Peru vote review can resume as new judge sworn in

Issued on: 26/06/2021 - 

Peru's leftist presidential candidate Pedro Castillo, pictured June 25, 2021, took a majority of votes according to the unconfirmed count Jose Carlos ANGULO AFP/File


Lima (AFP)

Challenges to balloting in Peru's disputed June 6 presidential election can resume as a new judge was sworn in Saturday to the panel overseeing vote disputes.

Leftist Pedro Castillo took a majority of votes, according to the unconfirmed count, in an election his right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori -- charged with corruption in an unrelated scandal -- claims was riddled with fraud.

The election has not been called due to the fraud claims from the Fujimori camp, which asked the National Jury of Elections (JNE), the final vote arbiter, to review thousands of votes

If she loses, Fujimori risks an imminent graft trial that would otherwise be delayed until after her presidential term.

One of four JNE judges, Luis Arce, announced Wednesday that he "declined" to continue his duties, from which he cannot resign under law until the job at hand is done.

On Saturday Victor Raul Rodriguez was sworn in as Arce's replacement.

"Electoral justice cannot remain paralyzed or blocked," said Jorge Luis Salas, the top JNE official.

Salas has endured fierce criticism from Fujimori supporters and even demonstrations outside his home.

The JNE has had to weather a highly polarized political environment that has seen large demos in favor of Fujimori and Castillo, including two in Lima on Saturday.

The situation was further rocked this week by the airing of audio from Vladimiro Montesions, the nefarious intelligence chief under Fujimori's father Alberto Fujimori (who was president from 1990-2000). Montesions is currently serving time for human rights abuses.

In the audio the imprisoned Montesinos gives instructions to buy three of the four JNE magistrates and throw the election for Fujimori.

According to the full vote count, Castillo received 50.12 percent of the votes in the election, or some 44,000 more than Fujimori.

The United States has declared the vote "free, fair, accessible and peaceful" and the Organization of American States has said it was without any "serious irregularities."

The JNE has already rejected the majority of Fujimori's objections.

Peru's new president is due to be sworn in on July 28, the country's independence day. 

Protesters clash with Palestinian security forces
AFP 5 hrs ago

Palestinian protesters clashed with Palestinian security forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday, AFP reporters said, the third day of demonstrations sparked by an activist's death in custody.

© ABBAS MOMANI Protesters lift Palestinian flags and placards depicting human rights activist Nizar Banat who died while in the custody of Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces, during a demonstration protesting his death in Ramallah

© ABBAS MOMANI A man stands alone during clashes between Palestinian protesters and Palestinian security forces in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on June 26, 2021

Nizar Banat, a 43-year-old from Hebron known for social media videos denouncing alleged corruption within the Palestinian Authority (PA), died on Thursday shortly after security forces stormed his house and violently arrested him, his family said.

 Ahmad GHARABLI A Palestinian plain-clothes security officer hurls a projectile amid clashes with demonstrators protesting the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat in Ramallah

On Saturday, hundreds took to the streets of Ramallah, the seat of the PA in the occupied West Bank, calling for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to quit.

Protester Ismat Mansour said the death of Banat was just "the tip of the iceberg" while accusing the PA of "a mountain of corruption" and demanding that elections be held.

Others held up placards directed at Abbas' PA that simply said "leave".

Security officers in riot gear blocked off streets.

An AFP photographer said protesters hurled rocks at security forces, who responded by launching a barrage of tear gas canisters to break up the crowds.

It was not immediately possible to confirm if there were any injuries following the protests on Saturday.

Banat had registered as a candidate in Palestinian parliamentary elections, which had been set for May until Abbas postponed them indefinitely.

Banat's family said the forces used pepper spray on him, beat him badly and dragged him away in a vehicle.

Samir Abu Zarzour, the doctor who carried out the autopsy, said injuries on Banat's body indicated he had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, with less than hour elapsing between his arrest and his death.

On Thursday, after news spread of his death, some 300 people gathered in Ramallah, as well as in Banat's hometown of Hebron.

On Friday, thousands of mourners attended his funeral in Hebron, with crowds there chanting angry slogans against the PA, as well as at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Banat's death also sparked condemnation from the United States, United Nations and European Union.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said an investigation had been launched.

The PA exercises limited powers over some 40 percent of the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Israel, which controls all access to the territory and coordinates with the PA, directly administers the remaining 60 percent.

bur-pjm/dv

PURIFICATION BY FIRE

CAWSTON, B.C. — Mounties are investigating after they say two more Catholic churches in British Columbia's southern Interior were destroyed in early-morning fires.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

RCMP say the Princeton detachment got a report at 3:52 a.m. that St. Ann's Catholic Church on Upper Similkameen Indian Band land, near Hedley, B.C., was on fire.

Another report came in to the Keremeos detachment at 4:45 a.m. that a Catholic church on Lower Similkameen land at Chopaka, near the U.S. border, was ablaze.

The Mounties say they're treating both fires as suspicious and looking for possible connection to fires that destroyed two other Catholic churches in the region.

Sgt. Jason Bayda with the Penticton South Okanagan RCMP says in a statement that police investigations into the fires early last week on First Nations lands around Osoyoos and Oliver are ongoing, with no arrests or charges so far.

The fires come less than a month after the discovery of what's believed to be the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at a former residential school site in Kamloops.

Video: Police investigate 2 suspicious church fires on Indigenous lands in B.C. (cbc.ca)

Lower Similkameen Chief Keith Crow says Catholic community members were devastated by the fires and by the discovery of the graves.


"If you're hurting at this time, please reach out to somebody and make the call. There is a lot of upset people and it's ... heartbreaking," he said in a phone interview.

The small church in Chopaka was built more than 100 years ago and hosted a service a couple of weeks ago, Crow added.

The fire at that church had spread to nearby brush before being extinguished by crews with the B.C. Wildfire Services, the RCMP statement said.

Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced Thursday that ground-penetrating radar indicated 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation said last month the discovery in Kamloops was made using the same technology.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Study suggests correlation between high levels of pollution and Covid-19 deaths

From 16 cities across 36 states, Pune and Mumbai were the two cities picked from Maharashtra (falling under zone 6) for the study

Smoke is seen coming out of a crematorium's chimney where Covid-19 dead bodies are cremated at Yerwada in Pune. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

PUNE NEWS
By Steffy Thevar
PUBLISHED ON JUN 26, 2021
HINDUSTAN TIMES

A study involving various experts from across the country found a correlation between high levels of pollution and Covid-19 deaths. The study shows that Maharashtra has recorded the second-highest annual particulate matter 2.5 emission loads in India and has also recorded the highest number of Covid-19 related deaths which indicates a link between air pollution and Covid-19, both of which directly impact the respiratory system.

