Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

A series of House Republican committees are plotting to launch investigations into the toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, multiple committee aides told CNN.

GOP lawmakers are vowing to use their oversight power to dig into what they describe as the Biden administration’s flawed response to the train wreck, which has left East Palestine’s residents afraid to use the city’s air and municipal water after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed on February 3.

They have also left the door open to holding hearings on the subject, including potentially bringing in Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to testify publicly, the aides said, though such decisions have not yet been made.

The GOP’s increased urgency for oversight comes as several lawmakers have criticized President Joe Biden for not visiting East Palestine. Biden told reporters on Friday he has no plans to travel to the site of the derailment and defended his administration’s response to the wreck.

The House committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Energy and Commerce and Oversight are among the panels vowing to find answers to what happened, as well as hold the Biden administration and rail industry accountable for the fallout.

Some GOP members of the committees are also discussing a potential field hearing in East Palestine, though no official plans have been made yet, sources familiar with the talks tell CNN.

Axios first reported on the committees’ plans.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the EPA to appear before the panel’s Environment, Manufacturing & Critical Materials subcommittee chaired by GOP Rep. Bill Johnson, who represents East Palestine, a committee aide told CNN.

Johnson and Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican, formally kicked off their probe on February 17, when they sent a letter to Regan demanding answers on a timeline of events relating to the train wreck, a list of the chemicals on board, materials relating to the EPA’s and local agencies’ response, as well as other information regarding the derailment.

Johnson and McMorris Rodgers gave the EPA until March 3 to respond to their request.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has asked for an all-members briefing, a committee briefing, as well as a hearing date from EPA officials. A source familiar told CNN they are still awaiting a response.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to “keep Members informed as facts come out,” committee spokesman Justin Harclerode told CNN. The committee is also closely watching the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the incident.

“The important thing is to learn exactly what happened, what factors played a role in the accident, and what factors did not. The Committee is staying engaged on this issue, but no one should jump to any conclusions or act without all the facts. Which is exactly what the NTSB is working to provide through their investigation,” Harclerode said.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, meanwhile, sent a letter to Buttigieg on Friday, in which he called the incident “an environmental and public health emergency that now threatens Americans across state lines.” The Kentucky Republican requested that Buttigieg turn over a series of documents relating to the derailment, including when the administration first learned of the incident and communications regarding the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s handling of materials in the derailment.

“At this time, Chairman Comer is focused on acquiring the documents and information requested in his February 24 letter to Secretary Buttigieg,” Comer spokesman Austin Hacker told CNN.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will call on the CEO of Norfolk Southern Alan Shaw to testify before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. That committee will hold an oversight hearing on the toxic train derailment in March.

While it’s still not clear when or if Shaw would agree to testify as part of that first hearing, Schumer’s request comes as Democrats now have subpoena power in the Senate. There are still several steps to go before this would rise to that level, but unlike last Congress, when there had to be bipartisan support for subpoenas in the Senate under the power sharing agreement, that is no longer the case.

Washington
CNN
 — 

Millions of student loan borrowers could see up to $20,000 of their debt canceled depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s US Supreme Court hearing on President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.

How and when the justices rule will also determine when payments on federal student loans will resume after a pandemic-related pause that has been in place for nearly three years.

The Biden administration has said that payments will resume 60 days after litigation over the forgiveness program is resolved or at the end of August, whichever comes first.

Biden announced the targeted student loan forgiveness program last August, but the implementation was put on hold by lower courts before any debt forgiveness was granted.

The justices will hear arguments in two cases Tuesday concerning the program, which is estimated to cost $400 billion.

One case was brought by six Republican-led states that say they would be harmed financially if the forgiveness program goes into effect. The other case was brought by two borrowers in Texas who don’t fully qualify for debt forgiveness under the program.

