Over 100 US citizens and special visa holders that were evacuated from Afghanistan ended up stuck in Abu Dhabi, as the DHS insisted on vetting them especially rigorously, after 120,000 people were flown out of Kabul earlier.
A total of 117 people – 28 citizens, 83 green card holders, and six Afghans with Special Immigration Visas granted to employees of the US military during the 20-year war – took off from Kabul on Tuesday, a coalition of nonprofits had announced triumphantly. They were supposed to transfer to a chartered Ethiopian Airlines flight in Abu Dhabi and land in New York City – except the US authorities denied them permission to do so.
馃毃馃毃馃毃馃毃馃毃
We are pleased to announce that a private charter carrying over 100 US Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents as well as 9 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders has departed Kabul, Afghanistan en route to the United States. This took a lot of tram work! pic.twitter.com/IYJ6TbHk1a
The group was stranded in Abu Dhabi when the US government denied their charter flight permission to land in the US, saying it needed to vet the passenger manifest, Bryan Stern of the nonprofit Project Dynamo, told Reuters on Wednesday.
“I have a big, beautiful, giant, humongous Boeing 787 that I can see parked in front of us,” he added. “I have crew. I have food.”
Instead, Stern and the evacuees ended up at the airport in the Emirates, under police watch. “We are in custody as we speak in Abu Dhabi. All of us are locked up here together,” he told the agency early on Wednesday.
Several groups, including Stern’s Project Dynamo, the Human First Coalition and the Shadow Warriors Project, banded together to gather the Americans and Afghans left behind after the US military halted its airlift out of Kabul on August 30.
The US military airlift ended up flying 124,000 people from the Kabul airport, but fewer than 6,000 were Americans, and thousands of SIV recipients were left behind. The Biden administration reportedly “struggled” to identify more than 110,000 Afghans it evacuated, amid reports some had multiple underage “wives,” others may have had ties to terrorist groups, and at least one had been a convicted rapist previously deported from the US.
Reports of half a dozen cases of measles – a highly infectious childhood disease – among the Afghans flown into Virginia and Wisconsin halted the resettlement flights into the US earlier this month.
The nonprofits organizing the charter actually had their evacuees vaccinated for measles and tested for Covid-19, they said announcing the flight – showing more diligence than US authorities when they dealt with over 15,000 Haitian migrants that came across the border in Texas recently.
Stern told reporters that the Homeland Security Department had flagged one of the evacuees as a “problem,” and told the Abu Dhabi airport, “this guy doesn’t fly.” He wasn’t sure if that was the reason for holding up the entire flight, however.
Reached by Reuters for comment, the DHS said “all US-bound flights must follow the established safety, security and health protocols before they are cleared for departure,” to “ensure all passengers are screened appropriately.”
The State Department said its embassy in the Emirates “has been working around the clock to verify the accuracy of the passenger manifest” and was coordinating with DHS and other agencies “to ensure the passengers are screened and vetted before they are permitted to fly” to the US.
“We expect the passengers to continue onward travel tomorrow morning,” a Foggy Bottom spokesman said.
Stern confirmed that the group was indeed scheduled to depart on Thursday, on board a regular flight to Chicago that the State Department “graciously” had agreed to pay for.
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Klete Keller, the former Olympic swimming champion who was arrested in January for participating in the US Capitol riot, faces upward of two years in prison after pleading guilty to a felony.
Keller entered his plea on Wednesday in US District Court in Washington, admitting to a charge of obstructing an official proceeding. Prosecutors dropped other charges against him, which included knowingly entering a restricted building and two misdemeanors. Sentencing guidelines for the obstruction charge call for 21 to 27 months in prison.
The 39-year-old athlete admitted that he and other rioters were “trying to obstruct, influence and impede” congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory, according to a statement by the Department of Justice. Wearing a “Team USA” jacket, he entered the Capitol during the January 6 breach and took pictures and videos of the incident on his phone. Keller yelled “F**k Nancy Pelosi” and “F**k Chuck Schumer” before other rioters began pushing forward into a line of police who were trying to stop their advance further into the building.
Keller’s arrest in January caused outrage among Biden supporters, many of whom demanded the unprecedented action of taking away his swimming medals because of his alleged crimes. He won five medals in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds.
Those calls were renewed after Keller’s plea on Wednesday. “He should have his Olympic medals taken away,” one Twitter user said. “He has dishonored America.” Others lamented that he wouldn’t get a longer prison sentence or be prosecuted for treason or terrorism.
