The conservancy that oversees the SS United States has launched an pressing $500,000 fundraising marketing campaign to assist cowl relocation bills for the historic ship amid its unsure future.

The 1,000-foot ocean liner, which nonetheless holds the transatlantic velocity report it set greater than 70 years in the past, should go away its berth on the Delaware River in Philadelphia by Sept. 12, a federal decide dominated earlier this month.

Apart from discovering a brand new residence, the conservancy additionally should get hold of funds for insurance coverage, tugs, surveys and dock preparations for shifting the ship, which is incapable of self-propulsion. The group is focusing its efforts on discovering a brief berth within the Philadelphia space or on the East Coast, and fears that if a brief residence can’t be discovered quickly, the vessel may very well be misplaced perpetually.

“Our seek for a brand new momentary or everlasting location has been ongoing and started properly earlier than the litigation, but when a dock can’t be discovered within the coming weeks, we’ll be pressured to decide to reefing or scrapping the vessel,” conservancy board member Warren Jones mentioned in an announcement posted on the group’s web site.

Reefing refers to sinking the ship and turning it into a synthetic reef and diving vacation spot.

U.S. District Decide Anita Brody’s ruling ended a years-old hire dispute between the conservancy and its landlord, Penn Warehousing. It stemmed from an August 2021 resolution by Penn Warehousing to double the ship’s each day dockage to $1,700, a rise the conservancy refused to just accept.

When the conservancy continued to pay its earlier charge, set in 2011, Penn Warehousing terminated the lease in March 2022. After a lot authorized wrangling, Brody held a bench trial in January but additionally inspired the 2 sides to succeed in a settlement as an alternative of leaving it as much as her.

She finally dominated that the conservancy’s failure to pay the brand new charge didn’t quantity to a contract breach or entitle Penn Warehousing to damages. Nevertheless, she discovered that below Pennsylvania contract regulation, the berthing settlement is terminable at will with cheap discover.

Christened in 1952, the SS United States was as soon as thought-about a beacon of American engineering, doubling as a navy vessel that would carry 1000’s of troops. On its maiden voyage in 1952, it shattered the transatlantic velocity report in each instructions, when it reached a median velocity of 36 knots, or simply over 41 mph (66 kph), The Related Press reported from aboard the ship.

On that voyage, the ship crossed the Atlantic in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, besting the RMS Queen Mary’s time by 10 hours. To this present day, the SS United States holds the transatlantic velocity report for an ocean liner.

It turned a reserve ship in 1969 and later bounced to numerous non-public house owners who hoped to redevelop it however finally discovered their plans to be too costly or poorly timed.

It has loomed for years on south Philadelphia’s Delaware waterfront.

CNN
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A lifeguard and surf teacher – who additionally appeared in motion pictures together with “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Blue Crush” – died Sunday following an obvious shark assault on the North Shore of Ohau, Hawaii, based on officers.

Tamayo Perry, 49, was an “eight-year veteran of Honolulu Ocean Security and well-known North Shore waterman,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi mentioned in a press release.

Perry “exemplified bravery, dedication and a deep sense of obligation, serving our neighborhood with unwavering dedication. His heroic actions and tireless efforts to make sure the security of our residents and guests won’t ever be forgotten,” Blangiardi added.

Simply earlier than 1 p.m. Sunday, Honolulu Ocean Security and different emergency responders arrived at a seashore after a name got here in a few surfer who’d been fatally injured in a shark assault, Honolulu Emergency Medical Providers spokesperson Shayne Enright mentioned.

Honolulu Ocean Security responded by jet ski and introduced Perry to shore, the place first responders pronounced him lifeless.

Perry was a lifeguard who was beloved by all, knowledgeable surfer recognized worldwide, and had an “infectious” character, Honolulu Ocean Security appearing Chief Kurt Lager mentioned.

“As a lot as folks beloved him, he beloved everybody else extra,” Lager mentioned.

Perry made a number of TV and film appearances, based on his IMBD web page.

Perry’s bio on the Oahu Browsing Expertise web site lists the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, “Charlie’s Angels 2,” “Blue Crush,” and hit TV exhibits “Misplaced” and “Hawaii 5-0,” amongst his credit.

Perry additionally appeared in nationwide and worldwide advert campaigns, he wrote.

“Once I’m not appearing, I’m nonetheless fairly a personality, so there’s at all times a ton of enjoyable available,” he mentioned.

