How Project 2025 Became a Flashpoint in the 2024 Election

(WASHINGTON) — For the past year, Project 2025 has endured as a persistent force in the presidential election, its far-right proposals deployed by Democrats as shorthand for what Donald Trump would potentially do with a second term at the White House.

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Even though the former president’s campaign has vigorously distanced itself from Project 2025 — Trump himself declared he knows “nothing” about it — the sweeping Heritage Foundation’s proposal to gut the federal workforce and dismantle federal agencies aligns closely with his vision. Project 2025’s architects come from the ranks of Trump’s administration and top Heritage officials have briefed Trump’s team about it.

It’s rare for a complex 900-page policy book to figure so dominantly in a political campaign. But from its early start at a think tank, to its viral spread on social media, the rise and fall and potential rise again of Project 2025 shows the unexpected staying power of policy to light up an election year and threaten not only Trump atop the ticket but down-ballot Republicans in races for Congress.

Through it all, Project 2025 has not gone away. It exists not only as a policy blueprint for the next administration, but as a database of some 20,000 job-seekers who could staff a Trump White House and administration and a still unreleased “180-day playbook” of actions a new president could employ on Day One after the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.

Read More: Column: Project 2025’s Plan to Eliminate Public Schools Has Already Started

The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, who recently took the helm of the project, appears to relish the fight, moving full steam ahead.

“Rest assured we will not give up,” Roberts wrote in an email to supporters this summer. “We will not back down.”

How Project 2025 came to be

When Project 2025 debuted in April 2023, it promised to “dismantle the administrative state” by putting forward the personnel and the policies that could serve as a roadmap for the next conservative president.

The former Trump administration officials working on the project said they wanted to avoid the mistakes of the first Trump White House by ensuring the next Republican president would be ready with personnel and policies to enact his campaign priorities.

“There is an impetus to really hit the ground running,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, in a 2023 Associated Press interview.

Centered at the Heritage Foundation, the venerable conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., the concept for the book touched back to an earlier version, its Reagan-era “Mandate for Leadership” that was said to be so popular at the White House that copies were put on work desks to guide the new presidency.

At least 100 conservative groups, many with alumni from the Trump administration, came together to craft the proposals for a vast restructuring of the federal government — from installing more political appointees at the Justice Department to reassigning government workers with law enforcement backgrounds to handle illegal immigration to dismantling the Department of Education.

One of the core proposals would make it easier to staff the government with Trump loyalists by reclassifying some 50,000 workers into jobs where they can be fired — a revival of the so-called Schedule F policy that Trump tried to put in place before leaving office. The idea is now central to the conservative vision of dismantling the “deep state” bureaucracy that they blame for blocking Trump priorities.

The rollout of Project 2025 on the foundation’s 50th anniversary was also a debut of sorts for Roberts; he had previously been seen as an ally to Trump rival Ron DeSantis, who keynoted the gala event at the start of the presidential primary season.

“The conservative movement is coming together to prepare for the next conservative administration,” Roberts said in the announcement. Heritage, he said, sought “to ensure that the next president has the right policy and personnel necessary to dismantle the administrative state.”

When Project 2025 became a viral sensation

President Joe Biden’s campaign had warned against Project 2025 early on, in social media posts ahead of his State of the Union address in April, and House Democrats launched a Project 2025 Task Force to amplify their concerns in June. Days later, comedian John Oliver mocked it on his HBO show.

But it wasn’t until Biden’s dismal debate performance with Trump in June that Project 2025 had its viral moment.

It wasn’t so much what was said at the presidential debate as what went unsaid: Biden failed to really even mention Project 2025, crushing the expectations of allies who expected more of a knock-out punch.

Read More: Column: Project 2025 Is About Much More Than Trump

That weekend, a single thread on X about Project 2025 took off, amassing nearly 20 million views, according to the Democratic campaign. Actress Taraji P. Henson, who had spoken to Vice President Kamala Harris in a segment for the BET Awards show, warned prime-time viewers: “The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!” And countless young TikTok creators speaking directly into their cameras explained the threat they believed Project 2025 posed to their civil rights, reproductive rights and other rights in videos that went viral.

