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Rushdie in hospital as outrage grows over stabbing

Rushdie in hospital as outrage grows over stabbing

Salman Rushdie remained hospitalized in serious condition Saturday after being stabbed at a literary event in New York state in a shocking assault that triggered widespread international outrage, but drew applause from hardliners in Iran and Pakistan.

The British author, who spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders ordered his killing, underwent emergency surgery and was placed on a ventilator in a Pennsylvania hospital following Friday’s assault. His agent said he will likely lose an eye.

“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals. Truth. Courage. Resilience,” Biden said in a statement.

On Friday, a 24-year-old man from New Jersey, Hadi Matar, rushed the stage where Rushdie was about to deliver a lecture and stabbed him in the neck and abdomen.

Beyond Rushdie’s eye injury, the nerves in one of his arms were severed and his liver was damaged, according to his agent Andrew Wylie.

The fatwa followed publication of the novel “The Satanic Verses,” which sparked fury among some Muslims who believed it was blasphemous.

“For whatever it was, eight or nine years, it was quite serious,” he told a Stern correspondent in New York.

– Assailant raised in US –

Security was not particularly tight at Friday’s event at the Chautauqua Institution, which hosts arts programs in a tranquil lakeside community near Buffalo.

Matar’s family apparently came from a border village called Yaroun in southern Lebanon.

Matar was “born and raised in the US,” the head of the local municipality, Ali Qassem Tahfa, told AFP.

“I was very happy to hear the news,” said Mehrab Bigdeli, a man in his 50s studying to become a Muslim cleric.

In Pakistan, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan –- a party that has staged violent protests against what it deems to be anti-Muslim blasphemy — said Rushdie “deserved to be killed.”

British leader Boris Johnson said he was “appalled,” while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack “reprehensible” and “cowardly.”

– Write memoir in hiding –

But his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” transformed his life. The resulting fatwa forced him into nearly a decade in hiding, moving houses repeatedly and being unable to tell even his children of him where he lived.

Since moving to New York, Rushdie has been an outspoken advocate of freedom of speech and has continued writing — including a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” named after his alias while in hiding.

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US

Taliban claim they weren’t aware al Qaeda chief was living in Kabul

Images show Kabul house where al Qaeda chief is believed to have been killed by US strike

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no information about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s arrival and stay in Kabul,” the Taliban said in a statement Thursday.

“The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has instructed the investigative and intelligence agencies to conduct a comprehensive and serious investigation into the various aspects of the incident,” the Taliban added.

US President Joe Biden announced Monday that Zawahiri had been killed early Sunday by a US drone strike at a house in Kabul he had been residing in.

A senior US administration official said senior Taliban figures from the Haqqani network were aware of the al Qaeda chief’s presence in the area and even took steps to conceal his presence after the strike, restricting access to the safe house and rapidly relocating members of his family, including his daughter and her children.

Biden's al Qaeda strike reveals an inconvenient truth about America's war on terror

The house in which al-Zawahiri was hiding is in the Sherpur area of ​​the Green Zone, where most of the officials from the previous Afghan government used to live.

The Sherpur neighborhood was once the site of an old military base, but during the years of civil conflict and the Taliban’s rule in the 1990s it was left almost unused.

In 2003, the Afghan defense ministry abandoned it and the government divided it into more than 50 plots, giving them to powerful people including government ministers and other high-ranking officials, plus warlords and drug lords. Their houses soon gained the nickname “poppy palaces.”

After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021, the majority of the owners of Sherpur houses fled the country and their houses were confiscated by the Taliban.

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Categories
Business

Turkey’s inflation jumped to a 24-year high of 79.6 percent in July | Inflation News

Turkey's inflation jumped to a 24-year high of 79.6 percent in July | Inflation News

Turkey’s inflation has been fueled by the lira’s continued decline as well as the economic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Turkish inflation rose to a fresh 24-year high of 79.6 percent in July, data showed on Wednesday as the lira’s continued weakness and global energy and commodity costs pushed prices higher, though the price rises came out below forecasts.

