an earthquake shook Les Cayes, Haiti. Photo by Orlando Barria/EPA-EFE

Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The powerful earthquake that struck Haiti on Aug. 14 followed a long series of natural and human-caused disasters to rock the country. Unfortunately, if history offers any clues, earthquake relief efforts will be complicated by the nation's recent political unrest.

President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated less than six weeks earlier, on July 7. Many Haitians felt hatred for the controversial president who, while running for office, was bribed by the oligarchy that has run Haiti's economy since the 19th century.

Moïse campaigned on a promise to feed the starving population. But he failed to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth. He soon became an unpopular president who increasingly ruled as an autocrat.

As a sociology professor who has written extensively on Haitian politics, I predicted Moïse's assassination.

That's because Moïse remained defiant in the face of mass protests in 2019, refusing to heed calls for his resignation amid fuel shortages and spiraling inflation.

There was also a palpable split between Moïse and powerful business magnates as the country's economic crisis worsened.

Presidential assassinations

Moïse is the latest of five Haitian presidents to be killed in office since the country's founding in 1804.

Power struggles and strong economic interests, both local and with other nations -- mainly the United States -- have motivated those assassinations. Throughout Haitian history, the United States has been actively engaged in undermining the legitimacy of Haitian leaders who refused to bow to American imperialism.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti's founding father, proclaimed the country's independence from France on Jan. 1, 1804, after a 12-year war.

One of his first executive orders was intended to prevent the abuse of land ownership. It called for a fair distribution of land among racial groups in a country that had won independence because of strategic alliances among Blacks, biracial people and a few White soldiers.

Dessalines is often portrayed by mainstream media as a cannibal and assassin. That's because he was abhorred by White Europeans and Americans -- leaders of the global economic system who were intimidated by the Haitian Revolution.

Additionally, the elites in Dessalines' circle disapproved of the power he had concentrated, and they assassinated him on Oct. 17, 1806.

His death accelerated Haiti's political disintegration.

Monroe Doctrine

The 30 billion euros in today's currency that Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay France in 1825 as compensation for property losses during the war has destabilized the country.

It has also allowed foreign powers to undermine Haiti's sovereignty.

In 1823, the United States passed the Monroe Doctrine, which says "that the American continents ... are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." The declaration, meant to keep Europe out of the continent, has justified U.S. interventions in the region.

Between 1889 and 1891, the United States unsuccessfully negotiated with Haiti to acquire the Môle St. Nicholas port, which would have given it a military foothold in the Caribbean.

More than 20 years later, the murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam offered the United States the perfect rationale to invade Haiti.

On same day as Sam's assassination, July 28, 1915, Woodrow Wilson authorized the American warship USS Washington to invade Haiti. The United States occupied Haiti until 1934.

During that occupation, U.S. officials altered Haiti's Constitution to allow foreigners to become landowners. That change also gave the United States control of Haiti's customs agency and finances.

Racial discrimination and segregation were the norm in the U.S. South at the time, and most U.S. Marines sent to Haiti were Southerners, accustomed to Jim Crow.

This Southern influence among U.S. Marines played a big role in Haitian history. During the occupation, the United States picked only light-skinned Haitians to serve as presidents. And after 19 years in the country, the United States. left behind a racially divided society that remains intact today.

U.S.-trained army

The United States also trained the Haitian military ideologically to defend U.S. interests. These forces eventually engineered many coups against Haitian leaders who were popular with locals but rejected by the United States.

Between 1946 and 1950, under the presidency of Dumarsais Estimé, Haiti enjoyed political and social stability. However, on May 10, 1950, Paul-Eugène Magloire, trained during the U.S. occupation, overthrew Estimé and changed Haiti's political trajectory.

Magloire established a corrupt political regime. Then the army provided support for U.S.-backed François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, from his presidential election in 1957 to the establishment in 1959 of his dictatorship.

In 1959, Duvalier created the Tontons Macoutes, a paramilitary group trained by U.S. Marines that killed more than 60,000 Haitians. The Duvalier regime, led by Papa Doc's son Jean-Claude after his death in 1971, lasted until 1986.

The Aristide era

Between 1991 and 2004, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- who won over Haitians with his anti-imperialism -- was overthrown twice by the Haitian military.

On Sept. 29, 1991, the army, with CIA help, removed Aristide from power for his nationalistic views, and for his attempts to hold accountable powerful business leaders with strong ties to Washington.

