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Rescuers Search for Iran President Ebrahim Raisi After Helicopter Crash

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Rescuers Search for Iran's President After Helicopter Crash
Search and rescue teams have been scouring Varzaqan in the East Azerbaijan Province: CTN Image

A helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister, and other dignitaries crashed in the mountainous northwest on Sunday, sparking a large rescue attempt in a foggy forest as the population was asked to pray.

The apparent crash occurred as Iran, led by Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone and missile offensive on Israel last month and enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

Iran has also endured years of large protests against its Shiite theocracy over an ailing economy and women’s rights, making the situation even more sensitive for Tehran and the country’s future as the Israel-Hamas conflict rages across the Middle East.

Raisi was heading through Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State television reported a “hard landing” at Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of Tehran. Later, state television moved it farther east, near the hamlet of Uzi, but reports remained inconsistent.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan region, and other officials and bodyguards accompanied Raisi, according to the Associated Press. One local government official used the term “crash,” while others mentioned a “hard landing” or a “incident.”

Iran’s state TV Silent

In the hours that followed, neither IRNA nor state TV reported on Raisi’s condition. However, hardliners urged the population to pray for him. State television broadcast footage of hundreds of believers, some with their hands raised in supplication, worshiping at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad.

One of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines, as well as in Qom and other cities across the country. The primary channel of state television broadcast the prayers nonstop. In Tehran, a group of men kneeling on the side of the street held strands of prayer beads and watched a video of Raisi praying, with some clearly crying.

“If anything happens to him, we’ll be heartbroken,” one of the men, Mehdi Seyedi, stated. “May the prayers work and may he return to the arms of the nation safe and sound.”

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi stated on state television that “the esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters, and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to bad weather and fog.”

“Various rescue teams are on their way to the region but because of the poor weather and fogginess it might take time for them to reach the helicopter.”

Poor weather conditions

IRNA referred to the area as a “forest,” and it is also known to be mountainous. Poor weather conditions, including heavy rain and wind, hampered SUVs racing through a wooded region, according to state TV. Rescuers were visible walking through the fog and mist.

A rescue aircraft attempted to land in the region where authorities believe Raisi’s chopper was, but was unable to do so owing to heavy mist, emergency services spokesperson Babak Yektaparast told IRNA.

Late in the evening, Turkey’s defense ministry reported that it had sent an unmanned aerial vehicle and was prepared to send a helicopter with night vision capabilities to assist with the search and rescue efforts.

Long after the sun had set, Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said that “we are experiencing difficult and complicated conditions” throughout the search.

Raisi, 63, a hardliner who formerly commanded the country’s court, is seen as Khamenei’s protégé, and some observers believe he may succeed the 85-year-old leader after his death or retirement. Raisi had gone on the border with Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate a dam alongside President Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third that the two countries have built on the Aras River.

The visit occurred despite strained relations between the two countries, including a shooting attempt on Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran in 2023 and Azerbaijan’s diplomatic connections with Israel, which Iran’s Shiite theocracy regards as its principal regional adversary.

Iran pilots a variety of helicopters, but international sanctions make it difficult to obtain spare parts. Its military air fleet predates the 1979 Islamic Revolution. IRNA reported images showing Raisi taking off in what seemed to be a Bell helicopter with a blue-and-white paint scheme similar to that seen in prior photographs.

Raisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, which had the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. The US has sanctioned Raisi in part because of his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political detainees in 1988, at the close of the horrific Iran-Iraq war.

Source: CTN News

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The Supreme Court Weighs in on Nuclear Waste Storage Proposals in Rural Texas and New Mexico.

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Supreme Court

(VOR News) – On Friday, the Supreme Court decided to step in and settle a disagreement over the planned storage of radioactive waste in rural Texas and New Mexico.

The 5th United States Circuit Supreme Court of Appeals found that the Radioactive Regulatory Commission had overreached its authority under federal law when it authorized a private company to store spent radioactive material for forty years at a West Texas dump.

