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FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on deadly tornadoes: "This is going to be our new normal and the effects that we’re seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation.” pic.twitter.com/y6xYCIYjWj
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 13, 2021
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Rescuers continued to search for survivors Monday after tornadoes tore through Kentucky and neighboring states over the weekend, devastating entire towns and killing dozens of people.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in an update Monday afternoon that 74 people in the state had been confirmed dead and that over 100 others were unaccounted for, with both numbers expected to grow.
Beshear said Monday morning that it would take “a week or even more before we have a final count on the number of lost lives," saying the "mountain of waste" included perished livestock.
Flags at government buildings will be flown at half-staff for a week beginning Tuesday, and a state fund will pay for the funerals of those who have died, Beshear said. Read More
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Officials in both states said the new measures were meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus — especially omicron — amid fears of another deadly winter wave. They also acknowledged that the moves underscore an exhausting truth about the pandemic: It is far from over.
“We know people are tired and hungry for normalcy,” Mark Ghaly, secretary of California’s health and human services agency, said at a Monday briefing. “Frankly, I am too.” Read More
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After the White House's January 2020 unveiling of the White House's Middle East peace plan went off the rails, President Donald Trump yelled at his aides, "What the hell was that?" the author of a forthcoming book on US-Israel relations told The Forward.
The Axios journalist Barak Ravid's book "Trump's Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East" describes the US-Israel relationship during the Trump years. Trump heavily emphasized cultivating a close relationship with Israel and then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and put Jared Kushner, his son-in-law who already had a relationship with Netanyahu, in charge of the White House's Middle East relations.
Trump's relationship with Netanyahu had soured in the lead-up to the rollout, Ravid told The Forward, with Trump feeling like some of his pro-Israel moves, including recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, hadn't been sufficiently appreciated and reciprocated by Netanyahu. Read More
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Amazon is facing questions over health and safety policies at a warehouse in the US state of Illinois after six workers died when the building was destroyed by a tornado.
"This never would have happened if they cared about lives over productivity," the sister of one of the victims commented on social media.
The company says its team had "worked quickly" in response to the tornado.
The roof collapsed as the storm hit the warehouse on Friday.
Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement the company is "deeply saddened" by the deaths.
One of those who died, Clayton Cope, 29, spoke to his family on the phone shortly before the building in the town of Edwardsville, Illinois was struck. Read More
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Serco Inc., a provider of professional, technology, engineering, and management services, has been awarded the new Space Fence Operations and Maintenance contract by the United States Space Force Space Operations Command (SpOC). As the prime contractor, Serco will provide 24x7 services to manage, operate, maintain, and provide logistical and general support for the Space Fence system. The Space Fence is a second-generation ground-based S-Band radar space surveillance system, strengthening U.S. space superiority through improved Space Domain Awareness (SDA). The contract has a 5-month base period plus five one-year option periods and is valued at $33 million, if all options are exercised.
Serco will perform SDA operations, logistics and organizational level maintenance for the Space Fence radar and supporting systems, as well as cybersecurity, training and knowledge management. Work performed by the Company will include operating and maintaining the SF S-band radar, which will dramatically increase the number of orbital objects which can be tracked and catalogued.
“From Serco’s RAF Fylingdales work in the U.K starting in 1963 through our GEODSS win here in the U.S. last year, Serco brings an impressive depth and breadth of experience and knowledge to space operations,” said Serco CEO, Dave Dacquino. “I’m proud to see highly capable Serco innovators supporting the planning, execution, and operations in this way for improving Space Domain Awareness.”
Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama and Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands with program management from Serco’s Colorado Springs facility. New automated operations built into the Space Fence mission systems enable operators to carry out more intelligence-driven operations. The Space Fence is the first U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) SDA mission to operate from a net-centric location rather than co-located with the sensor site. Read More
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