The study titled ‘Establishing a link between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) zones and Covid -19 over India based on anthropogenic emission sources and air quality data’ also provided the first evidence about how people living in highly polluted areas are vulnerable to Covid-19 infection.

It is authored by Dr Saroj Kumar Sahu, PG environment sciences and Poonam Mangaraj, PG environment sciences from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar; Dr Gufran Beig, senior scientist; Suvarna Tikle, a scientist from IITM-Pune; Bhishma Tyagi, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and V Vinoj, IIT-Bhubaneswar.

In the study, Covid-19 cases were observed between March 2020 to November 2020, while national PM 2.5 emissions load were estimated from the base year 2019.

For the study authors divided specific areas into different hotspot zones across India. From 16 cities across 36 states, Pune and Mumbai were the two cities picked from Maharashtra (falling under zone 6) for the study. Also, Pune and Mumbai are among the Covid-19 hotspots in the country, where high air pollution from the transport and industrial sectors are having a visible relationship with a higher number of Covid-19 cases and casualties.

Engineer reportedly warned in 2018 of ‘major damage’ at Miami condo complex

Four people confirmed dead and 159 still unaccounted for as search-and-rescue teams work around the clock

‘Praying for a miracle’: desperate search goes on



00:33Video shows collapse of Miami-area condo building


Richard Luscombe in Miami
@richlusc
Sat 26 Jun 2021 17.48 BST

Engineers flagged concerns of “major structural damage” at a south Florida condominium complex three years before its deadly collapse, it was reported on Saturday.

A Maryland-based consultant found evidence of a failing concrete slab on the pool deck and “abundant cracking and crumbling” to an underground parking garage during a 2018 inspection, and recommended repair work that was never carried out, the New York Times reported.

The 12-storey Champlain Towers South in the Miami suburb of Surfside collapsed in the early hours of Thursday, sparking a round-the-clock search through unstable wreckage for survivors that by Saturday morning had yielded no success.


‘Praying for a miracle’: the desperate search for 159 missing in condo collapse

At a mid-morning press conference, authorities said the official death toll remained at four, with the whereabouts of another 159 residents unknown. Fire officials said there was a “deep-seated” blaze inside the 30ft pile of rubble, which was sending up thick plumes of smoke and hampering the rescue effort in tandem with poor weather.

Rescue workers search in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

The structural report was conducted by Morabito Consultants, which was contracted by the condominium’s owners’ association to assess the structural integrity of the oceanside complex of 136 apartments.

It warned that “the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive as well as all of the planer waterproofing is beyond its useful life and must be completely removed and replaced”.

Ominously, the report warned: “The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas. Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”

Morabito gave no indication the structure was at risk of collapse, but noted repairs would be aimed at “maintaining the structural integrity” of the building.

“Though some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion,” Morabito wrote about damage near the base of the 40-year-old building.

A makeshift memorial at the site of the collapsed building in Surfside. Photograph: Andrea Sarcos/AFP/Getty Images

The reason for the collapse is not yet known. Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade county, said on Saturday: “We did not know of this report.

“We are obviously very interested in all of the evidence that’s coming to light and we’re going to be including it in what happens after the rescue. In the meantime we’re taking actions to make sure that other buildings are safe.”

That includes a 30-day audit by county agencies of all high-rise buildings “at the 40-year point and beyond”, she said, describing it as “an aggressive review of, as well as situations in these buildings to make sure they are safe”.

Included will be an inspection of the sister Champlain Towers North building next door on Collins Avenue, also constructed in 1981 with apparently identical specifications and materials. The Surfside mayor, Charles Burkett, urged an evacuation of residents of that tower on Saturday, saying he could not guarantee the building was secure.

Alan Cominksy, the fire chief of Miami-Dade county, said the third night of rescue operations was briefly halted and subsequently hampered by the growing fire inside the wreckage.

Search and rescue personnel work to find any survivors or casualties of the collapse. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“As we continue removing debris the smoke has been picking up,” he said during a briefing that took place amid thunder and torrential rain. “No smouldering fire, but obviously producing a large amount of smoke.

“The biggest thing here is hope, that’s what’s driving us right now … to continue our search and rescue efforts. It’s an extremely difficult situation.”

Search teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and elsewhere arrived on Friday to help relieve the Miami-Dade rescuers who have been working non-stop since the collapse at 1.30am on Thursday. Giant cranes lifted larger sections of debris, while chains of workers removed smaller chunks in buckets.

Joe Biden signed a disaster declaration on Friday that sent federal resources and funding to Florida, after the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, approved a similar declaration the day before.



00:51Aerial footage shows destruction after Miami building collapse – video

DeSantis was questioned on Saturday about evacuating the fallen tower’s sister building.

“Ultimately the mayor’s gonna have to make the call on that,” he said. “Given the similarities, given the same age, they think that may be something.”

About 100 relatives of the missing waited nearby for news, some growing frustrated.

“It’s day three so I feel like we need to understand how the process is going,” said Rachel Spiegel, whose mother, 66-year-old Judy Spiegel, lived on the sixth floor. “I really do believe everybody’s doing everything in their power, but there are family members, time is of the essence.”

Others were losing hope. Jeanne Ugarte feared a tragic end for her friends Juan and Ana Mora and their son Juan Jr.

“I know they’re not going to find them,” she said. “It’s been too long.”


The Associated Press contributed to this report

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/06/report-showed-major-damage-before.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/06/experts-get-1st-clues-on-what-may-have.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/06/third-world-usa-construction-corruption.html

THIS HAPPENED THREE DAY'S EARLIER

USS Gerald Ford shock trials register as 3.9 magnitude ...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-gerald-ford-shock-trials-earthquake-florida

2:07

2021-06-21 · The blast registered as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake. June 21, 2021 / 2:26 PM / CBS/AFP. The U.S. Navy has started a series of tests on its newest and most advanced aircraft carrier

US Navy detonates huge 40,000lb bomb next to its own aircraft carrier triggering earthquake 100 miles away in Florida

THE US Navy detonated a mammoth 40,000lb bomb next to its OWN aircraft carrier – triggering an …

The Sun · 3d

Florida’s Oceanfront Cities Are Not Prepared for Sea Level Rise

South Florida is sinking and threatened by sea level rise. It's never been more clear its buildings are in danger.

