Wednesday, August 2,
2017
Today is Our Lady of the Angeles Day
in Costa Rica
Tillerson calls talks with North Korea
'possible'
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
said yesterday that the U.S. is willing to talk with North Korea - but only if
North Korea gives up its pursuit of nuclear weapons, but China argues that the
North will not return to negotiations unless the United States and its northeast
Asian allies take "conciliatory steps."
In an interview with NBC, Sen. Lindsey
Graham (R-S.C.) said war with North Korea is likely if it continues to
develop its missile program.
Meanwhile, Tillerson last month
tightened his control over the State Department by taking back powers previously
held by the top career foreign service officer, an action critics said would
delay major decisions.
Coalition airstrikes continue in
Iraq
U.S. and Coalition military forces
continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday,
Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve
officials reported today.
In Iraq,
Coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of six engagements
against ISIS targets: Near Huwayjah, a strike destroyed a piece of
ISIS engineering equipment and a front-end loader; Near Rawah, a
strike destroyed a vehicle-borne bomb; and near Tal Afar, a strike
engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed four front-end loaders, a supply
cache and a command-and-control node.
At least 29 killed in Afghanistan suicide
attack
A suicide bomber stormed into the
largest Shiite Muslim mosque in Afghanistan's Herat Province last night,
opening fire on worshippers before blowing himself up, killing at least 29 and
wounding 64 others, 10 of them critically.
The U.S. Government has purchased five
ScanEagle drones for the Afghan air force.
Meanwhile, Afghan culture frowns on
women who use their names in public, but an online campaign wants to change
that.
Turkey has its first domestically-produced
tank
The Altay MBT is Turkey's first
indigenous new generation tank in the making. The Ankara government recently has
invited three local manufacturers to submit their bids for a serial production
contract involving an initial batch of 250 units.
U.S. and other nations condemn Venezuela's detention
of opposition figures
The international community condemned
the detention of two political opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
yesterday, with the White House saying it holds Maduro personally responsible
for their safety. Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were taken from their
homes by masked Venezuelan agents early yesterday morning.
Britain's Prince Philip to carry out his final
official engagement
The Duke of Edinburgh will meet with
the Royal Marines in his final public engagement before he retires from
his royal duties. The 96-year-old announced his retirement in May, after
decades of supporting the Queen, as well as attending events for his own
charities.
NATO jets violated neutral Finland's airspace while
chasing Russian planes
Two NATO jets which were intercepting
Russian planes over neutral waters near Estonia briefly violated Finnish
airspace, the alliance has said.
Putin's ultimatum puts pressure of U.S. Embassy's
staff
With 755 staff members ordered to
leave positions at the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Russia, diplomats will
face an unprecedented exodus as they are forced to comply with Vladimir Putin's
ultimatum, according to experts.
New sanctions on Iran succeeding where nuclear deal
failed
Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear pact is formally known, Iran was effectively
given a free pass on all its non-nuclear activities as long as it committed to
limiting, not dismantling, its nuclear program.
AirAsia has joined the Philippine's air force as a
reserve unit
The Philippines' air force and AirAsia
officials have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to work together and provide
support during disasters and humanitarian missions.
America is helping Montenegro's new
democracy
This week, U.S. Vice President Mike
Pence is visiting Montenegro. His historic visit signals a new chapter not only
in bilateral relations, but also strengthens the overall trans-Atlantic
alliance.
The face of ungratefulness?
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv
The Palestinians know that only Israel
can save their lives, even as they seek to destroy the Jewish state.
Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman
Mahmoud Abbas yesterday met with a delegation of Hamas officials in his offices
in Ramallah.
After a sweltering day mourning the
destruction of Israel's Holy Temples, Israel's temperatures will drop slightly
in time for the weekend.
In Syria yesterday, Coalition
military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 10 engagements against ISIS
targets. Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed three ISIS wellheads.
Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIS oil refinery. And
near Raqqa, seven strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and
destroyed four fighting positions, two ISIS headquarters, an improvised
explosive device, an ammunition cache and a fuel supply point.
Couzin Gym's Thought for the
Day: If I had a dollar for every girl that found me unattractive,
they would eventually find me attractive.
Today's Trumpet
The White House - the storied,
55,000-square-foot mansion that's housed America's first families for
centuries - is apparently not up to snuff for President Donald Trump. He's
reportedly called it "a real dump."
President Trump personally dictated the
statement his son gave on his talks with a Russian lawyer during the election
campaign, according to a U.S. media report, but the president's lawyer denied
that the president had anything to do with the statement issued by his
son.
White House senior adviser and President
Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly dismissed accusations that Trump's
presidential campaign colluded with Russia, saying the team was "too
disorganized" for such an alleged conspiracy.