Perry’s spouse, Emilia Perry, was born and raised in Western Australia and competed as knowledgeable bodyboarder earlier than transferring to Hawaii, the place she met her husband and began browsing competitively, based on her bio on the browsing web site.

“Once I was 18 years previous, I got here to Hawaii for a contest and met Tamayo whereas bodyboarding out at Pipeline. A couple of years later, I picked up a surfboard, we received married and there was no turning again,” she wrote, including, “the huge quantities of ocean data that Tamayo has ingrained in me through the years is priceless.”

The College of Florida’s Worldwide Shark Assault File lists 120 shark chew incidents in 2023. Of the 36 shark bites that occurred within the US, eight had been in Hawaii, one in all which was deadly.

Based on the shark assault file’s 2023 report, surfers skilled 42% of bites worldwide. Although the variety of bites and fatalities elevated final 12 months, in comparison with the earlier 12 months, the report authors say the numbers are nonetheless in keeping with latest tendencies.

The Honolulu neighborhood will present the required help following Perry’s demise, the mayor mentioned.

“As we grieve this unimaginable loss, we’re reminded of the inherent dangers confronted by our lifeguards every day, and we lengthen our deepest gratitude for his or her service,” Blangiardi mentioned.

An achieved surfer and occasional actor died after sustaining deadly accidents in a shark assault off the island of Oahu in Hawaii, authorities stated. Tamayo Perry, 49, was additionally an expert lifeguard for Metropolis and County of Honolulu Ocean Security.

Perry was attacked whereas he was browsing close to Goat Island on Sunday afternoon, Shayne Enright of the Honolulu Emergency Companies Division stated Sunday at a information convention that was streamed by CBS affiliate Hawaii Information Now.

Honolulu Ocean Security and the town’s hearth, police and emergency medical companies departments responded to Mālaekahana Seashore on Oahu’s North Shore simply earlier than 1 p.m. after a caller reported seeing a surfer who appeared to have suffered shark bites and was fatally injured, Enright stated.

Lifeguards introduced Perry to shore by jet ski and paramedics assisted with the dying pronouncement, Enright stated.

Perry, who labored as a lifeguard on the North Shore, started his profession with the Ocean Security division in July 2016, Enright stated.

Ocean Security personnel posted shark warnings within the space following the assault, Enright stated.

Honolulu Ocean Security Performing Chief Kurt Lager, additionally talking on the information convention, stated Perry was “a lifeguard cherished by all.”

“He is well-known on the North Shore. He is an expert surfer identified worldwide,” stated Lager. “Tamayo’s persona was infectious, and as a lot as folks cherished him, he cherished everybody else extra.”

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi echoed these sentiments, describing Perry as a “legendary waterman” who was highly-respected. He known as the dying “a tragic loss.”

Perry initially made a reputation for himself in Hawaii and past within the early 2000s, when fellow athletes started to pay attention to his distinctive abilities, significantly when it got here to free browsing the North Shore pipeline, Surfer Journal reported after his dying. He went on to forge a profession in Hollywood, making appearances within the movie “Blue Crush” in 2002 and the fourth installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise in 2011. Perry additionally appeared in a 2011 episode of the TV sequence “Hawaii 5-O.”

John Sullivan, an actor who labored with Perry on an episode of “Hawaii 5-O,” known as Perry the “nicest man on Oahu.”

“He broadcasted positivity wherever he went,” Sullivan instructed CBS Information on Monday.

Lethal shark assaults doubled in 2023 in contrast with the earlier 12 months, in accordance with the Worldwide Shark Assault File, a database that retains observe of shark assaults reported around the globe. One of many two deadly incidents reported within the U.S. final 12 months occurred in Hawaii, though shark assaults total occurred most continuously in Florida.

Officers warned folks in each Florida and Hawaii to stay alert earlier this summer time after a sequence of shark assaults occurred in each states on the identical day, CBS Information nationwide correspondent Manuel Bojorquez  reported. In Florida, two youngsters and a lady had been attacked by sharks in separate incidents that occurred a number of miles from one another alongside a stretch of the Florida Panhandle. In the meantime, in Hawaii, a lady was critically injured in a shark assault off the coast of Oahu.

A SpaceX rocket placed on a present over Los Angeles after launching Sunday night from Vandenberg Area Drive Base on the Santa Barbara County coast.

The exhaust plume from the Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit was illuminated in opposition to the darkening night time sky by the setting solar.

