(HUMPHREYS COUNTY, Tenn.) — At least 16 people are dead and 51 are missing after middle Tennessee was hit with record rainfall Friday into Saturday morning.
The flooding in the region caused cars to be tossed like toys and houses ripped off their foundations.
In Humphreys County, 10 were killed and about 40 people remain missing, according to Rob Edwards, chief deputy with the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are working very hard to locate the missing persons,” Edwards said in an email to ABC News. “We are doing house to house checks in the areas hit the hardest within our county.”
Humphreys County is located along the Tennessee River, about 90 minutes west of Nashville.
“We have power outages all over the area,” Edwards added. “Complicating issues is the loss of all cell phone coverage from the major carriers. They are bringing in portable units to assist with communications. We have lost a lot of roads both rural and major highways. In my 28 years it’s the worst I’ve ever seen it.”
A preliminary rainfall total of 17.02 inches was measured at McEwen, Tennessee, Saturday, which would break the all-time 24 hour rainfall record for the state of Tennessee, according to the National Weather Service. The old record was 13.06 inches, recorded in Milan on Sept. 13, 1982.
Flash flood watches were in effect across much of central Tennessee on Saturday.
The Hardin County Fire Department, which went to assist nearby Humphreys County, called the destruction “unbelievable” and said search teams would return to the region on Sunday morning.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency warned people to avoid traveling in Humphreys, Houston, Dickson and Hickman counties.
The Red Cross said it had opened emergency shelters at the YMCA Dickson County in Dickson; the Fairfield Church of Christ in Centerville; and the Waverly Church of Christ and Waverly First Baptist Church in Waverly.
ABC News’ Max Golembo, Victoria Arancio and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy defended the Biden administration’s plans to begin rolling out booster shots for many Americans the week of Sept. 20, despite criticism from the World Health Organization and others that the U.S. should not offer booster shots to Americans while many countries lag in vaccine access.
“We have to protect American lives and we have to help vaccinate the world because that is the only way this pandemic ends,” Murthy told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Murthy conceded that — assuming vaccine supply does not change — “taking more vaccines for Americans in the form of boosters will take away from the rest of the world,” but said the focus has been on increasing the supply and pointed to the U.S. donation of more than 120 million vaccine doses to other countries and its 500-million-dose commitment.
While only booster doses of Pfizer and Moderna have been announced, Murthy said they are waiting on efficacy data for a second Johnson & Johnson shot.
“We anticipate the people who receive J&J will likely need a booster as well,” Murthy said.
Asked about the safety of taking a third shot, Murthy emphasized that the booster distribution plan is “contingent on the (Food and Drug Administration) and the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Advisory Committee doing their full and independent evaluation.”
“Safety is absolutely essential in this process and we would not execute a plan if the FDA did not weigh in and say that that third shot was in fact safe,” Murthy said. “But again, keep in mind this — that we have a tremendous amount of experience with these vaccines so far.”
The U.S. recorded its highest daily COVID-19 case count in nearly seven months on Thursday, with just over 163,000 new cases reported, according to the CDC.
Amid the surge, U.S. vaccination rates have also increased. White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said Saturday marked the third day in a row that the U.S. has administered more than 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. The White House announced on Friday that at least 200 million Americans have been vaccinated with at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.
The FDA is pushing to issue full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, further expediting an earlier timeline for licensing the shot, according to the New York Times.
Murthy said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the FDA issues full approval of the Pfizer vaccine soon and that approval may convince some individuals on the fence about vaccination to get the shot and encourage companies and schools to implement vaccine mandates.
“I think you’ll see more universities and workplaces that were considering putting in requirements for vaccines to create safer places to learn and work, you’ll see more of them likely moving forward on their plans to require vaccines in the workplace and school,” Murthy said.
Raddatz pressed Murthy on rising pediatric cases and hospitalizations.
“At the beginning of the pandemic COVID largely didn’t affect (children), we’re now seeing hospitalizations rise up, what should we think about when we look at children?” Raddatz asked.
Murthy encouraged adults to get vaccinated to protect children who are ineligible and highlighted measures schools can take to limit the likelihood of COVID transmission.
