The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Friday that they had arrested a senior intelligence officer for allegedly stealing sensitive documents. 
 
Cameron Ortis faces five charges under Canada’s criminal code and its Security of Information Act, the federal police agency said in a statement. 
 
“The allegations are that he obtained, stored and processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people that he shouldn’t be communicating it to,” prosecutor John MacFarlane told journalists after Ortis appeared in court Friday. 
 
Canada’s Global News reported that Ortis, who was arrested Thursday, was a top adviser to former RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson and had control over counterintelligence operations. 
 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is campaigning for a second term in office, told reporters at an election rally, “I can assure you that the authorities are taking this extremely seriously,” without commenting further. 
 
His opponent, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, said it was “extremely concerning that a senior RCMP intelligence officer has been arrested for leaking national security information.” 
 
“This is another reminder of the threats we face from foreign actors,” said Scheer, who is tied in the polls with Trudeau. 
 
The RCMP fears Ortis stole “large quantities of information, which could compromise an untold number of investigations,” according to Global News, which first reported the arrest. 
 
Canada is a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance with Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. 
 
The public broadcaster Radio-Canada said Ortis is a specialist in East Asia, critical infrastructure and online “bots.” 
 
On the LinkedIn social network, the account of a person named Cameron Ortis indicates that he has worked for the Canadian government since 2007 after receiving a doctorate in international relations and political science at The University of British Columbia. 
 
The account also says he speaks Mandarin, the main language of China, with which Canada is in an unprecedented diplomatic crisis. 
 
Beijing last December detained two Canadian nationals in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Chinese tech executive on a U.S. warrant. 
 
China has also blocked Canadian agricultural shipments worth billions of dollars. 

…

The controversy swirling around the burial of Zimbabwe’s founding leader, Robert Mugabe, centers on his widow, Grace, who has remained dramatically cloaked behind a heavy black veil as she succeeded in getting the country’s president to scrap his plans for the ex-leader to be buried in a simple plot alongside other national heroes and instead build a grand new mausoleum for her husband.

Known as a strong-willed woman with political ambitions, Grace Mugabe has made the most of her role as the grieving widow — and some in Zimbabwe think she is using the issue to reassert herself as a force to be reckoned with in the country.

When the 54-year-old Grace objected to the funeral plans for Mugabe, who died last week at 95, President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to her palatial 25-bedroom residence in Harare’s posh Borrowdale suburb to consult her about how the interment should proceed. He departed saying he would respect her wishes and scrapped his funeral plans.

She and other family members said they had enlisted the support of Zimbabwe’s traditional chiefs to determine how Mugabe would be buried. In a series of announcements throughout the week they divulged details of where, when and how Mugabe would be buried. The saga culminated Friday with the announcement that the funeral had been postponed for 30 days, until the elaborate new edifice could be built at the Heroes’ Acre national monument.

“We are building a mausoleum for our founding father at the top of the hill at Heroes Acre,” Mnangagwa said on state television of the plan to construct the imposing monument to Mugabe, a guerrilla leader who fought to end white-minority rule when the country was known as Rhodesia. “It won’t be finished, so we will only bury him after we have completed construction.”

Latest acrimony, latest achievement

The wrangle over the burial highlighted the lasting acrimony between Mugabe’s widow and Mnangagwa, who helped oust Mugabe in 2017 after 37 years of often tumultuous rule as the country went from prosperity to economic decline, hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

It was also the latest achievement for Grace Mugabe, who rose from being one of the president’s secretaries to become first lady. Mugabe and his first wife, Sally, had one son who died while Mugabe was jailed by the Rhodesian regime. When Sally was ailing with kidney failure, Mugabe struck up a relationship with Grace, 41 years his junior, and they had a daughter and two sons. Following Sally’s death in 1992, Mugabe married Grace in 1996 in a lavish ceremony at his birthplace, Zvimba.

As Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace became known for shopping sprees in Europe and Asia, building huge residences, and staking claim to farms in the choice Mazowe area, outside Harare, as part of Mugabe’s seizure of once white-owned properties. Grace also featured in a series of scandals and lawsuits, including one in which she sued a diamond dealer she said didn’t deliver a 100-carat diamond she claimed to have paid for. In South Africa she was charged with assaulting a young woman who had been in her sons’ hotel suite in Johannesburg.

She also became increasingly prominent politically, becoming the head of the Women’s League of her husband’s ruling ZANU-PF party. She launched a series of public attacks on then-Vice President Joice Mujuru that led to Mujuru being sacked in 2014. She then turned her sights on Mnangagwa, who was fired from the vice presidency in 2017 and appeared poised to take that position herself. Mnangagwa fled the country, saying he feared for his life.

Military coup

The prospect of Grace Mugabe gaining so much power, especially as Mugabe was becoming visibly feeble, prompted the military to put the couple under house arrest. Mugabe was forced to resign in November 2017, and his wife was expelled from the ruling party.

With Mugabe’s death and the protracted drama surrounding his burial, Grace has reasserted her national prominence — and her ascendency over Mnangagwa.

“That stuff about traditional leaders making the decision is rubbish. Grace was determined to decide how Mugabe should be buried,” said Zimbabwean analyst Ibbo Mandaza. Since Mugabe’s ouster “Mnangagwa has not taken any action against her. Nothing has happened to the mansions, the properties, the state allowances.”

“The whole narrative of the ruling class is the same. There is hypocrisy and looting. There is no honor or dignity,” he said.

And Grace might just make a political comeback, he added. 

“Maybe in a year we will see Grace in bed with Mnangagwa, politically, if not literally,” he said.
 

…

An international press freedom monitor has awarded Vietnamese journalist and blogger Pham Doan Trang a 2019 Press Freedom Prize for Impact.

“Pham Doan Trang is a true heroine given the situation of press freedom in Vietnam, where journalists and bloggers who do not toe the line of the current direction of the Communist Party face extremely severe repercussions,” said Daniel Bastard, who heads the Asia-Pacific Desk of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Trang, who has no fixed address, reports on civil rights issues in Vietnam, where she has been beaten and imprisoned twice.

Two other women received awards from the group Thursday night in Berlin. Saudi journalist Eman al Nafjan received the award for Courage and Maltese journalist Caroline Muscat received the prize for Independence.

Founder of Luât Khoa

Trang’s prize is awarded to journalists whose work has led to concrete improvements in journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism, or to an increase in awareness of these matters, according to an RSF statement.

Trang founded Luât Khoa, an online magazine that specializes in providing information about legal issues, and she edits another, The Vietnamese, which helps citizens defend their rights and resist the Communist Party’s rule, RSF said.