A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket soars like a candle over downtown LA Friday Dec. 8, 2023.

The rocket and its exhaust plume are typically seen for tons of of miles because it soars alongside the coast, if skies are clear. Launches simply after sundown and earlier than dawn often present the most effective views because the rocket displays the solar’s rays in opposition to the backdrop of a darkened sky.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX launched 96 profitable missions with its Falcon rockets in 2023, eclipsing its earlier annual file of 61 orbital launches in 2022.

SpaceX has a Starlink constellation of satellites orbiting Earth about 340 miles up, shuttled into house by the corporate’s rockets. The Starlink community is designed to ship high-speed web anyplace across the globe.

If mild situations are proper, the satellites seem in a practice as they parade throughout the night time sky. The satellites are typically seen within the first jiffy after sunset and earlier than dawn when the solar is beneath the horizon, however the satellites are excessive sufficient to mirror direct daylight.

Use the FindStarlink tracker to search out the most effective upcoming viewing instances.

SpaceX accomplished one other double launch day with a West Coast launch of 20 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, together with 13 that includes Direct to Cell capabilities.

Liftoff of the Starlink 9-2 mission occurred at 8:47 p.m. PDT (11:47 p.m. EDT, 0347 UTC). It got here following the launch of twenty-two Starlink satellites from Florida at 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 UTC) on Sunday.

The primary stage booster supporting this mission, tail quantity B1075 within the SpaceX fleet, launched for an eleventh time. It beforehand supported the launches of the Area Growth Company’s (SDA) Tranche 0 demonstration satellite tv for pc mission, German navy reconnaissance satellites SARah 2 & 3 and eight Starlink flights.

The final time this booster was flown was practically 100 days in the past on the Starlink 7-16 mission on March 19.

A little bit greater than eight minutes after liftoff, B1075 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You.’ This would be the 94th touchdown on OCISLY and the 322nd booster touchdown thus far.

The mission comes as SpaceX and NASA are making ready to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket on the GOES-U mission, the ultimate satellite tv for pc within the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R (GOES-R) sequence. Rollout of the rocket to the launchpad at Launch Advanced 39A was delayed from Sunday morning.

Groups are conserving a detailed eye on climate situations for each rollout and launch operations. The mission is presently focusing on liftoff on Tuesday, June 25, at 5:16 p.m. EDT (2116 UTC).

As of the most recent climate forecast issued on Sunday, June 23, there may be solely a 30 % likelihood of favorable climate at liftoff on each the first launch day and the 24-hour backup, on June 26.

Watch Falcon Heavy pad views right here:

Wish to watch Home of the Dragon with us? Join our new subscriber-exclusive e-newsletter obsessively chronicling season two.

I by no means EVER skip a gap credit score sequence. One of the best of them perform as an overture, establishing tone, and suggesting the place a sequence will journey. This works for dramas (Friday Night time Lights, The Sopranos, and Six Toes Beneath spring instantly to thoughts) in addition to comedies. (You mainly didn’t even want to look at Weeds — that’s how completely distilled its themes have been by its credit score sequence).

The brand new Home of the Dragon opener is especially unskippable, as attractive as it’s evocative. Watch intently, and also you’ll discover the historical past of Home Targaryen woven in tapestry. However it’s the medium itself that caught my eye earlier than episode two. Particular person vignettes are rendered in richly-hued embroidery, however they’re linked by white material that goes inky crimson, like a contemporary bandage on a seeping wound. The Targaryens’ is a narrative dressed up in brocade, woven into sheets of dried blood. Blood is spilling once more now: Lucerys, adopted by little Jaehaerys. What’s going to the tapestry seem like if it’s ever full? Will Helaena Targaryen, who embroiders her lifeless son’s funeral cloak, finally sit down to stitch his quick life onto the household’s tragic scroll?

When the episode opens, the guards are rounding up everybody within the Pink Preserve, hoping to apprehend Jaehearys’ killers earlier than they’ll escape. From the nursery, a maid carries a blood-soaked towel, like one thing you might weave Targaryen lore onto later. (I assume Clare Kilner, who directed this episode, in addition to the underrated Debra Messing rom-com The Marriage ceremony Date, additionally by no means skips a credit score sequence.) Solely moments have handed for the reason that finish of the season premiere. Everybody within the fort is working on fumes and anguish, no yet one more so than King Aegon.

