TAYLOR, Mich. (AP) — Valerie Rupert raised her right arm, slightly shaking and unsure as she aimed at the paper target representing a burglar, a robber or even a rapist.

The 67-year-old Detroit grandmother squeezed the trigger, the echo of her shot blending into the chorus of other blasts by other women off the small gun range walls.

“I was a little nervous, but after I shot a couple of times, I enjoyed it,” said Rupert, among 1,000 or so mostly Black women taking part in free weekend gun safety and shooting lessons at two Detroit-area ranges.

Black women like Rupert increasingly are considering gun ownership for personal protection, according to industry experts and gun rights advocates.

Fear of crime, especially as shootings and murders have risen in cities big and small, is one driver of the trend. But a new motivator is the display of public anger in the last 15 months beginning with confrontations in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin.

Worries about the anger over COVID-related restrictions and the outrage over the outcome of the presidential 2020 election, driven by lies, are contributors, too. In Michigan, that anger led to a plot to kidnap the governor, as well as instances where armed protesters descended on the state Capitol.

In April 2020, hundreds of conservative activists, including some who were openly carrying assault rifles, flocked to the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to denounce Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order. Some demonstrators — mostly white and supporters of President Donald Trump — entered the building carrying guns, which is legal in the statehouse.

The sight of white men wearing body armor and holding guns at the Capitol still sticks with Rupert.

“They went up to the Capitol with all those guns. You need to be ready,” she said.

About 8.5 million people in the U.S. bought their first gun in 2020, the National Shooting Sports Foundation says. The trade association for the firearms industry adds that gun purchases by Black men and Black women increased by more than 58% over the first six months of last year.

Gun ownership tends to increase when people lose faith in government and the police, said Daniel Webster, professor of American Health in Violence Prevention at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy.

“We’ve seen such an increase in white nationalist violence,” Webster said. “Some combination of the lack in faith in police protecting you and hate groups has motivated a lot of Black people to arm up.”

Black firearm owners still represent a relatively small portion of the gun-owning population, with 9.3% of gun owners being Black men and 5.4% Black women. Nearly 56% of U.S. gun owners are white men. Over 16% are white women, the Newtown, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation says.

Still, 2020 saw “a tectonic shift in gun ownership in America” where there was “a huge increase of African Americans taking ownership of their Second Amendment rights,” said Mark Oliva, its director of public affairs.

Beth Alcazar, who is white, got involved with shooting about two decades ago and says it was rare to see a Black woman taking target practice.

“Honestly, not more than one image pops up of seeing a Black woman at the range,” said Alcazar, now a certified shooting instructor in the Birmingham, Alabama, area and U.S. Concealed Carry Association associate editor.

“With more involvement in the last five years, I see Black women on almost every occasion I go to the range,” she said, adding that it’s exciting for women learning how to shoot to see other women, especially women of color.

For many Black women, it’s about taking care of themselves, said Lavette Adams, a licensed firearm instructor who participated in the free Detroit-area training sponsored by gun advocacy group Legally Armed In Detroit.

“Crime against women is nothing new. Women protecting themselves, that’s new,” said Adams, who is Black.

That’s the premise behind the training that launched 10 years ago with 50 women attending. Last year, more than 1,900 participated, according to Rick Ector, Legally Armed in Detroit’s founder, who says he started it “to bring awareness and training to women who are the favorite preferred targets of bad guys, rapists and killers.”

Ameena Jumail, who joined dozens of other women outside Recoil Firearms in Taylor for the training, said she is working to overcome her fear of guns. Jumail, a 30-year-old kindergarten teacher from Detroit, said crime is one reason she came, but she admits that the desire to learn how to use a firearm includes concern over the rise in white nationalism and their open display of firearms in public places.

“During the 2016 election I was worried, also during the 2020 election,” Jumail said.

Hopkins’ Webster said whatever the reason, it is an open question whether the women who are buying the firearms now are safer.

“Having a loaded firearm with you is going to change your response in a number of situations,” he said. “It’s going to alter your behavior and perspective.”

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Aug. 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day: A day to remember the lives lost to overdose and raising awareness to addiction.

“This story is personal to me,” says Nancy Dow, Addiction Treatment Services Family Support Coordinator. “I lost my daughter Dana a little over four years ago to a prescription opiate overdose.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 93,000 people died due to an overdose in 2020.  Dow says her focus to end the epidemic is education.