Independent journalists and bloggers who report critically on sensitive issues face harassment or detention on anti-state charges, and at least 11 were behind bars as of Dec. 1, 2018, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which ranks Vietnam sixth among the 10 countries where it deems journalists are most censored. Like Saudi Arabia, China and Iran, Vietnam is “especially adept at practicing these two brands of censorship: jailing and harassing journalists and their families, while also engaging in digital monitoring and censorship of the internet and social media,” according to a CPJ report.

Colleague accepted award

Because Vietnamese authorities wanted to set conditions on Trang for her to leave the country to accept the award, which she said she would not consent to, her friend and colleague, Trinh Huu Long, editor-in-chief for Luât Khoa magazine, accepted the award on Trang’s behalf.

“I hope this award will encourage the Vietnamese people to engage more in press freedom and to push Hanoi to improve the citizens’ basic rights,” Trang told VOA Vietnamese.

“I really wish it [will] encourage other journalists, including freelance journalists, to become more committed to pursuing truth, justice and human rights in Vietnam,” said Trang, who was born in 1978.

“I hope this award can help gain more international recognition of the hidden wave under the so-called political stability in the country. Below that surface is a layer of waves of repression and silence,” she added.

Grateful for RSF

RSF said that the Vietnamese government tries to stifle Trang’s voice through police intimidation, because she exposes its inconsistencies and its failure to guarantee civil and political rights.

Despite the major crackdown that began in 2016, Trang plays a crucial role in helping her fellow citizens gain access to independent information and enabling them to use the rule of law, as guaranteed by the Vietnamese constitution, against the arbitrary practices of the authorities, Bastard said.

“I believe that RSF’s goals for giving the award are to let journalists around the world, especially journalists who are victims of persecution, harassment, abuse and persecution, [know they] are not alone in their fights,” Trang said. “RSF has really helped people like me to feel I’m not alone.”

Her books, such as Politics for the Common People, A Handbook for Families of Prisoners and Politics of a Police State, were all published outside Vietnam. They “received much more readership than I expected,” Trang said.

Trang has been beaten by the police because of her work and was detained arbitrarily twice for several days in 2018, according to an RSF statement.

Two more women win

Muscat dedicated her award to assassinated Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb just meters from her home in October 2017. The Council of Europe has given Malta a deadline to hold an independent public inquiry into the journalist’s assassination, but with just days remaining, there is no sign that this will take place, according to The Shift News, which Muscat co-founded. The independent investigative news website focuses on combating corruption and defending press freedom.

Al Nafjan founded the blog Saudi Woman, which “features her reporting and opinions on the campaign to end the ban on women driving in the kingdom, as well as coverage of women’s rights issues, local elections, the Saudi anti-terror law and profiles of Saudi human rights activists,” according to CPJ.

…

Government experts Friday backed an experimental treatment for children with peanut allergies that could become the first federally approved option for preventing life-threatening reactions.

The treatment is daily capsules of peanut powder that gradually help children build up a tolerance.

The outside panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted overwhelmingly in favor of the treatment from Aimmune Therapeutics. The nonbinding vote amounts to an endorsement for approval.

The FDA is expected to make its final decision by January.

Important option

The panelists said the medication was an important option for parents and children dealing with peanut allergies. However, several also said they had concerns because the pill has to be taken continuously to maintain its effect.

An estimated 1.6 million children and teenagers in the U.S. would be eligible for the medication, to be sold as Palforzia, which is intended for ages 4 to 17.

Peanut allergy is the most common food allergy in the country and the standard treatment involves strictly monitoring what children eat. That approach doesn’t always work and accidental exposure is common, sending 1 in 4 children with peanut allergies to the emergency room every year.

‘Peace of mind … invaluable’

Parents at Friday’s meeting urged approval of the drug, describing the anxiety of watching their children’s diet and daily routine, even avoiding public places and transportation because of possible peanut residues.

“These are constant and real fears with extreme consequences,” said Cathy Heald of Dallas, whose 12-year-old son Charlie took part in a study of the treatment.

Heald said her son’s improved tolerance allowed him to travel overseas by himself for the first time.

“The peace of mind this treatment brings is invaluable,” said Hill, whose trip to the meeting was paid by Aimmune.

Risks of treatment

After one year, about 66% of study participants who took the pills could tolerate the equivalent of three to four peanuts, compared to just 4% of patients who received a dummy treatment. At the beginning of the study, most participants could not tolerate even a minuscule amount of peanuts.

But the benefits of the treatment came with risks. More than 9% of patients taking the pills reported severe allergic reactions, more than twice the number in the placebo group. And 11% of patients dropped out of the company’s study because of side effects.

“The effectiveness of the treatment has, in fact, not been demonstrated,” said Dr. John Kelso, of Scripps Clinic in San Diego, who voted against the treatment.

The California-based company has previously said it expects the first six months of treatment to cost $5,000 to $10,000 and $300 to $400 a month after that. The company declined to elaborate on price earlier this week.

Aimmune is pursuing other treatments for common food allergies, including eggs. The company does not yet have any products on the market.
 

…

They scan social media, peer under rubble, or try to follow the smell of death to try to find family and friends. 
 
They search amid alarming reports that 1,300 people remain listed as missing nearly two weeks after Hurricane Dorian hit the northern Bahamas. 
 
The government, which has put the official death toll at 50, has cautioned that the list is preliminary and many could be staying in shelters and just haven’t been able to connect with loved ones. 
 
But fears are growing that many more died when the Category 5 storm slammed into the archipelago’s northern region with winds in excess of 185 mph and severe flooding that toppled concrete walls and cracked trees in half as Dorian battered the area for a day and a half. 
 
“If they were staying with me, they would’ve been safe,” Phil Thomas said as he leaned against the frame of his roofless home in the fishing village of McLean’s Town and looked into the distance. 

‘He was my fishing partner’
 
The boat captain has not seen his 30-year-old son, his two grandsons or his granddaughter since the storm. They were all staying with his daughter-in-law, who was injured and taken to a hospital in the capital, Nassau, after the U.S. Coast Guard found her — but only her. 
 

“People have been looking, but we don’t really come up with anything,” Thomas said, adding that he’s heard rumors that someone saw a boat belonging to his son, though the vessel also hasn’t been found. 
 
He especially misses his 8-year-old grandson: “He was my fishing partner. We were close.” 
 
The loss weighs on Thomas, who said he tries to stay busy cleaning up his home so he doesn’t think about them. 
 
