#Battle of Perryville

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1862 – At the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, “Little Phil” Sheridan is one of the key officers leading Union soldiers against the Confederate forces of Braxton Bragg.

Phil Sheridan’s parents John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan had emigrated from Co Cavan. Sheridan’s diminutive stature of five feet five inches earned him the nickname “Little Phil”. In his memoirs, Sheridan writes: “My parents, John and Mary Sheridan, came to America in 1830, having been induced by the representations of my father’s uncle, Thomas Gainor, then living in Albany, NY, to try their…

[southernprideyall2]

8 October 1862

[daguerreotyping]

Carte de visite of Union General William R. Terrill, dated 1861—a year before his death in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.8 (before 1960)

316 – Constantine I defeats Roman Emperor Licinius, who loses his European territories. 451 – The first session of the Council of Chalcedon begins. 876 – Frankish forces led by Louis the Younger prevent a West Frankish invasion and defeat emperor Charles II ("the Bald"). 1075 – Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned King of Croatia. 1200 – Isabella of Angoulême is crowned Queen consort of England. 1322 – Mladen II Šubić of Bribir is deposed as the Croatian Ban after the Battle of Bliska. 1480 – The Great Stand on the Ugra River puts an end to Tatar rule over Moscow 1573 – End of the Spanish siege of Alkmaar, the first Dutch victory in the Eighty Years' War. 1645 – Jeanne Mance opens the first lay hospital of North America in Montreal. 1813 – The Treaty of Ried is signed between Bavaria and Austria. 1821 – The Peruvian Navy is established during the War of Independence. 1829 – Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials. 1856 – The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident. 1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate invasion of Kentucky is halted at the Battle of Perryville. 1871 – Slash-and-burn land management, months of drought, and the passage of a strong cold front cause the Peshtigo Fire, the Great Chicago Fire and the Great Michigan Fires to break out. 1879 – War of the Pacific: The Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos. 1895 – Korean Empress Myeongseong is assassinated by Japanese infiltrators. 1912 – The First Balkan War begins when Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire. 1918 – World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. 1921 – KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field conducts the first live broadcast of a football game. 1939 – World War II: Germany annexes western Poland. 1941 – World War II: During the preliminaries of the Battle of Rostov, German forces reach the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol. 1943 – World War II: Around 30 civilians are executed by Friedrich Schubert's paramilitary group in Kallikratis, Crete. 1944 – World War II: Captain Bobbie Brown earns a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Crucifix Hill, just outside Aachen. 1952 – The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people. 1956 – The New York Yankees's Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in a World Series.

[dixiedrudge]

Sergeant York - Today In Southern History

8 October 1918   On this date in 1918… During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Cpl. Alvin York single-handedly silenced German machine guns and captured 132 German prisoners.  For his actions, York was promoted to sergeant and became the most decorated American soldier of WWI. Other Years: 1862 – Battle of Perryville, Kentucky. 1944 –  Cpt. Bobbie Brown of Dublin, Georgia received the Medal of…

[blueridgeparkway-sept2024]

Day 3, Wed Sept 4: Hurricane (Charleston) to Huntington WV; to Boonesboro, Springfield, Bardstown and Elizabethville, Kentucky. 525 kms.

Started the day in Hurricane WV midway between Charleston and Huntington. The latter is the home of Marshall University of We Are Marshall fame. In 1970, a plane crash killed 70 members of the Marshall football team and staff and inspired the movie. Gone but not forgotten, the entire town of 46,800 is still covered in the team colors and festooned with The Herd and We Are Marshall slogans.

For much of the day, I will be riding along the Ohio River as it forms the border between Ohio and both WV and Kentucky, which means as I ride along in one state, I can literally look across the river at the other.

I waxed eloquent on WV yesterday, and today, it's Kentucky's turn. Kentucky actually hived off of Virginia in 1792. Today, with a pop of circa 4.5 million, it currently ranks 28th amongst the states in terms of prosperity.

