Puerto Rico Cancels Classes, Activates National Guard as Tropical Storm Ernesto Approaches

(SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) — Puerto Rico activated the National Guard and canceled the start of classes in public schools as forecasters warned that the U.S. territory would be hit by Tropical Storm Ernesto, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.

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Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, St. Barts and St. Maarten.

The storm was located about 230 miles (370 kilometers) east-southeast of Antigua late Monday. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was moving west at 28 mph (44 kph). Ernesto is the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Officials in the French Caribbean said the storm was expected to drench Guadeloupe on Monday and pass near St. Barts and St. Martin. The National Hurricane Center said Ernesto is forecast to move over or near Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands on Tuesday evening.

Forecasters warned the storm is expected to unleash floods and landslides.

“We cannot let our guard down,” Nino Correa, Puerto Rico’s emergency management commissioner, said at a news conference.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said more than 340 shelters across the island would be available if necessary and that more than 200 personnel with the National Guard were activated.

Ernesto Morales, with the National Weather Service in San Juan, said between six to eight inches of rain are expected, with higher amounts in isolated areas. He also warned of hurricane-strength wind gusts as the storm is expected to hit northeast Puerto Rico and move across the U.S. territory late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

He urged people to prepare and stay alert given ongoing uncertainties over the approaching system.

“This trajectory is not written in stone and will be changing,” he said.

Officials also warned Ernesto would cause widespread power outages given the fragile state of Puerto Rico’s power grid, which crews are still rebuilding after Hurricane Maria struck the island in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm.

“That’s a reality,” said Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, a private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico.

Power outages also were a concern in the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands for similar reasons. Even before the storm approached, officials announced island-wide blackouts on St. John and St. Thomas.

U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. urged people to take the storm seriously.

“This is a practice run to make sure we’re really prepared,” he said, noting that the peak of hurricane season is yet to come.

Ernesto is expected to become a hurricane early Thursday as it turns north toward Bermuda, with some forecasters warning it could strengthen into a major Category 3 storm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record warm ocean temperatures. It forecasted 17 to 25 named storms, with four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

source https://time.com/7010492/tropical-storm-ernesto-puerto-rico/

Why the U.S. Military Needs to Imitate Ukraine’s Drone Force

Imagine it is 2028 and there is a coordinated parallel attack executed by Russia on one of the Baltic states and by China on Taiwan. Under such a scenario, Russia would attempt to seize NATO territory and China would blockade Taiwan as a fait accompli to undermine alliance cohesion.

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As things stand, NATO’s conventional forces would struggle to withstand such a Russian assault. And it would take weeks, if not months, to deploy American troops to the Indo-Pacific region. 

The Cold War solution to this kind of problem involved the threat of using tactical nuclear weapons. Small tactical nuclear weapons made it highly risky to mass mechanized formations for a large-scale assault, as they would become a perfect target for such nukes. They were crucial to the official NATO plan to defend against a Soviet onslaught through the so-called Fulda Gap in western Germany. 

Such an onslaught from the East is once again possible. Russia is now building up two new armies larger than the armies of half of NATO combined. Soon, armchair strategists will have to learn about the Suwalki Gap—the area around the Lithuanian-Polish border, which would be the shortest route from Belarus to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. 

Meanwhile, China is building roll-on, roll-off ferries that are nominally civilian, but have started to take part in military exercises. They are part of a sustained effort to amass the naval assets necessary for a prolonged blockade of Taiwan—and if necessary a war at sea.

But would whoever is U.S. President in 2028 be willing to meet such challenges with tactical nuclear weapons and all the associated risks of escalation to World War III? Have we no better deterrent than the old threat of Armageddon? 

The good news is that we do now.

In contrast to nearly all predictions, when Russia’s offensive was launched in February 2022, Ukraine not only thwarted the initial assault, but drove back and then held what was once considered the number two army in the world. It has stemmed the Russian tide not only through the heroism of its own troops but also by employing drones in the hundreds of thousands. 

Ukraine is the first nation to have created a new military branch, the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine. This is a pivotal moment akin to the creation of the world’s first air force, the Royal Air Force, formed on April 1, 1918, seven months before Britain’s victory in World War I. Ukraine’s use of drones is transforming warfare as fundamentally as airplanes once did.