The justices have stated that they will examine this ruling in greater detail. The plans for a facility that resembles the one in New Mexico will change depending on how the lawsuit turns out.

Both states’ political elites are against the facilities.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that his state “will not serve as a repository for nuclear waste in the Supreme Court United States.”

Up until now, the country’s efforts to establish a long-term underground storage facility have failed. The political environment surrounding this search is complicated, and one aspect of it is the ongoing push for venues for temporary storage.

At the locations of existing and previous nuclear power reactors across the nation, about 100,000 tons (90,000 metric tons) of spent fuel are accumulating; some of it dates back to the 1980s. This amount is building up at a rate of more than two thousand tons annually. Before being buried at a suitable depth, the waste was supposed to be temporarily kept.

The idea of building a national storage facility on Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas, has been met with strong opposition from most Nevadans, including government officials. With this in mind, the initiative has been completely shelved.

The ongoing disagreement over nuclear waste storage is one of thirteen issues that the justices have scheduled for their upcoming term, which begins on Monday.

Other notable cases include an appeal by a Texas death row inmate whose execution was last-minutely delayed by the supreme court in July, and a move by gun makers to end a legal dispute in which Mexico is attempting to hold them accountable for gun violence south of the border. These two examples are remarkable.

At the start of next year, the justices in the NRC lawsuit will hear arguments on two questions.

The National Research Council (NRC) asserts that because states have chosen not to engage in the commission’s proceedings, they have relinquished their ability to challenge licensing decisions.

The Federal Appeals and Supreme Courts in Denver and Washington also ruled in its favor.

All of the cases were allowed to continue by the Fifth Circuit. The second question concerns the commission’s jurisdiction to grant permits for facilities that provide temporary storage in compliance with federal law.

Unlikely partners, environmental groups and the state of Texas depended on a 2022 Supreme Court decision holding that Congress must proceed cautiously when granting an agency the power to regulate a matter of significant national interest.

In its decision for Texas, the Fifth Circuit Supreme Court of Appeals found that the issue of how to dispose of the country’s nuclear waste is a “major question” that needs immediate action from Congress.

As a result of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the commission has long-standing jurisdiction to address nuclear waste, which the Vice President Joe Biden administration has informed the Supreme Court about.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized Interim Storage Partners LLC to run a facility in the state of Texas. This facility can hold up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants in addition to 231 million tons of other radioactive waste.

The facility would be built in close proximity to an existing Andrews County disposal site for the purpose of getting rid of low-level trash, which includes radioactively exposed things like protective gear. The area in Andrews County is about 350 miles (563.27 kilometers) west of Dallas, close to the Texas–New Mexico state line.

The commission authorized Holtec International to run a temporary storage facility in Lea County, California, which is near Carlsbad in the state’s southeast. The license is opposed by other New Mexico officials and Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Moreover, that license has been revoked by the Fifth Circuit.

By the middle of the following year, we hope to have a decision.

SOURCE: AP

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Analyzing the US Election: Kamala Harris Versus Donald Trump

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Election

(VOR News) – This is an analysis of the 2018 United States election, delineated by numerical data, encompassing swing states, electoral college votes, candidates across the ballot, and millions of potential voters.

The pair

A multitude of independent candidates competed for office, notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose actions garnered significant attention.

Ultimately, the presidential election reduces to a decision between two alternatives: the principal candidates from the major parties, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, are competing for the presidency in an America that is progressively polarized along partisan lines.

It is five o’clock.

Election Day is often recognized on the Tuesday subsequent to the first Monday in November. Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th.

Seventh

The number of states classified as swing states, which do not distinctly support one political party over another, indicating their competitive nature.

Harris and Trump are engaging with voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They are focusing their campaign efforts on these states to enhance their prospects of victory. The election outcome in a tightly contested campaign may hinge on a minimal number of votes in any given state.

In addition to 435

On Election Day, voters will select the next occupant of the White House and also reacquaint themselves with the members of the United States Congress.

This election features 435 available seats in the House of Representatives and 34 seats in the Senate.