“It’s one of those things. I’m heartbroken, but life goes on,” he said. “You pick up the pieces bit by bit. … I’ve got to rebuild a house. I’ve got three more kids. I’ve got to live for them until my time comes.” 
 
Meanwhile, a newly formed tropical depression headed toward the Bahamas and was expected to further drench the communities bashed by Dorian. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the system could become a tropical storm by Saturday and hit the central and northwestern Bahamas with winds and heavy rains before moving along the east coast of Florida. 
 
“The disturbance will more than likely take a very similar path to Dorian,” chief meteorologist Shavonne Moxey-Bonamy said. 

‘Take it seriously’
 
Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for Grand Bahama, warned that system would affect the entire island and urged people to seek shelter. “As previous storms have taught us, things change very quickly,” he said. “We want residents to take it seriously.” 
 
The approaching storm was slowing down efforts to bring in aid, and food and water remained the biggest needs in the hard-hit Abaco islands, where officials suspended flights in anticipation of the storm, a spokesman for the islands’ National Emergency Management Agency said. 
 
“Hang in there, we care for you, we will get to you,” spokesman Carl Smith said. “We are doing our best. …  We ask people to have patience.” 
 

Meanwhile, the search for loved ones in Abaco continued with renewed urgency. Diego Carey, a 25-year-old from the hard-hit community of Marsh Harbor, left Abaco for the capital, Nassau, after Dorian hit but returned Thursday after a 12-hour boat ride to search for two friends who remain missing. 
 
“We were together during the storm. It happened so fast. The roof just blew off,” he said, adding that was the last time he saw them. “It’s so traumatizing.” 
 
At least 42 people died in Abaco and eight in Grand Bahama, and Prime Minister Hubert Minnis has warned that number will increase significantly. 

Counseling available
 
He assured Bahamians in a recent televised address that the government was working hard to recover bodies and notify families, adding that officials are providing counseling amid reports of nightmares and psychological trauma. 
 
“The grief is unbearable,” the prime minister said. “Many are in despair, wondering if their loved ones are still alive.” 
 
Still, reunions, although few, are happening nearly two weeks after the storm made landfall Sept. 1. 
 
The family of Trevon Laing had thought the 24-year-old man was dead after a police officer told them that two bodies had been found in the community of Gold Rock Creek, including that of a young man. His mother went into mourning for five days. 
 
When his family visited the community to verify what they were told, Laing wasn’t around, buttressing their fears that he was dead. When he returned, he said, he found his brother crying on the front porch. 
 
“I’m like: `Hey, I’m not dead! You guys have no faith in me. I’m a survivor,’ ” he said with a laugh. “He was shocked and mad at the same time.” 

…

One week after Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas, leaving some islands in total ruin, relief operations are in full swing. The official death toll stands at 50, but with a reported 2,500 people still missing, that number is likely to climb. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi spoke via Skype with the Salvation Army and International Medical Corps, both on the island of Grand Bahama.
 

…

A month after the nuclear explosion in the White Sea in Russia, almost no information has been offered by the Russian authorities on what happened and whether the danger of the nuclear fallout still persists. Activists and scientists are struggling to get answers. VOA’s Yulia Savchenko reports from Moscow on the concerns that are being fueled by the secrecy.

…

Israeli settlers in the West Bank are celebrating the announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex one-third of the Palestinian territory in the West Bank if he is re-elected. Netanyahu wants to declare sovereignty over the Jordan River Valley and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. His plan has sparked condemnation by the Palestinians and has been declared illegal by the international community. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

…

Turkish, Iranian and Russian presidents will meet in Ankara Monday under the Astana process, where the three countries regularly meet to try and resolve the Syrian conflict. The fate of the last rebel enclave in Idlib is expected top the agenda. With Syrian regime forces threatening to overrun Idlib, Ankara is warning of a humanitarian disaster. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
 

…

U.S. Democrats held their third presidential primary debate Thursday in Houston, Texas.  The debate was a spirited encounter that included clashes over health care, immigration and foreign policy involving the top 10 Democratic contenders vying for the right to take on President Donald Trump next year.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
 

…

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday that Mexico’s government doesn’t agree with a U.S. Supreme Court order that would block migrants from countries other than Mexico and Canada from applying for asylum at U.S. borders.

Speaking at President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily news conference, Ebrard said that Mexico has a different policy when it comes to asylum seekers and would never implement such a rule.

He also described a Tuesday meeting in Washington about Mexico’s progress in slowing the flow of mostly Central American migrants trying to reach the United States.

Lopez Obrador added that he spoke by phone with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. He said relations between the two countries were very good and Trump recognized Mexico’s efforts.

Mexico cracked down on migrants crossing the country after Trump threatened crippling tariffs on all Mexican imports in late May. Mexico deployed the National Guard to the southern and northern borders and tried to contain migrants to the southern part of the country. 

It also accepted the expansion of the “Remain in Mexico’” policy, under which the U.S. has sent thousands of asylum applicants back across the border to wait in Mexico.

…

Yahoo Japan Corp. announced on Thursday a tender offer worth an estimated 400 billion yen ($3.7 billion) for Zozo Inc., a Japanese online retailer started by a celebrity tycoon.

Zozo Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa told reporters at a Tokyo hotel that he was stepping down to devote more time to training for a trip to the moon in 2023. He has plans to ride on Elon Musk’s Space X rocket.

Maezawa owns nearly 37% of the company and will sell nearly 93 million of his more than 112 million shares, according to the plan. Yahoo Japan will own up to 50.1% under the tender offer, set for early October, it said.

Maezawa, known for lavish spending on artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a Stradivarius violin, said he also intends to announce later plans for another business.

“I was so moved by that feeling of building something from scratch,” he said of starting his company 21 years ago when he still lived with his parents.

“I want to thank all the employees for supporting and following someone who is so lacking like me. We laughed and we cried together. We had fun,” he said, choked with emotion.

Maezawa, 43, started out running an import CD business and played in a rock band before he founding his online fashion business with a shopping site called Zozotown when online retailing was still new in Japan.

Recently he drew attention for his Zozosuit, a so-called wearable technology that takes body measures with a software application so that clothes are made to fit.

He never graduated college and is known for a free-wheeling managerial style and corporate culture that are rare in Japan’s staid business world.

Zozo’s tagline is: “Be unique. Be equal.” It said in a statement that becoming a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan will bring stability and a solid partner.

Succeeding Maezawa at Zozo’s helm is Kotaro Sawada, who joined the company about 10 years ago after working at Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Data Corp.

Sawada told reporters that after 21 years it was time for Zozo to grow up. But he promised Zozo will remain creative, and not become boring.

