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The US Justice Department has charged four police officers over the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in a botched 2020 raid on her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Attorney-General Merrick Garland said the officers face federal charges of civil rights offences, unlawful conspiracy, making false statements, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction. “We allege that these offences resulted in Miss Taylor’s death,” Garland said. “Breonna Taylor should be alive today.” The killing of Taylor, along with other high-profile 2020 killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, sparked nationwide protests. The 26-year-old Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020 when they heard a noise at the door. Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding one police officer. Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor, who was a emergency medical technician. Garland said three of the Louisville police officers – Joshua Jaynes, 45, Kyle Meany, 35, and Kelly Goodlett – were involved in the falsification of a search warrant in a drug trafficking case against Taylor’s ex-boyfriend. They are accused of violating Taylor’s rights by seeking a warrant to search her home when they knew they lacked probable cause. “We allege that the defendants knew that the affidavit in support of that warrant contained false and misleading information and that it omitted material information,” Garland said. He added that the officers also allegedly “took steps to cover up their unlawful conduct after Miss Taylor was killed”. Jaynes and Goodlett allegedly met in a garage days after the shooting to agree on a false story to cover for the false evidence they had submitted to justify the botched raid. The fourth police officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with using excessive force by opening fire wildly during the raid which left Taylor dead. The 46-year-old Hankison had previously been found not guilty in March of this year of state charges of “wanton endangerment” for his actions during the raid on Taylor’s home. Taylor’s boyfriend Walker said police battered down the door unannounced. The police officers insisted that they had identified themselves. Two of the officers involved were fired but Hankison had been the only one to face state charges – which related not to the death of Taylor but to endangering residents of neighbouring apartments. Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who represented Taylor’s family, welcomed the charges filed against the officers. “Today was a huge step toward justice,” Crump said in a statement. He said he hopes it “sends a message to all other involved officers that it is time to stop covering up and time to accept responsibility for their roles in causing the death of an innocent, beautiful young black woman”. “Because of Breonna Taylor, we can say this is a day that black women saw equal justice in the United States of America,” Crump went on to say during a press conference with family members. The city of Louisville, the largest in Kentucky, settled a wrongful death suit with Taylor’s family for $12mn in September 2020. The Justice Department said violation of a person’s constitutional rights carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment when it results in death or involves an attempt to kill. Obstruction carries a maximum sentence of 20 years while conspiracy and making false statements are punishable by up to five years in prison.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late yesterday on a trip she said demonstrates American solidarity with the island, but China condemned this first such visit in 25 years as a threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Pelosi and the rest of her delegation disembarked from a US Air Force transport plane at Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei after the nighttime landing on a flight from Malaysia to begin a visit that risks pushing US-Chinese relations to a new low. They were greeted by Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, and Sandra Oudkirk, the top US representative in Taiwan. “Our congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honours America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy,” Pelosi said in a statement shortly after landing.”America’s solidarity with the 23mn people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.” Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will meet with Pelosi, who is second in the line of succession to the US presidency and a long-time critic of Beijing, today morning and then have lunch together, the presidential office said. Pelosi, travelling with six other American lawmakers, is the first US House speaker to visit Taiwan since 1997. China immediately condemned Pelosi’s visit, with the foreign ministry saying it seriously damages peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, “has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-US relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The ministry said it lodged a strong protest with the US. Chinese warplanes buzzed the line dividing the Taiwan Strait before her arrival. The Chinese military has been put on high alert and will launch “targeted military operations” in response to Pelosi’s visit, the defence ministry said. The People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command announced that it will conduct joint air and sea drills near Taiwan and test-launch conventional missiles in the sea east of Taiwan. Pelosi is on a tour of Asia that includes announced visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Her stop in Taiwan was unannounced but widely anticipated. In a Washington Post opinion piece released shortly after she landed, Pelosi outlined her reasons for visiting, praising Taiwan’s commitment to democratic government while criticising China as having dramatically increased tensions with Taiwan in recent years. “We cannot stand by as the CCP proceeds to threaten Taiwan — and democracy itself,” Pelosi said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. Pelosi also cited China’s “brutal crackdown” against political dissent in Hong Kong, as well as its treatment of Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities, which the US has deemed genocide. As Pelosi’s motorcade approached the hotel, escorted by police cars with flashing red and blue lights, scores of supporters cheered and ran towards the black vehicles with their arms outstretched and phone cameras on. The motorcade drove straight into the hotel’s parking lot. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said after Pelosi’s arrival that the US “is not going to be intimidated” by threats or bellicose rhetoric from China. Kirby said the visit is not a violation of either any sovereignty issues or America’s longstanding “one-China policy.” “There’s no reason for this visit to become a spurring event for a crisis or conflict,” Kirby said. Pelosi, 82, is a close ally of US President Joe Biden, both being members of the Democratic Party, and has been a key figure in guiding his legislative agenda through the US Congress. Four sources said Pelosi was also scheduled to meet a group of activists who are outspoken about China’s human rights record today afternoon. Yesterday Taiwan’s tallest building, Taipei 101, was lit up with messages including: “Welcome to Taiwan”, “Speaker Pelosi”, “Taiwan (heart) USA”.  China views visits by US officials to Taiwan as sending an encouraging signal to the pro-independence camp on the democratic, self-governed island. Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and has never renounced using force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only its people can decide the island’s future. The US has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan but is bound by American law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. With tensions already high, several Chinese warplanes flew close to the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning before leaving later in the day, a source said. Several Chinese warships have also sailed near the unofficial dividing line since Monday and remained there, the source said. The Chinese aircraft repeatedly conducted tactical moves of briefly “touching” the median line and circling back to the other side of the strait while Taiwanese aircraft were on standby nearby, the person said. Neither side’s aircraft normally cross the median line. Four US warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, were positioned in waters east of Taiwan on what the US Navy called routine deployments.