“There are many opportunities to do this through resources we have available here at ATS, through Families Against Narcotics, Catholic Human Services,” says Dow. “There are many organizations here in Traverse City locally that have resources available to people.”

ATS offers family support to help teach families and individuals about addiction as well as provide other addiction treatment resources.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services offers a list of treatment resources.

People can help end addiction and prevent overdose, even if they aren’t affected by it.

“We need to learn how to break down walls of stigma and shame  so that those who are struggling don’t feel shamed and judged so they will reach out and ask for help,” says D0w.

Mental health is also a factor for some people struggling with addiction.

“When you talk about mental health and addiction they go hand in hand so many times we have that dual diagnosis and unfortunately when one part of their struggle is better,” says Dow. “Maybe they have their mental heath in check their addiction may not be so we need to be able to address both.”

Nancy Dow is one of several parents whose children died to overdose and arranged Overdose Awareness Day ceremonies in Traverse City.

The 3rd annual ceremony is 7 p.m., Aug. 31st, at the Botanical Gardens at Historic Barnes Park in the “Walled Garden.” The ceremony honors those lost to an overdose with a message of hope and recovery.

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Today is Tuesday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2021. There are 122 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 31, 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk (guh-DANSK’) that ended a 17-day-old strike.

On this date:

In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In 1939, the first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring the Human Torch, was published by Timely Publications in New York.

In 1972, at the Munich (MYOO’-nik) Summer Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fourth and fifth gold medals in the 100-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay; Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut won gold medals in floor exercise and the balance beam.

In 1986, 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, California. The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died.

In 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that had claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal. (Weaver was acquitted of murder and all other charges in connection with the confrontation; he was convicted of failing to appear for trial on firearms charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison but given credit for 14 months he’d already served.)

In 1994, the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire. Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.

In 1996, three adults and four children drowned when their vehicle rolled into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina; they had gone to see a monument to the sons of Susan Smith, who had drowned the two boys in Oct. 1994.

In 1997, Prince Charles brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of his former wife to a Britain that was shocked, grief-stricken and angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident earlier that day.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reported “a significant number of dead bodies in the water” following Hurricane Katrina; Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and to instead stop increasingly hostile thieves.

In 2010, President Barack Obama ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war in his country and around the world: “It is time to turn the page.”

In 2018, Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” was laid to rest after an eight-hour funeral at a Detroit church, where guests included Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson.

In 2019, a gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.

Ten years ago: The Wartime Contracting Commission issued a report saying the U.S. had lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan and stood to repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the government awarded and managed contracts for battlefield support and reconstruction projects.

Five years ago: On Mexican soil for the first time as the Republican presidential nominee, a firm but measured Donald Trump defended the right of the United States to build a massive border wall along its southern flank, standing up for the centerpiece of his immigration plan during a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century, a JetBlue Airbus A320, landed in the central city of Santa Clara, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War. Brazil’s Senate voted to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office. (Rousseff was accused of breaking fiscal laws in her management of the federal budget.)

One year ago: At a rally in Pittsburgh, Democrat Joe Biden resoundingly condemned violent protesters and called for their prosecution; he accused President Donald Trump of causing the divisions that had ignited the violence. Trump reiterated that he blamed radical troublemakers who he said were stirred up and backed by Biden. The U.S. Open, the first Grand Slam tennis event in nearly six months, began in New York with no fans in attendance because of the pandemic. The family of John Thompson announced that the former Georgetown University basketball coach had died at the age of 78; he was the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men’s championship. Police in Rwanda announced the arrest on terrorism charges of Paul Rusesabagina, who’d been portrayed in the film “Hotel Rwanda” as a hero who saved the lives of more than 1,200 people from the country’s 1994 genocide. The Federal Aviation Administration said it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones; Amazon said it was still testing and flying the drones.

Today’s Birthdays: Rock musician Jerry Allison (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 82. Actor Jack Thompson is 81. Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 76. Singer Van Morrison is 76. Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 73. Actor Richard Gere is 72. Actor Stephen Henderson is 72. Olympic gold medal track and field athlete Edwin Moses is 66. Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 64. Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s) is 64. Singer Tony DeFranco (The DeFranco Family) is 62. R&B musician Larry Waddell (Mint Condition) is 58. Actor Jaime P. Gomez is 56. Rock musician Jeff Russo (Tonic) is 52. Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 51. Actor Zack Ward is 51. Golfer Padraig (PAH’-drig) Harrington is 50. Actor Chris Tucker is 49. Actor Sara Ramirez is 46. R&B singer Tamara (Trina & Tamara) is 44.

