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Experts say the new report raises more questions that answers after the Times confirms previous Turkish reports a Canadian intelligence agent helped Begum get into Syria When news broke that the United Kingdom authorities helped cover up Canada's role in trafficking Shamina Begum to Syria as a teenager, British academic Rizwaan Sabbir, who focuses on counter-terrorism, said he was not surprised. On Tuesday, news reports suggested Scotland Yard was informed that Begum and her two friends were trafficked into Syria by a smuggler who was a double agent working both for the Islamic State group and Canadian intelligence. But instead...

New coronavirus boosters are just around the corner following authorization Wednesday by federal regulators. The updated shots are designed to provide a stronger shield against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants still causing tens of thousands of infections and hundreds of deaths every day in the United States. The boosters will be part of a campaign by the federal government, to be kicked off within days, to persuade Americans to bolster their immune defenses before a potential surge in covid-19 cases as cooler weather arrives in the fall. But the updated boosters have generated some controversy and confusion. Here's what...

A handful of colleges around the country are clinging to COVID-19-related protocols, including mask mandates for indoor areas and vaccine mandates for students and staff. Pandemic-related restrictions on some college campuses persist as most public health guidelines have relaxed and mask and vaccine mandates have receded from most areas of daily life. But in some cases, the mandates are going beyond COVID-19. At the University of California, Berkeley, students are mandated to get vaccinated against coronavirus, as well as the flu. The university's guidance says students who are not vaccinated against the flu will be required to wear a mask...

Russian forces are reportedly delaying international nuclear safety officials from entering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Shelling on multiple days last week had hit an area of the plant located just 100 meters or so from the reactor buildings. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), repeatedly called for an IAEA mission to the plant so experts can assess the damage and evaluate working conditions of the Ukrainian staff continuing to keep the facility operational. Earlier on Wednesday, an IAEA team set off from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Reuters reporting the team were...

The White House denounced supporters of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, accusing them of posing an “extremist threat to our democracy.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began the daily briefing by condemning Republican leaders for their dangerous rhetoric but also said that President Joe Biden believed supporters of former President Donald Trump were also a threat.

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham moved Wednesday to buttress access to abortions in New Mexico, signing an executive order that pledges $10 million to build a state-funded clinic providing abortion and other services in Doña Ana County. The governor’s executive order also directs the state Department of Health to marshal state resources to expand access to reproductive health — including abortion — in rural parts of the state and study whether medication that ends pregnancies can be provided in public health clinics. “This is a state that will stand against any attempts to remove or eviscerate women’s constitutional...

Share Tweet ... More President Biden on Thursday will use a prime-time address to make the case that the political movement led by his predecessor poses an “extreme threat” to democracy as his criticisms of Republicans become increasingly pointed as November’s midterms approach. Biden will travel to Philadelphia for a speech at Independence Hall that the White House is dubbing “The Soul of the Nation.” Officials have offered few details about the actual contents of the speech, but the decision to deliver it in prime time marks a new effort for Biden to go after what he and the White...

An assistant principal in Greenwich is on administrative leave after a video surfaced online that purportedly shows him talking about discriminatory hiring practices. The now-viral video released by Project Veritas shows Cos Cob Elementary School’s Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland saying that he wouldn’t hire Catholics, conservatives, older applicants, or anyone he didn’t believe was progressive. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Toni Jones said the school district was made aware of the video Tuesday night, adding, “We intend to do a full investigation and until that time, we will not make any public statements. We ask that you respect the investigation process...

On this date in 1593, a would-be assassin of France’s King Henri IV was broken on the wheel. An Orleans boatman turned Catholic League soldier in France’s internecine Catholic-Huguenot wars, he was among the numerous Catholics who looked askance at victorious Huguenot Henri IV‘s expeditious conversion to Catholicism. In the months while Henri IV still held Paris under siege, the Jesuit father Jacques Commolet had called for his assassination from the pulpit. The Bourbon’s (nominal) switch to Catholicism with the words “Paris is worth a mass” had not persuaded hard-core Catholic partisans of the king’s sincerity. Henri was a practical...

The U.S. Army has grounded its entire fleet of CH-47 Chinook helicopters because of a risk of engine fires, U.S. officials said. Army officials are aware of a small number of engine fires with the helicopters, and the incidents didn’t result in any injuries or deaths, the U.S. officials said. One of the officials said the fires occurred in recent days. The U.S. Army Materiel Command grounded the fleet of hundreds of helicopters “out of an abundance of caution,” but officials were looking at more than 70 aircraft that contained a part that is suspected to be connected to the...