Inflation began to surge last autumn, when the lira slumped after the central bank gradually cut its policy rate by 500 basis points to 14 percent in an easing cycle sought by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Month-on-month, consumer prices rose 2.37 percent in July, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) said, below a Reuters news agency poll forecast of 2.9 percent. Annually, consumer price inflation was forecast to be 80.5 percent.

Jason Tuvey, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said annual inflation may be approaching a peak, with energy inflation falling sharply and food inflation appearing close to topping out.

“Even if inflation is close to a peak, it will remain close to its current very high rates for several more months,” Tuvey said in a note.

“Sharp and disorderly falls in the lira remain a key risk,” he said.

The biggest annual rise in consumer prices was in the transportation sector, up 119.11 percent, while food and non-alcoholic drinks prices climbed 94.65 percent.

Inflation this year has been fueled further by the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the lira’s continued decline. The currency weakened 44 percent against the United States dollar last year, and is down another 27 percent this year.

The lira was trading flat after the data at 17.9560 against the dollar. It touched a record low of 18.4 in December.

Annual inflation is now at the highest level since September 1998, when it reached 80.4 percent and Turkey was battling to end a decade of chronically high inflation.

Last week’s Reuters news poll showed annual inflation was seen declining to some 70 percent by end-2022, easing from current levels as base effects from last year’s price surge take effect.

The domestic producer price index climbed 5.17 percent month-on-month in July for an annual rise of 144.61 percent.

The government has said inflation will fall as a result of its economic programme, which prioritizes low rates to boost production and exports and aims to achieve a current account surplus.

Erdogan has said that he expects inflation to come down to “appropriate” levels by February-March next year, while the central bank raised its end-2022 forecast to 60.4 percent last Thursday from 42.8 percent previously.

The bank’s inflation report showed the estimated range of inflation reaching nearly 90 percent this autumn before easing.

Opposition lawmakers and economists have questioned the reliability of the TUIK figures, claims TUIK has dismissed. Polls show Turks believe inflation is far higher than official data.

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Categories
US

Senate approves bill to aid vets exposed to toxic burn pits

Senate approves bill to aid vets exposed to toxic burn pits

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill enhancing health care and disability benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits won final approval in the Senate on Tuesday, ending a brief stalemate over the measure that had infuriated advocates and inspired some to camp outside the Capitol .

The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 86-11. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Biden described the legislation as the biggest expansion of benefits for service-connected health issues in 30 years and the largest single bill ever to address exposure to burn pits.

“I look forward to signing this bill, so that veterans and their families and caregivers impacted by toxic exposures finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they earned and deserve,” Biden said.

The Senate had overwhelmingly approved the legislation back in June, but a do-over was required to make a technical fix. That process derailed when Republicans made a late attempt to change another aspect of the bill last week and blocked it from advancing.

The abrupt delay outraged veterans groups and advocates, including comedian Jon Stewart. It also placed GOP senators in the uncomfortable position of delaying the top legislative priority of service organizations this session of Congress.

A group of veterans and their families have been camping out at the Capitol since that vote. They had endured thunderstorms and Washington’s notorious summer humidity, but they were in the galleries as senators cast their votes.

“You can go home knowing the good and great thing you have done and accomplished for the United States of America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., told them.

The legislation expands access to health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs for millions who served near burn pits. It also directs the VA to presume that certain respiratory illnesses and cancers were related to burn pit exposure, allowing veterans to obtain disability payments to compensate for their injury without having to prove the illness was a result of their service.

Roughly 70% of disability claims related to burn pit exposure are denied by the VA due to lack of evidence, scientific data and information from the Defense Department.

The military used burn pits to dispose of such things as chemicals, cans, tires, plastics and medical and human waste.

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnam War era veterans and survivors also stand to benefit from the legislation. The bill adds hypertension, or high blood pressure, as a presumptive disease associated with Agent Orange exposure.

The Congressional Budget Office projected that about 600,000 of 1.6 million living Vietnam vets would be eligible for increased compensation, though only about half would have severe enough diagnoses to warrant more compensation.

Also, veterans who served in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll will be presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange. That’s another 50,000 veterans and survivors of deceased veterans who would get compensation for illnesses presumed to have been caused by their exposure to the herbicide, the CBO projected.