Dharna Noor
Today 9:00AM
GIZMONDO/EARTHER

Rescue workers work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside.Photo: Gerald Herbert (AP)

On Thursday, a 12-story beachside condo building just north of Miami Beach collapsed, killing at least four people with almost 160 still missing. It could be a scary sign for the future, particularly as sea level rise undermines the very foundation that South Florida sits on.


Long before the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside crashed, the building started sinking. An April 2020 study found that the area showed signs of land subsidence—sinking brought on by natural occurrences like sinkholes and exacerbated by human activities like extracting fossil fuels and groundwater. The study’s authors told USA Today that back in the 1990s, the building was descending at a rate of 0.08 inches (2 millimeters) per year, though it’s not clear that that necessarily contributed to its horrific collapse.

Officials are just beginning their investigation into what caused the building’s devastating crash. It will take more data to suss out what happened and the role, if any, subsidence played.


“At this point, any hypothesis is not more than a simple speculation,” Henry O. Briceño, a professor at Florida International University who studies water quality and geology, wrote in an email. “We should wait for the engineers to collect and analyze the information.”

READ MORE
Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle

A 'Record-Breaking and Dangerous' Heat Wave Is About to Hit the West Coast

UN Says the Great Barrier Reef Is 'In Danger,' Causing Australia to Have a Meltdown

But though the specifics of the crash are still under investigation, it’s been clear for decades that sea level rise and subsidence threaten infrastructure—and people—in South Florida. And the time to address those risks is now, particularly with what the next few decades hold for the region. Sea level rise is expected to accelerate. A report released last year found that Miami “faces the largest risk of any major coastal city in the world” because of the sheer amount of expensive real estate and people living in such a fragile place. An estimated $3.5 trillion of real estate is at risk of inundation by the 2070s, according to the report. Those buildings, though, are ill-equipped for rising seas.

“While it is too early to determine the cause, it is definitely not too early to worry about how building and other infrastructure will be impacted as the flooding from sea-level rise worsens, and whether there is a plan to modify and sustain these buildings or whether they should ultimately be abandond and removed,” Andrea Dutton, a geoscientist at the University of Madison Wisconsin and former associate professor of geology at the University of Florida, wrote in an email.

Buildings in Surfside and Miami Beach are constructed atop reclaimed wetland. Underpinning them is porous limestone, which forms the region’s geological base. As rising seas encroach on the area—whether from storm surge or increasingly common sunny day floods—brackish, corrosive groundwater can get pushed up through the limestone, causing problems for structures.

“If seawater penetrates a column and reaches the rebar, it will oxidize and the products would increase the volume, creating stresses which in turn could crack the concrete,” said Briceño, noting inspectors probing the Surfside collapse “will have to check if something like that happened.”

Whether or not these factors were a factor, though, they could certainly threaten infrastructure in the future.

“Structures will be subjected to conditions for which they were not designed, like being under seawater permanently,” said Briceño. “Concrete mixes are prepared for what they are supposed to withstand according to design, both, mechanically and chemically.”

Tragically, the Champlain tower was due for a 40-year inspection soon, which could have shown it was at risk of falling in. With such dire threats afoot, officials may have to consider holding such inspections more often. Dutton feared it may even be time to start moving people and infrastructure out of Surfside altogether, a fate that some areas are also already considering due to rising seas.

“One of my concerns is that urban hardscape will become flooded without a plan to remove such infrastructure, and then our coastlines will just become a pile of concrete, metal, and glass rubble,” she said.

Dharna Noor
Earther staff writer. Blogs about energy, animals, why we shouldn't trust the private sector to solve the climate crisis, etc. Has an essay in the 2021 book The World We Need.

EU Parliament officially endorses European Green Deal

seanwareing / Pixabay

Kirsten Williams | Vermont Law School, US
JUNE 26, 2021 

The European Parliament on Thursday officially endorsed the Climate Law (also known as the European Green Deal), with member states voting 442-203 to transform the legislation’s political commitment into a legal one.

The law “gives European citizens and businesses the legal certainty and predictability they need to plan for the transition to climate neutrality,” according to a press release. “This is the law of laws, because it will discipline us in the years to come,” said Frans Timmermans, head of EU Climate Policy.

The European Council first launched the law in December 2019 with the goal of a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050—a goal in line with the Paris Agreement. To reach that goal, environmental ministers agreed on a provisional proposal for an increased greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target: from 40 percent to at least 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

By April 2021, negotiators also added the creation of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change to the law and set preliminary GHG targets for 2040. The Advisory Board, which is a separate, independent panel of experts, will advise on climate policies and budget the total allowable EU GHG emissions for 2030-2050, while still meeting climate targets.

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety initially approved the law in a 52-24 vote in May.

In addition to avoiding new GHG emissions, the law “recognizes that already emitted GHG will need to be removed to compensate for GHG emitted from sectors where decarbonization is most challenging.” As such, the law seeks to regulate GHG emissions and removals from general land use and forestry, and will increase overall carbon sink capacity. The law also regulates the decarbonization of the EU energy sector, while bolstering the emissions trading system, emission limits for vehicles, and climate resiliency strategies.

How the warming climate is threatening the ecosystem of Yellowstone

There will be dire effects as it becomes too warm for snow to accumulate on the mountains in the park.

[Photo: Steven Cordes/Unsplash]




When you picture Yellowstone National Park and its neighbor, Grand Teton, the snowcapped peaks and Old Faithful Geyser almost certainly come to mind. Climate change threatens all of these iconic scenes, and its impact reaches far beyond the parks’ borders.

A new assessment of climate change in the two national parks and surrounding forests and ranchland warns of the potential for significant changes as the region continues to heat up.

The Greater Yellowstone area includes both Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, as well as surrounding national forests and federal land. [Image: ]

Since 1950, average temperatures in the Greater Yellowstone area have risen 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit, and potentially more important, the region has lost a quarter of its annual snowfall. With the region projected to warm 5 to 6 degrees by 2061 to 2080, compared with the average from 1986 to 2005, and by as much as 10 to 11 degrees by the end of the century, the high country around Yellowstone is poised to lose its snow altogether.