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Raytheon Technologies subsidiary Collins Aerospace  on Monday evening announced that it signed a  definitive agreement to acquire aircraft flight tracking, data, and analysis company FlightAware. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal is subject to regulatory approvals. Following closing, FlightAware will join Collins’ information management services portfolio within the company’s  avionics  business  unit. 

“Global connectivity now shapes and impacts every segment of aviation. FlightAware is the recognized leader in data collection, analytics, and customer experience, which will help Collins unlock the full power of the connected ecosystem for our customers,” said Collins Aerospace avionics head Dave Nieuwsma. “FlightAware’s flight tracking and data platform…has the potential to deliver new capabilities and innovations across our entire business,” though he did not elaborate further.

FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker added that “aerospace companies  and aircraft operators are looking to digital aviation to provide the next revolution in aviation efficiency and reliability.” He said the tie-up with Collins Aerospace will allow FlightAware “to  continue to  lead that revolution  at an even broader scale.” 

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Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

He said the US must urgently unfreeze these assets, “to bolster the rate of the collapsing national currency”.

The leading western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss further details of the how Kabul’s civilian airport could be reopened to allow those that want to leave Afghanistan with valid documents to do so. More than 100 nations signed a joint statement saying the Taliban has agreed to facilitate this. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is chairing the meeting and due to announce its outcome later.

At the same the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, started a four-day sweep through countries bordering Afghanistan to secure their agreement to house refugees temporarily, or to use the country as a transit point pending processing. So far Qatar has acted as the transit point for more than 40% of the 100,000-plus refugees airlifted out of the country. Maas is due to visit Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Pakistan.

In Turkey, his first stopover, Maas said he was grateful for the country’s offer. “We ask the Taliban to promise to provide security,” he said. “We have to negotiate with the Taliban. They want the airport to be operated. In this regard, we are ready to contribute both financially and technically.”

James Cleverly, the UK minister for the Middle East and north Africa, said he could not see how Kabul airport could be operated by foreign powers without boots on the ground, something that is not currently possible.

Read more here:

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Posted: Aug 30, 2021 / 03:23 AM EDT / Updated: Aug 30, 2021 / 03:23 AM EDT

Smoke billows from a building in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. Firefighters were battling a blaze on Sunday that spread rapidly through a recently restructured 60-meter-high, 16-story residential building in Milan. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

MILAN (AP) — Firefighters worked through the night to extinguish a blaze that destroyed a 20-story apartment building in Milan, but said that there was no indication that anyone was missing inside.

Some cases of smoke inhalation in were reported from Sunday’s blaze, but no serious injuries or deaths.

The fire was reported by a resident on the 15th floor, who sounded the alarm as he descended the building telling other occupants to evacuate. Residents of the building included Italian rapper Mahmood, who was the 2019 winner of the San Remo music festival.

Residents said the blaze quickly spread through the cladding on the façade, which was supposed to have been fire resistant, Corriere della Sera reported.

“The cause of the fires still needs to be determined, but it seems that the rapid spread of the flames was due to the thermal covering of the building,’’ said Carlo Sibia, an Interior Ministry official in Rome.

Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who visited the scene, said he saw firefighters’ hands burned from battling the blaze.

Firefighters broke through doors apartment by apartment in the search for anyone left inside and followed up by telephoning residents who remained unaccounted-for. “There is no evidence of anyone missing,” said commander Felice Iraca.

Firefighters were continuing searches of the building and verifying damage to the structure. Prosecutors also were investigating for any indication of wrongdoing.

The 60-meter (nearly 200-foot) tall building, part of a 2012 development project, was designed to look like the keel of a ship and included an aluminum sail on its roof, which burned and fell to the street in pieces.

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Several rockets had been fired at airport, according to witnesses and security sources. (File)

Kabul, Afghanistan:

Rockets flew across the Afghan capital on Monday as the United States raced to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the evacuation of civilians all but over and terror attack fears high.

President Joe Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation’s longest military conflict, which began in retaliation for the September 11 attacks.

The return of the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which was toppled in 2001 but took back power a fortnight ago, triggered an exodus of terrified people aboard US-led evacuation flights.

Those flights, which took more than 114,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday when the last of the thousands of American troops pull out.

But US forces are now focused chiefly on flying themselves and American diplomats out safely.