Provided that final week he was treating Jaehaerys extra like a toy than a toddler, I used to be caught off guard by the depths of Aegon’s misery. First, in an early scene, screaming his vengeance into the void: “I’m the King. I declare struggle!” (Thanks for clearing that up, Eggy, however I’m fairly certain struggle simply declared you.) However once more he shows it, extra privately and earnestly, on the episode’s tail-end, when his outrage is all however used up and he’s sobbing into his personal fingers. “Aegon the Magnanimous”? I believe not. “Aegon the Dragoncock”? Uncertain. However “Aegon the Human Being”? Which may nonetheless be a title that fits him, no less than when he’s not performing blazing indignation for an viewers.

Alicent glimpses her son in that weak pose, and but she doesn’t go to him. She’s been her youngsters’s champion however hardly ever a lot of a mom. I used to be horrified by how shortly her concern for Helaena gave approach to her concern about whether or not Helaena deliberate to disclose her midnight lover. That Alicent is affected by Christian-style guilt is evident. However that she might overcome that guilt to participate within the political spectacle of her grandson’s funeral and never provide her son consolation in his secret nook of mourning is telling. That she runs straight again to mattress with Ser Criston Cole within the last moments of the episode screams all the pieces I have to learn about her. Alas, I get forward of myself.

“We mustn’t be shaken by this,” Otto Hightower tells his daughter, who’s clearly shaken by this, this being her child grandson’s BEHEADING. Alicent’s “sins” have been already engaged on her conscience within the final episode when she made a half-hearted try and name off the affair with Criston. Right here, her guilt is compounded by the truth that the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard was abed along with her when he must have been standing watch over the household. Otto, nonetheless, is just too busy determining tips on how to make lemonade from lifeless youngsters to note his daughter’s torment. When gods shut a door, they open a parade route.

Aegon fears the crime will sign the weak point of his reign. It’s all Alicent’s fault for wanting Rhaenyra spared within the first place. Or it’s his guards’ fault for letting her operatives inside his fort partitions. However Otto, the last word spin physician, sees a chance to vary the narrative. The smallfolk have been there for Aegon’s sham coronation; they noticed Rhaenys defect on dragonback. In brief, they already know his grandson is weak. However this can be a likelihood to point out the folks Rhaenyra’s savage desperation, no matter whether or not or not she actually was the one to order the execution. Otto recommends a state funeral, with a procession winding from the Pink Preserve to the Dragonpit. Don’t merely inform folks that the Black Queen is a child killer; bathe them with the tears of Alicent and Helaena, who’re to be pulled in a wagon behind the younger scion in opposition to each their needs.

The funeral is terrible. Within the low gentle of early morning, King’s Touchdown is much more of a monochrome wasteland than standard. The solar refuses to shine. The tawny fort partitions learn drab and grey. Jaehaerys seems ghostly white, as he did in life, the neckline of his robe pulled simply low sufficient to verify the stitches used to reattach his head — recovered from Blood’s sack — are conspicuous. And in case this vile homicide porn is just too refined, a city crier slowly stalks the carriage, little question at Otto’s behest. “Behold the works of Rhaenyra … Defiler of the harmless.” What it lacks in solemnity, it additionally lacks in subtlety.

In the meantime, Helaena and Queen Mum get to work, staring blankly and drained on the smallfolk gathered alongside the procession. Besides their WHAM marketing campaign hits a literal pothole — the place does all of the tax cash Aegon’s been levying go? — and Helaena struggles to cover her writhing discomfort with the unwashed lots. The unwashed lots, for his or her half, mistake her reticence for a mom’s mourning. “A curse on Rhaenyra the monstrous,” somebody calls from the gang, so I assume Otto’s plan is working.

That is the pageantry of demise for political acquire. I pitied Helaena, however I didn’t mourn along with her till we have been again contained in the nursery, watching servants disassemble her lifeless son’s small cover mattress. The mattress disappearing, not to get replaced by a much bigger mattress for a kid who’d outgrown it, achieved poignance within the type of “On the market: Child footwear, by no means worn.” The servants’ work is hampered by Criston blocking the doorway, proper the place he ought to have been standing guard the evening prior. Later, Alicent will submerge herself within the tub, however there’s no absolution for what she’s achieved. For those who ask me, although, she doesn’t want forgiveness from the gods for her affair; her sin was to lift feverish lunatics like Aegon and Aemond.