“This is really a case of the grassroots revolting,” said Joe Radosevich at the Center for American Progress. “They saw what was being offered as the contours of the race and completely rejected it.”

Especially in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling that ended the constitutional protections for abortion, Democrats and their allies wanted to make the case showing how the presidential election would impact people’s lives in the future, rather than simply giving voters a choice between the personalities.

People wanted a debate about policies, Radosevich said, not an election “purely on vibes.”

By the end of June, Google searches for “Project 2025” surpassed searches for Taylor Swift and the NFL, the Harris campaign said.

And by the time a giant-size replica of the Project 2025 book was hauled on stage for nightly ridicule at the Democratic National Convention, it wasn’t just celebrities and liberal convention-goers who were mocking it. Conservatives began blaming Heritage and Project 2025 for hurting Trump’s election chances.

Project 2025 gets a tongue-lashing from Trump

Trump’s campaign never embraced Project 2025 and actively shunned it, despite the proximity of people and policies familiar to the former president’s time in the White House.

Other conservative groups with close ties to Trump are also preparing for a second term in the White House. Trump’s campaign team had repeatedly warned Heritage to tone it down and not portray Project 2025 as part of Trump’s campaign.

But Roberts appeared undeterred, even as he came under fire in July for suggesting, after the Supreme Court ruling granting the president broad immunity from prosecution over the Jan. 6 insurrection, that the country was in the midst of a “second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Read More: Column: How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health

Trump spoke up forcefully against Project 2025 days later.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his own social media account. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Trump at the time was rolling out his own policy platform ahead of the Republican National Convention, drafted partly by one of his former administration officials, the conservative leader Russ Vought, who also contributed to Project 2025 and its 180-day playbook.

Heritage parted ways with Dans, the chief architect of Project 2025, who resigned at the end of the month, a move that apparently pleased Trump’s team.

“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” said Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign managers, in a joint statement.

The future of Project 2025

As the races for control of Congress tighten to the point where a single seat could determine which party controls the House or Senate, Project 2025 is being used by Democratic-aligned outside groups to portray Republicans as linked to its hardline proposals.

The House Accountability Project has created micro-websites for more than a dozen House Republicans in some of the most contested seats, tying their past votes on abortion, government funding and other issues to Project 2025 proposals.

“The House GOP is actually pushing policies that are in Project 2025 as we speak,” said Danny Turkel, spokesman for the House Accountability War Room. “They’re already taking these policies into the Capitol.”

The House Republican campaign committee argues its candidates have nothing to do with Project 2025, and the attacks are concocted by Democrats to shift attention from their own border and inflation policies.

“They fabricated a false attack based on something House Republicans had never even read,” said Will Reinert, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

He called the attacks a “desperate lie” as the House Democrats “see their chances of regaining the majority dwindling.”

source https://time.com/7095886/project-2025-election-donald-trump/

Weight-Loss Drugs May Help Alcohol and Opioid Addiction

Weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are transforming the health of millions of people—and a new study hints that even more could benefit from the drugs’ other effects on the body.

A study published recently in the journal Addiction shows that people with substance-use disorders who take these weight-loss drugs are less likely to experience opioid overdose or alcohol intoxication compared to those not taking the medications. The findings add to a growing list of other health benefits researchers are studying related to the medications, which target hormones called incretins that affect not just appetite, digestion, and diabetes, but also heart health, sleep, and the brain circuits connected to satisfaction and reward.

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The latest study explored the link between opioid and alcohol substance-use disorders and the new class of modern weight-loss drugs. These target either glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) hormone, or glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) hormone, and include semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (found in Mounjaro and Zepbound). The scientists analyzed health records from more than 1.3 million people in 136 health systems across the U.S. All of the patients had either an opioid or alcohol-use disorder, and some used the weight-loss medications.

Those with opioid-use disorders who received any of these drugs showed a 40% lower incidence of opioid overdose during the study period compared to those not getting the medications, while people with alcohol-use disorders receiving the prescriptions showed a 50% lower incidence of intoxication compared to those who didn’t take them.