President Trump's son-in-law is back on
Capitol Hill, this time speaking to interns as part of the Congressional Intern
Lecture Series.
Many of President Trump's Cabinet
members gather at a weekly session to study the Bible, the Christian
Broadcasting Network (CBN) has reported.
Former Vice President Al Gore said he
regrets President Donald Trump's decision to begin withdrawing the United States
from a landmark accord on climate change, but an enthusiastic supporter of the
president who is mayor of a Virginia island that's sinking into Chesapeake Bay
got a chance to challenge Gore on climate change during a town hall
meeting last night in Tangier, Va.
President Trump felt that former White
House communications director Anthony Scaramucci's profanity-laced comments to
The New Yorker last week were "inappropriate," according to press
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
A federal appeals court issued a ruling
yesterday that could help preserve a key subsidy that benefits health insurers
and millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
A conservative anti-corruption watchdog
group is asking for an ethics investigation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
(D-Fla.) after former House IT aide Imran Awan was apprehended trying the flee
the country.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker proposes nationwide marijuana
legalization
The proposed Marijuana Justice Act would
remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Combating
Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis says the nation's opioid epidemic should be
deemed "a national emergency."
U.S. Air Force
Tests at Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California are typically scheduled weeks or months in advance, but this one
nonetheless comes at a time of soaring tensions with North Korea over its trial
of an ICBM last week. Just days after North Korea fired a rocket into the Sea of
Japan, the U.S. Air Force is planning to test launch an unarmed intercontinental
ballistic missile today from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Update: The Air
Force successfully launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)
from Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning.
The U.S. Air Force will reportedly
buy two secondhand Boeing airplanes to replace Air Force One, though
they'll need extensive upgrades. The planes were originally destined for a
bankrupt Russian airline.
The North Dakota Air National Guard has
unveiled its new MQ-9 Reapers.
U.S. Air Force researchers are asking
the Raytheon Co. to design an experimental open-systems airborne electronic
warfare (EW) system that can provide enhanced capability against current and
emerging RF threats like advanced enemy radar.
Along with nuclear bombs and several
other weapons, the U.S. Air Force's B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers may
one day be used to drop leaflets in PSYOPS operations.
Secretary of the Air Force Heather
Wilson spoke during an Air Force Association (AFA) event last night in
Arlington, Va.
At the McKinley Climatic Lab in Florida,
the Air Force tests the durability of aircraft by creating extreme weather
conditions indoors. The lab can create both snowstorms and sandstorms.
The U.S. Air Force has announced that
the Phoenix, Ariz., branch of Honeywell International, Inc., has been awarded a
$409 million contract.
With 10 of the world’s only
ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft, commonly referred to as a Skibird, the
New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing is able to provide the
airlift needed to get to remote locations in Antarctica and Greenland in support
of the National Science Foundation. It’s a mission unique to the
wing and one that requires specialized training. While upstate New York, where
the unit is based, is known to have some brutal winter weather, it still isn't
enough to get these aircrews trained to land and take off on snow and ice.
That’s where Raven Camp comes in. Located 108 miles southeast of
Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, on the Greenland ice cap, it's where aircrews get
the specialized training required to fly in and out of some of the world’s most
austere locations. It’s also the location of Kool School’s field portion - three
days to learn arctic survival skills. With 50 training missions
already completed since the Greenland season began in April, the aircrews are
well on their way to being ready to fly in Antarctica. "We’ll get
them out to that snowfield, and we'll work on our takeoffs and landing," said
Air Force Major Justin Garren, the 139th Airlift Squadron’s Greenland Operations
chief. "We’ll work on special procedures on the ground for the loadmasters to
load and unload on the snow." Air Force Major Dia Ham, a ski
mission co-pilot student with the 139th Airlift Squadron, is no stranger to
flying the traditional C-130 Hercules, but flying the Skibird is something new.
She transferred to the unit after about 10 years on active duty, and flew her
first Skibird training mission on the ice cap on July
27th. "There’s a level of nervousness," she said about her
first time flying to Raven Camp. "You plan for it and you hear the stories, but
it was so exciting to finally see it myself with my own eyes and be in the
seat." Ham went on to say that while pilots learn the procedures
and steps to follow for landing an aircraft in snow, nothing compares to
actually doing it for the first time. "There’s no way to change the
steps that we follow or the procedures or the sequence of events - but you can't
prepare for landing on skis," she said. While aircrews are training
on the flight deck, loadmasters are training in the back of the aircraft.