The bill also authorizes 31 major medical VA health clinics and research facilities in 19 states.

The bill is projected to increase federal deficits by about $277 billion over 10 years.

The bill has been a years-long effort begun by veterans and their families who viewed the burn pits used in Iraq and Afghanistan as responsible for respiratory problems and other illnesses the veterans experienced after returning home. It was named after Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson from Ohio, who died in 2020 from cancer he attributed to prolonged exposure to burn pits. His widow, Danielle Robinson, was the first lady Jill Biden’s guest at the president’s State of the Union address earlier this year.

Stewart, the former host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” also brought increased exposure to the burn pit maladies veterans were facing. He was also in the gallery watching the vote Tuesday. He wept and held his head in his hand as the final vote began.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a situation where people who have already given so much had to fight so hard to get so little,” he said after the vote. “And I hope we learn a lesson.”

The House was the first to act on the burn pits legislation. An earlier version of the House approved in March was expected to increase spending by more than $320 billion over 10 years, but senators trimmed some of the costs early on by phasing in certain benefit enhancements. They also added funds for staffing to help the VA keep up with the expected increase in demand for health care and an increase in disability claims.

Some GOP senators are still concerned that the bill will increase delays at the VA because of an increased demand for veterans seeking care or disability compensation.

“What we have learned is that the VA cannot deliver what is promised because it does not have the capacity to handle the increase,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., led the effort to get the bill passed in the Senate. After passage, Tester told reporters he received a call from Biden, thanking him for “taking a big weight” off his shoulder.

For Biden, the issue is very personal. He has raised the prospect that burn pits in Iraq were responsible for the death of his son Beau.

“We don’t know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops,” Biden said at his State of the Union speech. “But I’m committed to finding out everything we can.”

Moran said that when the bill failed to pass last week, he was disappointed but remembered the strength of the protesters who had sat outside in the scorching heat for days.

“Thanks to the United States Senate for demonstrating when there’s something good and a good cause, this place still works,” Moran said.

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Associated Press staff writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

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Categories
US

Biden admin approves potential multibillion-dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE

Biden admin approves potential multibillion-dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE



CNN
—

The Biden administration on Tuesday approved and notified Congress of possible multibillion-dollar weapons sales to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The notice of the approval comes just weeks after President Joe Biden met with the leaders of each nation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as he sought to improve relations between the US and the Saudis.

The approval was also notified on the same day that the United Nations announced a two-month extension of the truth in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebel group had, until recent months, been engaged in a years-long bloody conflict that has killed thousands of civilians.

According to a news release from the US State Department, the agency approved a possible sale of PATRIOT MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical Ballistic Missiles (GEM-T) and related equipment to Saudi Araba for an estimated $3.05 billion.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf region,” the State Department said of the sale.

“The proposed sale will improve the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s capability to meet current and future threats by replenishing its dwindling stock of PATRIOT GEM-T missiles,” it said. “These missiles are used to defend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s borders against persistent Houthi cross-border unmanned aerial system and ballistic missile attacks on civilian sites and critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.”

“These attacks threaten the well-being of Saudi, International, and US citizens (approximately 70,000) residing in the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have no difficulty absorbing these missiles into its armed forces,” it added.

Separately, the State Department approved the possible sale of “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) System Missiles, THAAD Fire Control and Communication Stations, and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2.245 billion” to the UAE.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of an important regional partner. The UAE is a vital US partner for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” the State Department said. “The proposed sale will improve the UAE’s ability to meet current and future ballistic missile threats in the region, and reduce dependence on US forces.”

Shortly after taking office, Biden announced the US would end its support for Saudi’s offensive operations in Yemen, “including relevant arms sales.” However, the administration has continued to sell arms to the kingdom for what it says are defensive purposes.

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Categories
US

Takeaways: Abortion backlash in Kansas, Greitens’ collapse

Takeaways: Abortion backlash in Kansas, Greitens' collapse

WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of the biggest days of this year’s primary campaign season, voters rejected a measure that would have made it easier to restrict abortion rights in red-state Kansas and repudiated a scandal-tarred former governor seeking a US Senate seat in Missouri.