He should have his Olympic medals taken away. He has dishonored America.
Keller may earn some leniency on his sentence by aiding prosecutions against other riot suspects. Prosecutors asked that his sentencing be deferred, as he has agreed to testify in other riot cases. His lawyer, Edward MacMahon, reportedly told Judge Richard Leon that his client is “trying to make amends for his terrible mistake” and “wants to start his life over.”
Keller has struggled since his swimming career ended after the 2008 Olympics. He said in an interview with USA Swimming that he was divorced in 2014 and suffered depression. He lived in his car for almost a year because he couldn’t afford housing after making support payments for his three children. He later got a job selling real estate in Colorado.
According to his plea agreement, Keller destroyed the phone and memory card containing the photos and videos that he captured during the riot. He also threw away his Team USA jacket.
The 6-foot-6 Keller remained in the Capitol for nearly an hour, despite orders by police to leave the building. At one point, he “jerked his elbow,” shaking off police as they tried to remove him from the Capitol Rotunda, prosecutors said. He wasn’t charged with committing any violent acts.
Democrats have tried to frame the rioters as violent and racist terrorists who tried to carry out an insurrection at the behest of former President Donald Trump. More than 600 people have been arrested in connection with the riot. Some of the suspects have been held in jail without bail while they await trial, while others have reportedly been kept in solitary confinement or subjected to physical abuse at the hands of guards or inmates.
Republicans in Congress, such as Representatives Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) and Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina), have referred to the jailed riot suspects as “political prisoners.”
The US’ top health agency has issued an “urgent” alert imploring “pregnant people” to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, pointing to a recent record surge in deaths among those with child and possible birth defects linked to the virus.
A Wednesday statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “strongly” urged vaccinations for pregnant women – or in the agency’s gender-neutral phrasing, “people who are pregnant” – in order to prevent “adverse pregnancy outcomes” caused by Covid-19.
“Pregnancy can be both a special time and also a stressful time – and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families. I strongly encourage those who are pregnant or considering pregnancy to talk with their healthcare provider about the protective benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine to keep their babies and themselves safe,” said CDC head Rochelle Walensky.
CDC issues urgent health advisory, strongly recommends #COVID19 vaccination for those pregnant, recently pregnant or trying to become pregnant or who might become pregnant in the future to prevent serious illness, deaths, & adverse pregnancy outcomes. https://t.co/UmM8L5YSNdpic.twitter.com/HOiZNGyLpm
A longer release from the agency also issued on Wednesday noted that August saw the “highest number of Covid-19-related deaths in pregnant people in a single month of the pandemic,” with 22 fatalities reported. Compared to “non-pregnant symptomatic people,” the risk of ICU admission and “intensive ventilation” for pregnant women is more than two-fold, the CDC said, while the risk of death is increased by 70%.
Beyond mortality for mothers, the CDC also warned of complications the virus could cause during pregnancy, including inducing labor prematurely and even stillbirth.
While the agency noted vaccinations among “pregnant people” had increased over time, it nonetheless said that just 31% were fully immunized before or during their pregnancy between mid-December 2020 and September 18 of this year, warning that, currently, “the majority of pregnant people remain unprotected against Covid-19.”
The CDC initially declared that Covid-19 jabs were safe for pregnant women in April, after a major study found no significant safety concerns. It reiterated that stance on August 11, days before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave full approval to Pfizer’s formulation, which had previously been authorized on an emergency-use basis only. At the time, the CDC cited more recent data which did not show any “increased risk of miscarriage among nearly 2,500 pregnant women who received an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy.”
Though the CDC’s longer statement on Wednesday did make a few passing references to “women” and “men,” the health agency has faced mockery in the past for what critics see as tortured attempts to avoid gendered language in its official releases – with its repeated use of “pregnant people” often cited as a prime example.
The CDC is not alone in its efforts to remain ‘inclusive’ and strip all gendered terms and pronouns from its vocabulary. Earlier this week, the head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was forced to apologize after his org decided to edit an iconic quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a tweet, replacing female pronouns with neutral equivalents in a passage about abortion.
The very same day, the editor-in-chief of the British medical journal the Lancet, Richard Horton, offered an apology after the prestigious publication referred to women as “bodies with vaginas” in a pull-quote included on the cover of a recent issue. Horton explained that the journal “strives for maximum inclusivity of all people in its vision for advancing health,” and that the quote was intended to be “a compelling call to empower women, together with non-binary, trans, and intersex people who have experienced menstruation.”