“I really feel strongly that it is our moral responsibility as this society to do everything we can to protect our children,” Murthy responded. “And that means that number one, all of us getting vaccinated as adults and adolescents is important because kids who are too young to get vaccinated.”
“But it’s also why making sure we are taking every measure possible in schools to ensure that our kids are safe is so important,” Murthy added. “Those include masks, improving ventilation, doing regular testing, and ensuring that our children are outdoors as much as possible.”
(NEW YORK) — The Taliban, an extremist militant group, has taken over Afghanistan’s capital as U.S. troops have withdrawn from much of the country.
The group has said it will rule the country based on Shariah, or Islamic law, and many Afghan nationals have said they fear that the Taliban will reimplement the harsh interpretation seen when the group last ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s.
The Taliban previously has imposed harsh penalties, including death sentences, for infractions linked to adultery, blasphemy, non-compliance with dress codes, working with the U.S. government and more.
Abed Awad, a lawyer and Shariah law expert, said that the Taliban’s use of Shariah, or “Islamic law” to describe their legal system has led to a misunderstanding of the religious practice.
“What you see in the news is the politicization of Shariah, looking at it only as a movement for political elections or for government,” Awad said. “People miss this really beautiful moral and ethical framework that is on a Muslim to conduct his daily affairs.”
What is Shariah?
Shariah is the moral guide many Muslims follow that operates based on the teaching of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, according to the Middle East Institute. Shariah helps Muslims in everyday decision making, guiding people in interpersonal conflicts, responsibilities, health-related and financial decisions.
“It guides us to be righteous humans, to be good neighbors, compassionate mothers, providing fathers, loyal spouses, protective parents, care for the elderly,” Awad said. “That’s what this really means to 1.8 billion Muslims in the world.”
For example, Awad said, some Muslim women wear hijabs and some don’t — both groups interpret the principle of modesty differently.
The teachings of the sacred texts, Hadith and Sunna, often supplement Shariah. Hadith is a collection of writings about the Prophet Muhammed’s life and Sunna is the collection of practices, deeds, words and actions. These also help guide many Muslims in their moral choices.
Awad said that the outcome of Shariah is “Fiqh,” which means “understanding” in Arabic. It refers to the moral and ethical understanding that is gained from Shariah — the rules that one sets for themselves based on the Islamic guidance.
But there isn’t a single understanding of Shariah, according to Awad.
Many Islamic researchers and experts have said that the Taliban’s interpretation is an extremist interpretation, and that it’s implemented as a strict legal system instead of a moral code for the individual.
“They use Shariah as a weapon to give them some legitimacy,” Awad said. By claiming that their strict, violent legal system is based on religious grounds, Awad said it’s seemingly used as justification.
How has the Taliban implemented Shariah in the past?
During Taliban rule in the ’90s, the group enforced harsh, dangerous interpretations of Shariah as law, experts said.
“It was a very brutal society,” said Elizabeth Neumann, an ABC News contributor and former U.S. homeland security official. “That was their way of maintaining control. If you stepped out of line — whatever the rules were — you were likely to be executed or stoned or abused in some way.”
Neumann said people accused of violating “Islamic law” could be stoned to death, have their hands cut off or subject to a public execution.
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been killed or maimed by the Taliban for perceived violations.
Many Afghan nationals currently trying to escape are afraid of what a return to power could mean for those who spoke out against the Taliban, or those who aided the Afghan and U.S. governments.
According to United Nations Assistance Mission In Afghanistan, which documents civilian casualties, the Taliban is responsible for 39% of 5,183 civilian casualties so far in 2021.
The U.S. had planned to completely withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by Aug. 31, but President Joe Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the deadline might be extended until every American is out of the country.
How does this affect women’s rights in Afghanistan?
A member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Enamullah Samangani, said that the Taliban will provide women with the “environment to work and study” and that women will be present in their government from now on.
Taliban officials have sworn to continue to honor women’s rights “according to Islamic law,” but many Afghan women fear what actually will happen, according to refugees with family back in Afghanistan.
“They claim they are changing, but I know they are not,” said an Afghan ex-refugee named Shabnam, who could only share her first name because she feared for her family’s safety in Afghanistan. “They are just waiting for the U.S. troops to get out of the country.”
She said the Taliban has yet to show any signs of changing.