“This suggests that [the drugs’] beneficial effects on addiction-related behaviors may extend beyond their traditional role in managing weight or diabetes,” says Fares Qeadan, lead study author and associate professor of biostatistics at Loyola University Chicago.

Read More: Scientists Are Studying Weight-Loss Drugs for Way More Than Weight Loss

The possibility makes biological sense, since the GLP-1 and GIP systems affect the reward circuits in the brain, which are involved in generating feelings of satisfaction and reward. Those circuits are implicated in both food consumption and other addictive behaviors. Animal studies have found that rodents given these medications reduced their intake of alcohol and other addictive drugs. And while that data, coupled with the current study, certainly suggest that these medications might be useful in reducing certain addiction outcomes, further human studies still need to be done to confirm whether a similar effect occurs in people.

The current study only establishes a potential association between the medications and addiction, but rigorous clinical trials that track doses of these drugs and reduced opioid or alcohol use among treated and control groups could help to clarify how useful these medications might be in treating addictions. Brain-imaging studies could also confirm how the drugs may dampen addictive behaviors.

As more research and longer term data on these weight-loss medications accumulate, other health benefits may also emerge, and doctors will have better information on which to base prescribing information. If the data support it, in coming years it may be possible that those who benefit from these drugs will not just be people with diabetes or those who are overweight or obese.

For now, says Qeadan, the data look encouraging that opioid- and alcohol-use disorders may be affected by these weight-loss medications. “We are confident that the observed effects—specifically the reduced rates of opioid overdose and alcohol intoxication—are not merely attributable to associations with Type 2 diabetes or obesity,” he says.

source https://time.com/7095654/weight-loss-drugs-wegovy-zepbound-opioid-alcohol-addiction/

5 Gastroenterologists on the 1 Thing You Should Do Every Day

Somewhere between 60 and 70 million Americans have digestive conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, acid reflux, chronic constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and hemorrhoids. Some of these will need to be treated through medication and possibly even surgery. But others can improve by making a few daily tweaks to your lifestyle.

Even if you’re not experiencing any GI symptoms right now, certain habits can help ensure your gut stays in tip-top shape. Below, five gastroenterologists offer their advice on the single best thing you should do every day to improve your digestive health.

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1. Eat the right foods at the right time

Most experts agreed: The No. 1 thing you can do to take care of your gut health is eat the right foods.

A balanced diet is crucial for building good bacterial flora in the gut, says Dr. Harpreet Pall, a pediatric gastroenterologist and chair of pediatrics at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “The intestines contain billions of bacteria,” Pall says. “There’s good bacteria and there’s not-so-good bacteria, and ensuring that we have the right types of good bacteria that promote gut health is really, really important.”

Pall recommends a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and says it’s wise to limit red meat and ultra-processed foods, since both can have adverse effects on gut health. As long as you’re not lactose intolerant, he says it’s also good to include some dairy in your diet; it provides nutrients like calcium and vitamin D. It’s also important to get enough fiber each day. Current U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that men eat about 38 g of fiber each day, and women eat around 25 g.

Read More: 9 Things You Should Do for Your Brain Health Every Day, According to Neurologists

Although various fiber supplements, such as psyllium husk, can help with constipation, there are other more natural ways to get enough fiber. Kiwi, for example, is full of fiber and has been found to speed up digestion and increase stool weight, says Dr. Justin Field, assistant clinical professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Apples, prunes, and raisins have been found to have a similar effect, he says. 

What we eat is important, but so is when we eat, especially for those who struggle with acid reflux, Field says. “Something as simple as spacing out dinner and bedtime by at least two hours can alleviate a lot of nighttime reflux symptoms,” he says. Smaller meals throughout the day, as opposed to the traditional three large meals, can also help with reflux. 

Though diet predictably took the top spot, the gastroenterologists also offered four other gut health priorities.

2. Be on the lookout for bowel changes 

One of Field’s top pieces of advice is to pay attention to your daily bowel habits, as they offer insight into your overall health. “It’s important not to ignore certain symptoms or certain stool characteristics,” he says. 

