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Trump Cancels Strikes on Iran at Last Minute American President Donald Trump says he canceled a planned military strike on Iran after being told as many as 150 people could be killed.
The attack plan was made to answer Iran’s strike Thursday on a huge, unpiloted U.S. military drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran shot down the plane. The incident increased fears of possible war between the two countries. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have recently risen following American withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
In a series of Tweets early Friday, Trump said the U.S. military’s plan had targeted three different Iranian sites. He said he canceled the strikes 10 minutes before they were supposed to be launched. He said the planned attack, which could have killed many people, was not “proportionate” to Iran’s downing of an unpiloted drone.
Trump added he was in “no hurry” to answer Iran’s actions. He also said the U.S. ordered additional sanctions against Iran on Thursday night. It was not immediately clear what those economic restrictions may be.
Also on Friday, a top Iranian general told reporters that a U.S. spy plane with around 35 crew members was flying close to the unpiloted U.S. Navy Global Hawk drone that was shot down. The military official said Iran chose not to target the plane carrying people.
The downing of the U.S. drone over the Strait of Hormuz led to accusations from the United States and Iran about who was the aggressor. Iran said the drone was violating its airspace; the U.S. said it had been flying over international waters.
Trump’s first comments on the attack Thursday were short and simple. He declared in a tweet that “Iran made a very big mistake!” He also suggested that shooting down the drone was a foolish mistake instead of a planned effort to worsen relations between the countries.
Trump spent most of the day Thursday discussing Iran policy with top advisers and congressional leaders.
An unnamed Trump official told Reuters reporters that national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and intelligence director Gina Haspel all reportedly favored a strike against Iran. The Trump official asked not to be named.
The U.S. military operation was called off around 7:30 Thursday night Washington time.
Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran had received a message from Trump warning that a U.S. attack on Iran would happen very soon. But they also reported the message said Trump was against war and wanted talks on several issues.
The message came from an Omani official.
One Iranian official told Reuters that Trump gave them “a short period of time to get our response, but Iran’s immediate response was that it is up to Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei to decide about this issue.”
A second Iranian official said: “We have made it clear that the leader is against any talks, but the message will be conveyed to him to make a decision.
That official also said Iran told the Omani official that “any attack against Iran will have regional and international consequences.”
Khamenei makes the final decision on all state matters. He has opposed any talks with the United States while Iran is under sanctions.
I'm Ashley Thompson.View -
Chennai, India Runs Out of Water Millions of people in Chennai, India’s sixth largest city, have run out of water.
Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu, a southern state. It has an estimated 10 million people. As water taps in the city run dry, people now must line up to get fresh water from water tank trucks.
The drought is affecting life in other ways as well.
The Associated Press reports that some companies in Chennai have asked employees to work from home. Restaurants are closing early and limiting service.
Officials in Tamil Nadu say groundwater supplies have shrunk. They have asked other states for water. These supplies must last them until October, when monsoon rains are expected to come.
In this area, monsoon rains are key to replenishing water supplies. But the rains do not always come on time.
This year’s monsoon arrived a week late in India. Weather experts say that monsoon rains usually cover two-thirds of the country by mid-June. However, the rains currently have reached less than half of that area.
Other cities are drying up
Chennai is not the only city in the world in danger of running out of water.
Last year, officials in South Africa’s city of Cape Town was prepared to declare April 21 “Day Zero.” That was to be the day Cape Town’s water supply would be gone. However, the city avoided disaster by re-directing water from other areas and limiting water use in the city.
In Brazil, the federal government said about 16 percent of its 5,570 cities has water problems. That includes the crowded city of Sao Paulo and the capital of Brasilia.
Across the world, Beijing in China, Los Angeles in the United States, Melbourne in Australia, Jakarta in Indonesia and many others are under water stress.
In its 2018 World Water Development Report, the United Nations warns that by the year 2050 demand for water around the world is expected to increase by nearly one-third. By then, 5 billion people could be left with poor access to fresh water.