More than 18 million women live in Afghanistan, making up roughly half the population, according to data compiled by the World Bank, and the majority are under the age of 35.
Shabnam said many women in the country fear that the Taliban will revert to their oppressive tactics seen in the 1990s — keeping women at home, not letting them work or attend school, forcing them to wear burqas from head to toe, forcing them to marry and harshly punishing those who don’t comply.
“In the 1990s, when they came, I was a little kid. I was 13 years old or so, but I still remember at that time, it was a nightmare for me,” Shabnam said. “We had all these woman activists, human rights activists in Afghanistan before the Taliban came. … When the Taliban came, everybody was silenced.”
“You weren’t even allowed to leave the household without a male relative escorting you, as a woman,” Neumann said. However, since the Taliban was ousted from power in the majority of Afghanistan in the early 2000s, there have been steps taken toward equality.
“Girls have been going to school, women have been able to go to advanced universities and start careers, and be able to have freedoms,” Neumann added.
Because of this — and the Taliban’s use of the term “Islamic law” to describe its harsh rules, restrictions and policies — Awad said the misunderstanding around Shariah by people in the West has fueled Islamophobia and xenophobia.
“[People think] the idea is a totalitarian movement, that Shariah is a movement coming to take over America,” Awad said. “Shariah covers everything from the way we eat, how we treat animals, how we protect the environment, our obligation to share our wealth with the indigent and the poor. … It’s a very personal lifestyle.”
(NEW YORK) — In the exploding realm of cryptocurrencies, a new line of financial products has emerged that has caught the attention of both investors and regulators — so-called “stablecoins,” which are backed by cash or another reserve asset.
Stablecoins seek to provide the best of both worlds: the stability of a traditional government-backed currency as well as the privacy and convenience offered by crypto transactions. They are often marketed towards investors who may not have the stomach for the volatility associated with Bitcoin, Ethereum and other popular cryptos — which have been known to see-saw widely in value on a day-to-day basis.
The existing stablecoins market is worth some $113 billion, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said earlier this month during a speech at the Aspen Security Forum. He added that in July, nearly three-quarters of trading on all crypto trading platforms occurred between a stablecoin and some other token.
Even social media behemoth Facebook is trying to get in on the action, seeking to launch a stablecoin-like project of its own of its own after its initial Libra cryptocurrency efforts fizzled.
As their popularity rises, stablecoins have also recently drawn new scrutiny from authorities and regulators. Federal Reserve officials mulled over the threats posed by “new financial arrangements such as stablecoins” in a recent meeting, according to a readout released earlier this week, raising concerns over the lack of transparency and regulations.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last month also called on regulators to “act quickly” in forming new regulatory frameworks for stablecoins, raising alarms over their “potential risks to end-users, the financial system, and national security.”
Here is what experts say investors should know about the novel class of cryptos dominating headlines in recent weeks.
What are stablecoins?
Stablecoins are essentially cryptocurrencies that are backed by a reserve asset — usually a traditional currency such as the U.S. dollar. The valuations of stablecoins are therefore supposed to be less volatile than other digital currencies, because they are pegged directly to a fixed, non-virtual currency.
“Think of stablecoin as a cryptocurrency without, or with limited, volatility. That is the best way to think about it,” Haran Segram, a professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, told ABC News, adding they are sometimes looked at as “the bridge between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.” Fiat currencies are traditional currencies like the dollar, backed by the government.
“Stablecoins are backed by other central bank currencies,” Segram explained.
Bryan Routledge, an associate professor of finance at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, added that this makes stablecoins more useful as an everyday currency.
“For example, the price of Bitcoin is just stunningly volatile,” he told ABC News. “That makes it harder to use as a currency.” In 2021 alone, Bitcoin’s value has seen swings of 100% — starting the year at a price of less than $30,000, reaching a peak of over $63,000 in April, before receding back to the $30,000 mark in July. As of Friday, Bitcoin was trading at a little over $46,000.
“When I tell you a latte cost $2.50, you know what that means — but if I quote a price of a latte in Bitcoin, it’s just really hard to keep track of because one day it’s the equivalent of $2.50, the next day it’s equivalent to $25,” he added.