Newly released police interview footage shows then-UK cop Wayne Couzens trying to blame his abduction of London marketing executive Sarah Everard – whom he later admitted to raping and murdering – on an Eastern European gang.
“They told me what I need to do and pick up girls and get them to them,” the 48-year-old Couzens told his interviewer in a video released by London’s Metropolitan Police on Wednesday. He said the gang, which was from the “Bulgaria, Romania, Albania” region, pressured him after he had tried to “rip off” one of their prostitutes and that they threatened his family members.
Wayne Couzens falsely claimed he had “no choice” but to kidnap Sarah Everard and hand her over to an Eastern European gang according to interview footage released by the Met Police.
“It then came through that they’re gonna harm my family, take them away, and they would use them instead,” Couzens said. “At that point, I had no option but to try and find somebody.”
The interview took place at Couzens’ home in Deal, Kent, after he was arrested on March 9. Shown sitting on a sofa with his hands cuffed, he initially tried to claim that he knew nothing about Everard’s disappearance other than hearing from media reports that she went missing in London about a week ago.
But a little more than a minute later, after the investigator told him that police believe he was involved in Everard’s disappearance, Couzens began to tell his story of the Eastern European gang. “They threatened to take my family away from me, so at that point, I’m doing what I can for my family,” he said.
Couzens said that he abducted the 33-year-old Everard and delivered her to the gang near Charing racecourse in Ashford, Kent. He later said that “if I could do something to get her back right this minute, I would,” but he had no regrets about his decision to abduct her. “I’ll do it again tomorrow if it means saving my family...,” he said. “These guys mean business.”
The day after the police interview, Everard’s body was found in a wooded area of Ashford, Kent, about 100 meters away from land owned by Couzens. He reportedly answered “no comment” in subsequent interviews.
Footage of the March 9 interview was played at Couzens’ sentencing hearing in London. Prosecutors also presented evidence that the cop used Covid-19 rules as a false pretext to arrest Everard as she walked home on a South London street and drive her away in a rented car to Kent, where he raped and killed her.
PC Wayne Couzens was seen handcuffing Sarah Everard on a road in Clapham - she was compliant because he used the guise of covid restrictions to “arrest” her. It was seen by witnesses who assumed Everard had done something wrong. They were in fact witnessing her kidnap by a cop
Everard’s death set off a wave of protests over violence against women, which escalated after police forcefully broke up a vigil mourning the murder victim. Although the perpetrator was already known to be a Metropolitan Police officer, the UK government responded by targeting men in general, saying misogyny would be treated as a hate crime on an “experimental basis.”
It came to light in reporting on the Everard case that police had allegedly failed to investigate several cases of indecent exposure linked to Couzens.
Cristiano Ronaldo struck a winner deep into injury time to give Manchester United a 2-1 Champions League win over Villarreal at Old Trafford, on what was a landmark appearance in the competition for the Portuguese superstar.
Making a record 178th Champions League appearance – moving him ahead of former Real Madrid teammate Iker Casillas on the all-time list – Ronaldo pounced in the 95th minute to fire home a strike from a tight angle via the hand of despairing Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli.
The goal was Ronaldo’s second in the Champions League since rejoining United and a 136th overall in the competition he reigns over as top scorer.
On netting the late, late winner in front of a jubilant Old Trafford, the musclebound 36-year-old whipped off his shirt before being engulfed by his teammates.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was no less ecstatic on the touchline after watching his team labor for much of the match against wily opposition managed by Unai Emery, who had beaten the English giants on penalties in last season’s Europa League final.
After the hosts were indebted to goalkeeper David de Gea in the first half, it was Villarreal who took the lead in the 53rd minute when Arnaut Danjuma drove past Diogo Dalot down the left flank, turning the ball across the face of the goal for Paco Alcacer to poke home.
The goal was no less than Villarreal deserved and came from a predictable source after Danjuma had run Dalot ragged for much of the night.
United finally roused themselves, equalizing seven minutes later thanks to a sweetly hit volley from Alex Telles after he was cleverly teed up by a free-kick from Bruno Fernandes on the opposite side of the box.
Alex Telles' goal from the stands, taken by the one and only Usain Bolt!