Kawabe said Yahoo, whose revenue comes mostly from advertising, will be able to expand its e-commerce business by adding Zozo. Yahoo aims to be No. 1 in online retail in Japan, he said.

Also appearing at the event was Masayoshi Son, chief executive and founder of SoftBank and a top shareholder of Yahoo Japan. Son acknowledged he had urged Maezawa to stay on as Zozo’s chief.

Son and Maezawa appeared on stage wearing matching T-shirts designed by Maezawa that said “Let’s Start Today” with a peace sign. Zozo originally was named Start Today.

“I guess he wants to live the life of a rocker so I understand,” Son said with a laugh. “I envy him.”

Hiroko Sato, an analyst for Jeffries, said the deal will likely benefit both sides. Yahoo may gain more online shoppers by acquiring Zozo, with its younger customer base.

But Yahoo faces formidable competition from Rakuten in Japan, she said. Amazon is another powerful rival.

“Our initial impression is positive for both companies,” she said.

Zozo’s stock price jumped 13% in Tokyo trading Thursday, while Yahoo Japan Corp. rose 2.3% and SoftBank Group Corp. edged up 0.2%.

…

In the world of agriculture, there is often a dividing line marked by color — red and green — which on a farm, doesn’t mean “stop” or “go.”

“Just like you might be accustomed to Ford or Chevy, on the farm, it’s either Case or John Deere,” said farmer Megan Dwyer of Colona, Illinois, whose family falls firmly in the red camp and uses Case tractors, even though they farm near the Moline headquarters of John Deere, manufacturer of the iconic green equipment.

“We bleed red and have red on the farm,” Dwyer said. “It’s all I’ve ever known.”

Some of the Case machinery Dwyer’s family purchased in the 1970s is older than she is and still in use today. She admits they could use new equipment, but being able to afford it is another matter.

“There’s not really money there to do it. We’re operating at a loss right now,” she said.

US Farmers Put Off Equipment Purchases Amid Trade War video player.

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Farmers in America face their fifth consecutive year of below-average income, a situation compounded by the ongoing trade dispute with China.

Tariffs

U.S. tariffs have raised prices on imported aluminum and steel, increasing the cost to manufacture farm equipment in the United States, such as tractors and combines. Retaliatory tariffs by China have decreased demand and overall prices for crops like soybeans, ultimately affecting a farmer’s bottom line, forcing many to hold off purchasing large, expensive equipment.

“They are luxuries today,” Dwyer said. “Lenders, bankers, they want to see something that’s profitable and makes sense, and these big equipment purchases don’t do that.”

CNH Industrial, the Europe-based parent company of Case IH (International Harvester), is the second-largest manufacturer of machinery in the United States behind John Deere. Both companies face withering demand from farmers for their new products, with sales of large tractors down nearly 50% from 2013, the year after a major drought.

John Deere has cut its earnings forecast several times this year. The company says it is looking to cut costs and will decrease production at its Illinois and Iowa facilities, mostly of large tractors, by 20%.

“I think we’ve weathered storms that are worse than this, and we’ve also been in times that are better than this,” said Laurel Caes, public relations manager with John Deere. “It just all ebbs and flows with agriculture, and it’s just managing what we can and hearing that feedback from the customer on what we can do to enable them to be better farmers, better stewards of the land and be as profitable as they can be whether the times are good or bad.

“We’re always taking a pulse in what the customers are feeling, their pinch points, and we’re trying to address that as best we can with our equipment and technology,” she added.

Upgrades over new equipment

Case said there are other options for farmers reluctant to make big equipment purchases as the trade war marches on.

“We also offer a lot of performance upgrades. So, if you can’t or don’t want to get a new piece of equipment, we have that opportunity to upgrade what you have to use that new technology. I think that technology is where customers show interest as we weather the times, good and bad,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports the nation’s farm sector is more than $426 billion in debt. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, farm bankruptcies are on the rise in most parts of the U.S., with delinquencies on commercial agricultural loans at six-year highs.

While technology upgrades might not be as expensive as new equipment purchases, it is also a cost investment, and many farmers might need to finance such purchases.

“I think there are more important things to put my money to on the farm today,” Dwyer said.

She added that she’ll stick with repairing her old Case tractors, regardless of their age, until she sees a break in the trade storm that continues to cast clouds of doubt on her profits, and the overall farm economy.

…

The tentative settlement involving the opioid crisis and the maker of OxyContin could mean that thousands of local governments will one day be paid back for some of the costs of responding to the epidemic.

But for public officials in Akron, no amount of money will restore the families and institutions that were upended by prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl.

“The overwhelming sense of hopelessness that took over this community in 2016, you can’t monetize that,” former Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Greta Johnson told lawyers in a deposition in January. “Every single day the newspaper was reporting on the overdose death rates. You could not go into a community setting where there were not weeping mothers talking about their children.”

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma struck a proposed deal Wednesday with about half the states and thousands of local governments over its role in the crisis. But criticism by several state attorneys general clouded prospects for an end to litigation against the company and the family that owns it.

Some people in Akron say the once-proud rubber capital of the world will never be the same. Hundreds of overdose deaths shattered families, orphaned children, exhausted first responders and drained government resources. At one point, city officials needed a mobile morgue to house all the corpses.

Ohio’s fifth-largest city, home to NBA legend LeBron James, and surrounding Summit County, population 540,000, were scheduled to be the first of some 2,000 governments scheduled to go to trial against drugmakers next month. Local officials sought damages from the manufacturers they hold responsible.

Overdose deaths — which hit 340, or nearly one a day, in 2016 — took a toll on the county medical examiner’s budget and her staff. At the height of the scourge, they often had to perform two or more drug-related autopsies in an average day.

Dr. Lisa Kohler, the county’s chief medical examiner, recalled “the mental stress of dealing with repeated cases of having multiple deaths in the same families over a period of weeks to months.”

The calls about overdose deaths were constant, and “it just felt like it was never going to stop,” Kohler said.

The need for the mobile morgue laid bare the devastating extent of the crisis. The trailers were originally intended for a mass-fatality event, such as a natural disaster, plane crash or terrorist attack.

Akron Fire Chief Clarence Tucker said it sometimes felt as if his community was under attack.

“We handle 45,000 calls a year, and it just kept climbing and climbing,” he said. The fire department had to accelerate maintenance schedules on vehicles, mobilize off-duty paramedics and cope with staff burnout.