Conjoined twins born in Brazil with a fused head and brain have been separated in what doctors described as the most complex surgery of its kind, which they prepared for using virtual reality (VR). Arthur and Bernardo Lima were born in 2018 in the state of Roraima in northern Brazil as craniopagus twins, an extremely rare condition in which the siblings are fused at the cranium. Joined at the top of the head for nearly four years – most of that spent in a hospital room outfitted with a custom bed – the brothers are now able to look each other in the face for the first time, after a series of nine operations culminating in a marathon 23-hour surgery to separate them. London-based medical charity Gemini Untwined, which helped carry out the procedure, described it as the “most challenging and complex separation to date”, given that the boys shared several vital veins. “It was the most difficult, complex, challenging surgery of my career,” said neurosurgeon Gabriel Mufarrej of the Paulo Niemeyer State Brain Institute (IECPN) in Rio de Janeiro, where the procedure was performed. “No one believed it was possible at first. Saving them both was a historic accomplishment.” Members of the medical team, which included nearly 100 staff, prepared for the delicate final stages of the surgery on June 7 and 9 with the help of VR. Using brain scans to create a digital map of the boys’ shared cranium, surgeons practiced for the procedure in a trans-Atlantic, VR trial surgery executed in both Britain and Brazil. British neurosurgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani, the lead surgeon for Gemini Untwined, called the prep session “space-age stuff”. “It’s just wonderful, it’s really great to see the anatomy and do the surgery before you actually put the children at any risk,” he told British news agency PA. “To do it in virtual reality was just really man-on-Mars stuff.” Pictures and videos released by medical staff showed the boys lying side-by-side post-surgery, little Arthur reaching out to touch his brother’s hand. The boys are still recovering, and may need further procedures as they develop, doctors said. Speech is difficult for them, and Bernardo has a motor deficit on the right-hand side, Mufarrej said. “They will take some time to get to the point where we want them to be. But I believe in them,” he said.

A United States drone strike killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri at a hideout in Kabul, President Joe Biden said Monday, declaring "justice had been delivered" to the families of the 9/11 attacks. Zawahiri's assassination is the biggest blow to Al-Qaeda since US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, and calls into question the Taliban's promise not to harbour militant groups. It was the first known over-the-horizon strike by the US on a target in Afghanistan since Washington withdrew its forces from the country on August 31 last year, days after the Taliban swept back to power. The Taliban condemned the drone strike Tuesday, but made no mention of casualties nor did they name Zawahiri. "Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more," Biden said in a sombre televised address, adding he hoped Zawahiri's death would bring "closure" to families of the 3,000 people killed in the US on September 11, 2001. Zawahiri was believed to be the mastermind who steered Al-Qaeda's operations -- including the 9/11 attacks -- as well as bin Laden's personal doctor. A senior administration official said the 71-year-old Egyptian was on the balcony of a three-storey house in the Afghan capital when targeted with two Hellfire missiles after dawn Sunday. "We identified Zawahiri on multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony where he was ultimately struck," the official said.  The house is in Sherpur, one of Kabul's most affluent neighbourhoods, with several villas occupied by high-ranking Taliban officials and commanders. The Taliban's interior ministry previously denied reports circulating on social media of a drone strike, telling AFP a rocket struck "an empty house" in Kabul, causing no casualties. Early Tuesday, however, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that an "aerial attack" was carried out. "The nature of the incident was not revealed at first," he said. "The security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and found in their preliminary investigations that the attack was carried out by American drones."   - 'Grossly violated' -   Although Biden did not mention the Taliban in his televised address, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "by hosting and sheltering" Zawahiri, the Islamist group had "grossly violated the Doha Agreement" which paved the way for America's withdrawal. Zabihullah, in turn, accused Washington of breaking the 2020 deal. "Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region," he said. Zawahiri, who grew up in a comfortable Cairo household before turning to violent radicalism, had been on the run since the 9/11 attacks. He took over Al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed, and had a $25 million US bounty on his head. News of his death comes a month before the first anniversary of the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, leaving the country in the hands of the Taliban insurgency that fought Western forces for two decades. Under the Doha deal, the Taliban promised not to allow Afghanistan to be used again as a launchpad for international jihadism, but experts believe the group never broke ties with Al-Qaeda. "What we know is that the senior Haqqani Taliban were aware of his presence in Kabul," the senior US official said.  Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani also heads the feared Haqqani Network, a brutal subset of the Taliban blamed for some of the worst violence of the past 20 years and which has been described by US officials as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence. In Sherpur, locals told AFP they long thought the targeted house  -- surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, and now with green tarpaulin covering the balcony where Zawahiri was believed to have been killed -- was empty. "We have not seen anybody living there for almost a year," said an employee of a nearby office. "It has always been in dark, with not a single bulb lit." Some residents found it hard to believe that Zawahiri had been hiding in their midst. "It's just propaganda," Fahim Shah, 66, told AFP. "They should show to the people and to the world that 'we had hit this man and here is the evidence,'" added Abdul Kabir.   - Doctor turned jihadist -   Zawahiri lacked the potent charisma that helped bin Laden rally jihadists around the world but willingly channelled his analytical skills into the Al-Qaeda cause. Still, the group is believed to have been degraded since the US invasion of Afghanistan, and the White House official said Zawahiri was "one of the last remaining figures who carried this kind of significance". The organisation is "at a crossroads", said Soufan Center researcher Colin Clarke.  "Despite Zawahiri's leadership, which minimised AQ's losses while rebuilding, the group still faces serious challenges going forward. For one, there's the question of who will lead Al-Qaeda after Zawahiri's gone." Zawahiri's father was a renowned physician and his grandfather a prayer leader at Cairo's Al-Azhar institute, the highest authority for Sunni Muslims. He became involved with Egypt's radical Islamist community at a young age and published several books which came for many to symbolise the movement. He left Egypt in the mid-1980s, heading for Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar where the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was based. Thousands of Islamist fighters were flooding into Afghanistan at the time, setting the stage for Zawahiri's first meeting with bin Laden.  In 1998 he became one of five signatories to bin Laden's "fatwa" calling for attacks against Americans. Jihadist monitor SITE said some militants were questioning the veracity of the report he had been killed, while others believed Zawahiri had achieved his desire of "martyrdom."