The loss of snow there has repercussions for a vast range of ecosystems and wildlife, as well as cities and farms downstream that rely on rivers that start in these mountains.


BROAD IMPACT ON WILDLIFE AND ECOSYSTEMS

The Greater Yellowstone area comprises 22 million acres in northwest Wyoming and portions of Montana and Idaho. In addition to geysers and hot springs, it’s home to the southernmost range of grizzly bear populations in North America and some of the longest intact wildlife migrations, including the seasonal traverses of elk, pronghorn, mule deer, and bison.

The area also represents the one point where the three major river basins of the western U.S. converge. The rivers of the Snake-Columbia Basin, Green-Colorado Basin, and Missouri River Basin all begin as snow on the Continental Divide as it weaves across Yellowstone’s peaks and plateaus.

How climate change alters the Greater Yellowstone area is, therefore, a question with implications far beyond the impact on Yellowstone’s declining cutthroat trout population and disruptions to the food supplies critical for the region’s recovering grizzly population. By altering the water supply, it also shapes the fate of major Western reservoirs and their dependent cities and farms hundreds of miles downstream.

Snow melts near the Continental Divide in the Bridger Wilderness area in Wyoming, part of the Greater Yellowstone area. [Photo: Bryan Shuman/University of Wyoming]Rising temperatures also increase the risk of large forest fires like those that scarred Yellowstone in 1988 and broke records across Colorado in 2020. And the effects on the national parks could harm the region’s nearly $800 billion in annual tourism activity across the three states.

A group of scientists led by Cathy Whitlock from Montana State University, Steve Hostetler of the U.S. Geological Survey, and me at the University of Wyoming partnered with local organizations, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, to launch the climate assessment.

We wanted to create a common baseline for discussion among the region’s many voices, from the Indigenous nations who have lived in these landscapes for more than 10,000 years to the federal agencies mandated to care for the region’s public lands. What information would ranchers and outfitters, skiers and energy producers need to know to begin planning for the future?


SHIFTING FROM SNOW TO RAIN

Standing at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Station and looking up at the snow on the Grand Teton, more than 13,000 feet above sea level, I cannot help but think that the transition away from snow is the most striking outcome that the assessment anticipates—and the most dire.

Today the average winter snow line—the level where almost all winter precipitation falls as snow—is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. By the end of the century, warming is forecast to raise it to at least 10,000 feet, the top of Jackson Hole’s famous ski areas.

The climate assessment uses projections of future climates based on a scenario that assumes countries substantially reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. When we looked at scenarios in which global emissions continue at a high rate instead, the differences by the end of the century compared with today became stark. Not even the highest peaks would regularly receive snow.

In interviews with people across the region, nearly everyone agreed that the challenge ahead is directly connected to water. As a member of one of the regional tribes noted, “Water is a big concern for everybody.”

As temperature has risen over the past seven decades, snowfall has declined, and peak streamflow shifted earlier in the year across the Greater Yellowstone area. [Image: 2021 Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment]

Precipitation may increase slightly as the region warms, but less of it will fall as snow. More of it will fall in spring and autumn, while summers will become drier than they have been, our assessment found.

The timing of the spring runoff, when winter snow melts and feeds into streams and rivers, has already shifted ahead by about eight days since 1950. The shift means a longer, drier late summer when drought can turn the landscape brown—or black as the wildfire season becomes longer and hotter.

The outcomes will affect wildlife migrations dependent on the “green wave” of new leaves that rises up the mountain slopes each spring. Low streamflow and warm water in late summer will threaten the survival of cold-water fisheries, like the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and Yellowstone’s unique species like the western glacier stonefly, which depends on the meltwater from mountain glaciers.Temperatures are projected to rise in the Greater Yellowstone area in the coming decades. The chart shows two potential scenarios based on different projections of what global warming might look like in the future: RCP 8.5, if greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high rate; and RCP 4.5, if countries take substantial steps to slow climate change. The temperatures are compared with the 1900-2005 average. [Image: 2021 Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment]

PREPARING FOR A WARMING FUTURE

These outcomes will vary somewhat from location to location, but no area will be untouched.

We hope the climate assessment will help communities anticipate the complex impacts ahead and start planning for the future.

As the report indicates, that future will depend on choices made now and in the coming years. Federal and state policy choices will determine whether the world will see optimistic scenarios or scenarios where adaption becomes more difficult. The Yellowstone region, one of the coldest parts of the U.S., will face changes, but actions now can help avoid the worst. High-elevation mountain towns like Jackson, Wyoming, which today rarely experience 90 degrees Fahrenheit, may face a couple of weeks of such heat by the end of the century—or they may face two months of it, depending in large part on those decisions.

The assessment underscores the need for discussion. What choices do we want to make?

Bryan Shuman is a professor of paleoclimatology and paleoecology at the University of Wyoming


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

USA
EXPLAINER: Dental, vision and hearing benefits for Medicare

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

FILE - In this April 28, 2021 file photo, President Joe Biden greets Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as Biden arrives to speak to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Many working-age people assume that Medicare covers just about every kind of health care that an older person may need. But it doesn’t. Some of the biggest gaps involve dental, vision and hearing services. Now Democrats are trying to make those benefits a standard part of Medicare under massive legislation expected later this year to advance President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda. Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressives are leading the push. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Many working-age people assume that Medicare covers just about every kind of health care that an older person may need.

It doesn’t.

Some of the biggest gaps involve dental, vision and hearing services. Medicare does not cover dental cleanings or root canals. It doesn’t cover everyday eyeglasses and contact lenses. It doesn’t cover hearing aids.

Now Democrats are trying to make those benefits a standard part of Medicare under massive, multifaceted legislation expected later this year to advance President Joe Biden’s ambitious domestic agenda.

Many consider such as expansion of the program overdue. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.

WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS?

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and other progressives are leading the push for dental, vision and hearing coverage. Their goal is to provide a comprehensive benefit available to as many Medicare recipients as possible without delays such as an extended phase-in period.

But adding more benefits to Medicare is expensive, and the idea will have to compete with other priorities on Democrats’ health care wish list.