Plaintiffs in both lawsuits argue that the administration does not have the authority to cancel the student loan debt under the proposed rules of the program. But the Biden administration argues that a 2003 law grants the executive branch the power to discharge federal student loan debt in the event of a national emergency, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are about 43 million borrowers with federal student loans. Here’s what they need to know.

It’s unclear exactly when the Supreme Court will issue its decision, but typically the justices release their rulings by the end of the current term, which is usually in late June or early July.

If the Supreme Court rules that the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program is legal and allows it to move forward – or if the court dismisses the challenges due to a lack of “standing,” or the legal right to bring the disputes in the first place – it’s possible the government will begin issuing some debt cancellations fairly quickly.

The White House has said that it received 26 million applications before a lower court in Texas put a nationwide block on the program in November, and that 16 million of those applications have been approved for relief.

There could be room for further legal challenges to be filed even after the Supreme Court has ruled.

If Biden’s program is allowed to move forward, individual borrowers who earned less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 annually in those years could see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness. Pell grants are a key federal aid program that help students from the lowest-income families pay for college.

Federal Direct Loans, including subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans, parent PLUS loans and graduate PLUS loans, would be eligible for the program.

But federal student loans that are guaranteed by the government but held by private lenders, such as some Federal Family Education Loans, are not eligible unless the borrower applied to consolidate those loans into a Direct Loan before September 29, 2022.

If the Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, it could be possible for the administration to make some modifications to the policy and try again – though that process could take months.

“The ball goes back to the Biden administration,” said Luke Herrine, an assistant law professor at the University of Alabama who previously worked on a legal strategy for student debt cancellation.

“The administration could implement some other version of this installation under a different legal authority, but that may well generate its own litigation and we end up in the same place,” Herrine added.

The Biden administration is also working on changes to existing federal student loan repayment plans that aim to make it easier for borrowers to pay for college. These changes are not facing legal challenges.

The Department of Education is currently finalizing a new income-driven repayment plan to lower monthly payments as well as the total amount borrowers pay back over time. In contrast to the one-time student loan cancellation program, the new repayment plan could help both current and future borrowers.

Additionally, in July, changes will be made the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which allows certain government and nonprofit employees to seek federal student loan forgiveness after making 10 years of qualifying payments. The changes will make it easier for some borrowers to receive debt forgiveness.

The key legal question in the cases before the Supreme Court Tuesday is whether the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, known as the HEROES Act, grants the executive branch an emergency power to implement Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.

The HEROES Act, which was passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, grants the secretary of education the power to “waive or modify” a federal student loan program in order to ensure that individuals “are not placed in a worse position financially” because of “a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

Lawyers for the Biden administration argue that this provision gives the secretary of education the authority to cancel federal student loan debt so that borrowers are not made worse off with respect to their loans by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They cite data that shows borrowers who previously had their payments paused due to an emergency like a hurricane were at a higher risk of default after the pause expired.

But plaintiffs argue the Biden administration is abusing its power and using the pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling the president’s campaign pledge to cancel student debt.

Even before ruling on the merits of the cases, the justices must consider whether the suing parties have standing to bring the legal challenges. This means that the parties must show that they have the legal injury necessary to be able to bring the challenge.

Last year, a district court found that the states did not have standing to sue. The states appealed to the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted their request for a preliminary injunction.

If the justices decide that none of the parties have standing, the cases will be dismissed and Biden’s program will be allowed to move forward.

CNN
 — 

A winter storm dumped massive amounts of precipitation across southern California this weekend, including more than 6.5 feet of snow to Mountain High and more than 5 inches of rain to Cucamonga Canyon.

The hefty snowfall totals included 5 feet to Snow Valley, 57 inches to Bear Mountain Snow Summit, 50 to 55 inches to Wrightwood Acorn Canyon, 45 inches to Green Valley Lake, 38 inches to Mount Baldy, and 36 inches to Lake Arrowhead, according to the National Weather Service in San Diego.