Pegging cryptocurrencies to a fixed exchange rate relative to the U.S. dollar, as stablecoins attempt to do, makes them “more useful as a currency,” according to Routledge.
‘It’s a stablecoin because they call it a stablecoin’
While this may sound like an overall positive development for everyday investors interested in crypto, experts and authorities have warned of lurking risks associated with the largely unchecked stablecoin market.
Segram noted that one of the most popular stablecoins out there is Tether, which claims to be backed one-to-one to the U.S. dollar.
“The issue with that is some research was done into that, and then actually they found that one unit of that stablecoin is backed by .74 of the U.S. dollar,” Segram said. “So things like that, what people put out saying it’s a stablecoin, it might not be truly a stablecoin.”
“That’s something that investors and your audience should be aware of,” he told ABC News. “Because people don’t know exactly what’s happening in the background, and I would really encourage your readers to be aware of that.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office led an investigation into Tether that said there were periods of time when Tether did not have access to banking and “held no reserves to back tethers in circulation at the rate of one dollar for every tether, contrary to its representations.” As part of a settlement reached with James’ office, Tether is barred from doing business with New Yorkers but admitted no wrongdoing and pledged increased transparency. The Hong Kong-based entity still maintains on its website, however, that Tether tokens are “100% backed by Tether’s reserves” at a conversion rate of one Tether token equaling one U.S. dollar.
“Under the terms of the settlement, we admit no wrongdoing,” Tether said in a statement on its website in response to the investigation. “The settlement amount we have agreed to pay to the Attorney General’s Office should be viewed as a measure of our desire to put this matter behind us and focus on our business.” The company added that it is pleased by the “loyalty” customers have shown, saying that the market capitalization of tethers grew from $2 billion to an excess of $34 billion during the past two years, while the investigation was ongoing.
“Tether is complicated because it’s an international business,” Routledge added in regards to who regulates it. “Cryptocurrencies, one of their either charms or weak points, is they don’t sort of fall under anybody’s direct jurisdiction.”
For most stablecoins, “it’s a stablecoin because they call it a stablecoin,” Routledge added.
Despite assurances of cash reserves, there is a risk that some stablecoins might operate under the assumption that the likelihood of having to liquidate all at once is slim if confidence remains high.
“If everybody thinks Tether is going to be a stablecoin, it will work as a stablecoin and the few people that need to exchange it at the ‘Tether store,’ to be colloquial, would do that,” he said. “The trouble with that policy is that you can get what the foreign exchange economists would call like a speculative attack, which is that we don’t think Tether has enough money, and I think everybody thinks that, they’re all going to show up and demand those currencies — It’s a bit like a run on the bank.”
“That’s what makes it really hard to stabilize, because your credibility as a stablecoin is the thing that makes it stable, and that’s inherently flighty,” he said.
Why the Fed and Yellen are so concerned about stablecoins
Yellen’s calls for quick action on creating regulatory frameworks for stablecoins have been echoed by other lawmakers.
Stablecoins were also recently debated by Fed officials, who “highlighted the fragility and the general lack of transparency associated with stablecoins,” at their most recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting. “The importance of monitoring them closely, and the need to develop an appropriate regulatory framework to address any risks to financial stability associated with such products.”
Segram said that while stablecoins can “regulate themselves to some extent by being transparent with the public, I think Yellen is calling for more top-down regulations rather than let it be voluntary.”
This could mean having the reserve currency kept somewhere independent, or having claims be regularly audited, he added.
Segram added that the Fed, meanwhile, might have other concerns around stablecoins’ growth.
“If stablecoins become popular, the central bank loses its control,” Segram said, noting that there have been discussions of stablecoin-like “Central Bank Digital Currency” to be issued by the Federal Reserve.
A Central Bank Digital Currency would give the Fed more control “over how we manage demand, supply and all other means,” Segram said.
Routledge added that the Fed may also have worries about a “banking panic” situation if a lot of assets are flowing through a specific stablecoin.
“If for whatever reason that stablecoin has a shock to it — that can be a systemic event to the financial system,” he added. “That is what’s on the Fed’s radar.”
SEC Chair Gensler, meanwhile, signaled a regulation crackdown could be looming during his remarks earlier this month in Aspen.