Occasional loose stools and diarrhea happen to all of us from time to time, “but if it starts to pop up more often—more than a couple days in a row—or if it seems to keep coming back,” that’s a red flag, he says. Things like blood in the stool, having a bowel movement at night that wakes you up, loose stools that last for more than a few days, and weight loss along with GI symptoms could also be signs of things like celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal infections, or other GI disorders, Field says.

Read More: Why Vinegar Is So Good for You

Even if your bowel habits haven’t changed, a visit to the doctor might be necessary if you meet the requirements for certain screenings, Field says. Current U.S. guidelines recommend colorectal cancer screening at age 45 (and those with a family history could be eligible for earlier and more frequent screening). People with certain risk factors—including being over 50, male, white, a smoker, and having obesity or a history of acid reflux—could also make you eligible for esophageal cancer screening. Anal cancer screening is also recommended at age 35 for men who have sex with men and transgender women living with HIV, and at age 45 for all others with HIV and for men who have sex with men and transgender women who do not have HIV.

3. Move your body

Being physically active is crucial for gut health, especially for those who are constipated, says Dr. Reezwana Chowdhury, a gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. “Exercise does wonders for the gut,” says Chowdhury, who’s also an inflammatory bowel disease specialist. “I tell my patients: the more you move, the more your gut moves.”

Exercise is beneficial because it helps with colonic transit, which is how fast food moves through your colon. Studies have shown physical activity can not only help with constipation and fatty liver disease, but it can also improve the diversity of the gut microbiome and produce more of the gut bacteria that’s beneficial to our health, she says. 

Chowdhury recommends 30 minutes of intense physical activity three times a week, but says even low-impact activities like a daily 30-minute stroll around the neighborhood can be beneficial. The key is to move around as much as possible throughout the day. “We should never underestimate the power of movement,” she says.

4. Drink enough water and avoid artificial sweeteners

Dr. Rachel Schiesser, a gastroenterologist at Houston Methodist Hospital, says her favorite piece of advice is to drink enough water each day. Most people should strive for around 64 oz. of water a day, she says, or 8 8-oz. glasses. Another good rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in oz. of water each day. “Our systems are mostly made out of water, and without enough water, people do not get good digestion,” she says. (Just don’t overdo it, she adds, as this can cause bloating.)

Read More: Why You Should Eat a Dense Bean Salad Today

Some research has suggested that adequate water intake can aid in the digestive process, especially when someone is drinking water in conjunction with eating a high-fiber diet. Drinking enough water can also promote a healthy gut microbiome. 

Schiesser adds that it’s important to avoid beverages with artificial sweeteners, since some studies have suggested that artificial sweeteners can alter the gut microbiome. If you need a sweetener, opt for a natural one like honey or stevia instead. 

5. Limit your alcohol intake and NSAID use

It’s important to protect the gut from two common and potentially harmful substances: alcohol and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (in brands like Advil and Motrin) and naproxen sodium (in brands like Aleve), says Dr. Benjamin Lebwohl, a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Most people are familiar with the downsides of excessive alcohol intake, especially when it comes to liver health, Lebwohl says. “But alcohol is also a direct irritant on the stomach and intestinal tract,” he says. “It’s not unusual for people—after a night of heavy drinking—to have a stomachache and irregular bowels, even if the intake falls short of a binge that results in nausea and vomiting.” He adds that after doing an upper endoscopy—a procedure that allows gastroenterologists to take a close look at the upper GI tract—he can tell if someone has had a large amount of alcohol in recent days, as the stomach will look inflamed. 

There’s really no “healthy” amount of alcohol, Lebwohl says, but, “being mindful of excess alcohol intake is important…certainly after the second drink is the time that gastrointestinal symptoms might start to happen.”

Read More: Is Adrenal Fatigue Real?

Lesser known threats to gut health are NSAID medications, Lebwohl says. People often think these drugs are benign and safe because they’re available over the counter, but “they promote inflammation in the stomach and intestinal tract if used more than sparingly,” he says. They can cause ulcers in the stomach and small intestine, as well as gastritis or general inflammation in the stomach, Lebwohl says. “The more they’re used, the more likely someone will have gastrointestinal side effects.”