In addition, heavy rainfall brought several inches of rain to the area, including more than 4 inches in Holy Jim Canyon, Lower Silverado Canyon and Henshaw Dam; more than three inches in La Jolla Amago, Costa Mesa, Mount Woodson and Carlsbad Airport; and more than two inches to John Wayne Airport, Escondido, San Bernardino and Temecula, according to the service’s 5-day rainfall reports.

The precipitation came as a rare blizzard warning was in effect for parts of southern California and the Los Angeles region, spawning unfamiliar wintry conditions at higher elevations.

The storm made for dangerous travel conditions in some areas. In Los Padres National Forest, State Route 33 was closed due to rock slides and erosion from this and previous storms, according to video from the California Department of Transportation.

Lynda Sandoval and her husband, who live in Frazier Park, about 65 miles northwest of LA, have been unable to leave their home since Friday, Sandoval told CNN. Heavy snow created dangerous driving conditions in the area and officials have closed sections of Interstate 5.

She told CNN she prepared for the snowstorm and has enough food to last her a few days but is shocked by how much snow has fallen in the area.

“I never have seen this much snow living up here. Neighbors that have been here longer than us said the last snow related to this was back in 2011 but not this severe,” Sandoval said. “It took over 4 hours to get our truck out yesterday and all our neighbors are shoveling snow whenever there is a break. The community up here is amazing with neighbors helping neighbors during this time. They’re sharing groceries and shoveling snow in driveways.”

The same storm system is moving east and is expected to produce a significant damaging wind event across the central US on Sunday. More than 20 million people are under the threat of severe storms Sunday from western Texas to Illinois, including Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, Fort Worth, and St. Louis.

Meanwhile, a new winter storm is set to bring more rain and snow to the western US, starting with the Pacific Northwest on Sunday.

More than a foot of snow is possible with the system across the Sierras and Cascades. A second system will be right on the first’s heels, pushing inland across the Pacific Northwest tonight bringing even more snow.

An additional 1 to 2 feet of snow is possible across the Cascades, Sierras, and Rockies through Tuesday. Isolated areas of the Sierras could see up to 3 feet.

The snowstorms will create dangerous or impossible travel conditions across the western mountain ranges through the beginning of this week.

CNN
 — 

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved resuming shipments of contaminated liquid and soil out of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.

The EPA on Friday ordered the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, to halt the shipments so that it could review the company’s plans for disposal, adding to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

That’s as officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t receive any warning that hazardous waste from the crash would be shipped into their jurisdictions for disposal.

Shipments now will be going to two EPA-certified facilities in Ohio, and Norfolk Southern will start shipments to these locations Monday, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said at a news conference Sunday.

“Some of the liquid wastes will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, where it will be disposed of in an underground injection well,” Shore said. “Norfolk Southern will also beghin shipping solid waste to the Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.”

Until Friday, Norfolk Southern was “solely responsible” for disposing of waste from the train derailment, Shore said Saturday, but waste disposal plans “will be subject to EPA review and approval moving forward.”

All rail cars, except for those held by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Anne Vogel said in an update Sunday.

The NTSB is currently holding 11 railcars as part of its investigation into the derailment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement Sunday.

“This is so critically important to moving on to next steps. We can now excavate additional contaminated soil and began installing monitoring wells,” Vogel said. The Ohio EPA will oversee the installation of water monitoring wells at the site of the derailment that will measure contaminant levels in the groundwater below.

Every aspect of transporting and disposing of the hazardous waste material “from the moment trucks and rail cars are loaded until the waste is safely disposed of” will be closely regulated and overseen by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

Shore detailed the federal, state, and local compliance requirements expected from Norfolk Southern.

“These extensive requirements cover everything from waste labeling, packaging, and handling, as well as requirements for shipping documents that provide information about the wastes and where they’re going,” Shore said.

The hazardous waste material previously sent to facilities in Michigan and Texas is now being processed at those facilities, Shore said.

About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site were expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, according to the county’s chief executive.

Also, contaminated soil from the derailment site was being taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Friday.