NATO forces have, in comparison, small drone arsenals in the hundreds or low thousands. But that is changing. Earlier this summer, U.S. Indo-pacific Command revealed its ”hellscape” strategy to fill the waters around Taiwan with tens of thousands of unmanned boats, submarines and drones in the event of a Chinese move against the island. 

The Replicator Initiative, announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks a year ago, is intended to provide the manufacturing base that will enable hellscape. Six NATO countries recently announced their own version of hellscape to deter Russia: the European drone wall.

Unlike large standing armies, drones that are being held in reserve do not take up a lot of space, do not need to be fed, and are not drawing salaries. Unlike tactical nukes, drones do not produce fallout. But they can provide a comparable level of tactical deterrence.

An arsenal of millions of autonomous drones is a credible threat to a mechanized assault or a flotilla of ships. A state-of-the-art drone swarm could halt a Russian invasion or a Chinese blockade. Ukraine has proven this by blunting large-scale Russian mechanized attacks and crippling Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Kyiv’s expert use of drones is the reason it has been able to launch a surprise offensive deep into the Russian region of Kursk.

The implications for legacy military hardware are profound. Interestingly, the debate on tanks versus drones today echoes the one on battleships versus airplanes a century ago. Today’s drones are the equivalent of the barn-built biplanes of World War I, which barely resemble their modern jet-powered counterparts. Far more formidable unmanned munitions are coming. We are already seeing so-called “deep-strike” drones: Iranian Shahed drones used by Russia and the long-range drones built by Ukrainian startups. En masse, such drones can overwhelm even advanced air defenses. It remains to be seen if Iran and its proxies have enough such weapons to overwhelm Israel’s defenses in the coming days. If not, their recent threats will prove empty. 

A similar revolution is underway in naval warfare. As Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis have argued, and as Ukraine has shown in the Black Sea, deep-strike drones can also be used against naval targets. Like tanks, large surface ships, including aircraft carriers, are at risk of obsolescence.

This year, for the first time in history, Ukraine and Russia are building drones on an industrial scale. The evolution is from one operator directing a single drone to one operator directing whole flocks. By the end of 2024, we shall see for the first time what we call autonomous mass—swarms of drones in the thousands being directed by a handful of operators, relying less and less on ground control. 

The shift to unmanned warfare is unstoppable. That is the lesson we have learned from Ukraine. For the United States, however, the Replicator Initiative and hellscape plan are just a start. What we need now is to build the Unmanned Systems of America. 

The alternative could be a catastrophic failure of deterrence on the watch of the next President.

source https://time.com/7010426/us-military-drone-force/

What to Do If Your High Cholesterol Is Genetic

One sunny day in Los Angeles, Katherine Wilemon was gardening when she developed crushing chest pain, as well as pain radiating down her left arm. She was 39 and fit. Wilemon—who had known since she was a teenager that she had extremely high cholesterol—was certain she was having a heart attack.

The EMTs didn’t believe her, but she was having a heart attack, caused by a complete artery blockage. The doctors at the hospital told her she had the arteries of a 70 year old. “I had what we consider to be an older person’s disease in the prime of my life,” she says.

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Up until that point, Wilemon had taken medication to lower her low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol intermittently, but her doctors didn’t take her high levels as seriously as they should have. Despite having a good diet, exercising regularly, and maintaining a healthy weight, she had “almost unbelievable” LDL levels: 385 mg/dL, when less than 100 is optimal. Still, it took nearly a year after her heart attack to be diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), an inherited genetic condition that causes people to be born with high levels of LDL cholesterol that only get higher over time. Wilemon believes doctors should have figured out she had the disorder far earlier, but as she now knows, many fail to screen for it or even bring it up. “No one said, ‘How could this person who we don’t think fits the general phenotype of someone with heart disease have this extreme level of disease?’” she recalls. “That question wasn’t asked.”

Today, as the founder of the Family Heart Foundation, Wilemon advocates for better, earlier diagnosis of genetic forms of high cholesterol, and has dedicated her career to educating people and connecting them with specialists. “The basis of our work is understanding how poor the appreciation of this condition is within the medical system and the public at large,” she says, “and trying to rectify that.” She also serves as proof that it’s possible to live well with FH: While the road to a diagnosis can be a slog, the disorder itself is very treatable.