To persuade Blood to surrender Daemon, Larys Sturdy needn’t choose up his devices of torture — simply show them. Earlier than phrase of the homicide has even reached Rhaenyra, Aegon has bludgeoned her would-be flagbearer to demise with an ornate mace. Because of Otto’s fast dispatching of ravens, all of Westeros is speaking about Rhaenyra’s wicked techniques. Again on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra obstinately calls for that ravens be despatched kingdomwide to disclaim the allegations. A raven for a raven? I perceive desirous to clear her identify, however this isn’t a chilly struggle anymore. Buying and selling ravens isn’t simply unhealthy TV; it’s a waste of time when you have to be elevating a military. Plus, who’s going to imagine Rhaenyra when even males who sit at her council, like Ser Alfred Broome, suppose it’s believable that the grieving Black Queen ordered some hasty little nepoticide?

The consequential showdown isn’t between Rhaenyra and her council; it’s between Rhaenyra and her husband. Daemon, happy with the chaos he’s brewed, can’t be bothered to hide a smirk. He wished a struggle, so he made a large number to assist it alongside. We are able to’t know for sure whether or not Blood and Cheese acted together with his specific approval in killing Jaehaerys or solely a wink and a nudge, however Daemon doesn’t apologize to his spouse and queen for damaging her fame or threatening her skill to win new allies. She tells him that she doesn’t belief him, which doesn’t wound Daemon as a lot because it ought to as a result of he’s not reliable.

In non-public, they dig at outdated wounds. Her throne is his “stolen” inheritance; her hero of a father is his “weak” older brother. Truthfully, this seems like a dialog they need to have had earlier than they bought married. Rhaenyra calls Daemon “pathetic,” and he wordlessly leaves the room. Presumably, to show he’s an enormous, robust dragon man and under no circumstances pathetic, he attire in full armor and mounts his big crimson steed. And thank ye Gods. The picture of Caraxes flying from the cave, his shadow darkening the ocean beneath, was precisely what the episode wanted. As a result of whereas the forged places in some stellar performances, Home of the Dragon is at its finest when it seems like 1,000,000 bucks. What’s the purpose of getting HBO cash if you happen to don’t blow all of it on excessive large photographs of dragons?

Which leaves Rhaenyra dwelling alone with the kiddos. She is the nice dad or mum, in any case. Even Baela, Daemon’s daughter by Laena, prefers her stepmom to her father. And Rhaenyra depends on her, too. She expenses Baela with driving Moondancer — certainly one of two new dragons to share their names with characters from the My Little Pony universe — to surveil King’s Touchdown. However what does Rhaenyra take into consideration when she performs toy dragons along with her personal towheaded toddlers within the daylight? Does she fear that they received’t develop sufficiently old to assert their very own dragons? Does she think about that they may die in her struggle, or in some future struggle she will’t foresee?

Rhaenyra’s reluctance frustrates Daemon, who, by temperament, appears to belong with the impetuous Greens, although he has extra guile to make sure. For instance, it’s laborious to think about him blundering as laborious as Aegon does when, unable to search out the one royal rat-catcher who aided and abetted Blood, he decides to execute all of them, then makes use of their our bodies to brighten the fort’s exterior partitions. Their moms collect to mourn as desperately as Helaena did earlier, as closely as Rhaenyra did within the season premiere. A son for a son for a lot of extra sons…

It’s a misstep by Aegon, however Otto makes his personal when he baldly admonishes his grandson. A particular Emmy needs to be invented for Rhys Ifans, who has give you a thousand alternative ways to make his face collapse: in disbelief, in disgrace, in remorse, in disapproval. His “drained dad at wit’s finish” vitality shall be acquainted to anybody who has ever had or been a dad. Otto desires Aegon to be extra Viserys, dignified and even handed. However that is the knowledge of age and Aegon is a child; Otto can be good to point out extra forbearance himself. He all however says out loud that Alicent was incorrect when she final spoke to her late husband — that Viserys by no means meant Aegon to be king.

But king Aegon is. It was Otto that plotted hardest to make it possible for he can be. And Aegon’s getting extra comfy with the mantle and is extra eager about flexing his energy. Why take heed to moany outdated grandad when he might simply as nicely change him? This isn’t the primary time we’ve seen Ser Otto be eliminated as Hand of the King; sarcastically, the final time he fell out of favor was for advocating for Aegon’s ascension to the throne over Rhaenyra’s. Licking his wounds, he later tells Alicent he’s certain for Oldtown to reunite with Daeron, however she asks him to go to the Tyrells in Excessive Backyard as a substitute. Both journey will maintain him away for a while. With out dragons of their very own, the Hightowers, for all their Machiavellian would possibly, nonetheless journey in coach.