The ISIS group, rivals of the Taliban, pose the biggest threat to the withdrawal after carrying out a suicide bomb attack at the airport late last week that claimed more than 100 lives, including those of 13 US troops.

Biden had warned more attacks were highly likely and the United States said it carried out an air strike on Sunday night in Kabul on an explosives-laden vehicle.

That was followed on Monday morning by the sound of rockets flying across Kabul, according to AFP journalists in the city.

Several rockets had been fired at the airport, according to witnesses and security sources.

Smoke could be seen rising near the airport.

The sound of the airport’s missile defence system could be heard by local residents, who also reported shrapnel falling into the street — suggesting at least one rocket had been intercepted.

A security official who worked in the former administration that was toppled by the Taliban said the rockets had been fired from a vehicle in the north of the city.

‘Potential loss of innocent life’

A Taliban spokesman confirmed Sunday’s incident, saying a car bomb destined for the airport had been destroyed — and that a possible second strike had hit a nearby house.

The United States has been accused of killing many civilians in air strikes throughout the war, one reason for losing local support, and that was again a possibility on Sunday.

“We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today,” Captain Bill Urban, a US Central Command spokesman, said in a statement.

Urban said the US military was investigating whether civilians were killed, noting there were “powerful” explosions that resulted from the destruction of the vehicle. 

“We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,” he said.

In recent years, the ISIS’s Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries.

They have massacred civilians at mosques, public squares, schools, and even hospitals.

While both ISIS and the Taliban are hardline Sunni Islamists, they are bitter foes — with each claiming to be the true flag-bearers of jihad.

Last week’s suicide bombing at the airport led to the worst single-day death toll for the US military in Afghanistan since 2011.

The ISIS threat has forced the US military and the Taliban to co-operate in ensuring security at the airport in a way unthinkable just weeks ago.

On Saturday, Taliban fighters escorted a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US forces for evacuation.

Taliban leader

The Taliban have promised a softer brand of rule compared with their first stint in power, which the US military ended because they gave sanctuary to Al-Qaeda.

But many Afghans fear a repeat of the Taliban’s brutal interpretation of Islamic law, as well as violent retribution for working with foreign militaries, Western missions or the previous US-backed government.

Western allies have warned many thousands of at-risk Afghans have not been able to get on the evacuation flights.

On Sunday, the Taliban revealed their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was in southern Afghanistan and planning to make a public appearance.

“He is present in Kandahar. He has been living there from the very beginning,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

“He will soon appear in public,” added deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi of the leader, whose whereabouts have remained largely unknown.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Ida blasted ashore Sunday as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., rushing from the Louisiana coast toward New Orleans and one of the nation’s most important industrial corridors.

The powerful Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph (230 kph) hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, coming ashore about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land.

The rising ocean swamped the barrier island of Grand Isle. The hurricane was churning through the far southern Louisiana wetlands, with the more than 2 million people living in and around New Orleans and Baton Rouge up next.

“This is not the kind of storm that we normally get. This is going to be much stronger than we usually see and, quite frankly, if you had to draw up the worst possible path for a hurricane in Louisiana, it would be something very, very close to what we’re seeing,” Gov. John Bel Edwards told The Associated Press.

People in Louisiana woke up to a monster storm after Ida’s top winds grew by 45 mph (72 kph) in five hours as the hurricane moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Wind tore at awnings and water spilled out of Lake Ponchartrain in New Orleans before noon Sunday. Officials said Ida’s swift intensification from a few thunderstorms to a massive hurricane in just three days left no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the city’s 390,000 residents. Mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents to leave voluntarily. Those who stayed were warned to prepare for long power outages amid sweltering heat.

“This is the time. Heed all warnings. Ensure that you shelter in place. You hunker down,” Cantrell told a news conference.

Nick Mosca, out walking his dog Sunday morning before the storm hit, said he’d like to have been better prepared.

“But this storm came pretty quick, so you only have the time you have,” Mosca said.

Ida’s 150 mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland U.S.

Those winds came through Port Fourchon, where boats and helicopters gather to take workers and supplies to oil platforms in the ocean and the oil extracted starts its journey toward refineries. The port handles about a fifth of the nation’s domestic oil and gas, officials said.

Edwards said he watched a live video feed from the port area as Ida came ashore.

“The storm surge is just tremendous. We can see the roofs have been blown off of the port buildings in many places,” Edwards told the AP.