A Washington school board approved a policy on Aug. 24 prohibiting the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in classrooms. The Kennewick School Board in Kennewick, Washington, voted 5-0 on a policy which bans educators from teaching students CRT or that “their race determines their value or worth.” The policy requires that students learn “factual” U.S. history in all disciplines at school.

Pope Francis Prays U.N. Climate Summit Will ‘Unite the Human Family’ROME — Pope Francis said Wednesday that “Mother Earth groans and begs us to stop our abuse” of creation.Following his weekly general audience in the Vatican, the pontiff noted September 1 will mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, kicking off a month-long “Season of Creation,” culminating on October 4, the feast of St Francis of Assisi. The pope went on to express his wish that the call to listen to the voice of creation will “foster in everyone a concrete commitment to care for our...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two years after he defeated Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has some unfinished business he’s aiming to settle with the restive forces of Trumpism. Biden, who largely avoided even referring to “the former guy” by name during his first year in office, has grown increasingly vocal in calling out Trump personally, which White House officials say reflects the urgency with which he views the threat of Trump and his devotees. Larry Diamond, an expert on democracy and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said Biden faces a difficult situation as he confronts Trump....

Albino Luciani distanced himself early on from the triumphalist pomp of his church, which still calls herself holy. When he became Bishop of Vittorio Veneto in 1958, he added only one word to his coat of arms: Humilitas, humility. He stuck to this when Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop and Patriarch of Venice in 1969. And he, the son of an anti-clerical Italian socialist, even appointed him Cardinal in 1973. On 26 August 1978, Albino Luciani became Pope himself. "God forgive you for what you have done to me," he criticises the cardinals who elected him in the fourth...

Two weeks after 20-year-old Indiana University student Avery McMillan was found unresponsive inside a Bloomington house, cops on Wednesday arrested the homeowner in connection to her death. Eric Montgomery, 33, now faces a charge of rape when the victim is mentally disabled or deficient, as well as a charge of giving alcohol to someone underage, arrest records say. It is the only arrest to stem from McMillan’s mysterious death on Aug. 17. Additional details about what happened between McMillan and Montgomery were not released Wednesday. Cops said earlier this month that Montgomery called 911 and said McMillan was unresponsive at...

Multiple tugs and patrol craft. Slow and stately tow. No incidents seen. Drydock is still 'wet' and the comments indicate that it wont be drained for a while.

Joe Biden made a bizarre and passive aggressive comment targeting “brave right-wing Americans” Tuesday, during an political rally in Pennsylvania touting his latest gun grab. The $37 billion Safer America Plan, unveiled in July, aims to fund police departments, and provides grants for cities to reduce violent crimes. The proposal also calls on Congress to pass additional gun restrictions. Rather than attack Republicans in Congress who might oppose the initiative, Biden mocked all conservative Americans who support the Second Amendment and believe that gun rights are necessary for self-defense and as a check against a tyrannical government. “And for those...

No running water in Jackson. The heat index is 102 degrees. Schools and universities are closed. No way to cook, clean, bathe. This is capital city, and the biggest city in Mississippi. #jxnwatercrisis — Brittany Brown (@isthatbritt) August 30, 2022 Keep voting for republicans and eventually MS can be last in everything. Or at least be proudly neck and neck with KY for the bottom spot. — Michael Cush (@MichaelCush8) August 30, 2022 The city of Jackson is Democrat controlled and has been for many years. They own/operate/maintain the water system. I’m not saying that matters, but the facts matter....

Demands from Rottenburg I wonder what the Pope will say about this? Rottenburg - The long-prepared Council Day of the protest, "Reforms now - Council from below" will take place on Saturday, 24 September. More than 400 participants from parishes of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, church associations, religious, members of the Diocesan Council and others are expected. In the meantime, numerous delegates have registered for the Council Day. The initiators are the initiative pro concilio and the AGR, the solidarity group of priests and deacons in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Supporters include the Federation of German Catholic Youth, the Catholic...

Until very recently, it was a normal and commonsense thing to say you don’t approve of children being pumped full of hormones or surgically altered for no medical reason. In fact, that’s what a majority of people still believe. Yet, when Brittany Aldean (wife of country music star Jason Aldean) recently said so, woke celebrities went ballistic. In the caption of a makeup video she shared to Instagram, Brittany Aldean wrote, “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life.” This sentiment, while shared in...