Eradicating Otto because the Hand may very well be thought of a shrewd transfer; he had an allegiance to an outdated approach of doing issues and a barely hid contempt for the brand new king. However what Aegon does subsequent is bound to plunge the dominion into destroy. Ser Criston Cole — the king’s mom’s ineffective boyfriend — begins the episode because the Lord Commander who slept via the inheritor’s assassination and ends it because the Hand of the King. I’ve by no means seen somebody fail up to now upward. He earns it, partly, by sending Ser Arryk to Dragonstone to pose as Ser Erryk to kill Rhaenyra — a scheme that appears extra like a Punk’d episode than an act of crafty. Arryk is aware of it’s a suicide mission, but it surely’s suicide to defy the order, too.

Loyalty and absolution are the large concepts the present is trafficking this week. However the episode does spare a couple of minutes to atone for some subplots. On Driftmark, Alyn, the vaguely nameless sailor who was given a reputation final week, is now given a vaguely adoring brother named Addam. Watch this area! In King’s Touchdown, we’re given heartbreaking proof that Black’s blockade is working. The blacksmith that Aegon agreed to pay in “A Son for a Son” nonetheless hasn’t seen any coin from the crown; his daughter is sick and his spouse says persons are stockpiling what meals remains to be obtainable on the market.

And on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra meets with Mysaria, each girls who know one thing of being deserted by Daemon. Finally, the Black Queen offers the White Worm the liberty she was promised for serving to Daemon infiltrate the Pink Preserve. It’s gracious of her, certain. However given the tenuous state of her royal declare, I can’t assist feeling Rhaenyra’s spending an excessive amount of time smoothing issues over along with her estranged husband’s ex-lover, although, after all, she shortly comes to learn from her personal mercy.

Mysaria is headed to board a ship for Myr when she sees Ser Arryk strolling up from the docks. Having simply left the queen, attended by Erryk, she instantly understands what’s afoot. Shockingly, if it wasn’t for Mysaria, it truly did look like Criston’s Mother or father Lure caliber scheming might have labored. Arryk breezes into Dragonstone like he owns the place. For a couple of tense minutes, the twins each stroll the fort halls beneath menace of discovery, however Arryk breaches Rhaenyra’s bedchambers. Presumably tipped off by Mysaria, Erryk meets him there to save lots of the queen’s life. (The choreography right here is so bizarrely slipshod that I half-expected Ashton to point out up and let everybody know in regards to the hidden cameras.)

The brothers draw swords and combat. A lot quicker than Rhaenyra, who’s struggling from stress-induced insomnia, I instantly misplaced any sense of which Cargyll was which. And what’s there to say, actually? The twins assault one another till Erryk will get the higher hand and kills his personal kin. “We have been born collectively,” Erryk reminded his brother in battle. Now, he received’t see them parted once more. He makes a fast apology to Rhaenyra earlier than falling on his personal sword.

So far as duels go, this one was particularly tragic and unremarkable. Either side have proved they’ll penetrate the opposite’s fort partitions. Then, a son for a son; now, a guard for a guard, a brother for a brother. It’s a draw actually. There aren’t any winners. However as a proxy skirmish, the Battle of the Cargylls will maybe show telling. Aegon’s champion runs into the combat at his king’s heedless command; Rhaenyra’s soldier could be reluctant, however he can not refuse. She wins, however either side are destroyed alongside the way in which. “I don’t want to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone,” Rhaenyra mentioned final season, sounding like Viserys, extra just like the sort of king Otto and Alicent would each choose to see on the Iron Throne.

However maybe you may’t win a crown in the identical approach you’ll put on one. Rhaenyra won’t need to scorch Westeros with dragon fireplace, however her willingness to take action could also be the actual check of how a lot she desires to rule.

What was probably the most hanging occasion in your area this 12 months and why?

There was an unbelievable backlash in opposition to gender justice all through the Americas, together with in the USA. Some of the apparent examples of this backlash is the assault on abortion rights throughout the area.

How did you are feeling engaged on it?