Republicans are expected to unite in opposition to the far-reaching Biden agenda legislation into which Medicare benefits would get spliced. Democrats would have to pass the bill under special budget rules allowing a simple majority to clear the Senate.

“It’s way too soon to handicap the odds,” said Tricia Neuman, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

HOW WOULD THE NEW BENEFITS BE PROVIDED?

The simplest approach seems to involve making dental, vision and hearing coverage a component of Medicare Part B, which pays for outpatient care.

Part B is voluntary, but the vast majority of Medicare’s more than 60 million beneficiaries sign up. There’s a premium, and most people now pay $148.50 a month. While not cheap, that’s actually considered a good deal because taxpayers cover 75% of the overall cost of the insurance. Premiums would be expected to rise with richer benefits, but the cost would be spread broadly.

On a side note, most people with private Medicare Advantage plans now have some level of dental coverage, but that can vary greatly. If dental, vision and hearing benefits were standard under Part B, the Medicare Advantage plans would have to provide them as well.

WHAT KINDS OF SERVICES WOULD BE COVERED?

Though details will take a while to flesh out, comprehensive dental coverage would include regular preventive care such as cleanings and X-rays, minor work such as fillings, and major work including root canals, crowns and dentures.

Vision coverage would include eyeglasses and contacts, plus the needed exams and fittings. Hearing coverage would include hearing aids and their maintenance, as well as audiology services.

HOW MUCH WOULD THIS ALL COST?

Again, that’s unclear because key details such as the scope of benefits and cost sharing by Medicare beneficiaries haven’t been determined.

But a 2019 bill from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., carried a price tag of almost $360 billion over 10 years.

Of that, $238 billion would have paid for dental care, $30 billion would have paid for vision care, and $89 billion would have paid for hearing services, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.

The coverage expansion was part of broader legislation that would have empowered Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. Some of the savings from drug costs would have been plowed back into the program.

Pelosi’s bill passed the House, but went nowhere in the Senate. Democrats are still using its approach as a template.

WHAT’S THE NEED?

Dental, vision and hearing are considered integral to good health.

An older person with hearing problems who cannot afford hearing aids may find herself in a deepening state of isolation that can exacerbate depression. Dental infections can spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body.

But a 2019 Kaiser Foundation report found that nearly 2 out of 3 Medicare recipients had no dental coverage, and nearly half had not seen a dentist in the past year. About 1 in 7 had lost all their teeth.

Black and Hispanic enrollees were far less likely to have visited a dentist in the past year.

“It is obviously a big, gaping hole in the Medicare program,” said David Certner, legislative director for AARP.

WHY DOESN’T MEDICARE COVER DENTAL, VISION AND HEARING?

Experts say the reason probably dates back to 1965, when the program was created.

It was modeled after the kinds of private health insurance that were then most commonly available. And those were built around hospitalization and visits to the doctor’s office.

Another big gap in coverage — retail pharmacy prescription drugs — wasn’t addressed until 2003.

WHAT ELSE ISN’T COVERED BY MEDICARE?

Long-term care.

Supreme Court sides with Alaska Natives in COVID-19 aid case

NOT FIRST NATIONS BUT THE INDIAN AGENTS WHO SUPPLY THEM


FILE - This June 8, 2021, file photo shows the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, FIle)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that hundreds of millions of dollars in coronavirus relief money tied up in court should benefit Alaska Natives rather than be spread more broadly among Native American tribes around the U.S.

The justices ruled 6-3 in the case, which involved the massive pandemic relief package passed last year and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. The $2.2 trillion legislation earmarked $8 billion for “Tribal governments” to cover expenses related to the pandemic.

The question for the court was whether Alaska Native corporations, which are for-profit companies that provide benefits and social services to more than 100,000 Alaska Natives, count as “Indian tribes.” The high court answered yes.

“The Court today affirms what the Federal Government has maintained for almost half a century: ANCs are Indian tribes,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor for a group of both liberal and conservative members of the court.

Sotomayor and Justice Neil Gorsuch, who dissented, dueled over language in the CARES Act, with Sotomayor at one point comparing it to a poorly constructed restaurant advertisement.

If the restaurant offers “50% off any meat, vegetable, or seafood dish, including ceviche, which is cooked,” the best reading of the advertisement, she said, is that “cooked” doesn’t apply to the ceviche, a raw fish dish, but that ceviche is still 50% off. A different reading would make the ceviche a “red herring,” she went on to say.

Gorsuch, who at an argument once revealed his preference for turmeric in his steak rub, called the example “a bit underdone.” He went on to cite two different newspaper stories about ceviche. He was joined in his dissent by justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan.

The case is important not only because of the amount of money it involves but also because Native Americans and Alaska Natives have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Both the Trump and Biden administrations agreed that the corporations should be treated as Indian tribes and that doing differently would be a dramatic departure from the status quo.

The federal government had set aside approximately $500 million for Alaska Native corporations under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

But after the CARES Act was passed, three groups of Native American tribes sued to prevent payments to Alaska Native corporations. They argued that under the language of the law, only federally recognized tribes qualify for the aid and Alaska Native corporations do not because they are not sovereign governments, as tribes are.

In a statement after the ruling, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said the coalition of tribes that brought the lawsuit was disappointed.

“This case was never about the funds. Instead, it was about upholding tribal sovereignty and the status of federally-recognized tribes,” he said, adding that the ruling “undermines federally-recognized tribes and will have consequences far beyond the allocation of CARES Act dollars.”

Part of the issue for the Supreme Court was that Alaska is unique. Unlike in the lower 48 states, Alaska Native tribes aren’t situated on reservations. Instead, Native land is owned by Alaska Native corporations created under a 1971 law. The for-profit corporations run oil, gas, mining and other enterprises. Alaska Natives own shares in the corporations, which provide a range of services from healthcare and elder care to educational support and housing assistance.

Associations representing Native corporations cheered the decision.

“We are pleased to see the Court affirm Alaska Native corporations’ eligibility for CARES Act funds to help our people and communities recover from the devastating effects of COVID-19. Alaska’s economy is only now starting to recover, and these funds are needed to help our communities get back on their feet,” the associations said.