Along with the oil industry, Ida threatened a region already reeling from a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, due to low vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant.

New Orleans hospitals planned to ride out the storm with their beds nearly full, as similarly stressed hospitals elsewhere had little room for evacuated patients. And shelters for those fleeing their homes carried an added risk of becoming flashpoints for new infections.

Forecasters warned winds stronger than 115 mph (185 kph) were expected soon in Houma, a city of 33,000 that supports oil platforms in the Gulf.

Gulfport, Mississippi, to the east of New Orleans, was seeing the ocean rise and heavy rain bands. Empty lots where homes stood before Katrina are still common in coastal Mississippi, and Claudette Jones evacuated her home to the east of Gulfport as waves started pounding the shore.

“I’m praying I can go back to a normal home like I left,” she said. “That’s what I’m praying for. But I’m not sure at this point.”

Comparisons to the Aug. 29, 2005, landfall of Katrina weighed heavily on residents bracing for Ida. Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths as it caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and demolished oceanfront homes in Mississippi. Ida’s hurricane force winds stretched 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the storm’s eye, or about half the size of Katrina.

Ramsey Green who is in charge of infrastructure for the city of New Orleans emphasized before the worst of the storm that when it comes to protections against storm surge, the city is in a “very different place than it was 16 years ago.”

Water should not penetrate the levee system, which has been massively overhauled since Katrina. But if forecasts of up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain come true, the city’s underfunded and neglected network of pumps, underground pipes and surface canals likely can’t keep up, Green said.

“It’s an incredibly fragile system,” he said.

About 150,000 customers were already out of power as of midday, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages nationwide.

Hurricane Ida nearly doubled in strength, going from an 85 mph storm to a 150 mph storm in just 24 hours, which meteorologists called “explosive intensification.”

“Ida will most definitely be stronger than Katrina, and by a pretty big margin,’’ said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. “And the worst of the storm will pass over New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which got the weaker side of Katrina.”

The region getting Ida’s worst could face devastation to its infrastructure, which includes petrochemical sites and major ports, said Jeff Masters, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane hunter meteorologist and founder of Weather Underground.

The state’s 17 oil refineries account for nearly one-fifth of the U.S. refining capacity and its two liquefied natural gas export terminals ship about 55% of the nation’s total exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Louisiana is also home to two nuclear power plants, one near New Orleans and another about 27 miles (about 43 kilometers) northwest of Baton Rouge.

The Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is a critical hub of the nation’s petrochemical industry, lined with oil refineries, natural gas terminals and chemical manufacturing plants. Entergy, Louisiana’s major electricity provider, operates two nuclear power plants along the Mississippi River.

President Joe Biden approved emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi ahead of Ida’s arrival.

———

Reeves reported from Gulfport, Mississippi. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Stacey Plaisance and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Frank Bajak in Boston; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Pamela Sampson in Atlanta; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

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A few days before the August 31 deadline, US officials targeted an active suicide bomber of ISIS-K in a vehicle who was about to attack the Kabul airport. His vehicle was parked inside the house that was targeted by the US forces on Sunday evening. The strike happened as the US President Joe Biden traveled to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday morning to pay respects to the 13 service members who were killed in Kabul in an attack earlier in the week. In the Europe, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday defended their airlift operation saying that “the culmination of a mission, unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.” In Covid-related news, Japan’s Okinawa region has decided to suspend the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine as another contamination was spotted by experts.

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Loud explosion heard in Kabul as US targets active ISIS-K suicide bomber

A little after the US President Joe Biden warned against another possible attack in Kabul, a loud explosion was heard in the capital city of Afghanistan.

Biden visits US air base to pay tribute to service personnel killed in Kabul

Biden and his wife, Jill, ‘will meet with the families of fallen American service members who gave their lives to save Americans, our partners, and our Afghan allies in Kabul,’ ahead of a transfer of the remains, according to the president’s daily schedule.

Blinken says only 300 Americans left to evacuate; Sullivan assures Taliban to provide safe passage after August 31

Sullivan also announced that the US will not have a physical presence in Afghanistan from September, but the US will consider ‘more strikes, other operations’ against the ISIS-K.

Turkey’s Erdogan pulls back from plans of running Kabul airport

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to have trashed the idea now as the country started withdrawing its 500 non-combat forces from Afghanistan.