Actually, it’s exhausting. The assaults are relentless. Anti-rights actors are shifting state-by-state making an attempt to push additional abortion bans and criminalization. These assaults on abortion are hand-in-hand with broader anti-gender assaults throughout the nation, together with vicious assaults in opposition to transgender youngsters. It’s devastating. It has actual impression on folks. And it takes a toll emotionally.

There’s quite a lot of hope and resilience in the neighborhood. Individuals present up day after day for one another, for his or her buddies and neighbours, and for folks they are going to by no means know.

Tarah Demant

However it’s additionally a privilege to work on this house — there’s quite a lot of hope and resilience in the neighborhood. Individuals present up day after day for one another, for his or her buddies and neighbours, and for folks they are going to by no means know. Within the hardest locations — in probably the most conservative states — individuals are their fiercest. Combating alongside these unbelievable activists conjures up quite a lot of hope.  And it doesn’t matter what occurs politically, we’re decided — we’ll by no means cease preventing. And that dedication is the place I discover quite a lot of power.

What does your work contain?

We’re working throughout the nation to fight abortion bans and to win additional protections for abortion rights at a number of ranges. We’re documenting the impression of abortion bans and restrictions in our analysis, displaying the true, human impacts of those human rights violations. We’re serving to to attach world activists to native activists—creating solidarity and studying that has actually buoyed work right here nationally. And we’re lobbying the federal authorities: I spend quite a lot of time educating Congress on abortion and pushing the Administration to take each motion it may to guard abortion rights. 

However we’re additionally making certain we’re the place the combat actually is now: on the state stage. The Supreme Court docket resolution that overturned Roe meant that abortion rights are actually left solely to the person states—and we’ve needed to regulate in a short time to how we attempt to impact change as a global human rights organisation working at nationwide stage.

We’re equipping our activists in each state with the instruments to interact in advocacy of their state in addition to inside their native communities: lobbying state officers, speaking about abortion in conversations, elevating abortion rights in native council conferences, making certain abortion is at all times on the agenda in native governments. And we’re invested in states the place voters can weigh in instantly — like our work in Arizona, the place we’re preventing to move a poll initiative that will defend abortion within the state structure.  We’re ensuring that Amnesty is displaying up for abortion rights within the USA — with our analysis, our lobbying, and our activists at residence AND globally. And it issues. We are able to and can win.

Are you able to share a private anecdote from a second that moved you this 12 months?

We now have talked to medical doctors who’ve needed to flip away sufferers determined for his or her care. We’ve heard from households who’ve tried to determine the right way to go hundreds of miles to hunt the care that their cherished one wants and finally, we’ve heard tales of people that’ve been pressured to offer start by the state as a result of they couldn’t entry abortion care.

However we’ve additionally witnessed tales of hope and communities of unbelievable resilience, of individuals throughout each state within the nation and throughout each nation within the Americas who’re standing up for his or her rights, who’re preventing again and who’re preventing for one another.

In a state like Texas that has one of the excessive anti-abortion legal guidelines, together with a bounty-hunter system for these “helping” in abortion, activists are unbowed. They’re working on daily basis to get folks the data and care they want – even when which means travelling out of state. They’re additionally supporting one another in opposition to a backdrop of relentless political assaults and threats to their security and freedom. 

What are a number of the most urgent human rights points in your area/space of labor that we must always pay attention to?

There’s an extremely harmful backlash in opposition to gender equality in the USA, throughout the area and globally.  The anti-gender motion inside the USA represents a really small minority of opinion, however it is vitally highly effective, extremely well-funded, very well-organized. 

And there’s nationwide and transnational coordination with shared methods and goals that problem hard-won features towards gender equality on a number of ranges. These embody assaults on the very thought of gender itself, pushing as a substitute for a world wherein solely so referred to as “conventional household” and stereotyped gender roles are accepted and guarded. This implies controlling girls’s selections and behaviours, limiting folks’s reproductive autonomy — together with by limiting entry to abortion, contraception, and sexuality training — and erasing LGBTQIA+ folks altogether.  We should take this risk extremely significantly and combat it at each flip.

Why ought to folks proceed to help Amnesty and its work?

The combat for abortion rights won’t cease with abortion. Each particular person’s autonomy is on the road. And we’re going to proceed to indicate as much as that combat on daily basis, even when it’s not the entrance web page of the information.  We’re working side-by-side in communities the world over to defend these rights—to defend our rights.  We’re there.  And we are able to do extra and turn out to be extra as folks be a part of us on this combat.