United pressed and were rewarded for their efforts when Ronaldo – a largely peripheral figure until that point – sent a header towards substitute Jesse Lingard in the Villarreal box.
Lingard was unable to collect the ball but his touch sent it back towards Ronaldo, who drove it low and into the net via the hand of Villarreal’s Rulli.
The goal sent supporters in the stands wild – including watching sprint king Usain Bolt and veteran United boss Sir Alex Ferguson – while fans online saluted Ronaldo for being the match-winner on yet another Champions League night.
"Cristiano Ronaldo’s career is scripted, he’s inevitable," gushed one fan, while transfer guru Fabrizio Romano hailed CR7's late, late show, writing: "If you've [got] Cristiano Ronaldo, it's never over."
馃嚨馃嚬 Five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League:
⚽️ Most goals in history (136)
馃憰 Most appearances (178)
馃槷 Most goals in a season (17)
馃く Most goals in knockout stages (67)
馃敟 Only player to score in 11 straight games
馃弳 Only player to score in 3 finals#UCLpic.twitter.com/SyRXiouyhH
.@Cristiano#Ronaldo now has 12 career goals in the 90th minute or later in the Champions League (including extra time), double any other player in the competition's history.
White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has made it clear he has zero intention of resigning from his position despite a controversial standing with the public, dismissing critics as conspiracy theorists.
Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program, Fauci was asked if he could ever see himself resigning if he caused “more harm than good.”
The infectious disease expert then went after Hewitt and other critics on a variety of “controversies” related to his own medical advice, as well as that of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“We have been dealing with an evolving situation,” Fauci said at one point, echoing a defense he’s presented for himself in the past. He added that examples of his advice changing – such as being against masks early in the pandemic – can be chalked up to changing data influencing his perspective.
Critics have argued Fauci presents too much information as solid fact, only to seemingly backtrack later, citing new data, on issues such as masks and theories about the virus’ origins.
Hewitt stuck to his argument, saying Fauci is an “impediment” to public health and declaring that people “won’t listen” to him.
Recent polling has shown trust in Fauci and the current administration in regards to Covid-19 is falling, especially among Republicans.
Asked again if he could see himself stepping aside and accepting that he cannot properly communicate for his job, Fauci remained defiant and dismissed his critics as being conspiracy theorists too hung up on “flip-flopping.”
“I just completely disagree with that premise, because there are an awful lot of people who do listen, who do the right thing from a public health standpoint,” he said. “So because there are a lot of people who have ideas about conspiracies and changing minds and flip-flopping, that’s not a reason to step down. Not at all.”
After Hewitt suggested that some could be refusing to get the vaccine because of their lack of trust in Fauci, the doctor “rejected” that idea “completely.”
“That is ridiculous,” he said, accusing the host of “creating a false narrative.”
Over 55% of the US’ total population has been fully vaccinated thus far, according to data tracking from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and over 66% of adults are. Over 77% of US adults have had at least one dose of a vaccine.
Dozens of people have been reported dead following an outbreak of gang warfare in an Ecuadorian prison. Several of the victims were brutally beheaded, and authorities are still recovering bodies.
Violence broke out on Tuesday at the Penitenciaria del Litoral prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador. By Wednesday, at least 30 people were reported dead and 52 injured, Bolivar Garzon, director of Ecuador’s prison system, told local media outside the facility.
Prisoners armed with guns, grenades, and melee weapons murdered each other with extreme brutality, and six victims were found beheaded. After a five-hour operation, police using ‘non-lethal weapons’ managed to retake control of the prison, national police commander Fausto Buenano told journalists.
Buenano said that his officers were attacked by armed prisoners, but did not say whether these officers killed or injured any prisoners. Video posted by the government of Guayas State showed a column of riot cops entering the prison, and six cooks being evacuated from the facility.
En este momento la @PoliciaEcuador logr贸 la evacuaci贸n de 6 cocineros que se encontraban al interior de un pabell贸n cuando iniciaron los enfrentamientos. "Continuamos trabajando en operativo interinstitucional para recuperar el orden", expres贸 el gobernador @parosemena. pic.twitter.com/6hkpjvZKhq
Though the violence has been subdued, some 10 corpses remain inside the prison and officers are working to remove them, Garzon added.
Rival gangs vying for control in the prison are believed to be responsible for the battle, with Ecuadorian officials blaming the ‘Los Lobos’ and ‘Los Choneros’ groups. These outfits are two of the numerous gangs that operate in Ecuador’s overcrowded and often lawless prison system, with many groups linked to the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.