Here’s a look at what it means to have a genetic risk for high cholesterol—and what that diagnosis spells for future health.

What’s the big deal about high cholesterol?

Elevated cholesterol—specifically high levels of LDL—is the main driver of plaque build-up in blood vessels, which is called atherosclerosis, says Dr. Keith Ferdinand, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine. High cholesterol can lead to heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, and peripheral artery disease. 

People often have no idea they have high cholesterol, because on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t cause symptoms. Enter a cardiac event, and that changes—as indicated in the very names of some of the most common events. “The reason we use the term ‘heart attack’ is because it often happens suddenly, like a lion jumping out of the bush,” Ferdinand says. “We use the term ‘stroke’ because it comes suddenly, like a stroke from heaven.”

Read More: How to Start—And Stick to—A Breathwork Practice

For the general population, LDL cholesterol is driven by lifestyle habits. Eating lots of saturated fat and being overweight, for example, raises your LDL level and lowers your “good” cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL). “If you look at family history, if the person doesn’t have a clear genetic cause, they can easily modify their LDL by modifying their diet along with other health habits,” Ferdinand says. “That’s good news for the majority of people.”

However, it’s not the case for everyone. Lifestyle changes do little for people with genetic forms of high cholesterol. Medication is necessary.

As heart disease-related deaths trend upwards in the U.S., Ferdinand says we’re overdue for progress. “We need to do more to address lifestyle, and also to identify those people who may have genetic forms of high cholesterol so that we can intervene earlier,” he says.

Who is genetically predisposed to high cholesterol?

About 1 in every 250 people in the U.S. has familial hypercholesterolemia—which is what people are usually referring to when they say high cholesterol runs in their family. It’s caused by a genetic mutation that affects the way cholesterol is cleared by the body, prompting it to build up in and ultimately clog your arteries and veins. “LDL is what we consider the garbage of lipid metabolism,” says Dr. Seth Martin, a professor of medicine and director of the Advanced Lipid Disorders Program at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s something you want to get rid of, and fundamentally, familial hypercholesterolemia is a problem with clearing out that garbage.”

If one parent has FH, there’s a 50% chance they’ll pass it on to their children. In this version of the disorder (called heterozygous FH), kids usually have LDL cholesterol levels greater than 130 mg/dL; adults’ levels typically jump above 190 mg/dL.

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If both parents have FH, however—which is rare—there’s a 50% chance their kid will have this type, and a 25% chance they’ll have a more serious form called homozygous FH. Children with this type of the disorder typically have LDL levels over 400-500 mg/dL, while adults’ levels are greater than 300 mg/dL. It’s not unusual for people with this variation of FH to have heart attacks in their teens or 20s.

Overall, research suggests that men with untreated FH have a 30% risk of experiencing a cardiac event (like heart attack or stroke) by age 50, and untreated women have a 50% risk by age 60.

Another genetic risk factor is lipoprotein(a), which is a type of lipid that’s similar to LDL. High levels affect nearly 1 in 5 Americans, and they increase the likelihood of experiencing heart disease. You can find out what your Lp(a) is through a blood test, but historically, doctors have shied away from bringing it up, because it’s unclear how much treatment helps. Unlike with FH, “the clinical trials to show the benefit of lowering Lp(a) with medication are ongoing,” Martin says. “We’re going to find out in the next couple of years some very important clinical trial information to see if these drugs can lower the risk of cardiovascular events.”

When should cholesterol screening start?

Many people have no idea they have FH. If you find out you have it as an adult, doctors will start treatment right away and check your cholesterol levels every few months until your numbers have stabilized. Eventually, some patients only need to be tested annually.

If you suspect your child might have FH—because one or both parents have it—it’s important to have your doctor start checking their cholesterol early, between ages 2 and 6. “By the time a person is 6, their lipid profile is going to be very similar—not necessarily exactly the same—as they would have later in life,” Ferdinand says. Statin therapy typically starts at age 8, Martin says, but even before that, doctors will want to monitor the situation by running lipid tests regularly.