“You can get a call someone has overdosed and you get there, you can bring them back with Narcan. Then you’ll go to the same address in the afternoon,” Tucker said. “Or you go to that address in the morning and the two parents have overdosed and there’s a child there. It’s just horrible. It really is.”

Summit County’s estimated payout from the $12 billion tentative Purdue settlement was estimated at $13.2 million. Akron would receive about $3.7 million. Barberton, the county’s second-largest city, would receive $492,000.

Those dollars are intended to compensate for the many financial effects of opioids, including not only the demands on fire, police and medical services, but the crowded jails, the bulging foster-care system, the bursting drug-court dockets, the overloaded addiction programs and the inundated emergency rooms.

Summit County Common Pleas Judge Joy Malek Oldfield sees about 50 felony offenders in her drug court every Monday morning. It’s one of two drug-court dockets totaling 80 to 100 people, about double the number before the crisis.

“We’re nearing capacity for both dockets, and most of them are opiate-dependent,” Oldfield said.

In the past, most drug offenders used crack cocaine or marijuana, and “the treatment was tailored to those users,” Oldfield said. “If someone had a bad day and relapsed, they didn’t die.” But opioid addiction requires residential treatment, the judge said.

By October 2017, the opioid outlook was so bad that County Executive Ilene Shapiro declared an emergency, noting in her proclamation that “local response efforts have been exhausted and local resources in Summit County have been overwhelmed, and capabilities have been exceeded.” That year, the county saw another 269 overdose deaths.

For police officers, the crisis meant a slew of extra duties beyond fighting crime, said Barberton Police Chief Vincent Morber.

“They’ve had to be everything. Not just law enforcers, but social workers and drug counselors, trying to hook everybody up with resources,” Morber said. “These poor young officers have done more death notifications in their short time span in 10 years than I have done my whole career.”

Thomas Heitic, chef and general manager of the Green Diamond Grille and Pub, said he hoped the settlement would offer more money for addiction counseling.

“Any of this money that goes towards awareness to me is a joke. We’re all aware of what’s going on. Our medical examiner had to bring in refrigerated trucks because the bodies were piling up. We’re constantly aware of this problem. We need to focus, use that money to focus on treatment.”

…

Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders agreed they wanted a deal with the United States, but some were in more of a hurry than others.

Taliban negotiators were at odds with their Council of Leaders, or shura, about whether to travel to Camp David even before President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the high-stakes meeting planned for last weekend .
 
According to Taliban officials familiar with the discussions, the shura opposed the trip to Camp David and chastised the negotiators who were eager to attend.
 
 The Taliban have been holding talks with the U.S. for over a year in the Qatari capital, Doha, where the militant Islamic movement maintains a political office under the banner of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
 
 Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Doha office, told the Taliban Al-Emarah website on Tuesday that U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had invited Taliban negotiators to Camp David in late August.
 
The Taliban accepted, only to delay, demanding the deal be announced first by Qatar. They also wanted a signing ceremony witnessed by the foreign ministers of several countries, including Pakistan, Russia and China. The delay followed the shura’s rejection and admonishment of its negotiators.
 
This wasn’t the first disagreement between the negotiators and the shura, according to Taliban sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of they were not authorized to discuss internal debates with reporters.
 
Several months earlier, the shura opposed an offer by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the chief negotiator and co-founder of the Taliban, to give the Americans 14 months to withdraw their roughly 14,000 troops from Afghanistan. The shura let Baradar know it wasn’t on board with the timeline and that he could not make decisions independent of the shura.
 
Still, several Taliban officials familiar with both the negotiating team and the shura said that while opinions differed, the Taliban leadership debated every article of the agreement and the negotiating team either got the shura to agree or bowed to its decisions.
 
 “What’s striking is how the Taliban mobilized at the highest levels to support negotiations with the U.S.,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “Senior Taliban officials didn’t only endorse the talks; they helped lead them.”
 
“This suggests that Washington would have trouble exploiting fractures within the Taliban in an effort to strengthen its hand in negotiations,” he said. “There may be divisions within the Taliban, but they presented a relatively common front in the negotiating process. That’s more than one can say for the Afghan government, or even the Trump administration.”
 
Baradar, the lead negotiator and believed to be the most influential of the Taliban interlocutors, has been pushing a peace deal in Afghanistan even before the U.S. was willing to enter talks. As far back as 2010, he had secretly opened peace talks with Afghanistan’s then-president, Hamid Karzai. When neighboring Pakistan found out, Baradar was arrested in a raid jointly carried out with the CIA. He spent eight years in a Pakistani jail — punishment for trying to sideline Islamabad in peace talks.
 
Karzai previously told The Associated Press he asked both Pakistan and the U.S. on at least two occasions to release Baradar, but was turned down. The first secret contacts between the Taliban and the U.S., aimed at finding a way to talk, reportedly did not occur until 2013.
 
Even as Washington seeks an exit to its longest war, the Taliban are at their strongest since their ouster in 2001 and hold sway over more than half the country, staging near-daily, deadly attacks across Afghanistan.
 
Khalilzad’s year-long peace mission has been Washington’s most dedicated push for peace, focusing not just on the Taliban, Afghanistan’s government and prominent Afghan powerbrokers but also on its neighbors, who are often blamed for outright interference in Afghanistan.
 
The meddlers include Pakistan and Russia, accused of aiding the Taliban against Islamic State insurgents with deep connections to Central Asia, and also Iran, which has trained Afghan fighters known as the Fatimayoun Brigade that fought alongside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Syria.
 
“One of my concerns is that if the talks don’t start up again soon, the tremendous progress that Zal [Khalilzad] made in generating a strong … regional consensus for peace in Afghanistan could dissipate, and [Afghanistan’s neighbors could] revert to destabilizing, hedging behavior,” warned Andrew Wilder, Asia Programs’ vice president at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
 
 “If Pakistan feels the U.S. is going to precipitously withdraw troops during the next year … Pakistan may decide that it’s more important than ever to support a proxy like the Taliban to protect Pakistan’s perceived interests in Afghanistan,” which would be to keep India’s influence to a minimum, said Wilder.
 
Meanwhile, the Taliban have been unapologetic about their relentless attacks that have killed scores of civilians — and which have been blamed for the talks’ collapse.
 
Trump claimed earlier this week that the Taliban had later expressed regret.
 
Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman in Doha, seemed anything but repentant. He argued that the U.S. has also continued its military campaign in parallel to the peace talks, adding that there was no cease-fire and the agreement was not signed.''<br />
 <br />
Despite the posturing, it appears the two sides are still talking, even if it is just to ask the other what it all means.<br />
 <br />
 "We have contacted them [U.S. officials] and they too have approached us," Shaheen said. "We have sought formal clarification from them about Trump's decision. We are hopeful of a response and are waiting for their response."<br />
 <br />
The U.S. still wants its troops out of Afghanistan. Even as Trump declared talks with the Taliban "dead,"he said American troops have become policemen in Afghanistan and that's not their job. He said the Afghan administration has tostep up” and take on that role.
 
 “The Taliban are in a good place right now,” said Kugelman. “They’ll remain open to renegotiating a troop withdrawal deal with the U.S. in the future, but unlike the U.S. they’re in no rush to get one.”

…

After meeting for three hours Wednesday at South Sudan’s State House, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar pledged to resolve all outstanding issues holding up the formation of a unity government in November.  

The two leaders were all smiles as they shook hands and posed in front of flashing cameras outside the State House, but neither man announced any new agreements.

Left unresolved from last year’s peace deal are the number of states and their boundaries along with details over security arrangements involving opposition and government forces.

Still, President Kiir put a positive spin on things.

“Talks between us are going on well. And we will reach a deal soon, so let’s rest assured that things are going on well,” Kiir told reporters in Juba.

For his part, Machar noted that even though he is to become First Vice President once again under the terms of last year’s peace deal, he is still not a free man.

“Juba is home and I have come back to Juba even if I go away for some time. The next coming, maybe [East African regional bloc] IGAD will determine my status to be free to come and discuss more with you here. But our discussion here, we have made important progress,” said Machar.

The SPLM-in Opposition party says Machar is effectively under house arrest in his current home city, Khartoum, and IGAD said his movement was restricted when he lived in exile in South Africa.

SPLM-IO Deputy Chairman Henry Odwar said Wednesday’s talks focused on amending certain laws to come into compliance with the revitalized peace deal.

“We touched on issues of constitutional amendment, the draft that is going to be presented to the parliament and we also discussed the few security laws. We also talked about the issue of non-signatory parties,” said Odwar.

The peace deal mandates that the transitional constitution and laws that govern the national security agencies, the army and the national police service be amended by parliament ahead of the formation of a unity government.

But the country’s lawmakers are on a two-month recess that began two weeks ago. Last month, civil society activists warned that failure to amend the laws before November would affect the formation of a unity government.

Odwar said the two leaders discussed the number of states but only agreed to form another committee.

“The two principals have agreed that yes, we will have a committee and this committee will look into the IBC (Independent Boundaries Commission) report and if we reach a consensus, that will be great. If we don’t reach a consensus, then the principals will have to come together again and come up with a final statement on the number of states and boundaries,” Odwar told reporters.

Despite reaching no agreement on the unresolved issues, Information Minister Michael Makuei says Kiir and Machar are both confident a unity government will come together on time.

“When I say on time, it means on the 12th of November,” said Makuei.

It is not clear if Kiir and Machar will hold more face-to-face talks this week in Juba before Machar departs for Khartoum.
 

…

British scientists say they have found water for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system.

Researchers at University College London said Wednesday they found water vapor in a planet’s air 110 light years from Earth that has temperatures suitable for life as we know it.

More than 4,000 exoplanets have been detected, but scientists say it is the only known exoplanet that has water, temperatures needed for life and a rocky surface.

It is not known if the planet, twice the size of Earth, eight times its mass, has water flowing on its surface.

But scientists say the so-called Super Earth is an ideal distance from its sun to conceivably harbor life.

The planet, known as K2-18b, was discovered in 2015 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

“Finding water in a potentially habitable world other than Earth is incredibly exciting,” said Angelos Tsiaras, lead author of the UCL report that was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “K2-18b is not ‘Earth 2.0’ but it brings us closer to answering the fundamental question: Is the Earth unique?”

Scientists expect future space missions to detect hundreds of other exoplanets in coming decades.

A new generation of space exploration instruments will be able to describe exoplanet atmospheres in much greater detail.

The European Space Agency’s ARIEL space telescope, for example, is scheduled for launch in 2028 and will observe some 1,000 planets, a sampling large enough to identify patterns and outliers.

…

Beto O’Rourke was back at Keene State College, but the large crowd that flocked to see him six months ago was not.

Far removed from the whirlwind opening days of his presidential campaign, the former Texas congressman faced a far smaller, quieter gathering. An attempted “Beto! Beto!” chant fizzled and when an elderly voter declared that O’Rourke was “so clear and consistent on what the world needs,” the candidate responded, “Could you travel with us to every campaign stop and say what you just said?”

That joke was prophetic since O’Rourke has already undertaken two major campaign reboots since first coming to Keene State in March — and his latest is built on a national approach to running for president that makes a third visit to the New Hampshire campus seem unlikely. Looking to recapture the early enthusiasm surrounding his candidacy, O’Rourke is pursuing the go-anywhere, freewheeling style that made him a Democratic star last year while nearly upsetting Sen. Ted Cruz.

After a mass shooting last month in his hometown of El Paso, O’Rourke has again remade his White House bid, this time around decrying what he calls President Donald Trump’s racism and sympathy for white supremacy, as well as combating gun violence. He’s still visiting Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which kick off the presidential contest. But he’s also turned up at places like an Arkansas gun show, where he debated banning assault weapons with self-described conservatives.

O’Rourke became the first presidential candidate to visit Mississippi communities where immigration raids led to the arrest of nearly 700 people and traveled to “Black Wall Street,” site of Oklahoma’s 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. He also hit Charlottesville, Virginia, to blame Trump for the deadly 2017 racial clash there, which former Vice President Joe Biden highlights as a key reason for his own presidential run.

After the El Paso shooting, which saw the suspected gunman drive 600-plus miles to a Walmart near the U.S.-Mexico border and kill 22 people after posting an online screed that echoed some of the president’s anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, O’Rourke suspended his campaign to attend vigils and visit hospitalized victims. He returned to the race vowing to forgo the Ferris wheels and corndogs of places like the Iowa State Fair because “the kind of challenges that we face in this country at this moment of crisis require an urgency.”

That’s since meant nontraditional stops, like visiting Virginia’s deep red Bland County, where about 82% of voters backed Trump in 2016, and hopping a low-cost “BoltBus” for a five-hour trip from New York to Boston.

“I kind of feel like I’m talking at a church or library because there are other passengers here,” O’Rourke said on a Facebook livestream during the journey. “They are reading or taking a nap or doing their own thing, so I want to be respectful.”

O’Rourke’s also begun swearing in public again, even using the f-word live on CNN. That’s something he did frequently while running for Senate last year in Texas but had sworn off during his fourth day of presidential campaigning when a man at a Wisconsin coffee shop complained he wasn’t setting a good example for the nation’s children.