Taliban accuses Ashraf Ghani of fleeing the country with money

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen recently blamed Ashraf Ghani for the chaos that the country has to go through and said that he did a mistake by abandoning the government all of a sudden. 

UK PM Johnson defends Kabul evacuation amid criticism

Like the United States, UK has also been facing criticism for failing to pre-empt the quick takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban forces and not making adequate preparations for the smooth evacuation of British nationals and vulnerable Afghans.

Japan decides to suspend Moderna’s Covid vaccine after two deaths

After the death of two men following the second dose of Moderna’s Covid vaccine, Japan has decided to suspend use of Moderna Inc vaccine.

In Pics | Emmanuel Macron visits ISIS former stronghold in Iraq’s Mosul

French President Emmanuel Macron pays a visit on Sunday to the Islamic State group’s former Iraqi stronghold Mosul, a day after vowing to keep troops in the country.

People march across US to demand voting rights protection

Held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s historic 1963 March on Washington, organisers of the “March On For Voting Rights” rally said that the efforts to curb voting access disproportionately affect people of colour.

 

Chinese university asks for list of LGTBQ+ students, stokes ‘crackdown’ fear

The directive by Shanghai University has also requested information on the students’ “state of mind and psychological condition, including political stance, social contacts, and mental health status”.

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by: KATHY GANNON, TAMEEM AKHGAR and JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

Posted: Aug 29, 2021 / 06:55 AM EDT / Updated: Aug 29, 2021 / 07:56 AM EDT

Photo issued on Saturday Aug. 28, 2021 by Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) showing UK military personnel boarding a A400M aircraft departing Kabul, Afghanistan. Britain ended its evacuation flights Saturday, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to “shift heaven and earth” to get more of those at risk from the Taliban to Britain by other means. Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, said in a video from Kabul airport and posted on Twitter that it was “time to close this phase of the operation now.” (Jonathan Gifford/MoD via AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban fighter shot dead an Afghan folk singer in a restive mountain province under unclear circumstances, his family said Sunday. The killing reignited concerns among activists that the insurgents would return to their oppressive rule in the country after their military blitz toppled the government.

The slaying of Fawad Andarabi comes as the United States winds down a historic airlift that saw tens of thousands evacuated from Kabul’s international airport, the scene of much of the chaos that engulfed the Afghan capital since the Taliban took over two weeks ago. After an Islamic State affiliate’s suicide attack that killed over 180 people, the Taliban increased its security around the airfield as Britain ended its evacuation flights Saturday.

U.S. military cargo planes continued their runs into the airport Sunday, ahead of a Tuesday deadline earlier set by President Joe Biden to withdraw all troops from America’s longest war.

The shooting Friday of the folk singer came in the Andarabi Valley for which he was named, an area of Baghlan province some 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Kabul. The valley had seen upheaval since the Taliban takeover, with some districts in the area coming under the control of militia fighters opposed to the Taliban rule. The Taliban say they have since retaken those areas, though neighboring Panjshir in the Hindu Kush mountains remains the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces not under its control.

The Taliban previously came out to Andarabi’s home and searched it, even drinking tea with the musician, his son Jawad Andarabi told The Associated Press. But something changed Friday.

“He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people,” his son said. “They shot him in the head on the farm.”

His son said he wanted justice and that a local Taliban council promised to punish his father’s killer.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the insurgents would investigate the incident, but had no other details on the killing.

Andarabi played the ghichak, a bowed lute, and sang traditional songs about his birthplace, his people and Afghanistan as a whole. A video onlineshowed him at one performance, sitting on a rug with the mountains of home surrounding him as he sang.

“There is no country in the world like my homeland, a proud nation,” he sang. “Our beautiful valley, our great-grandparents’ homeland.”

Karima Bennoune, the United Nations special rapporteur on cultural rights, wrote on Twitter that she had “grave concern” over Andarabi’s killing.

“We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the #humanrights of #artists,” she wrote.

Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, similarly decried the killing.

“There is mounting evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent, repressive Taliban of 2001,” she wrote on Twitter. “20 years later. Nothing has changed on that front.”

Meanwhile on Sunday, private banks across Afghanistan resumed their operations. However, they limited withdrawals to no more than the equivalent of $200 a day.

While some complained of still being unable to access their money, government employees say they haven’t been paid over the last four months. The Afghani traded around 90.5 to $1, continuing its depreciation as billions of dollars in the country’s reserves remain frozen overseas.

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Akhgar reported from Istanbul, Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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