The Michigan and Ohio facilities were, in fact, EPA approved sites, but they are not currently accepting any more shipments at this time, and the EPA is “exploring to see whether they have the capacity” to accept shipments in the future, Shore said.

A spokesperson Gov. DeWine told CNN the governor was not briefed on where in the country the shipments would be sent. But this is typical, as the train company is responsible for the transport of material and the EPA is responsible for regulating that transport, DeWine spokesman Daniel Tierney said Saturday.

The February 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train and subsequent intentional release of vinyl chloride it was hauling first forced East Palestine residents out of their homes, then left them with anxiety about health effects as reports of symptoms like rashes and headaches emerged after they returned.

Officials have repeatedly sought to assure residents that continued air and water monitoring has found no concerns. The EPA reported last week that they have conducted indoor air testing at a total of 574 homes and detected no contaminants associated with the derailment.

Federal teams in East Palestine have begun going door-to-door to check in with residents, conduct health surveys and provide informational flyers after President Joe Biden directed the move, a White House official told CNN.

Also, a 19-person scientific team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting information from residents about symptoms they have experienced since the derailment, said Jill Shugart, a senior environmental health specialist for the CDC.

The EPA also installed “sentinel wells” near the city’s municipal well field to monitor contaminants in well water as part of the agency’s long-term early detection system “to protect the city for years to come,” Vogel, head of the Ohio EPA, said Saturday.

In a Saturday update on the removal of contaminated waste, DeWine said 20 truckloads of hazardous solid waste had been hauled away from the Ohio derailment site. Fifteen of those truckloads were disposed of at a licensed hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in Michigan and five truckloads were returned to East Palestine.

About 102,000 gallons of liquid waste and 4,500 cubic yards of solid waste remained Saturday in storage on site in East Palestine – not including the five truckloads returned, according to DeWine. Additional solid and liquid wastes are being generated as the cleanup progresses, he added.

Dingell told CNN on Saturday that neither she nor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were aware of plans for toxic waste to be delivered to disposal sites in her district.

“I called everybody,” Dingell said. “Nobody had really been given a heads up that they were coming here.”

Across the country, Texas Chief Executive Lina Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the expected water shipments to her state from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular, the company hired to dispose of the water.

She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “it doesn’t quite seem right.”

Hidalgo said Texas Molecular told her office Thursday that half a million gallons of the water was already in the county and the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday.

On Thursday, Texas Molecular told CNN it had been hired to dispose of potentially dangerous water from the Ohio train derailment. The company said they had experts with more than four decades of experience in managing water safely and that all shipments, so far, had come by truck for the entire trip.

Hidalgo’s office had been seeking information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that were being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site, she said.

According to a Thursday news release from Ohio Emergency Management Agency, more than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid had been removed from the immediate site of the derailment. Of that, more than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine had been transported off-site, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

CNN asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which had been “removed” but not “hauled off-site” and has yet to receive a response.

Regarding the causes of the accident, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, said Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board. So far, the investigation found the three crew members on board the train did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” she said.

There is one thing that Russian and Ukrainian accounts agree upon: The fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut is relentless, and the casualties — on both sides — are high. 

A fierce fight in the streets: Until a few weeks ago, the battle was waged largely with tanks, artillery and mortars. But Bakhmut has increasingly become a field of urban combat, with every street and building in the suburbs and surrounding villages contested.

Russian forces — including fighters from the Wagner private military company — have edged toward the center of the city from the east, south and north.

Ukrainian units have launched frequent counter-attacks to try to reclaim some territory and preserve their precarious access to Bakhmut from the west. That access has become gradually more complicated as routes into the city have come under control of Russian forces.

Ukrainian soldiers on unofficial social media accounts have said they are increasingly reliant on dirt roads to reach — and leave — Bakhmut, tracks that may become impassable as the frost turns to mud.