Meanwhile, a Republican congressman who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection lost to a Trump-backed opponent early Wednesday, while two other impeachment-supporting House Republicans awaited results in their primaries in Washington state.

In Michigan, a political newcomer emerged from the state’s messy Republican gubernatorial primary, setting up a rare woman-vs.-woman general election matchup between conservative commentator Tudor Dixon and incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Takeaways from election results Tuesday night:

RED-STATE KANSAS REJECTS ANTI-ABORTION AMENDMENT

Kansas may seem like an unlikely place for abortion rights supporters to notch a major victory.

But on Tuesday, voters in the conservative state resoundingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Legislature to ban abortion. It was the first major test of voter sentiment since the Supreme Court ruling in June to rescind the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

The amendment would have allowed the Legislature to overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court decision declaring access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state constitution.

Its failure at the ballot in a state Donald Trump won by nearly 15 points issues a stark warning to Republicans, who have downplayed the political impact of the high court’s ruling. It also hands a considerable win to Democrats, who are feeling newly energized heading into what was expected to be a tough midterm election season for them.

Kansas currently allows abortion until the 22nd week of pregnancy. After that, abortion is allowed only to save a patient’s life or to prevent “a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, has warned that the Republican-led Legislature’s efforts to ban abortion would hurt the state. On Tuesday it became clear that many voters agree with her.

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TRUMP’S REVENGE

First-term Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer was one of 10 Republicans who joined Democrats to vote in favor of impeaching Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. On Tuesday, he became the latest victim of the former president’s revenge campaign.

Meijer, an heir to a Midwestern grocery store empire and a former Army reserve officer who served in Iraq, lost the GOP contest to former Trump administration official John Gibbs.

“I’m proud to have remained true to my principles, even when doing so came at a significant political cost,” Meijer said in a statement.

In addition to having Trump’s endorsement, Gibbs also shared Trump’s penchant for conspiracy theories: He parroted Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election and once spread false claims that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chair participated in a satanic ritual that involved bodily fluids.

Meijer is the second of the 10 impeachment-supporting Republicans to lose his primary, joining South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice, who was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in June. Four others opted to withdraw rather than face voters’ wrath. And so far, only California Rep. David Valadao has survived — just barely.

Also on the ballot Tuesday were Washington state Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, who both faced Trump-backed challengers over their impeachment votes. But those contests were too early to call because Washington state conducts elections by mail, delaying the reporting of results.

Herrera Beutler’s challengers include Joe Kent, a former Green Beret who has cultivated links to right-wing extremist groups and employs a campaign aid who was a member of the Proud Boys. Newhouse’s opponents include Loren Culp, a former GOP gubernatorial nominee who falsely claimed that his 13-point loss from him to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2020 was the result of voter fraud.

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TRUMP’S SLATE

Most of the candidates on Trump’s Arizona slate had a successful primary night.

Senate Blake Masters, whose campaign was bankrolled by tech investor Peter Thiel, won his Republican primary candidate after echoing Trump’s lies of a stolen election and playing up cultural grievances that encourage the right, including critical race theory and allegations of big tech censorship.

In the secretary of state race, Mark Finchem, an Arizona state lawmaker who worked to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in the state, won his primary.

In the state Legislature, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified at a Jan. 6 hearing about Trump’s pressure to overturn the 2020 election, lost his Republican primary for a state Senate seat to a Trump-backed former lawmaker, David Farnsworth.

The possible exception to Trump’s streak of wins was Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. She was trailing the establishment-backed Karrin Taylor Robson, who was endorsed by Trump’s estranged vice president, Mike Pence. That could still change. Election-day and late-arriving mail ballots that would likely favor Lake are still being counted.

Arizona has emerged as a key swing state. But it also carries significance to Trump after Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate in decades to carry what was once a reliably Republican state.

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GREITENS’ COMEBACK COLLAPSES

Democratic hopes of picking up a US Senate seat in deep-red Missouri faltered Tuesday after Republican voters selected Attorney General Eric Schmitt as their nominee over former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace in 2018.