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned yesterday that a misunderstanding could spark nuclear destruction as the United States, Britain and France urged Russia to stop “its dangerous nuclear rhetoric and behaviour”. At the opening of a key nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference in New York, Guterres warned that the world faced “a nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War”. Citing Russia’s war with Ukraine and tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East, Guterres said he feared that crises “with nuclear undertones” could escalate. “Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” Guterres told the 10th review conference of the NPT, an international treaty that came into force in 1970 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. “We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict,” he added, calling on nations to “put humanity on a new path towards a world free of nuclear weapons”. The meeting, held at the UN’s headquarters in New York, has been postponed several times since 2020 due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. It will run until August 26. Guterres said the conference was “a chance to strengthen” the treaty and “make it fit for the worrying world around us”. “Eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee they will never be used,” the secretary-general implored, adding that he would visit Hiroshima for the anniversary of the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city by the United States. “Almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world. All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening,” Guterres added. In January, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France – had pledged to prevent the further dissemination of nuclear weapons. Yesterday the US, Britain and France reaffirmed their commitment in a joint statement, saying that a “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. The three also took aim at Russia, urging Moscow to respect its international commitments under the NPT. “Following Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful war of aggression against Ukraine, we call on Russia to cease its irresponsible and dangerous nuclear rhetoric and behaviour,” they said. The statement came as US President Joe Biden called on Russia and China to enter nuclear arms control talks. The US leader reiterated in a statement that his administration is ready to “expeditiously negotiate” a replacement to New START, the treaty capping intercontinental nuclear forces in the United States and Russia, which is set to expire in 2026. The NPT, which the signatories review every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote complete disarmament and promote co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. At the last review conference in 2015, the parties were unable to reach agreement on substantive issues. “The world can never be safe as long as any country has nuclear weapons,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, who was in New York for the meeting. “And the NPT recognises this,” she added. “It’s the reason that the treaty exists. And now states, parties more than ever need to act.”

Hundreds of firefighters were battling a fast-moving forest fire in northern California yesterday which has killed two people and forced thousands to evacuate. The McKinney Fire, the largest in the state so far this year, has ravaged 55,493 acres (22,500 hectares) in the Klamath National Forest near the border with Oregon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) said. The fire was 0% contained as of morning yesterday as searing temperatures and gusty winds hampered the efforts of the more than 850 firefighters deployed to combat the inferno. California and other parts of the western United States have been ravaged by huge wildfires in recent years, driven by years of drought and exacerbated by a warming climate. The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said firefighters found two people dead inside a burned-out car on Sunday in the driveway of a home in the community of Klamath River. Speaking on ABC News, Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said firefighters suspected the pair were caught in the swift-moving fire as they tried to flee. California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Siskiyou County, and more than 2,000 residents of the rural area are under evacuation orders. A heatwave with temperatures of over 38° Celsius (100° Fahrenheit), tinder dry terrain and thunderstorms packing strong winds are complicating the efforts of firefighters battling the blaze. “Fire growth is expected to spread in all directions,” the Klamath National Forest service said in a statement. “Warning for thunderstorms and lightning. Gusty outflow winds of 30-50mph (50-80kph) will be possible near thunderstorm cells.” According to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, the fire has destroyed more than 100 structures – including homes, a grocery store and a community centre – in the area surrounding Yreka, though it has not yet encroached upon the town of about 7,800 people. “Surrounding areas should be ready to leave if needed. Please don’t hesitate to evacuate,” the county sheriff tweeted. The McKinney fire is California’s largest wildfire so far this year – though it remains much smaller than last year’s Dixie Fire, which burned nearly 1mn acres. CalFire said the cause of the McKinney fire was still under investigation. The US Forest Service said thick smoke had helped to limit the fire’s growth on Sunday, but also meant that firefighters’ aircraft were “mostly grounded”. The fast-spreading blaze comes just days after the Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park destroyed dozens of buildings and forced thousands to evacuate. California, which is facing a punishing drought, still has months of fire season ahead of it.

A Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to Earth on Saturday, leading US officials to chide Beijing for not sharing information about the potentially hazardous object’s descent. US Space Command “can confirm the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Long March 5B (CZ-5B) re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approx 10.45am MDT on 7/30,” the US military unit said on Twitter. “We refer you to the #PRC for further details on the reentry’s technical aspects such as potential debris dispersal+ impact location,” it said. In a statement posted to its official WeChat profile, the China Manned Space Agency later gave co-ordinates for an impact area in the Sulu Sea, about 57kms off the east coast of the Philippines’ Palawan Island. “Most of its devices were ablated and destroyed during re-entry,” the agency said of the booster rocket, which was used last Sunday to launch the second of three modules China needed to complete its new Tiangong space station. Malaysia’s space agency said it detected rocket debris burning up on re-entry before falling in the Sulu Sea northeast of the island of Borneo. “The debris of the rocket caught fire while entering the Earth’s airspace and the movement of the burning debris also crossed Malaysian airspace and could be detected in several areas including crossing the airspace around the state of Sarawak,” it said. Nasa administrator Bill Nelson criticised Beijing on Twitter, saying the failure to share details of the rocket’s descent was irresponsible and risky. “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance,” Nelson wrote, “to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property.” He added: “Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth”. The Tiangong space station is one of the crown jewels of Beijing’s ambitious space programme, which has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made China only the third nation to put humans in orbit. The new module, propelled by the Long March 5B, successfully docked with Tiangong’s core module on Monday and the three astronauts who had been living in the main compartment since June successfully entered the new lab. When China launched its first Tiangong module in April 2021, there was a similar frenzy around the possibility of damage caused by an unpredictable booster reentry. Objects generate immense amounts of heat and friction when they enter the atmosphere, which can cause them to burn up and disintegrate. But larger ones such as the Long March-5B may not be destroyed entirely. In 2020, debris from another Chinese rocket fell on villages in the Ivory Coast, causing structural damage but no injuries or deaths.