Where is all the water?
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say that the oceans hold about 97 percent of the Earth's water.
The remaining three percent is found in many different places, “including glaciersand ice, below the ground, in rivers and lakes, and in the atmosphere.”
Of the remaining fresh water, scientists estimate that just one percent is easily accessible. The rest is trapped in glaciers and snowfields.
I’m Anna Matteo.View -
Scientists Say Ocean Warming May Greatly Reduce Sea Life The world’s oceans will likely lose about one-sixth of their fish and other creatures within 100 years if climate change continues on its current path.
These are the findings of a wide-reaching, computer-based study by an international team of marine biologists.
Every degree Celsius that the world’s oceans warm, their biomass — or the total weight of all the marine animal life — is expected to drop five percent, the study also found.
The study predicts that if there is no change in the rate of worldwide greenhouse gasproduction, there will be a 17-percent loss of biomass by the year 2100.
But, if the world reduces carbon pollution, biomass losses could be limited to only about 5 percent.
William Cheung is a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He co-wrote the study, and told the Associated Press, “There are already changes that have been observed.”
Warming temperatures are the biggest issue, Cheung said. But climate change also produces oceans that are more acidic and have less oxygen. This also harms sea life.
Much of the world depends on the oceans for food or work, the scientists say.
University of Victoria biology professor Julia Baum was not part of the study, but she said the findings make sense. She noted that the possible effects of the predicted losses of animal life are huge.
“Climate change has the potential to cause serious new conflicts over ocean resource use and … food security … as [the] human population continues to grow,” said Baum.
Marine biologist Boris Worm, who helped run the study, added that the “building blocks of marine life – plankton and bacteria – may decline less heavily.”
That is the good news, he said. The bad news?
“Those marine animals that we use directly, and care about most deeply, are predicted to suffer the most,” said Worm. He works at Canada’s Dalehousie University.
Scientists had already believed climate change would likely reduce future ocean life. But past computer-based studies looked at only part of the picture or used only one model. The latest study used six different computer models to give the best picture look yet, William Cheung said.
University of Georgia marine biologist Samantha Joye was not part of the research. But she praised the study as well researched and extremely detailed, and called it “an urgent call for action.”
“Healthy oceans are required for planetary stability,” Joye said.
I’m Pete Musto.View -
New Network for Emergency Workers Raises Concerns among Media The police chief of the state of Alaska’s largest city hurried out of his department’s glass building during a major earthquake not too long ago.
Telephone communications failed to work and even police radios were having problems after the earthquake. But, Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll’s mobilephone had recently been connected to a national wireless network designed for emergency workers.
Doll was able to reach other officials who had the new high-speed connection after the 7.1 magnitude quake last year caused widespread damage.
It proved to be the first major test in Alaska for the FirstNet network. Doll and other commanders had just agreed to take part in the test with their personal mobile phones. The important calls, made possible by FirstNet, helped emergency workers set up an operations center and organize the response to the November 30 earthquake.
“It was just random chance that we had started sort of testing this a little bit right before the earthquake happened,” Doll told the Associated Press. He said he felt better providing the system to his department knowing that it had worked well in an emergency.
Anchorage police officially joined the service in January. They are among thousands of public safety agencies nationwide that can use the connection during emergencies and for normal work. This includes communicating by smartphone, directing officers to calls and looking up suspect information in the field.
Agencies also can tie the network to software programs on their phones known as apps.
In Alaska, the network is seen as a new tool to connect emergency workers in a huge state with many Native American communities far away from roads. High-speed internet has been built in hard-to-reach areas in recent years. But connecting those communities is still difficult, even with FirstNet.
The network is secure, encrypted and cannot be used by the public. But it has raised concerns among media activists that the secrecy protects police and others from criticism. This comes as more agencies cut off their traditional radio communications from the public.
Both FirstNet and telecommunications company AT&T, which runs the high-speed system, say users must open parts of the network. However, the communications company did not know of any agencies that had done so.