BARBAROUS COUNTRY

AP-NORC poll: Most say restrict abortion after 1st trimester
By DAVID CRARY and HANNAH FINGERHUT

NEW YORK (AP) — A solid majority of Americans believe most abortions should be legal in the first three months of a woman’s pregnancy, but most say the procedure should usually be illegal in the second and third trimesters, according to a new poll.

The poll comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a currently blocked Mississippi law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks into the second trimester. If the high court upholds the law, it would be the first time since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision confirming a woman’s right to abortion that a state would be allowed to ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb.

The new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 61% of Americans say abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances in the first trimester of a pregnancy. However, 65% said abortion should usually be illegal in the second trimester, and 80% said that about the third trimester.

Still, the poll finds many Americans believe that the procedure should be allowable under at least some circumstances even during the second or third trimesters. For abortions during the second trimester, 34% say they should usually or always be legal, and another 30% say they should be illegal in most but not all cases. In the third trimester, 19% think most or all abortions should be legal, and another 26% say they should be illegal only in most cases.

Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at Catholic University of America, predicted the findings regarding second- and third-trimester abortions will be useful to the anti-abortion movement.

“This helps counter the narrative that the abortion policy outcome established by the Roe v. Wade decision enjoys substantial public support,” he said.

David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, said the findings suggest that abortion rights advocates are “way out of the public mainstream” to the extent that they support abortion access even late in pregnancy.

But Dr. Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, who supports abortion rights, cited research showing that Americans viewed second-trimester abortions more empathetically when told about some of the reasons why women seek them.

These include time-consuming difficulties making arrangements with an abortion clinic and learning during the second trimester that the fetus would die or have severe disabilities due to abnormalities, Grossman said.

“More work needs to be done to elevate the voices of people who have had abortions and who want to share their stories to help people understand the many reasons why this medical care is so necessary,” he said via email.

Majorities of Americans — Republicans and Democrats alike — think a pregnant woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if her life is seriously endangered, if the pregnancy results from rape or incest or if the child would be born with a life-threatening illness.

Americans are closely divided over whether a pregnant woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if she wants one for any reason, 49% yes to 50% no.

Jenny Ma, senior staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said women seeking second-trimester abortions included disproportionately high numbers of young people, Black women and women living in poverty. Some had not learned they were pregnant until much later than the norm; others had trouble raising the needed funds to afford an abortion, Ma said.

She noted that Republican-governed states have enacted numerous restrictions in recent years that often complicated the process for getting even a first-trimester abortion.

“Removing the many existing barriers to earlier abortion care would reduce need for second- and third-trimester abortions,” Ma said.

Abortions after the first trimester are not rare, but they are exceptions to the norm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in its most recent report on abortion in the U.S., estimated that 92% of the abortions in 2018 were performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.

The poll also shows how opinions on abortion diverge sharply along party lines. Roughly three-quarters of Democrats think abortion should be legal in all or most cases; about two-thirds of Republicans think it should be illegal in all or most cases.

But most Americans fall between extreme opinions on the issue. Just 23% say abortion in general should be legal in all cases, while 33% say it should be legal in most cases. Thirty percent say abortion should be illegal in most cases; just 13% say it should be illegal in all cases.

Respondents from three major religious groups — white mainline Protestants, nonwhite Protestants and Catholics — are closely divided as to whether abortion should usually be legal or illegal in most cases. It was different for white evangelicals — about three-quarters of them say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.



Dave Steiner, a hotel manager from suburban Chicago, was among those responding to the AP-NORC poll who said abortion should be legal in the first trimester but generally illegal thereafter.

“I was raised a very strict Catholic -- abortion was just no, no, no,” said Steiner, 67. “As I became more liberal and a Democrat, I felt the woman should have the right to choose -- but that should be in the first trimester.”

“Abortions are going to happen anyway,” he added. “If you’re making it illegal, you’re just chasing it underground.”

___

Fingerhut reported from Washington. Associated Press video journalist Hilary Powell in Washington contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,125 adults used a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

As virus surges in Uganda, hospitals accused of profiteering

FILE - In this Monday, May 31, 2021 file photo, a woman receives a coronavirus vaccination at the Kololo airstrip in Kampala, Uganda. Virus cases are surging in Uganda, making scarce hospital beds even more expensive, and concern is growing over the alleged exploitation of patients by private hospitals accused of demanding payment up front and hiking fees. (AP Photo/Nicholas Bamulanzeki, File)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — As he struggled to breathe earlier this month, Dr. Nathan Tumubone was tormented by thoughts of hospitalization as a COVID-19 patient. Thinking of the costs involved, he knew he wanted to stay home.

He and his wife “steamed” up to five times a day, inhaling what they felt was the relieving vapor rising from a boiling concoction of herbs.

“The truth is I didn’t want to go to hospital,” said the general practitioner. “We’ve seen the costs are really high, and one wouldn’t want to get in there.”

As virus cases surge in Uganda, making scarce hospital beds even more expensive, concern is growing over the alleged exploitation of patients by private hospitals accused of demanding payment up front and hiking fees.

Uganda is among African countries seeing a dramatic rise in the number of infections amid a severe vaccine shortage. The pandemic is resurging in 12 of Africa’s 54 countries, the World Health Organization reported Thursday, saying the current wave is “picking up speed, spreading faster, hitting harder.”

Africa’s top public health official, John Nkengasong of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday that Africa’s third wave is “very devastating” as the delta variant drives infections in many countries.

Just 1% of people across Africa have been fully vaccinated, and Uganda has vaccinated under 1% of its 44 million people. It has confirmed 75,537 infections, including 781 deaths. The actual totals are believed to be much higher because only a few thousand samples are tested daily.

Hospitals in cities including the capital, Kampala, report difficulties in finding bottled oxygen, and some are running out of space for COVID-19 patients. Intensive care units are in high demand.

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 27, 2021 file photo, a woman waits for the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Butanda Health Center III in Western Uganda. Virus cases are surging in Uganda, making scarce hospital beds even more expensive, and concern is growing over the alleged exploitation of patients by private hospitals accused of demanding payment up front and hiking fees. (AP Photo/Patrick Onen, File)

FILE - In this Monday, May 31, 2021 file photo, people wait in the stands to receive coronavirus vaccinations at the Kololo airstrip in Kampala, Uganda. Virus cases are surging in Uganda, making scarce hospital beds even more expensive, and concern is growing over the alleged exploitation of patients by private hospitals accused of demanding payment up front and hiking fees. (AP Photo/Nicholas Bamulanzeki, File)

Although the practice of requiring deposits from patients has long been seen as acceptable in this East African country where few have health insurance, it is raising anger among some who cite attempts to profiteer from the pandemic.