After the U.S. government started the largest wildfire in New Mexico's recorded history in April, it is asking victims to share recovery costs on private land, jeopardizing relief efforts, according to residents and state officials. The blaze was sparked by U.S. Forest Service (USFS) prescribed fires to reduce wildfire risk. The burns went out of control after a series of missteps, torching 432 residences and over 530 square miles (1373 square km) of mostly privately owned forests and meadows, much of it held by members of centuries-old Indo-Hispano ranching communities. "Today I'm announcing the federal government's covering 100% of the cost," President Joe Biden said during a visit to New Mexico in June. Biden was announcing a disaster declaration that covered debris removal and emergency protective measures. But federal cost-sharing statutes on other federal relief programs are limiting Biden's authority and exposing holes in the government safety net meant to help survivors and restore landscapes. It is a system more Americans will turn to as extreme fires and flooding become the climate change norm. "I DIDN'T CAUSE THIS DAMN FIRE" Biden's measure was meant to bridge FEMA relief and a congressional bill that may pass in the fall to provide 100% federal compensation for losses from the so-called Hermit's Peak Calf Canyon fire. Daniel Encinias was among survivors who met Biden and was told by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials he would get timely support at little or no cost. He, his wife Lori, three teenage children, four dogs and eight cats are living in a camping trailer next to the ashes of their home in Tierra Monte, 35 miles northeast of Santa Fe. Encinias submitted an application to the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to fix his well, but was told to share 25% of costs based on a federal statute that could not be waived as it did not fall under Biden's declaration. Encinias said he was told by NRCS officials his application would be considered in September and recovery work would begin six to 12 months thereafter if he was accepted So like many fire survivors in this low-income area who have no insurance, the rancher and retired electrician did the work himself. "Why the hell am I going to pay anything when I didn't cause this damn fire?" said Encinias, 55, as he fed his cattle hay he was forced to buy after his baler was torched. An official for the NRCS' local office in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where Encinias applied for support directed questions to the national office. Officials there did not respond to requests for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. UNCERTAIN TIMELINE FOR RECOVERY RELIEF Many fire-hit families cannot afford sharing at least 25% of costs on the USDA's Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) which offers relief such as stabilization of burn areas prone to flash flooding, according to New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy. Residents sometimes own large areas of land passed down from 1800s Spanish-Mexican land grants while working blue-collar jobs. "They're really struggling," said McCarthy. That has left locals, state officials and federal agencies counting on cost shares to be dropped and passage of the congressional bill. Democratic Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez sponsored the legislation which passed the House and will probably need help from Republicans in the Senate. The office of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Leger Fernandez is in talks with the USDA and White House on dropping cost shares and helped negotiate a waiver with the NRCS for flood mitigation work on private lands. "The federal government burns your house down so they are responsible in my mind to pay 100% of the cost of rebuilding," said Leger Fernandez Support cannot get to the 45-mile-long disaster area fast enough. The blaze burned around 170 acres (68.8 hectares) of rancher Kenny Zamora's forest. His pastures in El Turquillo are covered with up to 2 feet of sludge after monsoon rains triggered debris flows on hillsides that no longer absorb water. The torrents have twice knocked down fences. A retired employee of the USDA's Rural Development agency, Zamora applied for support from the USDA's Farms Service Agency (FSA) to feed his livestock. The FSA office in Las Vegas told him he was not eligible. USDA officials told him the EFRP for the area has yet to be funded. He is paying for recovery work himself. "If you don't have insurance you're pretty much on your own," said Zamora, 59, who like Encinias is considering joining a massive civil case that may be filed against the USFS. The FSA Las Vegas office directed questions to State Executive Director Jonas Moya, who did not respond to a request for comment. The FSA's national office did not respond to requests for comment. Climate change is worsening wildfires as ecosystems no longer have natural protections such as cooler nights to slow their spread. The destroyed landscapes are also less able to handle other disasters, such as floods. Two women and a man died after a flash flood swept through the burn scar northeast of Las Vegas on July 21. In Tierra Monte, ash flows sent boulders tumbling below Encinias' trailer and drowned livestock. FEMA has so far granted $4.2 million to 1,164 fire survivors, marking an average payout of $3,600. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday said FEMA granted her request to extend Biden's declaration to residents who have suffered damage from flooding and debris flows in wildfire burn scars. For now, Encinias' family is getting by on a $37,000 maximum payout from FEMA for the loss of their 5-bedroom home. They also lost eight acres of forest, farm machinery and cars. "I'm hoping that finally something works out where it helps the people," said Encinias.

Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 for a second time and is returning to isolation, his White House doctor said yesterday, attributing the result to “rebound” positivity from treatment the US president received. Biden “tested positive late Saturday morning, by antigen testing,” following four consecutive days of negative tests, and “will reinitiate strict isolation procedures,” presidential physician Kevin O’Connor wrote in a memorandum. “This in fact represents ‘rebound’ positivity,” O’Connor said, referring to a situation in which patients treated with the drug Paxlovid — as Biden was — clear the virus but test positive after completing their course. “The president has experienced no re-emergence of symptoms and continues to feel quite well. This being the case, there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time,” he added. In a tweet, Biden seemed to seek to minimise the situation. “Folks, today I tested positive for Covid again. This happens with a small minority of folks,” he wrote. “I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon.” Biden cancelled planned trips to Delaware and Michigan, the White House said. The second positive test came just three days after O’Connor said Biden had tested negative and no longer needed to isolate, which he had been doing since receiving a first positive result on July 21. Biden has for the most part been conspicuously careful about observing Covid protocols — in contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump, who sometimes mocked those who wore masks. “The president continues to be very specifically conscientious to protect any of the Executive Residence, White House, Secret Service and other staff whose duties require any (albeit socially distanced) proximity to him,” O’Connor said. As the oldest US president in history — he will turn 80 in November — Biden’s health receives constant attention. On Wednesday, he had ended his earlier five-day Covid isolation, appearing energetic as he told cheering aides that his quick recovery should inspire Americans to take advantage of free vaccines and treatments. He contrasted his seemingly quick recovery to Trump’s more serious bout with the disease in October 2020, before vaccines were available. “When my predecessor got Covid, he had to get helicoptered to Walter Reed Medical Center,” Biden said. “He was severely ill. Thankfully, he recovered. When I got Covid, I worked from upstairs of the White House.” He added that being fully vaccinated, taking preventative tests, then using the Paxlovid therapeutic prevents deaths and is available at no cost. “You don’t need to be president to get these tools,” he said. O’Connor had warned after clearing Biden from his first round of Covid that the president would wear a mask for 10 days when around others and continue to test regularly in case of a “rebound.” O’Connor says Biden is generally in good health. He has been fully vaccinated and received two booster shots against the coronavirus.