Greitens, they predicted, would be toxic in a general election. Democrats landed a strong recruit in beer heir Trudy Busch Valentine, who won her primary Tuesday. And the state’s Republican establishment prepared to put millions of dollars behind an independent candidate in the general election, potentially fracturing the GOP vote.

But Greitens came up short Tuesday, finishing a distant third behind Schmitt and US Rep. Vicky Hartzler. His campaign’s tailspin can likely be traced back to March, when his ex-wife submitted a bombshell legal filing in the former couple’s child custody case.

Sheena Greitens said in a sworn statement that Eric Greitens had abused her and one of their young sons. She also said he displayed such “unstable and coercive behavior” in the lead-up to his 2018 resignation that others took steps to limit his access to firearms.

At the time, Greitens faced potential impeachment after his former hairdresser testified that he blindfolded and restrained her in his basement, assaulted her and appeared to take a compromising photo to pressure her to keep quiet about an affair.

He resigned from office — and avoided testifying under oath about the affair.

He launched his comeback campaign for Senate last year, marketing himself as an unabashedly pro-Trump conservative. And while many in Missouri wrote him off, one important political figure didn’t: Donald Trump, who mused publicly about Greitens’ attributes.

But in the end, Trump stopped short of issuing an endorsement, instead issuing a vague statement this week throwing his support behind “ERIC.”

And on Tuesday, the other “ERIC” in the race — Schmitt — won.

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MESSY RACE IN MICHIGAN

At its essence, Michigan’s raucous Republican gubernatorial primary was a contest of which candidate’s personal baggage was the least disqualifying. On Tuesday, conservative media personality Tudor Dixon was the victor, setting up a November general election against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the battleground state.

Dixon’s past as an actor in a series of vulgar and low-budget horror movies became a campaign issue. But her career was moonlighting in titles such as “Buddy BeBop Vs. the Living Dead” and a vampire TV series called “Transitions” paled in comparison to her rivals’ problems.

One rival, Ryan Kelley, faces federal misdemeanor charges after he was recorded on video in Washington during the Jan. 6 insurrection directing a mob of Trump supporters toward a set of stairs leading to the US Capitol. Kelley has pleaded not guilty.

Another, Kevin Rinke, is a former car dealer who settled a series of lawsuits in the 1990s after he was alleged to have made racist and sexist comments, which included calling women “ignorant and stupid” and stating that they “should not be allowed to work in public.”

A third, Garrett Soldano, is a chiropractor and self-help guru who has sold supplements he falsely claimed were a therapeutic treatment for the coronavirus.

Many in the state’s Republican establishment, including billionaire former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos, view Dixon as their best shot at defeating Whitmer. Trump endorsed Dixon in the race Friday, just a few days before the primary.

But her primary victory is an outcome few would have predicted months ago. In addition to the shortcomings of her rivals, her path to her was cleared when the two best-known candidates in the race were kicked off the ballot in May for submitting false petition signatures.

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Categories
Australia

Comancheros bikie boss Mark Buddle in police custody in Australia after extradition from Turkey

Comancheros bikie boss Mark Buddle in police custody in Australia after extradition from Turkey

Comancheros bikie boss Mark Buddle has been deported from Turkey and is in police custody in Australia.

Buddle is suspected of being involved in major drug shipments to Australia and is a person of interest in the 2010 murder of NSW security guard Gary Allibon.

SEE THE ARREST FOOTAGE IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE

Buddle left Australia in 2016 and has been living in various locations in the Middle East since then.

He is expected to face court on Wednesday.

Footage has emerged of Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle being frogmarched into a police station in handcuffs.
Camera IconFootage has emerged of Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle being frogmarched into a police station in handcuffs. Credit: Australian Federal Police/Australian Federal Police
The nation's most wanted man was apprehended by Australian Federal Police over alleged drug importation after he touched down in Darwin on Tuesday morning.
Camera IconThe nation’s most wanted man was apprehended by Australian Federal Police over alleged drug importation after he touched down in Darwin on Tuesday morning. Credit: Australian Federal Police/Australian Federal Police

Buddle is suspected of having moved to Northern Cyprus to avoid extradition to Australia, where he faces questioning about his alleged involvement in drug and murder investigations.