It is indeed a fascinating state of verdant eastern Appalachian mountains, rich farmland (corn, soybeans and tobacco), ranch lands (cattle and horses), rustic old barns and mobile homes, sprawling farms and ranches, and historic homes and buildings. It is absolutely a fascinating state through which to ride.

Throw in its Civil War history with forts and epic battles, including the battles of Barbourville and Perryville, and the Civil War Fort above the town of Boonesboro (established in 1775 by Daniel Boone), all of through which I rode.

And the fact that Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky and living in Springfield, through which I rode today, when he was elected president.

Also, on my itinerary today was Bardstown, home of the Womens Civil War Museum and the designated bourbon capital of the world.

As far as stunning memories of the day, I would have to include the miles of low stone walls that lined so many of the farms. I could just imagine Union soldiers huddled behind them as Confederate soldiers charged them with guns firing and bayonet drawn.

On the other end of the fence equation were the miles and miles of classic wooden fences behind which stood sprawling ranch style homes and pastures full of beautiful horses of undoubtedly Kentucky Derby caliber.

And of course, the ubiquitous Baptist churches. Throw a stone in Kentucky, and you will very likely hit a Baptist church.

Yes, overall, Kentucky, you certainly made a mark today. I will definitely be back.

[lightdancer1]

The Battle of Antietam matters not least for the precise context of what followed it:

Antietam is one of those cases where a battle matters not for what the bloodshed in it actually did, which was extremely little, but for the political context around it and as such is a good example of why Clausewitz is the war theorist to read if one must read anyone. Specifically in 1862 in the fall after almost collapsing the so-called Confederacy reached its high tide where independence seemed to loom for it. Then at Perryville it crashed and burned in a classic case of what would happen with Bragg's dysfunctional army exposed to real battlefield conditions in the West, and in the East Lee's grander scheme to fight in Pennsylvania exploded when Special Orders no. 191 were picked up by two US soldiers, drawing his army and McClellan's into what is still the bloodiest single day in US history.

McClellan's sole battle he oversaw, it was a horrendously mismanaged sequence of piecemeal attacks that devoured lives by the thousands to lead Lee's bloodied army to retreat across the Potomac. In this half-victory Lincoln decided the time was now right to release the Emancipation Proclamation not as a display of weakness but strength, and a profound shift in how the war would subsequently be fought. From that point the tide of the US Army would be one of encroaching liberation, and the war of unification one of a revolutionary and increasingly remorseless total war of liberation.

[writer59january13]

Leaving a book incompletely read tantamount to being sacrilegious

Preface: On February 4, 1861, the seven states that had seceded by this point convened and created the Confederate States of America under the leadership of Jefferson Davis. Just under two months later, on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on Union-occupied Fort Sumter off the South Carolina coast. Starting but not completely reading a book... tantamount to being sacrilegious, especially when storied subject matter deals with heated issue as slavery, which essentially succinctly describes war between the states (purportedly started April 12, 1861 – and reputedly ended April 9, 1865) allegedly triggered at 4:30 ante meridian on April 12, 1861, when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. Less than 34 hours later, Union forces surrendered. Traditionally, this event used to signify the beginning of the Civil War. Self imposed onerous obligation understanding difficult to comprehend thought provoking printed material subsequently generated system of the down overload mine (myopic) eyes see the words, but their meaning doth not compute, especially when an author chooses to write