Launched last year, the United States Congress established the network in 2012 as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. During those attacks some police and fire departments could not communicate with each other over different radio systems.
The First Responder Network Authority is an independent federal organization that oversees the network with AT&T. The organization plans to invest $40 billion over its 25-year agreement with the U.S. government.
The U.S. was the first to roll out a government-supported wireless network for emergency responders. Nations like Australia, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are studying FirstNet as they look to create similar services, said spokeswoman April Ward.
Verizon has rolled out a similar service for first responders not tied to the government but would not say how many agencies use it. More than 7,250 departments nationwide have joined FirstNet, AT&T said.
FirstNet continues to expand
Chris Sambar is AT&T’s senior vice president for FirstNet. He said more than half of the system has been completed.
In Alaska, the five-year goal is to build the network to cover more than 90 percent of the population. But the FirstNet plan noted that still represents less than half of the state’s spread out tribal lands.
For now, nothing will take the place of Alaska’s mobile radio network, said John Rockwell. He is a state official who worked on the plan.
“I really believe in FirstNet,” he said. “It’s just not there yet.”
Hal Lowder is city emergency manager for the small community of Whiteville, North Carolina. He said the town lost all connections except for FirstNet when Hurricane Florence hit last September.
Even FirstNet started slowing down when officials tried to send large amounts of data. So they turned to a tool available to all users of the system: equipment that turns a satellite signal into a mobile phone tower.
“It worked perfectly, even at slow speeds,” Lowder said.
Increasingly, police radio communications are not available to the public. A growing number of agencies, including Anchorage police, do not permit others to listen to police radio. They say it is over safety concerns. But this removes a traditional resource for reporters and others.
FirstNet is raising concerns about decreasing freedom of information.
J. Alex Tarquinio is president of the Society of Professional Journalists. She believes a government-supported service should include some part that is open to the media.
“The government has an obligation — because this is a public service — to find a way to provide that information to journalists, so journalists can continue to cover incidents and emergency response in a timely way,” Tarquinio said.
I’m Dorothy Gundy.
And I’m Pete Musto.View -
Hungry for More 'Hunger Games?' Prequel in Progress Ten years after finishing The Hunger Games book series, American writer Suzanne Collins is returning readers to Panem.
A prequel, set 64 years before the beginning of her best-selling trilogy, is expected next year.
The book, currently unnamed, is planned for release on May 19, 2020.
Collins said in a statement that she would go back to the years following the so-called "Dark Days" -- the failed rebellion in Panem. Collins set the Hunger Games books in a dark future world where young people must fight and kill each other -- on live television.
"With this book, I wanted to explore the state of nature, who we are, and what we perceive is required for our survival," she said. She said the rebuilding period that would follow the rebellion “provides fertile ground” for characters to explore these questions and “define their views of humanity."
The storyline takes place long before the lifetime of The Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence in the billion-dollar movie series.
Ellie Berger is the president of Scholastic Trade Publishing. She praised Collins in a statement as a “master” at storytelling, world building and social commentary.
Berger said the company was “thrilled" to publish the book for loyal fans as well as readers new to the series.
Lionsgate released the four Hunger Games movies. In a recent statement to The Associated Press, Lionsgate chairman Joe Drake said, “As the proud home of the Hunger Games movies, we can hardly wait for Suzanne’s next book to be published. We’ve been communicating with her during the writing process and we look forward to continuing to work closely with her on the movie.”
Lionsgate did not immediately answer when asked if an agreement for film rights had already been reached.
The first three Hunger Games books — The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay — have sold more than 100 million copies. The books have been published in more than 50 languages. The series has been credited with launching a wave of dystopian books for young people.
Collins thinks this is a good thing.
"Dystopian stories are places where you can play out the scenarios in your head — your anxieties — and see what might come of them," she said.
"And," she added, "hopefully, as a young person, with the possibilities of the future waiting for you, you're thinking about how to head these things off."
I’m Caty Weaver.View