Without a national health insurance scheme, COVID-19 has highlighted that health care in Uganda is “commoditized, available to the highest bidder,” said Daniel Kalinaki, a columnist with the Daily Monitor newspaper.

“The lingering question is how did we go from a place where you paid what you could and made sure to clear your dues on your next visit, to one where patients will not be touched until the whiny-voiced bean counter in the accounts office confirms that their deposit has cleared?”

Many Ugandans don’t trust government hospitals, citing the decay they find there as well as the occasional lack of basic supplies. Top government officials routinely seek treatment abroad. Most people attend private facilities that have mushroomed across the country in the years since the health sector was opened up to private investors.

Some hospital bills shared by families of COVID-19 patients emerging from intensive care show sums of up to $15,000, a small fortune in a country where annual per capita income is less than $1,000.

Private hospital directors who spoke to the local press defended their fees policy, saying looking after COVID-19 patients is risky and not cheap.

Health authorities have said they are investigating allegations of exploitation.

Cissy Kagaba, a prominent anti-corruption activist who recently lost both parents to COVID-19, told The Associated Press she was shocked when the family received a bill of nearly $6,000 when her father was let out of an intensive care unit. “Risk allowances” and other items on the receipt looked suspicious, she said.

“When we saw the bill, we couldn’t believe how much it was,” she said, adding that alleged exploitation of patients mirrors rampant official corruption. “You cannot expect any different from them. If you have a government that exploits its own people, what do you expect from the private sector?”

Tumubone, the doctor who is recovering from COVID-19, said he panicked when it seemed he would need to go to a hospital. He and his wife experimented with home care, inhaling steam from the boiling leaves of guava, mango and eucalyptus trees.

Lockdown measures were tightened in Uganda last week. All schools have been ordered shut, a nighttime curfew remains in place, and only vehicles carrying cargo and those transporting the sick or essential workers are permitted to operate on the roads.

Congress votes to reinstate methane rules loosened by Trump


FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2015, file photo, a gas flare is seen at a natural gas processing facility near Williston, N.D. Congressional Democrats have approved a measure reinstating rules aimed at limiting climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling, a rare effort by Democrats to use the legislative branch to overturn a regulatory rollback under President Donald Trump. The House gave final legislative approval Friday, June 25, to a resolution that would undo a Trump-era environmental rule that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats have approved a measure reinstating rules aimed at limiting climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling, a rare effort by Democrats to use the legislative branch to overturn a regulatory rollback under President Donald Trump.

The House gave final legislative approval Friday to a resolution that would undo a Trump-era environmental rule that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from leaks and flares in oil and gas wells.

The resolution was approved, 229-191, and now goes to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it. Twelve Republicans joined 217 Democrats to support the measure.

Democrats and environmentalists called the methane rule one of the Trump administration’s most egregious actions to deregulate U.S. businesses and said its removal would help launch a broader effort by the Biden administration and Congress to tackle climate change. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, packing a stronger punch in the short term than carbon dioxide.

“Congress just delivered its first bipartisan win for the climate,″ said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Controlling methane is a winning proposition for all sides because it cuts pollution and reduces waste.″

The resolution was approved under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn certain regulations that have been in place for a short time. The Trump methane rule was finalized last September.

FILE - In this April 21, 2021, file photo the sun sets beyond a pumpjack near Goldsmith, Texas. Congressional Democrats have approved a measure reinstating rules aimed at limiting climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling. The House gave final legislative approval Friday, June 25, to a resolution that would undo a Trump-era environmental rule that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP, File)

Action on methane was one of just three Trump-era rules targeted by the Democratic-controlled Congress under the review law, a sharp contrast to 14 Obama-era rules repealed by congressional Republicans in the first year of the Trump administration.

Other rules approved by Democrats targeted Trump-era actions loosening regulations on payday lenders and another that Democrats said gave employers an unfair advantage over workers in settling discrimination claims.

Rep. Diana DeGette D-Colo., who sponsored the methane measure, called its approval “a big win in our overall effort to combat the climate crisis, and a critical first step toward sufficiently reducing our nation’s overall methane emissions.”

If Biden and Congress are “going to be serious about combating this climate crisis, we have to take steps now to cut the amount of methane in our atmosphere,” DeGette said. The legislation will keep more than 1.6 million tons of methane out of the air that all Americans breathe and require oil and gas companies “to take the steps necessary to better protect our planet and the public’s health” by reinstating methane standards put in place in 2016, she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the action on methane was part of an effort by Congress to reassert its own power. She called the Congressional Review Act “one of the Congress’s most important tools ... to deliver for the people and to reclaim our authority under the Constitution, upholding the balance of powers that is the foundation of our American democracy.″

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, said the measure approved Friday “will restore common-sense safeguards to limit methane pollution from oil and gas production. It’s a modest and straightforward step in the right direction, but it’s a very important one.″

Republicans disagreed, saying the measure took unfair aim at oil and gas companies that are already working to reduce emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases.

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said the repeal measure advanced “radical activist priorities” while empowering foreign oil producers in the Middle East and Russia.

Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M, said the measure would “nickel and dime the most essential business in my district,″ oil and gas producers who she said could be forced out of business by excessive government regulations.

Those statements were at odds with the oil and gas industry, which largely supported the Obama-era rule. In 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency curbed methane emissions at facilities built or modified since 2015, requiring companies to deploy technology to detect and fix leaks at oil and gas wells. Many large energy companies have embraced methane capture as a way to save money and promote natural gas as a cleaner option than coal in the nation’s power plants.

The action by Congress clears the way for the EPA to develop rules to regulate methane emissions from new and existing wells, including hundreds of thousands of older wells that are not subject to federal regulation under current law.

Oil giant BP said Friday it supports direct federal regulation of methane emissions.

“Keeping methane in the pipes is good for the planet and for business. It means that we can sell it as a cleaner fuel source rather than losing it,″ said Mary Streett, a senior vice president at BP. “We’re pleased that Congress recognizes the importance of this objective and we encourage the president to sign the resolution.″

The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s top lobbying group, said it will work with the Biden administration to support direct regulation of methane from new and existing sources.