in a bewildering, style, thus "Abort, Retry, Fail?" (or "Abort, Retry, Ignore?") an error message found in DOS operating systems, which prompts the end-user for a course of action arises within sixty plus shades of gray matter within me mind. At present my fascination and interest with American history temporarily appeased, whence yours truly envisions himself a Yankee in the Antebellum North thirstily drinking information detailing one figurative chapter concerning, detailing, giving The Civil War breadth, scope, width, et cetera a narrative spanning Fort Sumter to Perryville painstakingly written by the late Shelby Dade Foote. An overactive imagination of mine easily populated with sights, smells, and sounds linkedin to that rebellion (as ascribed by Abraham Lincoln) witnessing the secession of South Carolina followed by the secession of six more states— Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas– and the threat of secession by four more— Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America. Though the internecine fighting weathered the test of eighty seven years since July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, voted unanimously to declare independence as the "United States of America". Two days later, on July 4, Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. The Second Continental Congress not initially formed to declare independence. Bloody battlegrounds minted hard core military men, which soldiers when not fighting sang sentimental tunes about distant love—the popular “Lorena” and “Aura Lee” (which in the twentieth century became “Love Me Tender”) and “The Yellow Rose of Texas”— and songs of loss such as “The Vacant Chair.” Other tunes commemorated victory— “Marching Through Georgia” considered a vibrant evocation of Sherman's ... March to the Sea. Some even sprouted from prison life, such as "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp." Soldiers marched to the rollicking “Eatin’ Goober Peas;” they vented their war-weariness with “Hard Times; ” they sang about their life in “Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground; ” they were buried to the soulful strains of “Taps,” written for the dead of both sides in the Seven Days’ Battles. When the guns stopped, the survivors returned to the haunting notes of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”

[visuals-to-turn-u-on]

Work Selected for 2022 Kentucky Governor's Derby Exhibition

My photograph, Privy was selected to be part of the 2022 Governor’s Derby Exhibition arranged through the Kentucky Arts Council. On exhibit in the Capitol Rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol from May 7 through June 1, 2022, the exhibition is part of the ongoing series of activities that celebrate the iconic Kentucky Derby. Privy (2016, Perryville, Kentucky) (c) Steve Hoffman The photograph…

[ndakota2a]

Other Submission ©️ Steve Hoffman While the previous post shows the selected photograph to the 2019 Governor's Derby Exhibition, this post shows the other photo I submitted, titled, Faded Glory (Battle of Perryville 2016).

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1862 – At the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, “Little Phil” Sheridan is one of the key officers leading Union soldiers against the Confederate forces of Braxton Bragg.

#OTD in 1862 – At the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, “Little Phil” Sheridan is one of the key officers leading Union soldiers against the Confederate forces of Braxton Bragg.

Phil Sheridan’s parents John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan had emigrated from Co Cavan. Sheridan’s diminutive stature of five feet five inches earned him the nickname “Little Phil”. In his memoirs, Sheridan writes: “My parents, John and Mary Sheridan, came to America in 1830, having been induced by the representations of my father’s uncle, Thomas Gainor, then living in Albany, NY, to try their…

[katiethxrne]

Writing meme - 4, 6, 14

4.

Excerpt from my short story Weathervane.

Daphne once reigned supreme in the Pit.

She’d appear in the battling throng with a primal cry in her throat, elbow rapiers flashing out into ribs. While stray hands explored the expanse of her thighs and back with guitar-strung violence, their sweat slicking her arms and bare waist. They’d sweep her off her feet, and smash her into the earth with a savage joy.

Daphne would lay there, a mud-splattered angel, the bodies above her swaying and surging, as the shadows of their arms blocking the stars and moon. They fought a war above her, while her head spun and giggles sputtered from her bloodied mouth, pain growing from her neck and ribs, expanded down her spine, tears tingling the back of her throat, and scratching beneath eyelashes. The cuts on her palms opened, and where the blood touched the grass mushrooms began to grow.

For that moment, she was weightless and free, as trees and stars gleamed down while voices reaching her ears.

Their bellowing: “Open the fucking Pit!” repetitive, panicked, concerned. Hands yanked Daphne to her feet, dusting her off, patting her for broken bones, wiping away her blood with sacred liquor-stained palms, touching up her braids, and tugging off mushrooms now growing from her palms. She’d let herself be carried off into their winds, the last of the seeds sewn into her blood where they’d grow into her marrow.

The night would eventually break and dawn rise, with the party moving inside to shared beds and couch space.