Pope Francis said yesterday the decades-long abuse of Indigenous schoolchildren across Canada amounted to “genocide” as he returned from a six-day trip with an acknowledgement that he needed to slow down his pace of travel — or could even resign. During his “penitential pilgrimage” across Canada this week, the 85-year-old Pope offered a historic apology to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people for what he called the “evil” committed at Catholic-run residential schools. Speaking to reporters on his return home, the head of the world’s 1.3bn Catholics used the word “genocide” to describe the treatment of children wrenched from their families and cultures to attend the state schools. While he told reporters the word “didn’t come to my mind” while in Canada, “I did describe the genocide. And I asked for forgiveness for this process which was genocide”. “Taking away children, changing the culture, changing the mentality, changing the traditions, changing a race, let’s put it that way, a whole culture,” he said. Although Francis’s unprecedented apology was mostly welcomed across Canada, from western Alberta to Quebec and the far north, many survivors said much more needed to be done for reconciliation. Canada was the Pope’s 37th international trip since he was elected in 2013, but he admitted he would have to slow down his pace due to knee problems that saw him spent much of the visit in a wheelchair. “I think that at my age and with this limitation, I have to save myself a little bit to be able to serve the Church. Or, alternatively, to think about the possibility of stepping aside,” the Pope said. It was not the first time Francis has said that, if required, he could follow his predecessor Benedict XVI, who made history in 2013 by resigning due to his own declining health. “The door is open, it’s one of the normal options, but up until now I haven’t knocked on this door,” he said yesterday. “But that doesn’t mean the day after tomorrow I don’t start thinking, right? But right now I honestly don’t.” Ruling out surgery due to the risks of anaesthesia at his age, the Pope — who underwent colon surgery last year — said he still planned to travel to Kazakhstan in September, and still had hopes of a trip one day to war-torn Ukraine. He had wrapped up his Canadian journey Friday in the capital of the vast northern territory of Nunavut, Iqaluit, again asking forgiveness for abuse committed at the 139 residential schools run by the Catholic Church. About 150,000 Indigenous children were sent there from the late 1800s to the 1990s. “I want to tell you how very sorry I am and to ask for forgiveness for the evil perpetrated by not a few Catholics who contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation,” he said. Many children were physically and sexually abused at the schools, and thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect, in what a truth and reconciliation commission later called a “cultural genocide”. Residents in Iqaluit, a community of just over 7,000 people and where small houses line the rocky ocean shore, have listened closely to the Pope’s words throughout his trip. “He did apologise, and a lot of people don’t seem to be happy with it, but he took that step to come to Nunavut... and I think that’s big,” lifelong Iqaluit resident Evie Kunuk, 47, told AFP.

Devastating flooding in Kentucky has killed 25 people and the toll is expected to rise, the southern US state’s governor said yesterday as rescuers and residents continued a harrowing search for survivors. Torrential rain earlier this week caused unprecedented flash flooding in 13 counties in eastern Kentucky. Many roads and bridges in that mountainous region — an area hard hit by grinding poverty as the coal industry declines — have been damaged or destroyed, and with cell phone service disrupted, finding survivors is difficult. “I’m worried we are going to be finding bodies for weeks to come,” Governor Andy Beshear said in a midday news briefing, shortly after tweeting that the death toll had risen to 25. The Democratic governor confirmed that “we are still in the search and rescue phase,” saying, “We will get through this together.” Beshear said an earlier report that six children were among the dead was inaccurate; two of them had turned out to be adults. The children, US media reported, were lost in a heart-rending way. Members of a family, clinging to a tree after a fast-rising stream had engulfed their mobile home, saw their children torn from their grip, one after another, by powerfully surging waters. Beshear said national guard units from Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia had made more than 650 air rescues since the flooding began Wednesday evening, while state police and other state personnel had registered some 750 water rescues. He said the search was “tremendously stressful and difficult” for rescue teams. Some areas in eastern Kentucky had reported receiving more than eight inches of rain in a 24-hour period. The water level of the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Whitesburg rose to a staggering 20 feet within hours, well above its previous record of 14.7 feet. The flooding turned many roads into rivers, and some houses in low-lying areas were almost completely submerged, with just their rooftops visible. Scenes on social media showed houses ripped from their moorings and deposited amid masses of debris along turbid waterways or even atop a bridge. The weather offered a respite yesterday, but more rain was expected the following day, with one to two additional inches expected. Beshear told CNN yesterday that the impending rain posed a challenge, and “while we don’t think it’ll be historic rain, it’ll be hard.” He said during the briefing that 15 emergency shelters had been opened in schools, churches and state parks, though at least one had been “overwhelmed.” Some 18,000 homes remained without power, Beshear said, and thousands were without safe water supplies. The governor said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had sent 18 tractor-trailers of water so far. Other federal workers were arriving to process claims. President Joe Biden has issued a disaster declaration for the Kentucky flooding, allowing federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. The eastern Kentucky flooding is the latest in a series of extreme weather events that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of climate change. Nearly 60 people were killed in western Kentucky by a tornado in December 2021 — a disaster that Beshear said offered lessons for current efforts on the other end of the state. “We learned a lot of lessons in western Kentucky on those devastating tornados about seven months ago, so we are providing as much support as we can and we are moving fast from all over the state to help out,” he said on CNN. In his briefing, Beshear expressed compassion for hard-hit residents. “We can’t imagine the grief you’re going through right now,” he said.

A lucky US lottery player has won a Mega Millions jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion, one of the highest prizes ever, a US lottery official confirmed Saturday. The official Mega Millions site said a single ticket holder in the Midwestern state of Illinois -- who has yet to be identified -- had the six magic numbers and won a jackpot estimated at $1.337 billion. "We are thrilled to have witnessed one of the biggest jackpot wins in Mega Millions history," Pat McDonald, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said on the group's website. "We're eager to find out who won and look forward to congratulating the winner soon!" The grand prize had been steadily growing, fueling the dreams of would-be winners across the country, for more than three months. The prize had gone unclaimed in 29 previous drawings. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are one in 303 million -- much higher than the one-in-a-million chance of being struck by lightning, according to US government data. Friday's total falls short of the world record of $1.586 billion, set in January 2016 by America's other national lotto, the Powerball, though that sum was split among three winners. The second-highest prize ever -- and the highest won by a single person -- was in an October 2018 Mega Millions drawing for $1.5 billion. The $1.337 billion figure for Friday's drawing represents the total amount a winner would be entitled to if they accepted the prize split up over a 30-year annuity. If the lucky person decided instead to take the winnings as a one-time cash payment, the total amount would decrease to $780.5 million, Mega Millions estimates. Taxes would then gobble up a significant chunk, while still leaving an unimaginably large pot for the winner. Winners are generally advised to immediately seek assistance from financial advisors, even before claiming the prize money. Financial planner Robert Pagliarini also recommends that big winners "step outside the craziness of the situation for a moment," and think hard about what parts of their life they "don't want to change." Mega Millions is played in 45 US states. The winning numbers Friday: 13-36-45-57-67 and 14.