The same goes for children of families with a history of heart disease. If a family member had a heart attack, needed a stent, or had bypass surgery before age 55 in men, and before 65 in women, consider it a sign that something genetic might be at play and opt for early screening. If FH is not, in fact, present, kids typically don’t need to be tested again until early adulthood. In general, everyone should have their cholesterol checked by the time they’re 21, Ferdinand stresses, whether they’re worried about heart disease or not.

An underdiagnosed disorder

Unfortunately, doctors aren’t all vigilant about screening for FH. That’s part of the reason why many people don’t know they have it, experts say. The worst-case scenario, Martin says, is when it’s discovered during an autopsy, or when someone has a cardiovascular event like a heart attack in, for example, their 20s or 30s. If you have high levels of LDL cholesterol (above 190 mg/dL) that don’t improve with diet and exercise, or a family history of early heart disease and/or heart attacks, push your doctor to consider FH, he urges.

Doctors use different sets of criteria to make a diagnosis, but the steps include taking a family history, reviewing the patient’s medical history, confirming cholesterol levels, sometimes doing genetic testing, and conducting a physical exam. When Martin examines patients with FH, he can often detect signs of the disorder. “I look in their eyes, and I can see this lightish ring called corneal arcus from the cholesterol deposition,” he says. “If that’s seen before the age of 45, it’s very specific for familial hypercholesterolemia.” Martin always checks the Achilles tendon, too, where cholesterol can deposit. “It can be very thick and even sometimes, in more extreme cases, kind of bulging out,” he says, which is another indication of FH.

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Sometimes, a diagnosis happens in surprising ways. About three years ago, Jennifer Johnson, 49, who lives in Naples, Fla., saw a chiropractor for pain in her neck. He decided to do an X-ray, and after looking it over, asked her: “Have you ever seen a cardiologist?” “I was freaking out,” she recalls. It turned out that the chiropractor was able to see plaque in Johnson’s carotid arteries. She was shocked, because she was young, fit, and followed a healthy diet. After making an appointment with a vascular surgeon, she learned her carotid arteries were blocked 50%. A lipid specialist then diagnosed Johnson with FH. She’s been on a statin ever since, and her LDL has dropped significantly. “I never knew that was a thing,” she says of FH. “I knew that heart disease and high cholesterol ran in my family, but when you’re relatively young, you think you’re invincible.”

How to treat FH

When a genetic condition is driving your high cholesterol, you could be doing everything right and still have markedly elevated levels. “The good news is that we have a great set of therapies,” Martin says. “It’s now very treatable.” People with FH, he adds, will likely need more than one type of treatment, like a combination of statins and newer PCSK9 inhibitors. It’s appropriate to start kids with FH on treatment at a young age, Martin adds—generally around age 8, but earlier in more severe cases.

It’s possible to “decrease cholesterol by a significant degree,” says Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan, director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Case Western University’s School of Medicine. Many medications start working within days. “This has been a revolution for these patients—genetic hyperlipidemia can now be managed aggressively.”

Read More: Here’s What Alcohol Does to the Gut

Though lifestyle alone can’t adequately improve cholesterol levels for people with FH, “you don’t try to make an already bad situation even worse,” Rajagopalan says. Patients are generally encouraged to prioritize fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat dairy, while avoiding processed foods, saturated fat, added sugars, salt, and alcohol.

Reasons for optimism

When Martin diagnoses people with FH, he stresses that he expects to get their LDL down to a well-controlled level. In fact, especially when there’s an early diagnosis, FH patients on treatment “are likely to have much better cholesterol than the average American,” he says. (A typical LDL in the U.S. is 110 mg/dL.) At a minimum, his patients’ LDL drops below 100, but depending how aggressive treatment is, that number could plummet to 70 or below.

That resonates with Wilemon, whose LDL cholesterol is now in the mid-20s to low 30s. “I live with less anxiety,” she says, knowing she’s lowered her risk for another heart event. “Historically, people have underestimated the role that genetics play in the onset of cardiovascular disease, especially early cardiovascular disease. It’s so feasible for people to understand their level of risk, and to do something about it today.”

source https://time.com/7009321/high-cholesterol-genetic-familial-hypercholesterolemia-what-to-do/

Hundreds of Firefighters Tackle a Major Wildfire Raging Out of Control on Fringes of Greek Capital

ATHENS, Greece — A major forest fire was raging out of control on the northern fringes of the Greek capital Monday, triggering numerous evacuations of Athens suburbs and outlying areas as strong, swirling winds hampered the efforts of hundreds of firefighters and dozens of water-dropping planes.