Daphne would wake up the next afternoon, tongue heavy with stale beer, crawling from Trash House to the bus stop, legs swinging on cracked plastic, her nametag plastered to a blue Wal-Mart vest. Daphne’s skin tattooed with black, blue, and purple flowers budding along her shoulders and hips forming a garden on the expanse of her earthen skin.

Picking out mushrooms sprouting from behind her ears and dust away pollen on her shirt Daphne would sit head pressed to the glass, looking out onto the prairie.

Perryville was built around the river’s edge, hot springs, and copper deposits. They’d cut out old-growth trees, burying ponds in favor of lawns, basements built for seasonal tornados, and preparations for a Nuclear War that would never come. They’d torn out everything that made the land beautiful — scaring game, turning over fertile soil to sterilization, erecting brimstone churches, and brick storefronts.

Daphne, like everyone else in Perryville, rotting in her own unfulfilled promise. Just like every decaying house and Rockefeller family built in worship of a collapsing American.

It was a type of justice, Daphne would think, that Perryville is eaten alive by its own landscape, falling apart before the hostile ghosts. She enjoyed every closed storefront and foreclosure sign, and smiled when another U-haul left the town's borders.

Justice.

Daphne sat, the bus rolling under her feet, hitting every pothole and asphalt crack. Eyes fixated on golden grasses waving, beckoning her legs to run, to enjoy the angle of the sun on her nose. Closing her eyes from the scene, Daphne waited for her stop, rusting. She was rooted here, in this land, and waited for the day she'd wake up to the town in flames.

6.

I actually like writing tons of drabbles and snippets of random characters and pieces from my character's life. They sorta just live in my drafts, cause most aren't even plot it's just Slice Of Life writing. It can get kinda boring for anyone else I think for me to just extrapolate on some random werewolf party or Katie getting into stupid Auror shit, it's just for me and my character/writing development for my dumbass kid. I have a lot for Justin actually, and plenty for the Rangers. But I think if I posted every dumb drabble and snippet it would be Too Much.

14.

When it comes to my writing I actually took some advice from the Imagineering documentary on Disney+ about the 4 Levels of Detail of how these park designers made the Disneyland parks feel real. They go from the top to the tiniest design detail of how a door knocker would feel to a park goes. I think of this whenever I write my scenes - how a person can get immersed in the detail and design level of my writing, of my characters, to the point of it feels real and lived in. I want my writing to feel lived in, alive, and knowable. Create a knowable world, a knowable character.

So I think about how my characters would move within such a detailed space. Their physicality within the space they are currently inhabiting, or what's happening around them. I actively write my characters thinking in one shape or another in my longer para's, whether they have a memory or an internal narration. When it comes to my shorter replies I tend to focus more on dialogue, keeping the characters moving and talking, while also noting things happening around the space or how they are physically trying to interact with the other character.

I enjoy writing with a lot of imagery, using the five senses where I can to round out a reader's experience with the world. I want readers to see what I'm seeing and to know what I know. I don't think I even succeed half the time, but I want to try.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.8 (before 1940)

314 – Constantine I defeats Roman Emperor Licinius, who loses his European territories. 451 – The first session of the Council of Chalcedon begins. 876 – Frankish forces led by Louis the Younger prevent a West Frankish invasion and defeat emperor Charles II ("the Bald"). 1075 – Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned King of Croatia. 1200 – Isabella of Angoulême is crowned Queen consort of England. 1322 – Mladen II Šubić of Bribir is deposed as the Croatian Ban after the Battle of Bliska. 1480 – The Great Stand on the Ugra River puts an end to Tartar rule over Moscow 1573 – End of the Spanish siege of Alkmaar, the first Dutch victory in the Eighty Years' War. 1645 – Jeanne Mance opens the first lay hospital of North America in Montreal. 1813 – The Treaty of Ried is signed between Bavaria and Austria. 1821 – The Peruvian Navy is established during the War of Independence. 1829 – Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials. 1856 – The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident. 1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate invasion of Kentucky is halted at the Battle of Perryville. 1871 – Slash-and-burn land management, months of drought, and the passage of a strong cold front cause the Peshtigo Fire, the Great Chicago Fire and the Great Michigan Fires to break out. 1879 – War of the Pacific: The Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos. 1895 – Korean Empress Myeongseong is assassinated by Japanese infiltrators. 1912 – The First Balkan War begins when Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire. 1918 – World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. 1921 – KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field conducts the first live broadcast of a football game. 1939 – World War II: Germany annexes western Poland.