Hundreds of young climate activists marched through Turin yesterday, after a week of discussions on the future of the increasingly global school strike movement. The northwestern Italian city hosted a European meeting of the “Fridays for Future” movement, as well as an international “Climate Social Camp” featuring discussions on how global warming relates to social issues. Greta Thunberg, who started the Fridays movement with her school strike in 2018, had been due to attend but pulled out due to personal reasons. After two years of disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, “we’re here to rebuild, to remobilise and get out on the street”, said Sam Smithson, 40, attending the climate social camp from the UK’s Extinction Rebellion movement. According to the programme, the Fridays for Future talks were focused on how the movement should progress as it grows. This includes how different geographical chapters cooperate, and how to ensure activists in the countries most affected by climate change are heard, but also whether to switch to more radical action. The Climate Social Camp meanwhile covered issues from the environment to migration and feminism, with many activists staying in a sea of tents set up under the trees of Turin’s Colletta park. Nansedalia Ramirez Dominguez, a 25-year-old activist from Mexico, said she was hoping for solidarity from European movements with those places where activists were taking many more risks in environmental protests. “In the global north, if you are arrested, probably the next day or the third day you will be released. But in indigenous communities, you can’t come back to life if you are killed,” she told AFP earlier this week at the camp. The camp hosted discussion groups and workshops, while nearby the desperately low River Po, suffering from Italy’s worst drought in 70 years, was a reminder of an increasingly volatile climate. “We won’t have the revolution at the end of the week,” noted Louise Wagner, a 29-year-old who lives in Germany. “But we can get in touch and be like, what are you organising? How can we help each other? How can we get in touch and how can we amplify each other?”

Conservative US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has brushed off criticism from prominent figures around the world of last month’s blockbuster ruling he authored that overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision. In his first public remarks since the decision, which has led to various conservative US states imposing abortion bans, Alito dismissed criticism of the ruling, which has come from the likes of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In addition, Alito took aim at Britain’s Prince Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, who referenced the abortion ruling in a speech at the United Nation’s last week. Alito’s previously unannounced speech was delivered on July 21 at a conference on religious liberty in Rome hosted by the University of Notre Dame Law School. Video of the speech was posted online on Thursday by Notre Dame. “I had the honour this term of writing I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” Alito said. “One of these was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but he paid the price,” Alito joked, referring to Johnson’s plans to step down following criticism of his leadership from within Britain’s ruling Conservative Party. “But what really wounded me – what really wounded me – was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Alito added in a sarcastic tone, referring to his ruling overturning the Roe decision that had legalised abortion nationwide in the United States and recognised a woman’s constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy. Alito’s references to the abortion ruling, which came during a speech about the importance of religious liberty, were met with laughter from the audience. In Harry’s July 18 speech, he spoke of 2022 as “a painful year in a painful decade” before citing the war in Ukraine and “the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States”, which appeared to reference the abortion ruling. Johnson has called the ruling “a big step backwards”. Macron said on the day of the decision that abortion was a fundamental right and that women’s freedoms were “compromised” by the Supreme Court. Trudeau called the decision “horrific”. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan said in a separate appearance in Montana on July 21 that it would be a “dangerous thing for a democracy” if the conservative-majority Supreme Court loses the confidence of the American public. The court, America’s top judicial body, has a 6-3 conservative majority that has boldly asserted its power in the abortion ruling and other recent cases. Opinion polls have shown a drop in public approval of the court in the wake of the abortion ruling, which capped its blockbuster term that ended last month.