“We have an opportunity to build on the progress the industry has made in driving down methane emissions through technological advancement, and we are committed to finding common ground on cost-effective government policies,″ said API spokeswoman Jessica Szymanski.

US BACKED SAUDI IMPERIALISM



A father and daughter's grave marks the cost of Yemen's war

By SAMY MAGDY 2 hours ago

MARIB, Yemen (AP) — Among the growing number of graves of the war dead in the cemetery of the Yemeni city of Marib, one tombstone stands out. It has two “martyrs” listed — a father and his young daughter.

Taher Farag and his 2-year-old Liyan were inseparable, their family say. So earlier this month, when Farag drove to the market to buy food for his wife to make lunch, he took Liyan with him.

Along the way, he stopped at a gas station in Marib’s Rawdah neighborhood to fill his tank. It was then, as they waited in line, that the ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels hit the station, followed by the blast of an explosives-laden drone. The gas station went up in a ball of flame, incinerating vehicles in line.

Yemeni fighters backed by the Saudi-led coalition look at damages in the aftermath of a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that hit a fuel station on June 5, 2021, killing two-year-old Liyan Taher and her father 32-year-old Taher Farag in the Rawdha neighborhood of the central city of Marib, Yemen, Sunday, June 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

At least 21 people were killed, including Farag and his daughter, in the June 5 attack, according to Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

It was the deadliest single attack in the monthslong grind of an offensive launched by Houthi rebels trying to capture Marib, the last stronghold of the Yemeni government in the country’s north. Since February, the rebels have been waging their assault, making only slow progress as Saudi-backed government fighters dig in to defend the city and Saudi airstrikes inflict casualties on the rebels.

The Houthis have fired ballistic missiles and sent drones into Marib as well, often hitting civilian areas and camps for displaced people. More than 120 civilians have been killed, including 15 children, and more than 220 wounded in the past six months, according to the government.

At home, Farag’s wife Gamila Saleh Ali heard the explosion. She didn’t think her husband and daughter were in danger — there are plenty of explosions in Marib. Still, she called his phone to be safe. There was no answer. She called again and again, each time no answer.

A mobile photograph of two-year-old Liyan Taher, who was killed with her father 32-year-old Taher Farag on June 5, 2021 in a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that hit a fuel station in Rawdha neighborhood, at their home in Marib, Yemen, Saturday, June 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Then came the scream of her husband’s mother, who lives in the same building. She went out and found her family weeping. “I realized that Liyan and her father were martyred,” the 27-year-old said. “I returned to my room and prayed to God.”

“She was a fun-loving child,” she said of Liyan, while cradling the couple’s 10-month-old son. “Her dad adored her. He used to tell me, ‘Liyan is mine, and the boy is yours.’ ... He was so attached to her and she was so attached to her father.”

The 32-year-old Farag was once a farmer in his hometown of Kharif in northwestern Yemen, before fleeing with his family after the Iran-backed Houthis overran most of the country’s north in 2014, including the capital, Sanaa.

The damaged car belonging to 32-year-old Taher Farag and his two-year-old daughter Liyan Taher, who were both killed on June 5, 2021 from a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels hitting a fuel station in the Rawdha neighborhood of the central city of Marib, Yemen, Sunday, June 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Like many driven from their homes, he settled in Marib, a seemingly safe refuge outside Houthi territory. He was able to find work driving a taxi. The area is now home to some 2.2 million displaced people, many of them crowded into camps on the city’s outskirts, according to official statistics.

They find themselves caught in one of the last active fronts in a war that has dragged on for nearly seven years, between the Houthis and the government, which controls much of the south and is backed by a Saudi-led coalition. The war has been largely stalemated for years but continues to wreak destruction, killing more than 130,000 people and spawning the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The tombstone of two-year-old Liyan Taher and her father 32-year-old Taher Farag, who were both killed on June 5, 2021, after a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels hit a fuel station in the Rawdha neighborhood, at a mass graveyard in Marib, Yemen, Monday, June 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

The same day as the strike on the gas station, an Omani delegation landed in Sanaa for talks with rebel leaders, including the group’s religious and military leader, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi. Pressure is mounting on the Houthis to stop their Marib offensive and agree on a nationwide cease-fire, paving the way for peace talks.

In the meantime, Marib’s residents endure the frequent blasts of missile and drone attacks.

Gamila Salih Ali, mother and wife of two-year-old Liyan Taher, and 32-year-old Taher Farag, who were both killed in a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that hit a fuel station on June 5, 2021 in Rawdha neighborhood, sits near her daughters toys at their home in Marib, Yemen, Saturday, June 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the rebels’ Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said the missile strike targeted a military position and called for an independent investigation. He did not provide evidence.

The gas station is located several hundred meters (yards) from the perimeter fence of a military camp.

“The blast was strong, so strong. It sent me flying far,” said one worker at the station being treated at Marib’s main hospital. His right leg was broken, and he was burned over much of his body. He spoke on condition he not be named for the safety of family living in Houthi-held territory.

“We found shrapnel and remains of burned bodies. There were screams,” said Eissa Mohammed, who lives across the street.

Farag and Liyan’s bodies, charred beyond recognition, were found inside his burned-out taxi, hugging each other, officials and family said.

“So we buried them in the same grave,” said Farag’s younger brother, Ayed.

A Yemeni man, who is unidentified for his security, severely injured on June 5, 2021, after a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels hit a fuel station in the Rawdha neighborhood, receives treatment at a hospital, in Marib, Yemen, Monday, June 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

The entrance of the home of two-year-old Liyan Taher and her father 32-year-old Taher Farag, who were both killed in a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that hit a fuel station on June 5, 2021 in Rawdha neighborhood, in Marib, Yemen, Saturday, June 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

A man and boy look at damages in the aftermath of a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that hit a fuel station on June 5, 2021, killing two-year-old Liyan Taher and her father 32-year-old Taher Farag in the Rawdha neighborhood of the central city of Marib, Yemen, Sunday, June 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)


Children stand in front of the apartment building of two-year-old Liyan Taher and her father 32-year-old Taher Farag, who were both killed in a ballistic missile and an explosive-laden drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that hit a fuel station on June 5, 2021 in Rawdha neighborhood, in Marib, Yemen, Saturday, June 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)