Gensler said the use of stablecoins on crypto trading platforms “may facilitate those seeking to sidestep a host of public policy goals connected to our traditional banking and financial system: anti-money laundering, tax compliance, sanctions, and the like.”
“This affects our national security, too,” he added. Gensler said he looks forward to working with regulators and lawmakers on these matters.
Despite the risks, Segram sees cryptocurrencies as the future, which may be in part why regulators are raising alarm bells and why there is so much discussion over a potential central bank digital currency. Major U.S. companies including Amazon and Walmart have recently announced they are hiring cryptocurrency experts, and a growing number of firms have started accepting cryptos as a form of payment.
China’s central bank has already launched its digital Yuan, he added, saying that the U.S. most likely will at some point in if it does not want to lose its status as the “reserve currency of the world.”
“If a stablecoin is issued by a private authority, it is not 100% fail-proof,” he said. “In a democracy like ours, or other democracies where there’s some political stability and currency stability, a central bank digital currency might be the way to go.”
“I think of stablecoin sort of as a link between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies, this takes that to another level,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — A festival in New Orleans. Concerts in Nashville, Tennessee. A comic book convention in Atlanta. As the delta variant surges across the country, states with low COVID vaccination rates are reeling from a loss in tourism dollars due to large-event cancellations and postponements.
Of the 11 states with vaccination rates under 50%, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia have cancelled staple events, costing an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars for local and state economies, according to officials.
On Aug. 9, organizers of New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Festival announced that the annual festival would be canceled for the second consecutive year, citing “the current exponential growth of new COVID cases in New Orleans and the region.”
The Louisiana Department of Health seconded this concern in a recent interview with ABC News.
“Down here in Louisiana, we are in our fourth and most dangerous surge to date, fueled by our insufficient vaccination rate and the highly transmissible Delta variant. Our hospitals are overwhelmed,” a Louisiana Department of Health spokesperson said.
As of Aug. 20, less than 39% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated.
In an emailed statement to ABC News, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser estimated that the cancellation of the festival will cost the region more than $300 million compounding the $5 billion the state has lost in tourism revenue over the course of the pandemic.
“The second postponement of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will have a long-lasting negative impact on tourism, not only the $300 million in direct economic impact but also for events leading up to and during the two week event,” Nungesser wrote.
“It means bands and musicians who perform in the evening at local hot spots and ‘mom and pop’ businesses that rely on Jazz Fest for a large amount of their annual income for the year, will not have the opportunity to earn that money again this year,” he added.
In Tennessee, the urban economies of Nashville and Memphis continue to dampen due to the decline of conventions, business and international travel, and concerts, according to the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
In the past year, Tennessee’s tourism revenue decreased by 26%, resulting in the loss of over $4.1 billion in the leisure and hospitality industry, according to the Tennessee Department of Revenue and Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
“Lodging was the most-impacted category, followed by recreation. Lodging of course relies on group travel in our larger metro areas, so the big cities felt that impact much more than our areas that rely on leisure travel,” a Tennessee Tourist Department spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, large indoor events like the annual Country Music Awards were canceled in Tennessee but large outdoor events like Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival will carry on with special precautions in place, such as proof of vaccination or a negative test 72 hours before the event.
In Georgia, organizers of Fandemic Dead — a comic book convention for fans of television series, “The Walking Dead” — announced on Aug. 13 that the convention will be postponed to March 2022 due to concerns about the delta variant.
“While this decision was not made lightly, it was made in an effort to help keep our community safe,” the organizers explained in a press statement. “The health and safety of fans, panelists, exhibitors, artists and staff is our top priority.”
In an emailed statement to ABC News, the Georgia Department of Economic Development said the state’s tourism industry was “devastated” by COVID-19, leaving travel-generated state and local tax revenues down by more than $640 million over the course of the pandemic.
Despite these losses, Georgia Department of Economic Development tourism Deputy Commissioner Mark Jaronski praised the support Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has shown to the tourism industry.
“The leadership of Governor Brian Kemp and our General Assembly has given our tourism industry the license to operate,” Jaronski said. “We’re not immune to the challenges faced by destinations across the globe, but we have been successful in maximizing the travel business that does exist and leveraging it to grow Georgia’s share of domestic travel and economic position.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 625,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
Aug 21, 7:47 pm
Jesse Jackson hospitalized with COVID
Civil rights pioneer Jesse Jackson Sr. and his wife have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.