A term in the House of Representatives endures for a duration of two years. Currently, Republicans possess the majority in the House of Representatives, while Harris’s Democrats are anticipating a shift in sentiment.

There are 34 vacant seats out of 100 in the Senate for a tenure duration of six years. The Republicans are striving to diminish the narrow majority possessed by the Democrats.

5838

We would like to introduce you to the Electoral College, the indirect system of universal suffrage in the United States that governs presidential elections.

Each state possesses a distinct number of electors, calculated by summing the number of its representatives in the House of Representatives, which fluctuates based on population, with the fixed number of two senators per state.

Rural Vermont offers a total of three electoral votes. Currently, Giant California possesses 54.

The aggregate number of electors is 538, distributed throughout all fifty states and the District of Columbia. A candidate must obtain a total of 270 votes to secure the presidency.

At 774,000

The Pew Research Center reported the number of polling staff members who volunteered to facilitate the smooth execution of the 2020 election.

The United States has three types of election personnel.

The majority are represented by poll workers, employed to greet voters, assist those with language problems, set up voting equipment, and verify voter identification and registration.

Pew indicates that election officials are frequently elected, employed, or appointed to perform specialized tasks, including instructing poll workers. These officials may also receive appointments.

Political parties typically enlist poll observers to monitor the ballot counting process, which is expected to be more challenging this year due to Trump’s refusal to unreservedly accept the outcome.

A number of election workers have previously communicated with AFP regarding the pressure and threats they are facing in anticipation of the November 5 election.

A total of 244 million.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s findings, the number of United States residents eligible to vote in 2024.

The exact number of citizens who will exercise their right to vote remains uncertain. According to the Pew Research Center, the midterm elections of 2018 and 2022, together with the presidential election of 2020, exhibited three of the highest voter turnouts in the United States in decades.

According to the Pew Research Center’s website, approximately two-thirds (66%) of the voting-eligible population participated in the 2020 presidential election, marking the greatest turnout rate for any national election since 1900.

The Census Bureau estimates that approximately 155 million individuals have voted.

SOURCE: NDTV

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Austrian Activist Schrems Wins Privacy Case Against Meta Over Personal Data On Sexual Orientation

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Meta
meta | AP News

LONDON — Meta in hot water once again. The European Union’s top court ruled on Friday that social networking company Meta cannot utilize public information on a user’s sexual orientation collected outside of its platforms for targeted advertising under the bloc’s tough data privacy regulations.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg is a triumph for Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems, who has been a thorn in the side of Big Tech corporations over their compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s data protection regulations.

meta

Austrian Activist Schrems Wins Privacy Case Against Meta Over Personal Data On Sexual Orientation

The EU court released its decision after Austria’s Supreme Court requested assistance in Schrems’ case on how to apply privacy standards known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

Schrems had protested that Facebook had used personal information, including his sexual orientation, to target him with online advertising despite the fact that he had never acknowledged his homosexuality on his account. He had only publicly acknowledged this fact once, during a panel discussion.

“An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data,” the court stated in a press release summarizing its ruling.

Even though Schrems disclosed his homosexuality during the debate, the agreement “does not authorise the operator of an online social network platform to process other data relating to his sexual orientation, obtained, as the case may be, outside that platform, with a view to aggregating and analysing those data, in order to offer him personalised advertising.”

Austrian Activist Schrems Wins Privacy Case Against Meta Over Personal Data On Sexual Orientation

Meta stated that it was awaiting publication of the court’s entire decision and that it “takes privacy very seriously.”

“Everyone using Facebook has access to a wide range of settings and tools that allow people to manage how we use their information,” according to a statement from the business.

Katharina Raabe-Stuppnig, Schrems’ lawyer, applauded the court’s decision.

“Meta has been accumulating a massive user data pool over the past 20 years, and it is growing by the day. However, EU law mandates ‘data minimisation’,” she stated in a statement. “Following this ruling only a small part of Meta’s data pool will be allowed to be used for advertising — even when users consent to ads.”

SOURCE | AP

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