The death toll from severe flooding in Kentucky hit 16 yesterday and is expected to double, the US state’s governor said, after torrential rains caused flash floods that swept away some homes while people slept. “Tough news is 16 confirmed fatalities now, and folks that’s going to get a lot higher,” Governor Andy Beshear said at a media briefing. “It is devastating,” Beshear told CNN earlier in the day, saying he expected the toll to “more than double”. “Some people’s houses were completely swept away in the middle of the night while they were sleeping,” the governor said. Hundreds of people had been rescued by boat and there had been about 50 aerial rescues using National Guard helicopters, he said. With many roads washed out “we still can’t get to a lot of people”, the governor said. “The current is so strong it’s not safe for some of those water rescues that we need to do.” Eastern Kentucky has had flash flooding previously “but we’ve never seen something like this”, Beshear said. “Folks who deal with this for a living, who have been doing it for 20 years, have never seen water this high.” “This situation is ongoing. We are still in the search-and-rescue mode,” he added. “It’s going to be a tough couple of days. It’s going to be a long rebuild. We are tough enough. We’re going to make it.” Some areas of the state’s Appalachia region reported receiving more than 8” (20cm) of rain in a 24-hour period. The water level of the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Whitesburg rose to a staggering 20’ within hours, well above its previous record of 14.7’. Many roads resembled rivers, cars littered the landscape and floodwaters lapped against the rooftops of houses. Kayla Brown, 29, and Joe Salley Jr, 56, residents of Perry County, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the fast-rising flood waters trapped them in their mobile home. “It was like a wave coming at you out of the ocean,” Salley said. Neighbours came to their rescue after their trailer was knocked off its foundations. Four young children ranging in age from one and a half to eight years old were swept away from their parents in hard-hit Knott County, the Herald-Leader reported. Brittany Trejo, the siblings’ cousin, told the newspaper the bodies of two of the children had been found, but the other two were still missing. Their parents were rescued after clinging to a tree for eight hours, Trejo told the Herald-Leader. “They managed to get to a tree and ... held the children a few hours before a big tide came and washed them all away,” Trejo said. In Garrett, Kentucky, a coal-mining town about 125 miles (201km) east of Lexington, brown floodwaters swirled through a commercial street and backed up against storefronts, video clips showed. Rescue boats carried people wearing life jackets along the submerged street, past the tops of vehicles poking through the high water. “Everything is gone,” Garrett resident Rachel Patton told WCHS-TV as she cried. “We had to swim out and it was cold. It was over my head. It was scary.” Authorities went door-to-door on Thursday in a low-lying area in Jackson, Kentucky, a town of 2,200 people, ordering them to evacuate after inspectors noticed a discharge from the nearby Panbowl Lake Dam. The eastern Kentucky flooding is the latest in a series of extreme weather events that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of climate change. Nearly 60 people were killed in western Kentucky by a tornado in December 2021. The National Weather Service warned that more rain was expected. President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration for Kentucky, allowing federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), arrived in Kentucky yesterday to tour flood-hit areas and report back to the president. On Thursday, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in his state, where heavy rains caused flooding that disrupted drinking water systems and blocked roads. In the US West, heavy rains battered Las Vegas, where floodwater washed over streets and rushed onto several casino floors and into parking garages along the famed Las Vegas Strip, video posted on local media and social media showed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned US President Joe Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan, as concerns mounted over a possible visit to the Chinese-claimed island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Chinese state media said that Xi told Biden in their fifth call as leaders that the US should abide by the “one-China principle” and stressed that China firmly opposed Taiwanese independence and interference of external forces. Biden told Xi that US policy on Taiwan had not changed and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait – a reference to the 100-mile-wide body of water separating the island from the mainland, a White House statement said. A statement relayed by Chinese state media said the call, lasting two hours and 17 minutes according to the White House, was “candid” – often diplomatic speak for a difficult exchange. While highlighting Taiwan, Xi also stressed that the two sides needed to maintain communication on macroeconomic policies, global supply chains, and safeguarding global food and energy security, Chinese state media said. Beijing has issued escalating warnings about repercussions should Pelosi – a Democrat like Biden – visit Taiwan, which says it is facing increasing Chinese military and economic threats. A visit by the House speaker would be a dramatic, though not unprecedented, show of US support for the island. “Those who play with fire will only get burnt,” Chinese state media quote Xi as telling Biden. “(We) hope the US side can see this clearly.” The White House readout said the two leaders also discussed a range of other issues, including climate change and health security. China has given few clues to specific responses it might make if Pelosi, a long-time critic of Beijing, particularly on human rights issues, makes the trip. Pelosi had yet to confirm the trip. US officials had said it would have a broad agenda, including discussion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which China has yet to condemn. At its core though, US officials said they saw the exchange as another chance to manage competition between the world’s two largest economies, whose ties have been increasingly clouded by tensions over democratically governed Taiwan, which Xi has vowed to reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary. Washington does not have official relations with Taiwan and follows a “one-China policy” that recognises Beijing, not Taipei, diplomatically. However,  it is obliged by US law to provide the island with the means to defend itself, and pressure has been mounting in Congress for more explicit support. “The call was a part of the Biden administration’s efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the PRC and responsibly manage our differences and work together where our interests align,” the White House said. One person briefed on planning for the call said the Biden administration thinks leader-to-leader engagement is the best way to lower tensions over Taiwan. Some analysts believe Xi also has an interest in avoiding escalation as he seeks an unprecedented third term in office at a congress of China’s ruling Communist Party expected in the fall. However others say playing up the Taiwan issue could serve Xi as a domestic distraction from China’s slowing economy. Both countries have faced economic difficulties this year. China’s $18tn economy has been battered by its strict domestic coronavirus (Covid-19) regulations and full lockdowns of cities like Shanghai, while the United States is battling surging inflation amid concerns of a recession. China’s state media said yesterday that the country will try hard to achieve the best possible results for the economy this year, dropping previous calls that it will strive to meet its 2022 growth target. This followed a high-level Communist Party meeting chaired by Xi. “Attempts at decoupling or severing supply chains in defiance of underlying patterns would not help boost the US economy. They would only make the world economy more vulnerable,” Xi said, referring to US efforts to end reliance on China for strategic goods. As well as climate and economic issues, Biden had been keen in the call to discuss the idea of placing a price cap on Russian oil to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raised with Chinese counterparts earlier this month, the person who was briefed said. The Biden administration has been debating whether to lift some tariffs on Chinese goods as a way to ease soaring inflation, but US officials said a decision was not expected ahead of the call. When Biden last spoke to Xi in March, he warned of “consequences” if Beijing gave material support for Russia’s war, and the US government believes that that red line has not been crossed in the months since. Taiwan has complained of stepped-up Chinese military manoeuvres over the past two years to try and force it to accept Beijing’s sovereignty. The last time a speaker of the US House visited Taiwan was in 1997, and as a co-equal branch of government, the US executive has little control over congressional travel. China has grown more powerful militarily and economically since, and some analysts worry such a visit at a time of fraught ties could spur a crisis across the 100-mile (160km) wide Taiwan Strait waterway separating China and Taiwan. The White House says the administration has been in touch with Pelosi’s office to make sure she has “all the context” she needs to make decisions about her travel. Although US officials frequently visit Taiwan, Beijing considers a Pelosi trip as a major provocation. She’s second in line to the US presidency and given her position may travel with military transport.