Because of the remote locations for some of the camps the wing
supports, loadmasters must be able to perform combat offloads - unloading cargo
while the aircraft is moving with the ramp lowered just 18 inches above the
snow. "It’s very important to learn the technique and get it
right," said Air Force Master Sgt. Randy Powell, a loadmaster instructor who has
been training students this season. "There’s a lot you have to
learn really quickly," said Air Force Airman 1st Class Taylor Richards, a
student loadmaster who is on his second trip there this season. “"The stuff that
we do, they can't teach you in loadmaster school because it’s only stuff that we
do in this unit. There are only about 60 loadmasters in the unit, and we're the
only ones in the world who do this, so there’s a little bit of a learning
curve." "Raven Camp is where we do a lot of our practice and
learning," Ham said. "Antarctica is all missions - there’s no time to do
multiple landings or try things out. The training here is so valuable."
The unit is currently on its fifth rotation of the Greenland
season, which began in April and will end in September. About 80 airmen and
three to four Skibirds are there for each rotation throughout the
summer.
After months of anticipation,
military families and friends are celebrating the return home of more than
100 Connecticut Air National Guard members from their deployment.
Members of a Madison-based
Wisconsin Air National Guard unit are being deployed to South Korea. A dozen
F-16 Fighting Falcons and 200 Wisconsin Air National Guard members will
arrive in South Korea this month.
Airmen belonging to the 165th
Airlift Wing, of Georgia Air National Guard, have welcomed Vice President
Mike Pence to Tbilisi, Georgia.
The Tyler, Texas, Civil Air Patrol
squadron will host a pancake and waffle breakfast from 8 to 10:30 a.m.
on Saturday at its headquarters at 1594 Dixie Drive, in Tyler Pounds,
Texas.
Cadets of the Civil Air Patrol's
Tangipahoa Cadet Squadron of Kentwood, La., have received a
once-in-a-lifetime experience while standing detail for World War II veterans
for the Soaring Valor Project.
Waynesboro resident Cadet Capt. Ian
Stembridge was one of five members of the Civil Air Patrol's Georgia Wing who
recently participated in the CAP's Hawk Mountain Ranger School (HMRS). He served
as a staff member on his third year at the HMRS and was responsible for leading
30 other cadets.
And Civil Air Patrol members, both youth
and adults, will have the experience of searching for a downed plane this
weekend as part of a training exercise. Saturday’s search and rescue exercise,
or SAREX, was discussed at Monday morning’s meeting of the Greeneville-Greene
County Airport Authority, and on Monday afternoon cadets with the CAP spent some
advance time with the "crashed" plane they'll be looking for over the weekend.
With the help of John Badenhope, who works with physical plant maintenance of
the airport, CAP cadets and their squad leaders loaded the shell of an old
airplane fuselage onto a trailer that Badenhope and others will haul to some
undisclosed and remote wooded Greene County, Tenn., location, where it will
be hidden in conditions simulating an actual crash site.
Homeland insecurity
The independent government agency tasked
with auditing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has
thrown cold water on the Trump administration's plan to hire 15,000 new
immigration and border agents. The Homeland Security Department's internal
watchdog is airing major concerns about the administration's call for 15,000
more border and immigration officers - including the challenge of finding 1.25
million applicants.
The Department of Homeland Security
announced yesterday that it will use its authority to bypass environmental laws
and other regulations to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Washington veteran Elaine Duke is set to
temporarily take the helm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Department of Homeland Security has
said it is closely monitoring the foiled Australia terrorist plot in which
extremists planned an attack.
And just hours after President Trump
visited Long Island, N.Y., and vowed to eradicate violent street gangs, the
Suffolk Police and Homeland Security carried out numerous raids on the
island.
DOD to host health clinic for North Carolina
residents
The health clinics will be staffed by
service members from the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, Army Reserve and
the Navy.
NOAA news
NOAA's Polar Follow On (PFO) program
finally got some good news. The Senate Appropriations Committee
has approved $419 million for the PFO, and the committee also approved a
budget for NOAA last week that is nearly $1 billion higher than the President's
request.
NOAA has picked Black Swift's drones to
collect wildfire data. The sUAS will be operated by the University of Colorado's
Integrated Remote & In Situ Sensing program, or IRISS, in collaboration with
NOAA.
And tickets are now on sale for a
seafood celebration of the NOAA Commissioned Corps 100th Anniversary, which will
take place in Newport, Oregon, on Saturday, Aug. 12th.
U.S. Coast Guard
The head of the U.S. Coast Guard said
yesterday he would not "break faith" with the service's transgender
personnel. The Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security,
but is a branch of the U.S. armed forces and would fall under the
military transgender ban.
As the U.S. Coast Guard continued
searching Lake Pontchartrain, La., last night for a man in the water,
authorities learned that a man matching his description had been previously
reported missing from near the lake.