Most people who take the recommended dose on the bottle two or three times a month for a headache or sore back will likely have no ill effects, Lebwohl says. If someone has to take NSAIDs more frequently to recover from an injury, their physician will likely advise them to take famotidine or another acid suppressing medication each day to prevent gastrointestinal side effects, Lebwohl says. Acetaminophen, or Tylenol, is safe on the stomach, gastrointestinal tract, and liver when taken according to the package instructions, but it can also be toxic in high doses, he adds.

source https://time.com/7095503/gastroenterologist-gut-health-advice/

The First Out Trans Lawyer to Argue Before the Supreme Court Is Feeling the Pressure

One case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this term is historic not just because of the legal precedent it could set for LGBTQ rights, but also because of the identity of the plaintiffs’ lawyer. Chase Strangio is set to become the first out transgender lawyer to argue a case before the nation’s highest Court. 

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U.S. v. Skrmetti challenges a Tennessee law barring transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming-care. Strangio, co-Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, will be representing the Williams family of Nashville, two other anonymous families, and a Memphis-based medical provider to argue Tennessee’s law is unconstitutional. 

The high court’s decision will not only have an effect on the more than 3,000 transgender youth currently living in Tennessee, according to a UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute report, but could also extend to the trans youth in 26 other states that have passed gender-affirming-care bans. 

Strangio feels the weight of his responsibility—particularly given his personal connection to the subject matter of the case. “I have this deep, intimate and personal connection to the work that I do that can make it both harder, but also more significant, more motivating,” he says. “I feel a lot of pressure, personally and on behalf of my community, to continue to figure out the best strategic decisions.”

TIME spoke with Strangio ahead of the start of the Supreme Court’s term in October. This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

How do you feel about becoming the first out trans lawyer to argue in front of the Supreme Court?

The first thing that comes to mind is that it signifies for so many communities, things are so far behind where they should be. In 2024, no group of people should be having their first experience of anything, and it is always a function of structural discrimination and barriers to access to various spaces that make it so much harder for people, and certain groups, to have access to different spaces. To the extent I’m the first out attorney arguing before the Supreme Court, it’s also not surprising that I would be a white trans masculine attorney, because, again, these are all just functions of the systems of power that make it easier and harder for different people based on the bodies that we inhabit to access different spaces. 

So on some level, the first thing I feel is sort of sad about the state of the world. And then the second thing is I think about all the other advocates for trans people that have come before me. In particular, I think about Pauli Murray, who was likely a trans lawyer, certainly a gender nonconforming and queer, Black lawyer, whose work laid the groundwork, not just for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work, but also for Thurgood Marshall’s work, and set the contours for so much of our constitutional arguments and work. 

Are you planning to reference the historic nature of your oral arguments in front of the justices?

I don’t know the answer to that. I think it’s something where it can be very vulnerable. 

The case you’re arguing, U.S. v. Skrmetti, could have serious repercussions on the ability of trans youth to access gender-affirming-care, but could also go beyond the scope of that. Do you feel a personal connection to the case?

I certainly feel a personal connection to this case. The central arguments are about not just the legitimacy of trans healthcare, but about, in some sense, the legitimacy of trans people, as members of civic life and public life. I think it just wouldn’t be possible to feel more connected to it. It has everything to do with my experiences in the world and my prospects for living in the United States in the future. So that is central to how I experience the legal arguments, but also the material consequences of the case. For all the healthcare cases in particular, I truly unambiguously believe that the only reason I’ve been able to have the rich, and full, and really beautiful adult life that I do have is because of gender-affirming medical care, and I feel that my experience is a refutation of the arguments that are being made. 

Seeing that this is personal to you, does that make preparing for this more difficult than if it were a different subject matter? Does that weigh on you?

My entire career has involved issues and cases that feel intimately connected to my own life and everyone I love and care about. I don’t even know what it would be like to work on something that you’re only engaging with in some abstract way. I have this deep, intimate and personal connection to the work that I do that can make it both harder, but also more significant, more motivating. I feel a lot of pressure, personally and on behalf of my community, to continue to figure out the best strategic decisions. But these are not individual decisions. These are big, large, collective decisions, and so that is all just part of the work. And I feel really lucky, more than anything else, to be a part of it. 

