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GOP thinking about delaying hearing

The White House on Monday afternoon re-lowered its flags to half staff after drawing significant backlash for returning them to full staff less than 48 hours after the death of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Multiple reporters noted on social media that the flags were flying at half staff once again. The White House did not immediately respond to questions for comment on why the change was made.

Eleven of the Wild Boars youth football team were ordained novices in memory of a diver who died during their rescue. Their 25-year-old coach, who has received monk's orders, will stay on for three months. One of the boys did not participate as he is a Christian

Of course, the practical skills of engineers, technology experts, divers and military top the list of what enabled this rescue effort. But there’s another story here — one of quiet emotional fortitude, solidarity and spiritual strength. Surely if the boys or their coach had panicked or turned on one another in the darkness, they couldn’t have survived. The boys’ coach, 25-year-old Ekapol Chanthawong, had worked with them — even choosing the name “Wild Boars” (“Moo Ba” in Thai) — to build their self-esteem. Mostly poor children who, in a soccer-obsessed country, had been rejected by their school teams, the boys...

The rescuers were aided by a combination of luck and an outpouring of support from a motley group including military experts, international cave-divers, medical personnel and a Thai rock singer and her fan club. One team—three U.K. cave divers who had participated in numerous rescues in Europe—came at the suggestion of a British spelunker who lives near the caves and had explored them several times... Another group of Thailand-based cave divers was pulled together by Narinthorn Na Bangchang, a Bangkok-based actress/ singer who saw the boys’ plight on TV and decided she had to do something. Ms. Narinthorn flew to...

New information suggests the 12 Thai boys trapped in a cave were medicated and carried out on stretchers during the rescue operation... ...told AFP on Wednesday that the boys were “sleeping or partially-conscious as they were passed from diver-to-diver through the cave.”... “boys were wrapped up in stretchers already when they were being transferred” while doctors posted along the 2.5-mile long escape route checked them along the way.

The mission to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thai cave is to get the Hollywood treatment in a movie announced by faith-based production house Pure Flix. Managing partner Michael Scott, who lives in Thailand and was at the rescue site in Chiang Rai as the boys were being pulled to safety, made the announcement late Tuesday on Twitter. "I couldn't be more excited. This story has meant so much to me as I have followed it in Thailand this summer," he said in a video filmed at the scene of the flooded cave in the country's...

“THIS will make a great movie some day.” It’s a sentiment that’s echoed around the globe as millions of people watch on and champion the ongoing rescue of 12 young boys and their soccer coach stuck in a Thailand cave, in the country’s north. But for some Hollywood producers, there’s no time to waste, and “some day” may as well be now. A US film crew has already arrived at the foothills of the Tham Luang mountain cave system in Chiang Rai province as one of the world’s most daring rescue operations enters its third day. Divers are expected to...

The moment that rescue divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen found 12 Thai schoolboys and their soccer coach after nearly 10 days in a flooded cave is difficult to forget. “How many are you?” Mr. Stanton said, waving a flashlight toward the bedraggled, hungry boys. “13? Brilliant!” It was the latest in a long series of rescue missions undertaken by the British duo, widely regarded as among a select few cave divers with the necessary skills and experience to find a path to youngsters cut off deep inside. “They are the best in the business,” said another diver

The twelfth boy and his coach were the last of the team to be rescued Tuesday, after a complicated three-day operation to extricate the team, who became trapped on June 23 when rising flood water cut off the exit, deep inside the cave. In the last 18 days, what began as a local search for the missing 13 turned into a complex rescue operation, involving hundreds of experts who flew in from around the world to help.

An elite team of Thai Navy SEALs and foreign rescue divers brought out the final four boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave near the Thai-Myanmar border, extracting the team through a labyrinth of tight passages after they spent two weeks trapped in darkness. The operation on Tuesday moved quickly, raising hopes that all 12 boys and their adult coach from the Wild Boars soccer team would be at the surface by the end of the day. "We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out...

Reuters has a little more detail: A tenth person was rescued on Tuesday from a flooded Thai cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped for more than two weeks, raising hopes all 13 would be out by the end of the day.

Rescuers resumed preparations on Tuesday for a third rescue operation deep into a cave complex in northern Thailand to free four remaining boys and their soccer coach in a race against time and monsoon weather. Four more of the boys were carried on stretchers out of the labyrinthine Tham Luang cave on the Myanmar border on Monday, bringing to eight the total number brought out so far after two rescue pushes in successive days. The head of the operation, Narongsak Osottanakorn, said rescuers had learned from experience and were two hours faster in bringing the second batch of survivors out...

Dive teams in Thailand rescued four more boys from a flooded jungle cave Monday and were confident they will also be able to save the remaining four boys and their adult soccer coach still trapped in the cavern. Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn, speaking as the second day of the rescue mission got underway, predicted that all 12 of the boys on the soccer team and the coach will be safely brought out of the labyrinth where they went missing 17 days ago. "I insist that all 13 will be safe and sound," Osatanakorn said. Rescuers are hustling to...

The first four boys who were trapped in the cave in Thailand have been rescued and are in "perfect" health. The boys had to travel about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) with oxygen tanks, tethered to cave divers to exit. About 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) of the journey was underwater, where everyone had to wear full face masks. Reports emerged that the trapped boys did not know how to swim. Swim lessons are rare in Thailand, where the leading cause of death for children under 15 is drowning. Over the past few days, the boys were given lessons in swimming and...

Four members of a Thai youth soccer team were rescued from a cave in northern Thailand on Sunday, leaving another eight boys and their soccer coach in the flooded cavern after 18 divers began a daring mission to bring home the group who have been trapped in the flooded cavern for more than two weeks. The first boy rescued exited the cave 5:40 p.m. local time, followed by three of his team members shortly after, Chiang Rai provincial acting Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said in a Sunday night news conference. The boys traveled 0.62 miles underwater before they reached safety. They...

Thailand cave rescue working!

Jacob Goldberg, who is still inside the cave rescue site, has this footage of divers arriving at the cave site, to be mobbed by reporters. Reporters and all those not directly involved in the rescue operation have been banned from entering the site, and those already inside have been give until 9am to clear out.

The adolescent soccer players trapped for two weeks in a partially flooded cave in northern Thailand don't want their parents to worry. And they also wouldn't mind having some fried chicken ready for when they get home. That's what's on the minds of the 12 boys, ages 11-16, according to handwritten notes they sent out with divers who made an 11-hour, back-and-forth journey to act as postmen. The boys and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped since June 23, when they went exploring in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave after a practice game. Monsoon flooding cut off their escape...

A former Thai Navy SEAL died early Friday while placing oxygen tanks in the cave where a Thai soccer team has been stuck for nearly two weeks. ... The volunteer diver, who has been identified as 38-year-old Saman Kunan, died from a lack of oxygen early around 1 a.m. on Friday morning. ... More than 100 Thai Navy SEALS are working on the rescue mission as well as divers from Australia, the US, UK, China, and other countries.