O’Rourke entered the presidential race with promising polling and strong fundraising, reflected by his packed first visit to Keene State. But that early buzz has faded following underwhelming debate performances and as rivals like 37-year-old Pete Buttigieg supplanted him as the Democratic Party’s fresh face. O’Rourke raised only $3.6 million last quarter, down from the $9.3 million he brought in during his campaign’s opening 18 days alone.

Before the El Paso shooting, O’Rourke had concentrated on Iowa with frequent visits and months of building out staff there. But that increased campaign costs and ensured he began spending more money than he was taking in. The new national campaign approach may be helping with that. O’Rourke’s advisers noted that online fundraising in the two weeks leading up to Thursday’s debate in Houston was the highest since he entered the race in March.

The latest overhaul follows a first relaunch in May, when O’Rourke began concentrating more on television appearances, after largely shunning them in favor of rallies where he could see voters “eyeball-to-eyeball.” He also unveiled a series of proposals on combating climate change, protecting LGBT rights and other issues in an effort to boost his policy gravitas.

Still, none of his efforts have translated into better polling. After an initial bump, O’Rourke continues to badly trail the 2020 Democratic presidential primary’s established front-runners: Biden, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

The potential pitfall of the focusing on Trump and guns, meanwhile, is that O’Rourke has a lot of company: All the Democrats seeking the White House slam Trump as racist and support gun control. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker called for a mandatory assault weapon buyback before O’Rourke began making it a centerpiece of his campaign.

And candidates prioritizing states other than Iowa and New Hampshire often don’t survive long.

In 2008, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani entered the Republican primary leading in some national polls. He largely skipped campaigning in the early states in favor of spending weeks in delegate rich Florida, where he finished third and dropped out the following day.

More recently, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand took a break from her frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire to begin a bus tour of the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, which she vowed to take back from Trump over the long haul — only to abandon her 2020 presidential bid barely six weeks later.

“I think it’s very difficult to try to break the mold,” said Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas. “You win the nomination by winning delegates, and you win delegates by winning states, and you win more states by winning early states.”

O’Rourke’s advisers insist he’s not shortchanging early states, holding more events in them than most candidates because he packs so many stops into each campaigning day. They also note that “Super Tuesday” falls on March 3, just three days after South Carolina’s primary, and features voting in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, Massachusetts and O’Rourke’s native Texas — meaning their candidate’s nontraditional travel could yet payoff.

“There are many paths to the nomination, and none of them include leaving voters out of the conversation,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, O’Rourke’s campaign manager. “That commitment is something every voter — whether they’re in Iowa, New Hampshire, or Oklahoma — can appreciate.”

Some Iowans are used to seeing presidential hopefuls almost laughably frequently. But former 2016 presidential candidate and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who campaigned for O’Rourke in Iowa over Labor Day weekend, while the candidate returned to El Paso for a concert to benefit shooting victims, said seasoned activists know to look for candidates who have presidential wherewithal — something O’Rourke displayed in the face of tragedy.

“I didn’t hear anybody say he’s needs to be here more,” said O’Malley, who said he instead met a couple in Davenport, Iowa, who saw O’Rourke after the El Paso shooting and “noticed a depth of purpose and passion that they had not heard in other appearances when they had seen him.”

…

President repeats false claim that he spent time at ground zero alongside first responders

…

Sanctions and other economic pressures are making the lives of ordinary Syrians even more difficult, as the country’s national currency falls to record lows against the U.S. dollar in black market trading this week.

Arab news channels reported last month that Moscow had asked President Bashar al-Assad to pay $3 billion to defray costs for the deployment of Russian troops in Syria, causing a drain on government reserves. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov denied the claim.

Syrian analyst Majed Ruslan told Arab media that the Syrian pound is hovering at about 650 to the dollar on the black market, while the official rate remains close to 430. This, he said, is causing pressure on ordinary Syrians as prices increase for consumer goods such as cooking oil, dairy products and gasoline.

Syria’s Central Bank governor, Hazem Karfoul, told state TV earlier this summer that it was not a wise policy to use foreign currency reserves to prop up the value of the pound.

Syria, he said, can’t keep focusing on the numeric value of the exchange rate and exhausting its resources in defending it. The exchange rate is a barometer, not a battle line to defend at all costs, he added.

The plunging value of the Syrian currency came despite efforts by the government to give the impression of economic normalcy returning to the country.

Last week, amid much fanfare, the government hosted the Damascus International Trade Fair. However, it was not clear how many international companies signed deals, given the risks of falling afoul of U.S. economic sanctions.

Syria’s labor minister, Jamal Qadry, lashed out at international pressures and countries like the U.S. that have been applying them.

While attending the Third International Labor Forum earlier this week, Qadry said international participants were showing solidarity with the workers of Syria in the face of an economic embargo and imperialist intervention and support for terrorism.

Syrian analyst and researcher Nasser Zuheir told a Syrian opposition TV channel, however, that he does not think that economic sanctions will cause the government to collapse, but will put pressure on the government and ordinary citizens.

The fall of the pound comes after the collapse of political talks, he said, adding that there are firewalls to stop the currency from deteriorating beyond a certain point.

Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, told VOA that it is “not clear whether the fall of the pound is due to international sanctions or backlash from government efforts to crack down on economic mafia warlords in the country,” such as his brother-in-law, well-known businessman Ramy Makhlouf, who was reportedly placed under house arrest last month. Many warlords have money stashed in Lebanese banks that the government would like to recuperate.

Abou Diab points out that Tuesday’s black market value of the Syrian pound (670 to the dollar) makes the monthly minimum wage salary of a Syrian worker worth just $45.

“The average Syrian is being severely punished,” he said, “but the government is unlikely to be affected by any popular backlash.”

…

Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire are vowing to hold a caucus and primary next year, even as party leaders in a handful of other states have canceled their contests to help smooth President Donald Trump’s path to reelection.

“Under no circumstances will the New Hampshire primary ever be canceled, whether there’s token opposition or a serious contest,” Steve Duprey, New Hampshire’s national Republican committeeman, said in an interview.

“It was never even up for discussion,” echoed Iowa GOP National Committeeman Steve Scheffler in a separate interview. “We’re not going to shut the door on anyone and say, ‘You’re not welcome.'”

At least three Republicans have stepped up to challenge Trump’s claim to his party’s 2020 presidential nomination: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh. None of them is expected to generate enough support to defeat — or even embarrass — the incumbent president in the months leading up to the November 2020 general election.