Russia aims to encircle Ukraine’s troops: Rather than drive directly toward the city center, Wagner groups have sought to surround the city in a wide arc from the north. In January, the groups claimed the nearby town of Soledar, and have since taken a string of villages and hamlets north of Bakhmut.

That process appears to have gone a step further in recent days, with Wagner apparently reaching the village of Yahidne immediately to the northwest of Bakhmut. The village sits on a route that, until recently, was used by Ukrainians to get in and out of the city.

The next target for the Russians could be the town of Chasiv Yar, a straggling collection of Soviet-era apartment blocks, sitting on high ground which has already been extensively damaged. Ukrainian officials said it came under artillery fire again Sunday.

How long will Ukraine defend the city? The conundrum for the Ukrainian military is whether it remains feasible to continue defending Bakhmut.

At the beginning of February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “No one will surrender Bakhmut. We will fight as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress.”

More recently, in an interview with Italian media, Zelensky’s tone was slightly different. “It is important for us to defend (Bakhmut), but not at any price and not for everyone to die,” he was quoted as saying.

If Bakhmut can no longer be held, it will be important to note where Ukrainians choose to draw their next defensive lines. The cities of Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk are not far to the west of Bakhmut and have already registered an uptick in Russian missile attacks.  

For now, there’s no sign of a withdrawal of Ukrainian units from the Bakhmut area, and the brutal fighting wears on.

CNN
 — 

A Florida high school student has been arrested after a video showed him attacking a school employee after she took away his Nintendo Switch device, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

The Matanzas High School student has been charged with felony aggravated battery with bodily harm, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

The 17-year-old was taken into custody after the February 21 incident in Palm Coast and taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. He was then turned over to the state Department of Juvenile Justice, according to the news release.

According to an arrest report, the teen stated he was upset because the employee had taken his Nintendo Switch device away and he would “beat her up” every time she took away his game.

Surveillance video shows the student, who the sheriff’s office says is about 6 feet, 6 inches tall and about 270 pounds, running toward the employee and knocking her to the ground.

The employee appears motionless as the student punches and kicks her several times before onlookers pulled him away from her.

The employee was taken to an area hospital for treatment.

“The actions of this student are absolutely horrendous and completely uncalled-for,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in the release. “We hope the victim will be able to recover, both mentally and physically, from this incident. Thankfully, students and staff members came to the victim’s aid before the [school resource deputies] could arrive. Our schools should be a safe place – for both employees and students.”

The arrest report said the teen was “becoming violent” while speaking to them after the incident and had to be taken to another location.

“Creating a safe learning and working environment on our campuses is critical. Violence is never an appropriate reaction,” Flagler County Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt said in the sheriff’s office’s media release.

Flagler County Schools on Saturday said out of respect for their employee’s privacy, it would not comment on her medical condition at this time.

CNN left a phone message with the family of the student but has not heard back.

CNN
 — 

In boxing, there is often no love lost between fighters. Whether that manifests in a weigh-in scuffle or a war of words beforehand, intense rivalries have been commonplace over the years. The sport’s newest rivalry has a very modern edge to it.

In one corner, we have a former internet star. A man who made his name on YouTube and through his music, before turning his hand to boxing.

In the other, a reality TV star and one of the younger brothers of one of the most successful boxers of all time.

Sunday’s fight between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury is one of the most hotly anticipated in the sport’s modern history – not necessarily because of their relative qualities, but because of the bad blood between the two.

Even at the weigh-in, the day before the fight, Paul and Fury had to be pulled apart as they almost came to blows just facing one another.

After years of antagonistic exchanges, Paul and Fury will finally exchange blows in the ring in Saudi Arabia this weekend and perhaps change the future of the sport itself.

The pair will trade blows on Sunday at the Diriyah Arena in Saudi Arabia as they headline of the evening’s fight card.

The card will get underway at 2 p.m. ET (10 p.m. local time), with the eight-round cruiserweight bout scheduled to start at about 5 p.m. ET (1 a.m. local time).