The Coast Guard rescued
two brothers clinging to lighted buoy after their boat sank off the
coast of Florida during Tropical Storm Emily.
Crews with the U.S. Coast Guard continue
to search for a person seen in distress in the water at Ocean Beach,
Calif., yesterday evening.
A federal court in Florida recently
looked at the liability of the U.S. Coast Guard in a rescue effort where a
stricken vessel's crew member was injured.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew
yesterday evening retrieved the body of a man who might have tumbled to his
death from a sea cliff at the end of Tanbark Road, in Brookings, Oregon.
Last week, Coast Guard members from
Corpus Christi, Texas, rescued a fisherman who appeared to be having a
stroke. He was 28 miles offshore.
The Coast Guard Icebreaker
Mackinaw Museum is asking for your help to get a new paint job. The
museum is in Mackinaw City, Mich.
The Coast Guard medevaced a 43-year-old
man from a fishing vessel 25-miles south of Shinnecock Inlet,
N.Y., yesterday.
And in an effort to keep recreational
boaters safe, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will hold a safety class in
Eastham, Mass., later this month.
U.S. Public Health Service
Jerome Adams, Indiana’s state health
commissioner, pledged yesterday to put science ahead of politics if he becomes
the next U.S. surgeon general. But while science is critical, Adams told
senators at his confirmation hearing, it has to be applied in a "sympathetic and
empathetic way."
Adams said that’s what he did when
helping establish a needle exchange program in southern Indiana to contain the
2015 HIV outbreak linked to the injection of oral painkillers, the largest such
outbreak in the nation.
Over a beer and sandwich with the Scott
County sheriff, Adams said, the sheriff shared his concerns about both a needle
exchange and the "revolving door of his jail." Adams explained how the program
could connect people with care. "I always want to lead with science, but I also
want to listen to what stakeholders are saying and what patients are saying," he
said. "That’s the lesson that I learned."
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.),
said President Trump's dismissal of Vice Adm. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general
appointed by President Obama who was not finished with his term, showed "a lack
of respect for that office and the independence of science."
Other Democrats on the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee cited other concerns, including Trump’s
suggestion that vaccines can cause autism and the resignation last month of six
members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS who said Trump doesn't
care about the issue. "The next surgeon general must be an advocate for science
and facts and must be able to stand up and correct misinformation coming out of
this administration," said Murray, the panel’s top Democrat. When Murray asked
Adams whether he understands the importance of "picking science over politics,"
he gave her an emphatic "yes."
The hearing, which also included the
nominees for four assistant secretary positions at the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, was largely friendly.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), told Adams
she’s certain he was nominated for the job because of his testimony last year at
a hearing she conducted on opioid use among seniors. "I’m absolutely certain of
that, too, senator," Adams replied to laughter.
After getting an impromptu hug at the
witness table from "my beautiful little daughter, Millie," Adams said in his
prepared statement that one of his priorities as surgeon general would be
addressing the opioid addiction crisis. A White House commission called for a
national emergency over the opioid epidemic in a report released on
Monday.
Adams also said he would make "wellness
and community and employer engagement a centerpiece of my agenda. I promise you
that I will continue my strong and well-documented track record of reaching out
to everyone, regardless of their politics, beliefs, culture or geography," he
said.
Adams, an African American, praised
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay person to be elected to the
Senate, saying he knows what it’s like to be "the only minority in the
room."
Adams grew up on a family farm in
Maryland and made Indiana home after attending Indiana University School of
Medicine and the University of California-Berkley. An anesthesiologist who has a
master's degree in public health, Adams was appointed to his current position in
2014 by then-governor Mike Pence. If confirmed, as expected, for a four-year
term, he would be the latest Pence person to join the Trump administration to
work on health care. Seema Verma, the Indiana health care consultant who worked
with Pence on Indiana’s alternative Medicaid program, runs the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services. Four former Pence aides also have significant
policy posts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Sometimes called the "nation’s doctor,"
the surgeon general oversees the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned
Corps.
"He really is responsible
for helping to highlight evidence-based solutions to some of our most difficult
public health issues," said Paul Halverson, the dean of Indiana University’s
Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-R.I.), urged Adams to use the position to make sure people in the end stages
of life get only the care they want.
Sen. Christopher Murphy
(D-Conn.), said Adams should address gun violence, which the American Medical
Association has called a health hazard. Adams, a gun owner,
said there are evidence-based programs that can lower gun violence if people are
"willing to stop demonizing each other."
The Senate panel is
scheduled to vote on Adams’ nomination today. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander,
the panel’s chairman, said the full Senate could take up the nomination "soon
thereafter."
(Vice Adm. Murthy has retained his rank
and still serves in the U.S. Public Health Service.)
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