[dixiedrudge]

Patrick Cleburne at Shiloh or How to Learn Your Trade on the Fly, Part I

Help Dixie Defeat Big-Tech Censorship! Spread the Word! Like, Share, Re-Post, and Subscribe! There’s a lot more to see at our main page, Dixie Drudge! (Emerging Civil War) – Few Civil War commanders enjoy the high reputation of Patrick Cleburne. It is hard to find a battle where he did not excel, and his record reads as a roll-call of the Army of Tennessee’s career: Richmond, Perryville, Stones…

[chaotic-archaeologist]

I was tagged by @saintartemis, thank you!!

Tag 9 people you'd like to get to know better/ catch up with!

Last Song: In The Woods Somewhere by Hozier

Currently reading: I'm in the middle of Perryville: This Grand Havock of Battle, A Long Long Way, and Love Stories: Sex between Men Before Homosexuality

Currently watching: Time Team (always) and Le Bureau

Currently craving: Pesto pasta. Mmmm

Tagging: @midden-maiden, @door-into-summer, @sinovenatorchangii, @luthied, @art-thropologist, @archaeologistproblems, @archaicbookworm, @buckets-of-dirt, and @museumably

[newstfionline]

Friday, July 30, 2021

Alaskan coast 8.2 magnitude earthquake was the strongest one in decades, official says (CNN) The 8.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off Alaska’s coast Wednesday night was the strongest one since 1964, an official told CNN. The very strong quake was located about 56 miles (91 kilometers) east southeast of Perryville, Alaska, and happened around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. “This event was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak,” according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

Homes lose water as wells run dry in drought-ravaged basin MALIN, Ore. (AP) Judy and Jim Shanks know the exact date their home’s well went dry—June 24. Since then, their life has been an endless cycle of imposing on relatives for showers and laundry, hauling water to feed a small herd of cattle and desperately waiting for a local well-drilling company to make it to their name on a monthslong wait list. The couple’s well is among potentially hundreds that have dried up in recent weeks in an area near the Oregon-California border suffering through a historic drought, leaving homes with no running water just a few months after the federal government shut off irrigation to hundreds of the region’s farmers for the first time ever. Officials have formal reports of 117 empty wells but suspect more than 300 have gone dry in the past few weeks as the consequences of the Klamath River basin’s water scarcity extend far beyond farmers’ fields. Worried homeowners face waits of six months or more to get new, deeper wells dug because of the surging demand, with no guarantee that those wells, too, won’t ultimately go dry. While much of the West is experiencing exceptional drought conditions, the toll on everyday life is particularly stark in this region filled with flat vistas of sprawling alfalfa and potato fields and normally teeming wetlands.

Biden orders tough new vaccination rules for federal government (AP) President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new pandemic requirements for millions of federal workers. Federal workers will be required to attest they’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus or else face mandatory masking, weekly testing, distancing and other new rules. The newly strict guidelines are aimed at boosting sluggish vaccination rates among the four million Americans who draw federal paychecks and to set an example for private employers around the country. The administration encouraged businesses to follow its lead on incentivizing vaccinations by imposing burdens on the unvaccinated. Rather than mandating that federal workers receive vaccines, the plan will make life more difficult for those who are unvaccinated to encourage them to comply. Biden also directed the Defense Department to look into adding the COVID-19 shot to its list of required vaccinations for members of the military. And he has directed his team to take steps to apply similar requirements to all federal contractors. Biden also urged state and local governments to use funds provided by the coronavirus relief package to incentivize vaccinations by offering $100 to individuals who get the shots. And he announced that small- and medium-sized businesses will receive reimbursements if they offer employees time off to get family members vaccinated.