Here’s where you can watch Paul and Fury battle it out:

Australia: Kayo

Canada: DAZN

Brazil: DAZN

UK: BT Sport

US: ESPN+

Sunday’s fight has been years in the making.

The two have been scheduled to fight twice before. Fury pulled out of the first, citing a broken rib and a bacterial chest infection, and for the second Fury was denied a visa to face Paul in the US.

The two fighters have had different journeys to get to this point.

Fury has boxing in his blood. As the brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and the son of a former fighter, a career in the sport was always likely.

After a brief stint on the UK reality TV show ‘Love Island,’ the 23-year-old Fury has turned all his focus onto boxing and has begun his burgeoning career with an undefeated, eight-win start; although critics would say the opponents have not been tough.

Paul only began boxing in 2018, but has since gone on to record six wins – including four knockouts – against a variety of sporting names, including victories against MMA world champions Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva.

What began as seemingly a money-driven decision – having seen the huge purses boxers can earn, even in exhibition fights – has turned into a full-blown career change for Paul. Fury, however, will be the first professional boxer he will have faced.

Should he perform well, or even beat Fury, the boxing community may start to take him more seriously.

“In terms of what it means for my career, he’s a professional boxer and we’re in the sport of boxing,” Paul told BT Sport earlier this month.

“The build-up has been years and years in the making. It’s almost like we’ve gotten three press tours with this fight because we’ve been trying to make it happen for so long, so there’s so much media out there, so many people want to see it.

“It’s country vs. country, it’s the Paul family name vs. the Fury family name.”

It is also a massive fight for Fury – who has not fought since beating Daniel Bocianski in April – as he has for years had to live in the shadow of his brother and also faced criticism for not achieving more in the sport to date.

“This is a massive event, a lot of people think this is going to be a really hard, really close fight,” Fury told BT Sport.

“But, at the end of the day, it’s a big event because one man is a superstar on the internet and the other man is a legitimate boxer and people want to see [Paul] go up against one.

“That’s all it is in my eyes. In my eyes it’s fight number nine, another journeyman to knock out.”

Internet personalities taking up boxing has come a long way in the last five years.

Ever since the first fights involving YouTube stars KSI and Joe Weller back in 2017, people from all walks of life – from TikTok to music – have slipped on the gloves and stepped into the ring, with the exhibition demographic of the sport growing rapidly.

As the sport’s newcomers have improved and taken the craft more seriously, some of boxing’s traditional devotees have begun to be won over.

Former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton said that at first the Paul vs. Fury fight did grate, but that he has come to understand the appeal of the event.

“At the very, very start, I was kind of like: ‘What is this?’ And as a boxer who’s dedicated his life to the sport,” Frampton told the BBC, “if I’m being honest, it did annoy me at little bit at the start that these guys were getting so much attention.

“But I understand it now and I can see why there is such an appeal.”

In an unprecedented event, the World Boxing Council – one of boxing’s four major organizations – announced the winner of the fight will receive a top 40 cruiserweight ranking.

That is a decision which has been criticized by members of the boxing fraternity, but gives the fight a legitimacy that many such bouts have previously lacked.

A special commemorative belt has been created by the WBC. The Diriyah Belt will be awarded to the victor, with the WBC saying that the fight “continues to support the growth of our sport by attracting thousands of new viewers.”

The pre-fight press conference was full of barbs, with Fury predicting he’d knock Paul out in four rounds and Paul saying he is there to “silence the critics.”

In fact, the whole fight was given another edge to it when Paul made a double or nothing bet with Fury in the press conference, saying he would give Fury all of his earnings if he loses. But, if Paul was to win, he would take all of the money.

Although Fury himself didn’t shake on the deal, Fury’s father and trainer John seemed to agree on it.

For both fighters, this fight could prove a huge springboard – both in the ring and out – to a successful boxing career.

CNN
 — 

A group of hostages being held for ransom by armed criminals in a remote region of Papua New Guinea have all now been freed, the country’s Prime Minister James Marape said Sunday.