In terms of, what does it feel like to tackle it in the presentation of the legal arguments in court, I have always felt that it requires a certain degree of compartmentalization. I think we all do what we can to navigate that experience of compartmentalization in our advocacy when we’re advocating on behalf of our own communities. 

Throughout your career, you’ve been involved in litigation about LGBTQ+ rights. Based on your experience, could you name one thing that worries you and one thing that gives you hope about the future?

Everything worries me about the future right now. We have this election, we have this Supreme Court case, we have this escalatingly vicious public discourse around transness and trans people. At the same time, my community and the brilliance and beauty of trans people, it gives me hope every day. It gives me faith for the future. It gives me a sense of endless possibility. 

How does the transgender rights movement compare to other politically charged movements, like Freedom to Marry? 

Looking at the LGBTQ+ movement broadly as it relates to gay and lesbian people versus where we are with trans people, I think this is really an inflection point. Are we about to have a Bowers v. Hardwick moment? A moment where the Supreme Court legitimizes government discrimination against trans people?

Is it going to be a Bowers moment, or is it going to be a bus stop moment? Is it going to be a moment where, rather than say the government can discriminate against people, the court says, ‘No, the laws that exist, the constitutional protections that exist, apply to trans people, just like they apply to everyone else.’ That really is what’s at stake here. What is the trajectory of the next 15 to 20 years? Because if they do rule against us, I think, like with Bowers, it will be a case that will seem wrongly decided and overturned. But hopefully we don’t have to go through that period again. And it’s not just affecting trans people, it’ll affect all LGBTQ people. It’ll affect all people who experience gender-based discrimination. 

What message do you have for the transgender community? 

I always want to say two things to trans people in this moment. The first is, I’m so sorry that this set of relentless political, cultural and legal attacks have been escalating over the last, in particular, 10 years. It is painful and it’s frustrating. And we collectively have to hold and honor each other’s vulnerability and pain in this moment. 

The second thing I’ll say is, we have a long and rich history as trans people of leading resistance movements, not just for trans liberation, but for collective liberation more broadly, and that is going to continue. And this Supreme Court fight, critical as it is, is just one piece in a long struggle in a long and rich history of resistance, and so we will continue to collectively mobilize no matter what happens. 

source https://time.com/7049118/chase-strangio-supreme-court-interview/

Indigenous Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe Shouts in Protest at Visiting King Charles

An Indigenous senator has interrupted a reception for British monarch King Charles III during his first visit since taking the throne, calling for a treaty between the Australian government and First Nations peoples. 

At an event held to welcome the king to Australia at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted to the British monarch that he was not her king and he should “give us our land back.”

“Give us what you stole from us,” Thorpe said, before being quickly escorted out of the room by security. “You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty.”

King Charles is on his first trip to Australia since being crowned in 2023. While Australia is governed separately from the British throne, the king remains its head of state. A national vote in 1999 on whether to become republic was defeated comprehensively.

The king was seated on a podium during Thorpe’s protest, and talked quietly to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Thorpe is a vocal advocate for Indigenous Australian rights, often protesting at events or on the floor of the Senate.

She was previously a senator for the left-wing Greens Party but quit the group in 2023 over their support for an Indigenous advisory group to Parliament—a body which Thorpe opposed.

source https://time.com/7095405/australia-king-charles-visit-indigenous-senator-lidia-thorpe-parliament/

U.S. Navy Declares Two Aviators Dead After Jet Crashes Near Mount Rainier During Training

Two crew members who were missing following the crash of a fighter jet in mountainous terrain in Washington state during a routine training flight have been declared dead, the U.S. Navy said Sunday.

The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier on Tuesday afternoon, according to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Search teams, including a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from the air station to try to find the crew and crash site.

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Army Special Forces soldiers trained in mountaineering, high-angle rescue and technical communications were brought in to reach the wreckage, which was located Wednesday by an aerial crew resting at about 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) in a remote, steep and heavily wooded area east of Mount Rainier, officials said.