Northern Cyprus is not officially recognized by any country other than Turkey and does not share an extradition treaty with Australia.

Buddle took over as head of the Comancheros in 2009 following the jailing of former boss, Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi.
Camera IconBuddle took over as head of the Comancheros in 2009 following the jailing of former boss, Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi. Credit: Supplied

Buddle took over the leadership of the Comancheros in 2009 when former boss Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi was jailed over a fatal brawl at Sydney Airport.

Hawaii was later shot dead outside a gym in Sydney.

Buddle fled Australia in 2016 after being named a person of interest in the murder of a security guard and has evaded authorities ever since.

In 2010, 59-year-old Gary Allibon was shot in the back during the early-morning robbery of a cash-in-transit van on Sydney’s Sussex Street.

It is understood he had handed over a cash box and had his hands in the air when he was shot.

Buddle is believed to have been one of the focus points of police investigations — although no charges have been laid.

It is understood Buddle has spent the past several years in different countries with partner Melanie Ter Wisscha and their two children.
Camera IconIt is understood Buddle has spent the past several years in different countries with partner Melanie Ter Wisscha and their two children. Credit: Supplied

For several years, Buddle lived with long time partner Melanie Ter Wisscha and their two children in Dubai.

Last year, video surfaced of Buddle in an altercation with tourists at a Dubai pool.

Soon after, he left the country and the Sydney-born fugitive is believed to have traveled to Turkey, Greece and Iraq, before finally settling in Northern Cyprus.

In 2021, Cypriot newspaper Kibris Gercek reported Buddle had been granted residency by high-ranking politicians until August 6, 2022.

The reason for the residence permit was reported to be his “high income”.

A statement by the interior ministry said police had later determined Buddle’s presence was “inconvenient in terms of public peace and security”.

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Categories
US

Images show Kabul house where al Qaeda chief is believed to have been killed by US strike

Images show Kabul house where al Qaeda chief is believed to have been killed by US strike

The identification was made by geolocating and verifying the authenticity of three photos circulating social media since Sunday, in additional to utilizing archival, high-resolution satellite imagery.

The strike, which took place at 9:48 pm ET on Saturday and in the early hours of Sunday morning in Kabul, was authorized by US President Joe Biden following weeks of meetings with his Cabinet and key advisers.
It took out the 71-year-old al Qaeda leader who at one time acted as Osama bin Laden’s personal physician, and who rose to the top of the terrorist organization after US forces killed bin Laden in 2011.

CNN has reached out to the National Security Council for comment on the identification of the house but did not immediately receive a response.

The house, located in the Sherpur neighborhood of the Afghan capital, is surrounded by several houses and buildings to its north, south and west. Directly east of the house sits Omaid High School.

Just under 1,000 feet to the southeast of the house sits the United Kingdom’s embassy in Kabul. According to the British Foreign Office, all diplomatic and consular staff are “temporarily withdrawn” from the country.

This photograph appears to show the aftermath of the strike.

The house is in an area called the Green Zone, where most of the previous Afghan government officials used to live.

Zawahiri was sheltering in downtown Kabul to reunite with his family, Biden said in his Monday evening address announcing the strike, and was killed in what a senior administration official described as “a precise tailored airstrike” using two Hellfire missiles.

Opinion: The rise and fall of Osama bin Laden's uncharismatic successor
Before he gave the order to kill the terrorist leader, Biden wanted to intimately understand the vicinity in which he was hiding.

Among the preparations was a small-scale model of Zawahiri’s safe house, constructed by intelligence officials and placed inside the White House Situation Room for Biden to examine as he debated his options.

The Sherpur area of ​​Kabul was an old military base, but during the years of civil conflict and the Taliban era in the 1990s it was left almost unused. In 2003, the Afghan Defense Ministry abandoned it and the government divided it into more than 50 plots, giving them to powerful people including government ministers and other high-ranking officials, plus warlords and drug lords. Their houses soon gained the nickname “Poppy palaces.”