Faced with a massive, fast-moving blaze that sent flames towering at times to heights of over 25 meters (80 feet), Greece asked for assistance from other countries, activating Europe’s mutual civil protection mechanism.

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The fire that began Sunday afternoon burned homes and sent a blanket of smoke and ash over central Athens, where the smell of burning lingered in the air. Power cuts were reported in several parts of the capital and also affected traffic lights at major junctions in the center.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said France would send a helicopter, 180 civil security personnel and 55 fire engines. Greece’s civil protection authority said Italy was sending two water-dropping planes and the Czech Republic was sending 75 firefighters and 25 vehicles, while Spain and Turkey were also finalizing reinforcements to send to Greece.

The wildfire was racing through pine forests left tinder-dry by repeated heat waves this summer. June and July of this year were the hottest months ever recorded in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter ever.

Authorities are faced with “an exceptionally dangerous fire, which we have been fighting for more than 20 hours under dramatic circumstances,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said mid-morning Monday. The fire was burning mainly on two separate fronts, with some parts in particularly difficult to reach areas on a mountain northeast of Athens, Kikilias said.

A children’s hospital and a military hospital, two monasteries and a children’s home were evacuated, while one more hospital was to be evacuated Monday afternoon. More than two dozen emergency push alerts were sent to cellphones in the area warning people to flee, while homes in several areas were burned, although the exact number was not immediately clear.

“The wind would go in one direction and then in the other. The smoke was suffocating. You couldn’t see. Your eyes teared up. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t see the house,” said Spyros Gorilas, a resident of the area of Dioni who hosed down his house with water to save it from the flames. “Even the helicopter that dropped water, you couldn’t see it. You could only hear it. Nothing else.”

Evacuation orders were issued throughout the day for yet more Athens suburbs as strong winds continued unabated. Fire Department spokesperson Col. Vassileios Vathrakogiannis said authorities had been faced with more than 40 flareups since the early hours of Monday in areas where the flames had somewhat abated.

The fire department said 685 firefighters, backed by 27 teams specially trained to tackle wildfires and including more than 80 armed forces personnel, were battling the flames. More than 190 vehicles were deployed, with aerial support from 17 water-dropping planes and 16 helicopters.

Three Athens hospitals were on heightened alert, while paramedics and ambulances treated two firefighters — one for light burns and the other for breathing problems — and 13 civilians for breathing problems, Vathrakogiannis said. The Athens Medical Association urged residents near affected areas to exercise caution, especially those with chronic conditions, the elderly, pregnant women, young children, and those with respiratory and heart problems.

Greece’s coast guard diverted all ferries going to and from the nearby port of Rafina, which serves mainly the Cycladic islands and Crete, to the port of Lavrion due to the fire, while authorities were providing temporary shelter for evacuees in sports halls and hotels.

The police department said 380 police officers with 77 vehicles, 36 motorcycles, three buses and four vans were assisting in evacuations, and by mid-morning had helped move more than 250 people away from the path of the flames. It posted a video on its social media channels showing police officers carrying elderly people in their arms out of houses and to waiting vehicles, against a backdrop of a night sky turned red from the flames and smoke.

The fire department appealed to residents to follow evacuation orders, with authorities noting that some people who refused to leave their homes later became trapped and required rescuing, endangering the lives of firefighters.

Meteorologists and government officials have warned of the heightened danger of wildfires because of weather conditions from Sunday until Thursday, with half of the country placed under a red alert for wildfire hazard.

Wildfires are frequent in Greece during its hot, dry summers, but authorities have said climate change is fueling bigger and more frequent blazes. In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee in their cars. More than 100 people died, including some who drowned trying to swim away from the flames.