Still, Trump allies on the ground in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Kansas moved in recent days to cancel their 2020 primary contests altogether to eliminate the possibility of trouble. Some said the cancellations were simply a cost-cutting measure, yet they follow aggressive steps by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee in recent months to strengthen Trump’s reelection chances.

Sinister motives?

Canceling primaries is not unprecedented, but it is not common. Republicans and Democrats canceled presidential nominating contests to protect incumbents across 10 or fewer states in 1992, 1996, 2004 and 2012.

Longtime Iowa Republican operative David Kochel, a frequent Trump critic, said he doesn’t ascribe “a sinister motive” to the recently announced cancellations. It’s often a political party’s job to help incumbents win reelection, he said.

“It does lend itself to the whole sinister anti-democratic thing,” Kochel added. “I don’t think it’s quite that simple.”

While polls suggest the overwhelming majority of Republican voters support Trump, some veteran GOP officials were troubled by the decisions to cancel elections altogether, dismissing the cost-cutting motive as spin.

“This was a shady backroom deal where a small group of party insiders made a big decision that stops hundreds of thousands of voters from participating in the process,” said South Carolina Republican operative Rob Godfrey, who previously worked for the state GOP and former Gov. Nikki Haley.

Chip Felkel, another veteran South Carolina Republican operative, cried foul as well.

“What’s the RNC and the Trump campaign afraid of?” asked Felkel, who worked for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential bid. “This to me, no matter how they spin it, suggests there’s weakness they don’t want to reveal.”

At least one New Hampshire Republican official went further.

Fergus Cullen, a former state GOP chairman, said the push to cancel primaries represent the “drip drip drip of autocratic tendencies in the Trump administration.”

“This is the kind of thing that happens in autocratic nations led by dictators,” Cullen said. “One way to ensure that the president of Russia gets 98% of the vote is you don’t allow anyone else on the ballot.”

GOP challengers

The Trump campaign has essentially ignored the prospect of a serious primary challenge when asked. The incumbent president is not expected to accept invitations for traditional primary activities, such as debates.

Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh would say only that “President Trump’s election is in November 2020.”

Trump himself, however, has already given his trio of challengers a derogatory nickname. “The Three Stooges, all badly failed candidates, will give it a go!” the president tweeted over the weekend after Walsh and Sanford formally joined Weld in the Republican field.

Both Walsh and Sanford have begun reaching out to potential supporters in New Hampshire, the state that has emerged as the unofficial staging ground of the GOP’s “Never Trump” movement. Former state party chair Jennifer Horn has become a fierce Trump critic, as have several former Republican officeholders in the state.

Cullen said that primary contest cancellations elsewhere mean that “New Hampshire is the only game in town” for a real Trump challenge.

“If anything, this means that the place to send a message is New Hampshire,” Cullen said. “It already was, but now there’s literally no other options.”

Even in the Granite State, however, Trump is expected to easily beat back primary challengers. And the bar may be high even for those Republicans hoping to embarrass Trump by denying him a significant portion of the vote.

President Barack Obama, for example, won New Hampshire’s 2012 presidential primary with only around 81% of the vote.

Still, New Hampshire Republicans will at least get a chance to be heard. The first-in-the-nation primary can only be canceled by changing state law.

New Hampshire GOP Chairman Stephen Stepanek, who ran the Trump campaign’s New Hampshire efforts in 2016, said he could “never conceive of the New Hampshire primary ever being canceled for any reason.”

The level of enthusiasm for Trump among New Hampshire Republicans “is just overwhelming,” he said. He also predicted that Trump will get “well into the 90s” in the state’s 2020 GOP primary.

“I think they’re going to be very excited to vote for him just to show their support for him,” Stepanek said.

…

Families of the passengers who died in one of the Boeing 737 Max crashes lobbied Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Tuesday to slow what they consider a rush to let the plane fly again.

Two of the relatives who took part in the two-hour meeting in Washington said Chao promised that the government will take as long as necessary to ensure that the plane is safe but stopped short of agreeing to an entirely new, top-to-bottom review.

A spokesman for Chao said the department and the Federal Aviation Administration have taken unprecedented steps to understand the accidents and the FAA’s certification of the plane in 2017. One of those steps, he said, included Chao’s appointment of a special committee to review the FAA’s process of certifying planes.

After the meeting, several dozen relatives held a vigil on the steps of the Transportation Department headquarters to mark the six-month anniversary of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302.

They carried pictures of many of the 157 people who died. Another 189 died in the October 2018 crash of a Max jet operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air.

Boeing delivers 18 planes

Separately, Boeing disclosed Tuesday that it delivered just 18 airliners in August, putting the company on pace for its worst showing since 2013. With Max deliveries halted since March, Boeing gave customers 276 planes through August, down from 481 in the same period last year.

Chicago-based Boeing has said it expects FAA approval for the Max to fly again early in the fourth quarter. U.S. airlines don’t expect to use the plane until at least December, and the wait could be longer in other countries because of signs that international regulators will take a slower approach than FAA.

Families call for new review

A group of 11 family members asked Chao to direct the FAA to conduct a completely new review of the Max instead of mainly examining changes Boeing made to flight-control software called MCAS, which was implicated in both crashes. FAA is part of her department.

Chao did not commit to full re-certification but said the FAA will wait for recommendations from a technical review board before it lets the plane fly, according to a department spokesman. The department is also being advised by a review panel that includes international regulators and by the special committee that Chao appointed, but the FAA won’t wait for those reports before deciding whether to approve the Max for flight, the spokesman said.

Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya died in the Ethiopian crash, said those panels and foreign regulators “can go far beyond just reviewing MCAS. Time will tell, but we were encouraged by the meeting.”

European officials have said they will insist on test flights during extreme maneuvers — both with Boeing’s new software and with MCAS turned off — to judge the stability of the plane.

The families also want pilots to train on flight simulators before airlines can resume using the plane. Boeing, which wants to avoid further delays, believes that computer training is adequate for now, with simulator sessions later.

People in the meeting said Chao pointed to the small number of Max simulators, making immediate simulator training less feasible.

Families describe anguish

For about half the meeting, Chao and several deputies listened to family members describe the passengers who died in the Ethiopian crash.

“It was very emotional,” said Paul Njoroge, whose wife, three young children and mother-in-law died in the crash. The family members described their losses “and how their life has been ever since the crash,” he said.

The relatives are planning their next steps.

“We are not going to away until the correct processes are being followed in ungrounding the plane, if it’s ever ungrounded,” Njoroge said.
 

…