The 79-year-old and his wife, 77-year-old Jacqueline Jackson, are both being treated at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, according to a statement from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the nonprofit he founded in 1996. The statement said doctors were “monitoring the condition of both,” but provided no further details.
The former Washington, D.C., shadow senator has been a prominent civil rights activist for 60 years, first joining forces with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and working with King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The activist was arrested earlier this month as part of a group in Washington, D.C., protesting restrictive voting rights being implemented in many states, including Georgia and Texas. One week earlier, he’d been arrested as part of a large group during a sit-in at Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s office.
Aug 21, 11:21 am
US sees 3rd straight day of 1M doses
The U.S. reported over 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered for the third straight day, according to a White House official.
There were more than 1.05 million doses administered Friday, including 526,000 newly vaccinated, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said on Twitter.
Nationwide, 60% of people ages 12 and up are now fully vaccinated, he said.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — As Western diplomats scrambled to Kabul airport while the Taliban overran the city last weekend, Russia’s embassy there remained demonstratively open and announced its diplomats would work as normal.
It was a sign of how, although seemingly surprised by the speed of the Taliban’s takeover as the rest of the world, Russia is now trying to smoothly transition to working with the militants in power.
Russian officials have so far spoken positively of the Taliban, praising them for maintaining order in the capital. Although Russia has said it will not rush to recognize the group as Afghanistan’s government, it has signaled it is ready to engage with them.
“The Taliban movement currently controls virtually the entire territory of the country, including its capital. These are realities,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference with Germany’s leader Angela Merkel on Friday. “And we should act based on these very realities, not allowing the Afghan state’s breakup.”
Russian officials have castigated the fallen American-backed government of Ashraf Ghani and this week Russia’s top envoy overseeing its Afghanistan policy, the veteran diplomat Zamir Kabulov, compared the Taliban favorably to the former government.
“If you compare the capacity to make agreements of colleagues and partners, then the Taliban have long seemed to me far more capable than the Kabul puppet government,” Kabulov told Russian state television.
Russia has built solid contacts with the Taliban in the past few years as a U.S. withdrawal appeared increasingly likely. It has hosted several rounds of inter-Afghan talks in Moscow that have included the Taliban. In July, a high-level Taliban delegation met with Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, even though Russia still formally designates the group a terrorist organization, as does the U.S.
Three decades after the Soviet Union’s own disastrous intervention into Afghanistan, Russia’s overriding concern is that instability in Afghanistan not spread to its Central Asian neighbors Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and that it not again become a base for international terrorist groups to launch attacks.
The Russian government’s priority, analysts said, is to ensure an understanding with the Taliban that Moscow is content to engage with them as rulers provided they give security guarantees for Central Asia and pledge to prevent terrorist attacks from its territory.
“It is absolutely clear that Russia will try to have as working relationship with Taliban as possible,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, a foreign policy expert and chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy which sometimes independently advises the Russian government.
“As for the domestic situation in Afghanistan, Russia fortunately has no interests there. There are no stakes inside Afghanistan this time and Russia can relax and limit its reactions to the security interests of the region,” he said by phone.
A stable Taliban takeover is also preferable to the Kremlin than a chaotic civil war, even if that means a return to the group’s deeply repressive rule, Lukyanov said. But he said he expected Russia would not hurry to formally recognize the Taliban since it would weaken its leverage with the group.
Kabulov told Russian state television this week that so far, the Taliban was observing their agreements with Russia on security for Central Asia.
“It’s a hopeful sign,” he said. “But we are trusting people of course, but not to that degree. We will carefully follow next steps.”
In recent weeks Russia has moved rapidly to bolster Tajikistan, where it has a military base, sending money, weapons and reinforcing border posts. Russia held military exercises this month with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan close to the Afghan border.
The Kremlin is also glad to see an end to American forces in Central Asia, a long-time goal.
The problem, though, some analysts said, is whether the Taliban will have enough control in Afghanistan to continue to enforce the security guarantees sought by Moscow.
“So far we have a propaganda coup to enjoy, but that may not last,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat and now foreign affairs commentator.