Last year, wildfires in Greece killed more than 20 people, including 18 migrants who became trapped by the flames as they trekked through a forest in northeastern Greece and were caught by a massive fire that burned for more than two weeks.

source https://time.com/7010155/greek-capital-wildfires/

Harrison Ford, Angela Bassett, Miley Cyrus and More to be Honored as Disney Legends

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Disney will bestow “legends” status to 14 artists, including Harrison Ford, Angela Bassett and Miley Cyrus, who have shaped the company.

The honorees, who the company says have had a “significant impact” on Disney’s legacy, include director James Cameron, iconic film composer John Williams, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Ripa, among several others.

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This year’s class of Disney Legends will be inducted into the company’s version of the hall of fame in a ceremony Sunday at The Honda Center in Anaheim, California, as a part of the D23 fan convention. Ryan Seacrest is set to host the evening.

Director James L. Brooks is also joining the starry club, along with Williams, known for the scores of the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises, among many others.

The star of those franchises, Ford, will have his signature and handprints done up again over 20 years after he was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The revered actor is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World.”

At Comic-Con International, Ford surprised the packed house at a panel discussing new Marvel projects and flexed his muscles to the roaring crowd, channeling his character, who transforms into the Red Hulk.

Fellow MCU actor Bassett, who appeared in “Black Panther” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” also is being honored. Bassett also stars in ABC’s “9-1-1.”

Cyrus, who rose to fame after starring in the Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana” in 2006, is the youngest recipient of the Legends honor. Following her time on the sitcom, Cyrus has had a long-running career in music, winning her first Grammy Award in February.

Curtis has appeared in her fair share of projects under The Walt Disney Studios banner, from “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” to “You Again.” She is set to reprise her role in the upcoming sequel of the fan-favorite movie “Freaky Friday,” opposite Lindsey Lohan.

ABC talk show host and mainstay Ripa will reunite with her former co-host Seacrest. Her career at the television network spans over 30 years and she now hosts “Live with Kelly and Mark” with her husband, Mark Consuelos.

Disney also is honoring six behind-the-scenes creatives who have contributed to groundbreaking films, art and Disney experiences.

Those honorees include Colleen Atwood, an Oscar-winning costume designer, Mark Henn, a prominent animator, Steve Ditko, the late comics artist known for characters like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, Frank Oz, a noted puppeteer and filmmaker, Martha Blanding, a longtime manager at The Walt Disney Company and Disneyland, and Joe Rohde, a former Disney Imagineer.

Previous Disney Legends include Elton John, Steve Jobs, Betty White, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Downey Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg. They are among more than 300 honorees since the program’s inception in 1987.

source https://time.com/7009909/disney-legends-honored-ceremony-harrison-ford-miley-cyrus/

Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono Wins Democratic Primary for Third Term, Will Face McDermott in General

HONOLULU — U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and the state’s incumbent congressional representatives won their races in the Democratic Party’s primary election on Saturday.

Hawaii is a vote-by-mail state. Ballots were mailed to registered voters who must return them through the mail or to drop-off boxes located around the islands. Voters also were given the option to cast ballots in person at a handful of voter service centers in each county.

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Ballots had to be received by county elections offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Here’s a look at key Hawaii races:

U.S. Senate

Hirono is seeking a third term after first being elected to the office in 2012 to replace Daniel Akaka, who was the first Native Hawaiian to serve in the U.S. Senate after statehood.

She won a three-way race against Ron Curtis and Clyde McClain Lewman. Curtis lost to Hirono in the general election six years ago when he was the Republican nominee for the same seat. Lewman placed seventh in the Democratic primary for governor in 2022 with 249 votes.

Hirono became a state legislator in 1980, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor in 1994 and a member of the U.S. House in 2007.

She underwent surgery for kidney cancer in 2017, a year before she was last elected to a second six-year term in the Senate.

Former state Rep. Bob McDermott beat five lesser-known candidates for the Republican nomination for Senate. McDermott last ran for Senate two years ago when he lost to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, in the general election by a 44-point margin.

U.S. House

U.S. Rep. Ed Case won the Democratic Party primary to represent Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District in Congress by defeating Cecil Hale.

Case was first elected to the seat representing urban Honolulu in 2018, after previously representing Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District from 2002 to 2007.

Patrick Largey ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

In the 2nd Congressional District race, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda was unopposed in the Democratic primary and Steve Bond was unopposed in the Republican primary. The district covers suburban Honolulu and the neighbor islands.