“We apologize to the families of those taken as hostages for ransom, it took us a while but the last three have been successfully returned through covert operations with no (ransom) paid,” Marape wrote in a Facebook post.

A group of four hostages, which included foreign citizens and local guides, had been captured by a group of heavily armed men described by national police on Monday as “opportunists”, but one of them – a woman – was freed on Wednesday.

In a tweet on Sunday, New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta welcomed the release of the group, which included a New Zealander who is a professor at an Australian university.

PNG Police Commissioner David Manning had previously said the hostage-takers had spotted the group “by chance” and taken them into the bush.

“These are opportunists that have obviously not thought this situation through before they acted, and have been asking for cash to be paid,” Manning said.

Papua New Guinea, a Pacific nation of more than 9 million people, shares an island with the restive Indonesian region of Papua.

In a separate incident earlier this month, a New Zealand pilot was taken hostage by separatist fighters in Papua. Identified by local police as Philip Mehrtens, the pilot was captured after landing a commercial Susi Air charter flight at Paro Airport in the remote highlands of the Nduga regency.

The group previously demanded that all incoming flights to Paro Airport be stopped and said the pilot would not be released until the Indonesian government acknowledged Papuan independence.

CNN
 — 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory to warn the public of an increase of a drug-resistant bacteria called Shigella.

There are limited antimicrobial treatments available for these particular drug-resistant strains of Shigella and it’s also easily transmissible, warned the CDC in the Friday advisory. It’s also able to spread antimicrobial resistance genes to other bacteria that infect the intestines.

Shigella infections known as shigellosis can cause a fever, abdominal cramping, tenesmus and diarrhea that is bloody.

The bacteria can be spread by a fecal-oral route, person-to-person contact, and contaminated food and water.

While typically shigellosis affects young children, the CDC says it has started to see more of the antimicrobial-resistant infections in adult populations – especially in men who have sex with men, people experiencing homelessness, international travelers and people living with HIV.

“Given these potentially serious public health concerns, CDC asks healthcare professionals to be vigilant about suspecting and reporting cases of XDR Shigella infection to their local or state health department and educating patients and communities at increased risk about prevention and transmission,” the advisory said.

The CDC says patients will recover from shigellosis without any antimicrobial treatment and it can be managed with oral hydration, but for those who are infected with the drug-resistant strains there are no recommendations for treatment if symptoms become more severe.

The percentage of infections from drug-resistant strains of the bacteria increased from zero in 2015 to 5% in 2022, according to the CDC.

Nationwide, there are nearly 3 million antimicrobial-resistant infections each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result, according to the CDC.

A recent report by the United Nations said roughly 5 million deaths worldwide were associated with antimicrobial resistance in 2019 and the annual toll is expected to increase to 10 million by 2050 if steps are not taken to stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

London
CNN
 — 

Tensions are mounting in Moldova, a small country on Ukraine’s southwestern border, where Russia has been accused of laying the groundwork for a coup that could drag the nation into the Kremlin’s war.

Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, has accused Russia of using “saboteurs” disguised as civilians to stoke unrest amid a period of political instability, echoing similar warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has meanwhile baselessly accused Kyiv of planning its own assault on a pro-Russian territory in Moldova where Moscow has a military foothold, heightening fears that he is creating a pretext for a Crimea-style annexation.

US President Joe Biden met President Sandu on the sidelines of his trip to Warsaw last week, marking the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

Although there is no sign he has accepted her invite to visit, the White House did say he reaffirmed support for Moldova’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

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Earlier this month, Zelensky warned that Ukrainian intelligence intercepted a Russian plan to destabilize an already volatile political situation in Moldova.

The recent resignation of the country’s prime minister followed an ongoing period of crises, headlined by soaring gas prices and sky-high inflation. Moldova’s new prime minister has continued the government’s pro-EU drive, but pro-Russian protests have since taken place in the capital, Chisinau, backed by a fringe, pro-Moscow political party.