Russia’s ideal scenario is that the Taliban now form an inclusive government with other Afghan political groups, but that is viewed as unlikely by many analysts in Moscow. Instead, “drug trafficking and religious extremism will mushroom,” journalist, Kirill Krivosheev, wrote in an article for the Carnegie Moscow Center.
That uncertainty means that Russia’s foreign ministry risks getting ahead of itself with its public friendliness toward the Taliban, Frolov said.
“I think we made a risky bet on Taliban promises to stabilize the country under their control and not engage in cross-border jihad,” said Frolov.
The foreign ministry “will have to prove their bet worked out as promised,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 625,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
Aug 21, 11:21 am
US sees 3rd straight day of 1M doses
The U.S. reported over 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered for the third straight day, according to a White House official.
There were more than 1.05 million doses administered Friday, including 526,000 newly vaccinated, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said on Twitter.
Nationwide, 60% of people ages 12 and up are now fully vaccinated, he said.
(NEW YORK) — Bees — whether wild or managed –are integral to the production of the world’s food supply. But as populations continue their steep decline, the crops that rely on pollination could become more scarce and even cease to exist in the future, according to scientists.
There are more than 4,000 species of bees in America, a large proportion of which are experiencing widespread decline, Scott McArt, assistant professor of pollinator health at Cornell University, told ABC News. In New York, 53 species, about 13%, are either experiencing population declines or range contractions over the past three or four decades, McArt said.
The honey bee population decreased 40% in the winter of 2018 to 2019 alone, and the annual rate loss for the 2019 to 2020 winter was also 40%, declines that experts described as “unsustainable.”
The situation “isn’t good,” and most likely is even worse than researchers are estimating, he added.
“It’s likely an underestimate of the true scope of population declines, simply because we don’t have great historical records on a lot of these species,” McArt said.
The production of crops that depend on pollinators generates more than $50 billion a year in the U.S., researchers say. Managed bee populations, which involve a beekeeper arriving to put down hives just as the crops are flowering, alone contribute to about $20 billion worth of U.S. agricultural production, Matthew Mulica, senior project manager at the Keystone Policy Center, a consulting company that works with the Honey Bee Health Coalition, told ABC News.
A “large proportion of what we eat” relies to some extent on pollinators, McArt said. An estimated 87% of angiosperms, or flowering plants, are reliant on pollinators, while around 75% of those are crops that rely on pollination, he added. The commercial production of more than 90 crops relies on about 3,600 bee species, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Some of the crops that rely most on pollinators include almonds, blueberries, pears, apples, cherries, peppers, cucumbers and broccoli, Mulica said.
The bees also oil seeds in other crops, such as corn and soybean, Mulica said.
“It’s an amazing service that honey bees and beekeepers provide for for agriculture,” Mulica said.
Conservationists and scientists who study food security alike are concerned about how the downward trend of bee populations will affect food supply going forward, McArt said.
In the short term, food prices could rise if the number of bees pollinating crops continue to die off.
In the future, the crops could disappear forever, experts say.
“Imagine walking into your grocery store and seeing a third of your fruits and vegetables missing, and you can really see the impact the [bee] health decline has on produce,” Mulica said.
There is already “good evidence” of pollination shortfalls in the U.S., McArt said. A study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences last year found that crop yields for apples, cherries and blueberries across the U.S. are being reduced by a lack of pollinators.
And while the production rate for other crops the researchers looked at — watermelon, pumpkin and almonds — haven’t slowed, “that does not mean that that won’t occur in the future,” McArt said.
“While it might not be occurring right now, it’s predicted to occur in the future,” he said.
How to mitigate pollinator declines
The top stressor on pollinators is the lack of habitat and floral resources, McArt said. Bees are actually thriving in agricultural and natural areas, McArt said, adding that it’s the suburban and urban areas where they’re not doing well.
“That happens to be where most of us live,” he said.
McArt encouraged anyone with a plot of land or even an apartment balcony to plant a pollinator-friendly garden. He also suggested that homeowners hold off on mowing their lawns too often to encourage wildflowers to grow.
In addition, it will be necessary in the future to reduce the use of pesticides and mitigate climate change, which can cause plant pathogens to infect crops at higher rates, McArt said.