Tuesday’s bloodbath in Guayaquil was not an isolated incident. Two equally violent prison battles have broken out already this year, with a wave of rioting across the country’s prisons killing 22 in July, and a similar series of concerted violence leaving at least 75 people dead in February. The clashes came after the assassination of a Los Choneros leader triggered a power struggle between the country’s prison gangs.
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship president Dave Feldman has said he 'would love' former UFC pin-up Paige VanZant to continue with the organization ahead of a sit-down with the fighter and her team to discuss their future.
Leaving the UFC last year after four defeats in her previous six octagon outings, the 27-year-old signed a four-bout deal with BKFC reportedly worth over $1 million.
Losing to Britain Hart via unanimous decision on her debut at Knucklemania, VanZant then dropped another L in the same manner to a foe she had previously beaten in the UFC, Rachael Ostovich, and has shown an interest in returning to MMA via a promotion such as Bellator.
With two fights left to run in her agreement with BKFC, however, Feldman is keen to see her stay put and will fly out to Florida to touch base with VanZant and her team to see how they plan to move forward.
"We spoke to her management team and honestly it’s up in the air," Feldman said, according to MMA Fighting.
"We’re not 100% sure she’ll be back with BKFC. It looks like she will but at the end of the day, if her heart and her passion is [that] she wants to give MMA another shot, we may give her that opportunity.
"I’m not here to hold anybody back," Feldman claimed.
"We’d love to have her back," Feldman confirmed, though.
"But at the end of the day, if her heart’s not in it – and I’m not saying that it’s not – but if her heart’s not in it, and she wants to try something else, who are we to stop her from advancing her career or trying something else new with her career?
"‘Cause we thought we could give her a great opportunity and we did and she’s been great to work with. We’ll know a lot more after this week. I’d love to put her on the KnuckleMania card again as well. So we’ll see what happens with that this week," he concluded on that specific topic.
BKFC is currently planning a second KnuckleMania show for February 11 next year, but Feldman can see the appeal of a return to MMA and specifically Bellator, where VanZant's husband Austin Vanderford plies his trade.
"She started in MMA," Feldman pointed out.
"Her husband fights for Bellator. If she wants to go fight with her husband … like I said, we’ll see what happens. I know that she definitely wants to go back to MMA. She always did."
"Even when she came over to bare-knuckle, I knew that was going to come up, and with her not able to taste victory yet in BKFC, maybe she wants to go over there.
"Like I said, we’re going to know a lot more in the next two days. Hopefully she comes back, and if not, we’ll wish her the best," Feldman finished.
A huge tornado has ripped through Kiel, a city on the Baltic coast of Germany, leaving devastation in its wake including at least seven injuries, local media report. The weather formation is highly unusual for the area.
Seven people were injured when the tornado hit Kiel on Wednesday evening, three of them severely, according to local news outlet Kieler Nachrichten. The ominous wind formation also caused major property damage, ripping roofs off houses and lifting boats out of the water. Police and fire department personnel have reportedly been deployed “on a large scale” to help with cleanup and rescue efforts.
Shocked onlookers posted video of the tornado - initially called a waterspout - to social media, showing the thin, but towering, formation looming large over the port city.
Germany has been struck with more than its usual share of odd weather this year. Another tornado hit Grossheide in August, damaging over 50 houses but mercifully sparing their unfortunate inhabitants.
That came just a month after the neighboring states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate were slammed with floods that claimed almost 200 lives.German prosecutors have accused the local government of failing to warn the states’ inhabitants of the coming disaster, a lack of information they say contributed to the high death toll - even going so far as to term their behavior negligent homicide.
However, weather forecasters have noted that tornadoes are much harder, if not impossible, to predict than flooding, and Kiel meteorologist Sebastian Wache suggested that a repeat experience was highly unlikely. He likened trying to predict tornadoes to “trying to predict where the first water bubble will rise in a saucepan,” a comparison that doubtless did little to reassure those whose houses had fallen in the path of the most recent storm.
Show HN I am aged 11 and founder of sprout9.net a platform for students to find great tutors. Please forgive me if I get this wrong and post it incorrectly. I would like fellow hackers to give me some constructive feedback on my MVP please. Ideas and suggestions as how I can improve my version 1.0 and how I can get the word out so I can help many students as possible. Thanks alot! Azaan September 30, 2021 at 01:47AM