On Oct. 15, 1994, amid huge protests, the Bill Clinton administration restored Aristide to power, after Washington coerced him to sign l'Accord de Paris, an agreement to reinforce the implementation of market-oriented reform policies in Haiti that reduced local influence over the economy.

Aristide was forced to privatize social services and public institutions, and he had to facilitate the entry of foreign agricultural goods into the Haitian market. These moves undermined the economy and compromised Haiti's social development.

In 2000, Aristide again won the presidency. But a February 2004 coup, engineered by Washington and Paris, overthrew him once more.

Under foreign influence, Haitian politicians have been unable to develop a stable society for their fellow citizens. Because of their lack of vision and their erroneous conception of political power, they have given powerful transnational forces the opportunity to shape Haiti's political leadership.

Both Democratic and Republican U.S. politicians have imposed on Haitian society a political leadership supportive of U.S. interests but noxious for any nation-building project on the Caribbean island.Jean Eddy Saint Paul is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Wildfire smoke may raise odds for preterm delivery, study says
By HealthDay News

Smoke from wildfires, such as 2020's Glass Fire in Napa County, Calif., may increase risk of pre-term birth, according to new research. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

The health impact of wildfires is already huge, and new research suggests it might also raise a mom-to-be's risk for preterm birth, according to a new study.

Wildfire smoke contains high levels of PM 2.5, the deadliest type of pollution from particles so fine they can embed deep in the lungs and pass into the bloodstream.

"In the future, we expect to see more frequent and intense exposure to wildfire smoke throughout the West due to [many] factors, including climate change, a century of fire suppression and construction of more homes along the fire-prone fringes of forests, scrublands and grasslands," said study author Sam Heft-Neal, a research scholar at Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment.

"As a result, the health burden from smoke exposure -- including preterm births -- is likely to increase," he said in a university news release.

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The new research found that as many as 7,000 preterm births between 2007 and 2012 may have been caused by wildfire smoke exposure. These births occurred before 37 weeks of pregnancy, increasing the risk of neurodevelopmental, gastrointestinal and respiratory complications for the baby, and possibly death.

In the worst smoke year of the study period, 2008, wildfire smoke may have contributed to more than 6% of preterm births in California.

That fire has now been surpassed by record-setting blazes in 2020 and the ongoing Dixie fire in Northern California.

For this new study, the researchers combined data on smoke plumes with estimates of ground-level PM 2.5 pollution and California birth records.

RELATED Pollution from wildfires may increase COVID-19 risk in affected regions, study finds

They analyzed satellite data to identify smoke days for each of 2,610 ZIP codes.

The ground-level pollution estimates were developed using a machine learning algorithm that incorporates data from air quality sensors, satellite observations and computer models of how chemicals move through Earth's atmosphere.

The researchers accounted for other factors that can influence preterm birth risk, then looked at how patterns of preterm birth within each zip code changed when the number and intensity of smoke days rose above normal for that location.

RELATED Study: Wildfires ravage firefighters' long-term physical, mental health

While only an association was seen, they found that every additional day of smoke exposure during pregnancy raised the risk of preterm birth.

A full week of exposure meant a 3.4% greater risk compared to a pregnant woman who had no exposure to wildfire smoke.

Exposure to intense smoke during the second trimester, which is between 14 and 26 weeks of pregnancy, had the strongest impact.

It's possible that the pollution may trigger an inflammatory response that sets delivery in 

The increase in risk is relatively small in the context of all the factors that contribute to the birth of a healthy, full-term baby, they noted.

"However, against a backdrop where we know so little about why some women deliver too soon, prematurely, and why others do not, finding clues like the one here helps us start piecing the bigger puzzle together," said co-author Gary Shaw, a professor of pediatrics research and co-primary investigator of Stanford's March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center.

"If one can avoid smoke exposure by staying indoors or wearing an appropriate mask while outdoors, that would be good health practice for all," Shaw said in the release.

In 2020, a historic wildfire season that produced some of the worst daily air pollution ever recorded in California. This year could be worse, said Stanford environmental economist and co-author Marshall Burke. The full health impacts of these pollutants are unknown.

"Our work, together with a number of other recent papers, clearly shows that there's no safe level of exposure to particulate matter. Any exposure above zero can worsen health impacts," Burke said.

The findings were published recently in the journal Environmental Research.More information

The March of Dimes has more information on the impact of preterm births.

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