After the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021, the majority of the owners of Sherpur houses fled the country and their houses were confiscated by the Taliban.

It’s unclear who owns the house where Zawahiri was killed or whether it is one of those confiscated houses.

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Categories
US

Cunningham picks former fighter pilot as SC gov running mate

Cunningham picks former fighter pilot as SC gov running mate

COLUMBIA, SC (AP) — Joe Cunningham has chosen Tally Parham Casey, a civil litigator who flew fighter jets during three combat tours over Iraq, to ​​be his running mate in his quest to become South Carolina’s first Democratic governor in 20 years.

“She’s one of the most impressive people that I’ve ever met,” said Cunningham, who previewed his lieutenant governor pick for The Associated Press ahead of a formal announcement Monday. “Ella She’s fought for our freedoms abroad, and she wants to continue fighting for those freedoms, so that’s why I put her on the ticket, and ella she’s agreed to do it.”

Cunningham, 40, planned to introduce Casey, 52, at an event in Greenville, her hometown.

“I have long admired Joe’s bipartisan approach to governing and believe he is exactly what South Carolina needs as governor,” Casey said in a statement provided by the campaign, calling her selection “an incredible honor and privilege.”

“Joe is a regular guy who has the guts to say what we’re all thinking,” she also said in the statement.

This is the second gubernatorial election cycle in which contenders for South Carolina’s top two executive offices run on the same ticket. In years past, governors and their lieutenant governors were elected separately, meaning that sometimes the politicians clashed ideologically or were from different parties.

Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, 54, became South Carolina’s first gubernatorial ticket to file for reelection, with McMaster calling the payroll company founder “fully conversant with the trials, tribulations and challenges of business.” That skillset, the governor has saidcomplements his decades in law and politics.

Since her election in 2018, Evette has spent many months traveling the state, meeting with businesses and promoting their relationships with South Carolina’s technical training schools. Both she and the governor say keeping them strong is key to the state’s manufacturing economy.

Cunningham also points to the diverse experiences of his running mate. Casey’s military service, legal savvy and the fact that she’s a woman make her the right fit for where he’d like to take the state, he said.

“Tally is the best person for the job, period,” Cunningham told AP. “And the fact that she’s a woman brings that perspective to the ticket, especially in light of everything that’s gone on with Gov. McMaster’s attack on our freedoms and his assault on women’s rights. It makes it that much more personal for Tally.”

The Republican-dominated Legislature is on track to make abortions even harder to get in South Carolina following the US Supreme Court’s decision to reverse its nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling affirming a constitutional right to the procedure.

While abortion-rights groups challenge the state’s current law, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy but includes some exceptions, a special legislative committee advanced a proposal last week to ban almost all abortions, except when the mother’s life is at risk.

McMaster, who has said he would “immediately” work with those lawmakers, said last week that the six-week ban includes “good exceptions” and is “quite reasonable.”

“If there are other steps, if there are other things that they believe should be done after thorough examination, then I’d like to hear about it,” McMaster said.

Cunningham has called for legislators to hold off on debating the measure this fall until after the November election.

Casey was South Carolina’s first female fighter pilot, enlisting with the state’s Air National Guard’s 157th Fighter Squadron in 1996 and attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. She has nearly 1,500 hours in the F-16, more than 100 of them in combat, and has received numerous service-related awards.

Casey has also been an attorney for more than two decades, most of that at Wyche PA in Columbia, where she was elected chair in 2017 and focuses on commercial litigation, products liability, insurance and aerospace law. The graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law she has also been a federal law clerk.

Like Cunningham, Casey is significantly younger than McMaster, who at 75 is the state’s oldest governor, and whose age the Democrat has said is too advanced to adequately represent South Carolinians.

“He’s been in politics literally longer than I’ve been alive, and you look at where that’s gotten us,” Cunningham said. “What Tally offers is much-needed change, and it’ll be a refreshing take on politics.”

Cunningham has proposed an age cap of 72 for South Carolina officeholders — a shift that would require voters to approve a constitutional change. He’s signaled openness to a similar federal age limit, which would apply to 82-year-old House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and 79-year-old President Joe Biden.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

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