Mexico declares $3 billion U.S. security deal ‘dead,’ seeks revamp (Washington Post) Frustrated by raging violence, the Mexican government is seeking to overhaul the Merida Initiative, a $3 billion U.S. aid program that’s been the centerpiece of security cooperation between the two nations for more than a decade—but has failed to reduce bloodshed. Mexican officials say they have been meeting with Biden administration officials since late spring to refocus their cooperation against drug cartels and other criminal groups, amid growing concerns that such gangs are expanding their control over Mexican territory. “The Merida Initiative is dead. It doesn’t work, okay?” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told The Washington Post in the government’s first detailed comments on the discussions. “We are now in another era.” Launched during the presidency of George W. Bush, the Merida Initiative initially provided hundreds of millions of dollars for aircraft, helicopters and other hardware for Mexico’s security forces. In recent years, the funding shifted to technical aid and training to strengthen Mexico’s police and justice system. But despite the billions of dollars in aid, there has been a “huge, huge increase in violence,” Ebrard noted. Homicides in Mexico have quadrupled since the initiative was announced in 2007. Drug overdose deaths in the United States, meanwhile, soared to a record 93,331 last year, fueled by the rising use of fentanyl, much of it smuggled across the southwest border.

Something strange is happening in Britain. Covid cases are plummeting instead of soaring. (Washington Post) This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They were supposed to soar. Scientists aren’t sure why they haven’t. The trajectory of the virus in Britain is something the world is watching closely and anxiously, as a test of how the delta variant behaves in a society with relatively high vaccination rates. And now people are asking if this could be the first real-world evidence that the pandemic in Britain is sputtering out—after three national lockdowns and almost 130,000 deaths. Public health experts, alongside the government, predicted that cases would be rising in Britain at this point, perhaps even exponentially.

France Gave Teenagers $350 for Culture. They’re Buying Comic Books. (NYT) When the French government launched a smartphone app that gives 300 euros to every 18-year-old in the country for cultural purchases like books and music, or exhibition and performance tickets, most young people’s impulse wasn’t to buy Proust’s greatest works or to line up and see Molière. Instead, France’s teenagers flocked to manga. As of this month, books represented over 75 percent of all purchases made through the app since it was introduced nationwide in May—and roughly two-thirds of those books were manga, according to the organization that runs the app, called the Culture Pass. The focus on comic books reveals a subtle tension at the heart of the Culture Pass’s design, between the almost total freedom it affords young users—including to buy the mass media they already love—and its architects’ aim of guiding users toward lesser-known and more highbrow arts. Opponents accuse Macron of throwing cash at young people to court their vote before next year’s presidential election.

Europe on vacation, but vaccinations not taking a break (AP) Europe’s famed summer holiday season is in full swing, but efforts to inoculate people against the coronavirus are not taking a break. Instead, with lockdowns easing despite concerns about variants and nations looking to breathe new life into their ailing tourism industries, vaccinations are being taken to vacationers. From France’s sun-kissed Mediterranean coast to the azure waters of Italy’s Adriatic beaches and Russian Black Sea resorts, health authorities are trying to make a COVID-19 shot as much part of this summer as sunscreen and shades for those who are not yet fully vaccinated. The new drive to take shots to tourists is a way of adapting to Europe’s annual summer migration, when it seems whole cities empty of their residents for weeks.

Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots 'worrisome,' U.S. govt watchdog says (Reuters) Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots marks another "worrisome development" for the Afghan Air Force as it reels from a surge in fighting, a U.S. government watchdog said in a report released on Thursday. At least seven Afghan pilots have been assassinated off base in recent months, two senior Afghan government officials told Reuters, part of what the Islamist Taliban says is a campaign to see U.S.-trained Afghan pilots “targeted and eliminated.” The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in its quarterly report to Congress covering the three-month period through June, broadly portrayed an Afghan Air Force (AAF) under growing strain from battling the Taliban amid the U.S. withdrawal—and becoming less ready to fight. The AAF’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, for example, had a 39 percent readiness rate in June, about half the level of April and May.

Floods make thousands homeless in Bangladesh Rohingya camps (AP) Days of heavy rainfall have pelted Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, destroying dwellings and sending thousands of people to live with extended family or in communal shelters. Just in the 24 hours to Wednesday alone, more than 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) of rain fell on the camps in Cox’s Bazar district hosting more than 800,000 Rohingya, the U.N. refugee agency said. That’s nearly half the average July rainfall in one day while more heavy downpours are expected in the next few days and the monsoon season stretches over the next three months. Citing initial reports, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 12,000 refugees were affected by the heavy rainfall while an estimated 2,500 shelters have been damaged or destroyed.

Thailand sets up hospital at airport; Cambodia closes border (AP) Health authorities in Thailand raced to set up a large field hospital in a cargo building at one of Bangkok’s airports on Thursday as the country reported record numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths. Other field hospitals are already in use in the capital after it ran out of hospital facilities for thousands of infected residents. The airport, a domestic and regional hub, has had little use because almost all domestic flights were canceled two weeks ago. The quick spread of the delta variant also led neighboring Cambodia to seal its border with Thailand on Thursday and order a lockdown and movement restrictions in eight provinces.

Outspoken Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu sentenced to 18 years in prison (CNN) Billionaire Sun Dawu, a vocal critic of the Chinese government, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” according to an official statement posted by the court. Sun was arrested in March this year. His company, Hebei Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, owns farming operations in China and employs about 9,000 people in poultry processing, pet food production and other industries. He is also famous for being an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party. As part of his 18-year sentence, Dawu was also fined 3.11 million yuan ($480,000). Sun was one of very few people in China to publicly accuse the government of attempting to cover up the extent of the African swine flu outbreak in 2019, which eventually killed more than 100 million pigs in the country. In an interview with CNN in May 2019, Sun said local officials had only retested his pigs for the disease when he had started to post pictures of the dead animals online. Sun’s sentencing comes amid a growing crackdown on private enterprises in China, as Beijing attempts to pull into line the country’s free-wheeling entrepreneurs. In a set of guidelines put out in September 2020, the Communist Party said the private sector needed “politically sensible people” who would “firmly listen to the party.”

Lockdown Under (Reuters) Sydney, Australia announced Wednesday that they would be extending their lockdown by four weeks. The extension was announced with frustration by Premier Gladys Berejikilan, who stated, “I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality,” during a televised news conference. Berejiklian added police would boost enforcement of wide-ranging social distancing rules and urged people to report suspected wrongdoing. The multiple lockdown extensions have turned a “snap” lockdown into the country’s longest, with many fearing another recession.

Probe into Beirut blast stalls again, leaving families fuming one year on (Reuters) Ibrahim Hoteit lost his younger brother, Tharwat, in the huge explosion that ripped through the port of Beirut last August. He went around hospitals collecting body parts, starting with Tharwat’s scalp, and buried his remains in a small coffin. Nearly a year later, Hoteit, a spokesperson for families of more than 200 people who died in the disaster, is still trying to call to account those he says are responsible for allowing the accident to happen. As Beirut prepares to mark the first anniversary of a blast that flattened large swathes of the city, politicians and senior security officials have yet to be questioned in a formal investigation. Much of the devastation from the blast is still visible. The port resembles a bomb site, and many buildings have been left in a state of collapse. Major questions remain unanswered, including why such a large shipment of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in bombs and fertiliser, was left stored in the middle of a crowded city for years after being unloaded in 2013.