Amid the tensions, Moldova’s President Sandu issued a direct accusation that Russia was seeking to take advantage of the situation.

Sandu said the government last fall had planned for “a series of actions involving saboteurs who have undergone military training and are disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings and hostage-taking.”

Sandu also claimed individuals disguised as “the so-called opposition” were going to try forcing a change of power in Chisinau through “violent actions.” CNN is unable to independently verify those claims.

“It’s clear that these threats from Russia and the appetite to escalate the war towards us is very high,” Iulian Groza, Moldova’s former deputy foreign minister and now the director of the Chisinau-based Institute for European Policies and Reforms, told CNN.

“Moldova is the most affected country after Ukraine (by) the war,” he said. “We are still a small country, which has still an under-developed economy, and that creates a lot of pressure.”

Despite Moscow’s pleas of innocence, its actions regarding Moldova bear a striking resemblance to moves it made ahead of its annexation of Crimea in 2014, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

On Tuesday, Putin revoked a 2012 foreign policy decree that in part recognized Moldova’s independence, according to Reuters.

Then on Thursday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine of “preparing an armed provocation” against Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria “in the near future,” state-media TASS reported.

No evidence or further details were offered to support the ministry’s accusation, and it has been rubbished by Moldova.

But the claim has put Western leaders on alert, coming almost exactly a year after Putin made similar, unsubstantiated claims that Russians were being targeted in the Donbas – the eastern flank of Ukraine where Moscow had supported militant separatists since 2014 – allowing him to cast his invasion of the country as an issue of self-defense.

“It was the case before – we have seen constant activities of Russia trying to explore and exploit the information space in Moldova using propaganda,” Groza said.

“With the war, all these instruments that Russia was using before have been multiplied and intensified,” he said. “What we see is a reactivation of Russian political proxies in Moldova.”

“I do see lots of fingerprints of Russian forces, Russian services in Moldova,” Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told CBS last Sunday. “This is a very weak country, and we all need to help them.”

Central to Russia’s interests in Moldova is Transnistria, a breakaway territory that slithers along the eastern flank of the country and has housed Russian troops for decades.

The territory – a 1,300 square mile enclave on the eastern bank of the Dniester River – was the site of a Russian military outpost during the last years of the Cold War. It declared itself a Soviet republic in 1990, opposing any attempt by Moldova to become an independent state or to merge with Romania after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

When Moldova became independent the following year, Russia quickly inserted itself as a so-called “peacekeeping force” in Transnistria, sending troops in to back pro-Moscow separatists there.

War with Moldovan forces ensued, and the conflict ended in deadlock in 1992. Transnistria was not recognized internationally, even by Russia, but Moldovan forces left it a de facto breakaway state. That deadlock has left the territory and its estimated 500,000 inhabitants trapped in limbo, with Chisinau holding virtually no control over it to this day.

Moldova is a country at a crossroads between east and west. Its government and most of its citizens want closer ties to the EU, and the country achieved candidacy status last year. But it’s also home to a breakaway faction whose sentiment Moscow has eagerly sought to rile up.

It has been a flashpoint on the periphery of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the past year, with Russian missiles crossing into Moldovan airspace on several occasions, including earlier this month.

A series of explosions in Transnistria last April spiked concerns that Putin was looking to drag the territory into his invasion.

Russia’s stuttering military progress since then had temporarily allayed those fears. But officials in Moldova have been warning the West that their country could be next on Putin’s list.

Last month, the head of Moldova’s Security Service warned there is a “very high” risk that Russia will launch a new offensive in Moldova’s east in 2023. Moldova is not a NATO member, making it more vulnerable to Putin’s agenda.

Should Russia launch a Spring offensive that centers on Ukraine’s south, it may seek again to creep towards Odesa and then link up with Transnistria, essentially creating a land bridge that sweeps through southern Ukraine and inches even closer to NATO territory.