Lastly, beekeepers need to meticulously manage their hives, which can spread disease to wild bees if not monitored correctly, McArt said.
“That requires a lot of management by the beekeepers — a lot more splitting of hives and re-cleaning,” Mulica said.
(WASHINGTON) — The $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress last week will fund roads, bridges, rails and other components of the country’s infrastructure. The legislation is also addressing racial inequity.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan aims to “reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic investments” and “redress historic inequity.” Part of his plan includes awarding government contracts to minority-owned businesses, including real estate development companies that will do the work in conjunction with climate projects.
Why is racial injustice being addressed in the plan? The real estate development community is almost exclusively white. That lack of diversity, Black developers who spoke with ABC News said, translates into less affordable housing in Black communities, low rates of homeownership and a scarcity of retail and other businesses within those communities.
According to a 2019 report from Urban Land Institute — a nonprofit organization for real estate and land use experts — only 5% of its U.S. members are African American, 4.5% are Asian and 82% are white.
One of the major problems with diversifying real estate, Black developers say, is that they often face hurdles in acquiring funds, and ultimately in expanding their businesses.
Many are working to eliminate those barriers. Last year’s racial reckoning protests invigorated the real estate development community to create and leverage more initiatives and programs to help not only the Black real estate development business, but to further Black economic power.
D.C. becoming model of Black real estate development
Last summer, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office established several initiatives to provide access to funding for minority developers.
“We are committed to making our city’s prosperity more inclusive, but that won’t happen by chance – it will happen because as a government and as individuals, we are intentional about how we invest and who we make opportunities available to,” said Bowser shortly after its launch.
One of those initiatives is Capital Impact Partners’ $20 million Diversity in Development DMV Loan Fund (DiD-DMV) and coinciding grant program.
“Our goal is to really take a holistic approach to provide opportunity — specifically in communities of color,” Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance told ABC News.
“As we thought about the opportunity to support the D.C. area’s real estate development community, we looked at where the hurdles were, particularly those that were faced by developers of color. We heard a number of things, but primarily it was really boiled down to the lack of access to capital in both debt and equity for developers to really be able to take the leap and expand their businesses and wage,” Carr said.
Through the fund, developers, both nonprofit and for-profit, will have access to lower-cost, flexible pre-development and acquisition loans, unlocking crucial early-stage financing that is often denied to developers of color.
The first two financed projects are set to be built in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 7 and Ward 8, areas with a large African American population.
Thomas Houston and Talayah Jackson both received nearly $1 million in funding for their nonprofit community development corporation, Medici Road.
“U.S. housing is a product change,” Jackson told ABC News. “There is a connection between public health, education and housing … it’s all a systemic problem. It’s not just about solving one answer for someone, it’s … tackling multiple things.”
With the funds, Medici Road plans to develop a 17,000-square-foot building in a vacant lot in D.C.’s Deanwood neighborhood with affordable housing, retail and office space to create essential services in the community.
“We’re creating systemic change for generations,” Jackson said. “I think it’s just due time that taxpayers, as residents, have access to the things that really should already be in place. This community should be flourishing, it should be thriving.”
The new condominium community will create a mixed-income development to provides access to healthy food and health and wellness education, Jackson said.
Currently, the seventh ward has higher crime rates, low homeownership rates and few grocery stores. But Houston says that’s the reasoning behind the decision to develop in the area.
“We have a car to drive to wherever grocery store we wanted to. But what if there is an emergency for say food, formula, and we didn’t have any access at all? When you start looking at this from the professional side of the road, and we start looking at public health outcomes access all the stuff is linked, and none of it exists in our neighborhood. And so that’s where the idea came,” Houston said.
The grocery store is expected to be a franchise owned and staffed by residents of the community.
Steps away from the Deanwood neighborhood project, another developer, Mustafa Durrani of Durrani Development Corporation, secured a $2.5 million acquisition loan and another $900,000 predevelopment loan. Durrani plans to transform a vacant area into a new affordable housing community in the Randle Heights neighborhood of D.C.’s Ward 8.
“There’s an idea that affordable homeownership and affordable rentals are like public housing. And so we want to be able to create something that looks like market rate but it’s still affordable,” Durrani said.