The first skeleton of a Gorgosaurus dinosaur to go under the hammer sold for $6.1mn at auction in New York yesterday, Sotheby’s said. The specimen is 10’ (3m) and 22 feet long, and had been expected to fetch between $5mn-$8mn. “The result places the Gorgosaurus among the most valuable dinosaurs ever sold at auction, and establishes a new benchmark for a Gorgosaurus skeleton,” Sotheby’s said in a statement. The Gorgosaurus roamed the earth approximately 77mn years ago. A typical adult weighed about two tonnes, slightly smaller than its more famous relative, the Tyrannosaurus rex. Palaeontologists say it was fiercer and faster than the T-Rex, with a stronger bite of around 42,000 newtons compared to 35,000. The skeleton was discovered in the Judith River Formation near Havre, in the US state of Montana in 2018. The sale marked the first time that Sotheby’s had auctioned a full dinosaur skeleton since it sold Sue the T-Rex in 1997 for $8.36mn. “Today’s Gorgosaurus came to auction without a name, providing the buyer the exclusive opportunity to name the dinosaur,” Sotheby’s said. Sotheby’s did not reveal the buyer. Unlike other countries, the United States does not restrict the sale or export of fossils, meaning the skeleton could end up overseas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday he will speak to his Russian counterpart for the first time since the Ukraine war to take up a “substantial proposal” to free detained Americans. Blinken said he expected a telephone call “in the coming days” with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to push forward an offer to release basketball star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan. The pair “have been wrongfully detained and must be allowed to come home,” Blinken told reporters. “We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally,” he said. Citing the sensitivity, Blinken declined to go into detail or confirm reports that the United States was offering to trade them for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms smuggler. The United States and Russia already engaged in one prisoner swap in the heat of the Ukraine war: In April Washington exchanged former US Marine Trevor Reed for convicted drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko. President Joe Biden’s administration has faced growing pressure to free Griner, a basketball star who has pleaded guilty to carrying cannabis oil in Russia. She testified earlier yesterday at her trial that she did so unintentionally. Whelan, a security official at an auto parts company, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 and in 2020 sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage, which he denies. Whelan’s family in a statement voiced appreciation for the Biden administration’s efforts and hoped that Russia “accepts this or some other concession” for his freedom. The telephone conversation will be the first between Blinken and Lavrov since February 15 when the top US diplomat warned Russia against invading Ukraine. Russia went ahead and attacked its neighbour nine days later, leading the United States and its allies to impose sweeping sanctions and to seek to isolate Moscow on the world stage. The conversation “will not be a negotiation about Ukraine,” Blinken told reporters. “Any negotiation regarding Ukraine is for its people and people to determine,” he said. Blinken said the United States — which has been pouring billions in military aid into Ukraine — was “under no illusion” that Russia was ready to engage “meaningfully and constructively” to end the war. “In the meantime, we’ll continue to do all that we can to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield,” he said. Blinken said he would also urge Russia to fulfil a breakthrough agreement reached last week in Turkey to allow the release of Ukrainian grain after a blockade has sent global food prices soaring. “Hundreds of millions of people are waiting for these ships to set forth from Ukraine’s ports,” Blinken said. He also said he would warn of further consequences if Russia annexes more Ukrainian territory. Moscow in 2014 seized Crimea and declared the peninsula to be part of Russia, a decision not recognised by most of the world. The White House recently said that Russia was laying the groundwork for “sham referenda” in areas it seized, possibly as early as September. Lavrov, a veteran diplomat known for his quick, mordant wit, met in person with Blinken on January 21 in Geneva in a last-ditch US bid to warn Russia against invading Ukraine. With US intelligence determining that President Vladimir Putin was set to go ahead, Blinken on February 22 cancelled a follow-up meeting with Lavrov. Blinken pointedly declined to meet Lavrov when they both attended a ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 economies in Bali earlier this month, with the United States rallying its allies in criticising Russia in the closed-door sessions.

President Joe Biden has still not decided whether to end some trade tariffs on China ahead of a phone call expected this week with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, a senior official said yesterday. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the administration believes the tariffs imposed during a trade war under former president Donald Trump are not working, but that Biden has yet to settle on a next move. “He wants a review of the tariffs that are in place to make sure that they are aligned with our strategic economic priorities, that they’re in our best national interests, and quite frankly, the best interests of the American people, but he hasn’t made a decision,” Kirby told reporters. “I don’t have any decision to speak to with respect to tariffs by the president. He’s working this out with his team,” Kirby added. However, the senior official made clear that Biden is not happy with the tariffs, which slapped 25% duties on billions of dollars of Chinese imports in retaliation for what the United States says are Beijing’s routinely unfair trade practices. “We do believe... that the tariffs that were put in place by his predecessor were poorly designed. We believe that they’ve increased costs for American families and small businesses, as well as ranchers. And that’s, you know, without actually addressing some of China’s, China’s harmful trade practices,” Kirby said. “So we thought that the previous administration’s approach to tariffs was a, was a shoddy deal.” The call, which is expected this week but has yet to be finally scheduled, will be the fifth between Xi and Biden since the Democrat took office in 2021. Describing US-China ties as “one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world,” Kirby said Biden and Xi would cover “everything from the tensions over Taiwan, to the war in Ukraine, as well as how we better manage competition between our two nations, certainly in the economic sphere.” “There’s a lot of focus on security challenges and tensions particularly in the Indo-Pacific region — with respect to Taiwan, with respect to the territorial claims in the South and East China Seas, but there’s also there’s also economic competition.” One of the main goals of the call will be broadly what Kirby called Biden’s China “relationship tending.” “He wants to make sure that the lines of communication with President Xi on all the issues, whether they’re issues again that we agree on or issues where we have significant difficulty with — that they can still pick up the phone and talk to one another candidly,” Kirby said. One irritant in the relationship likely to come up is a reported plan by the speaker of the House of Representatives, Biden ally Nancy Pelosi, to visit Taiwan. As second in line of succession to the US presidency, the speaker requires a significant security detail when she travels abroad and reports of her trip have infuriated Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

Pope Francis yesterday praised the indigenous tradition of showing great respect for elders and learning from them, saying their memory must not be lost in modern society’s “fog of forgetfulness.” Francis is on a week-long tour of Canada to apologise for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools that tore indigenous children away from their families and became places where abuse was rampant. His words were particularly poignant for indigenous communities because the residential schools, which ran from 1870 to 1996, destroyed the link between generations so precious to indigenous cultures. He presided over the Mass while seated because of a knee ailment and in his homily hoped for “a future in which the history of violence and marginalisation suffered by our indigenous brothers and sisters is never repeated.” The Mass at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium was held a day after the Pope travelled to the town of Maskwacis, site of two former schools, and issued a historic apology that called the Church’s role in schools and the forced cultural assimilation they attempted a “deplorable evil” and “disastrous error”. About 50,000 people attended the service, which took place on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks the feast of the grandparents of Jesus. Francis, who has often spoken about what he learned from his grandmother Rosa in Buenos Aires, used the occasion to repeat his frequent appeals to younger generations to cherish their grandparents and learn from them. Francis called grandparents “a precious treasure that preserves a history greater than themselves”. He said modern society should be more attuned to the gifts of elders, who should not be pushed aside simply because they could not be as productive as before. “In the fog of forgetfulness that overshadows our turbulent times, it is essential to cultivate our roots, to pray for and with our forebears, to dedicate time to remember and guard their legacy. This is how a family tree grows; this is how the future is built.” Francis entered the stadium standing in a popemobile, which stopped frequently as it toured the pitch so babies and children could be brought to him to kiss or bless. Before the Pope arrived, Phil Fontaine, a former Assembly of First Nations National Chief and a residential school survivor, reflected on Francis’s visit on Monday to Maskwacis. “I want to say to you my friends that what we really are talking about is forgiveness. We will never reach reconciliation without forgiveness,” Fontaine said. “We will never forget but we must forgive. We invite the Catholic Church to rebuild the fractured relationship it had with us, for us and for all Canadians.” Fontaine was among the indigenous leaders who met the Pope at the Vatican earlier this year and invited him to Canada.