State House

House Speaker Scott Saiki faces a tough race against Kim Coco Iwamoto, who is running once more after losing to Saiki by just 161 votes two years ago and 167 votes in 2020.

Their state house district covers downtown Honolulu and Kakaako, where a construction boom has transformed warehouses into high-rise condos.

Saiki, an attorney, has been House speaker since 2017 and a state representative for three decades. His campaign website touts legislation passed this year that he said would provide a 70% tax cut to working-class families.

Iwamoto is an attorney who represented Oahu on the state Board of Education from 2006 to 2011. Her website says she is fighting to expose government corruption and waste and to provide sufficient shelter and social workers to address homelessness.

Iwamoto was the highest-ranking openly transgender person elected in the country when she first won her education board seat 18 years ago.

source https://time.com/7009893/hawaii-mazie-hirono-wins-democratic-primary-third-term-bob-mcdermott/

U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Scores Victory at the Paris Olympics With Thrilling Gold Medal Win

The United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT), revived by a fresh-faced coaching staff and a roster of young, dynamic players positioned to keep the squad at the top of the table for the next decade or more, won the Olympic gold medal on Saturday at Parc des Princes, defeating Brazil in the final 1-0. Team USA, which hadn’t won an Olympic gold medal since 2012, in London, and was bounced from last year’s World Cup in the round-of-16, the earliest-ever exit for an American team, returns to its familiar position as the team-to-beat.

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After a scoreless first half in which Brazil attacked early and often, with an attempt at goal two minutes in and a fantastic chance in stoppage time that U.S. keeper Alyssa Naeher kept out of the net, Mallory Swanson put the U.S. on the scoreboard with a barely-defended run up the left side, off an assist from Korbin Albert. That invigorated the U.S. women, who followed with a couple more crowd-pleasing runs that were blocked by Brazilian defenders

In stoppage time, Naeher made a nifty one-handed stop to preserve the victory.

Emma Hayes, the Brit who won seven titles with Chelsea F.C. in the Women’s Super’s League and was tapped by U.S. soccer officials late last year to retool the USWNT—she joined after leading Chelsea in May to yet another championship—led the team to gold in her first global competition as head coach. Hayes made several key moves. First and foremost, she restored the players’ confidence in the team’s tactical approach. “The learning that we’re obtaining in the meetings, the field, everything that we’re taking in, I think that’s probably the coolest thing for me,” U.S. captain Lindsey Horan said before the Olympics. “To see players really thinking and really asking questions and getting challenged, that’s what we need.”

Hayes made the difficult decision to leave U.S. legend Alex Morgan off the Olympic roster. But that choice allowed Hayes to add a trio of lethal ball-strikers— Swanson, 26, Sophia Smith, 24, and Trinity Rodman, 22— to shoulder the scoring load. This group, nicknamed “Triple Trouble” by former USWNT player Christen Press, and “The Triple Express” by a U.S. fan interviewed by a very loud Parc des Princes emcee before the game, has rewarded Hayes’ faith. They have scored 10 of the USWNT’s 12 Olympic goals. Rodman curled a beautiful strike into the top left corner of the goal in extra time, against Japan, in the quarterfinal. Smith scored late against Germany in the semi final to give the United States a 1-0 victory and Swanson scored the gold-medal winning goal.

“I’ve got a job to do,” Hayes told TIME before the Olympics, discussing the social media outcry in some circles for her omission of Morgan. “My job is everybody’s hobby. So everybody’s entitled to an opinion, but at the end of the day, I’m the person who is charged with the responsibility of leading this team. And if I’m going to do that to the best of my ability, then I have to know how to shut out the noise. That’s something I’m comfortable doing.” 

American soccer supporters turned out in droves in Paris, as expected, wearing red-white-and-blue Rodman, Smith, Horan, and Naomi Girma shirts—Girma, 24, played in every minute of the Olympics tournament, serving notice that she’s one of the best defensive players in the world. Noticeably absent were Morgan and Megan Rapinoe jerseys. The USWNT has turned the page. The team’s in golden hands.

source https://time.com/7009804/us-womens-soccer-team-gold-medal-win-paris-summer-olympics/