The aviators’ names won’t be released until a day after their next of kin have been notified, the Navy said in a statement Sunday, adding that search and rescue efforts have shifted into a long-term salvage and recovery operation as the cause of the crash is still being investigated.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the loss of two beloved Zappers,” said Cmdr. Timothy Warburton, commanding officer of the aviators’ Electronic Attack Squadron. “Our priority right now is taking care of the families of our fallen aviators. … We are grateful for the ongoing teamwork to safely recover the deceased.”

Locating the missing crew members “as quickly and as safely as possible” had been top priority, Capt. David Ganci, commander, Electronic Attack Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said Thursday.

The EA-18G Growler is similar to the F/A-18F Super Hornet and includes sophisticated electronic warfare devices. Most of the Growler squadrons are based at Whidbey Island. One squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

The “Zappers” were recently deployed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The search took place near Mount Rainier, a towering active volcano that is blanketed in snowfields and glaciers year-round.

The first production of the Growler was delivered to Whidbey Island in 2008. In the past 15 years, the Growler has operated around the globe supporting major actions, the Navy said. The plane seats a pilot in front and an electronics operator behind them.

“The EA-18G Growler aircraft we fly represents the most advanced technology in airborne Electronic Attack and stands as the Navy’s first line of defense in hostile environments,” the Navy said on its website. Each aircraft costs about $67 million.

Military aircraft training exercises can be dangerous and sometimes result in crashes, injuries and deaths.

In May, an F-35 fighter jet on its way from Texas to Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles crashed after the pilot stopped to refuel in New Mexico. The pilot was the only person on board in that case and was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

Last year, eight U.S. Air Force special Operations Command service members were killed when a CV-22B Osprey aircraft they were flying in crashed off the coast of Japan.

—Associated Press writer Jesse Bedayn contributed to this report from Denver.

source https://time.com/7095376/washington-state-navy-fighter-jet-crash-training-deaths/

Thelma Mothershed Wair, of the School-Integrating Little Rock Nine, Dies at 83

Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas’ capital city of Little Rock in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults, has died at age 83.

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Mothershed Wair died Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock after having complications from multiple sclerosis, her sister, Grace Davis, confirmed Sunday to The Associated Press.

The students who integrated Central High School were known as the Little Rock Nine.

For three weeks in September 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block the Black students from enrolling in Central High, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated classrooms were unconstitutional. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the students into school on Sept. 25, 1957.

Davis said she was enrolled at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville when her sister and the other students—Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls—integrated Central High School.

“I didn’t think anybody was really going to hurt her because, you know, we’ve had racial incidents in Little Rock over the years,” Davis said of her sister. “People would say things that were mean, but they never really hurt anybody.”

Davis said in the years that followed she and her sister spoke about the experience.

“I think one time somebody put some ink on her skirt or something when she was coming through the hallway. And, of course, there was always name-calling,” Davis said. “But she never really had any physical confrontations with any of the students up there.”

Faubus closed all of the schools in Little Rock in 1958 to try to avoid further integration. Mothershed went out of state to finish her remaining high school classes. The academic credits transferred back to Little Rock, and she ultimately earned her diploma from Central High School.

“She was always a fighter,” Davis said of her sister. “She’s been sick her entire life. She was born with a congenital heart defect and was told at an early age that she would never get out of her teens. So as she approached her 16th birthday, I remember Mother talking about how afraid she was because she thought she was going to die. But she did what she wanted to do. She enjoyed life.”

Mothershed earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Mothershed married Fred Wair in 1965. The couple have one son, Scott; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2005, and Mothershed Wair moved back to Little Rock, Davis said.

According to the National Park Service, Mothershed Wair worked in the East St. Louis, Illinois, school system for 10 years as a home economics teacher and for 18 years as a counselor for elementary career education before retiring in 1994. She also worked at the Juvenile Detention Center of the St. Clair County Jail in Illinois, and was an instructor of survival skills for women at the American Red Cross.

Each member of the Little Rock Nine was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, and they donated them to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock in 2011.

—Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi.

source https://time.com/7095372/thelma-mothershed-wair-little-rock-nine-arkansas-obituary/