We are going to hold preventing in each state throughout the nation and in each nation throughout the area, as a result of we consider within the human rights of all folks, and we consider sooner or later we’re constructing collectively. And we all know that collectively we are able to win.

What are your hopes for the long run?

I consider sooner or later we’re constructing — and I’m not alone. Persons are fired up throughout the nation, significantly on abortion rights. I consider in a future the place legal guidelines defend our rights, the place girls and individuals who can get pregnant management their very own our bodies and lives, the place LGBTQIA+ folks can dwell safely and authentically — a future the place we defend and help one another and the place we perceive that every of our freedoms is tied collectively.

It may possibly generally be arduous to really feel hopeful when the politics are so harmful and skewed, however whether or not on any given day I really feel optimistic or pessimistic, I stay decided to construct that future.

Observe Tarah Demant on X and on LinkedIn.

There was a really particular visitor at Taylor Swift’s most up-to-date London present – the singer’s boyfriend Travis Kelce.

Wearing a prime hat and tails, The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs participant joined the singer on stage for I Can Do It With a Damaged Coronary heart as a dancer.

Through the routine, Kelce carried Swift on stage, and in addition utilized make-up to her face with a brush.

It is the primary time Kelce has joined her on stage in the course of the Eras tour.

Kelce seemed joyful to be performing, and lots of followers shared a video of the athlete kicking his heels whereas dancing.

The looks shocked and delighted followers, with many expressing their disbelief on social media.

“In case you would’ve informed me a 12 months in the past that Travis Kelce could be on stage with Taylor Swift, I wouldn’t have believed you,” one fan wrote on X.

Many followers, presumably unfamiliar with American soccer, additionally expressed their shock over Kelce’s substantial top – 6ft 5in.

Later within the present, Swift was additionally joined by singer Gracie Abrams, for the primary stay efficiency of their duet, Us, which was launched final week.

That wasn’t the one shock track – as Swift carried out a mash up of Out of the Woods, Is It Over Now? and Clear.

Celebrities have been flocking to look at Swift as her Eras tour reaches London’s Wembley stadium – and Sunday’s present was watched by Sir Paul McCartney, who was seen dancing and accepting friendship bracelets from followers.

Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Andrew Scott had been additionally noticed within the crowd.

Hugh Grant has additionally been to see the Eras tour, and later gave Kelce a shout out on social media.

“Pricey @taylorswift13, You have got an unbelievable present, an incredible and v hospitable crew and glorious if gigantic boyfriend,” he posted on X.

Foo Fighters additionally performed in London this weekend with frontman Dave Grohl referencing Swift from the stage.

He joked that his band prefer to name their tour “the errors tour” – a reference to Swift’s Eras tour.

Talking at London Stadium on Saturday, Grohl appeared to take a swipe at Swift, commenting that the Foo Fighters “truly play stay”.

On Saturday, Swift posted a photograph with Kelce, Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who had been VIP friends on Friday.

The royal selfie was additionally the primary time Swift had posted an image along with her boyfriend on social media.

However the pair have been removed from non-public about their relationship.

Kelce and Swift went public with their romance in September final 12 months, with Swift attending her first Kansas Metropolis Chiefs recreation.

Swift has been taking her Eras Tour throughout the UK with reveals in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, taking followers by her catalogue of hits, together with from albums 1989, Purple and Midnights.

The singer will return to Wembley in August, for 5 extra dates.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Russia’s North Caucasus area of Dagestan following an assault by gunmen on a church, synagogue and police put up.

The demise toll from the assaults within the restive Russian area has risen to twenty individuals, Russia’s Investigative Committee stated on Monday. At the least 15 cops died alongside a number of civilians, together with an Orthodox priest. 5 attackers have been additionally reported to have been “liquidated”.

At the least 12 individuals have been additionally injured within the assaults, which came about within the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on Sunday, the competition of Pentecost for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Movies posted on social media and proven on Russian TV confirmed the skies of Derbent, which is house to an historical Jewish neighborhood within the primarily Muslim area, full of smoke and flames after the synagogue was set on hearth.

Locations of worship have been additionally attacked in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan and its largest metropolis, roughly 125km (78 miles) away, the place the police put up additionally got here underneath assault.

The Investigative Committee stated it had opened felony investigations over “acts of terror” in Dagestan, which neighbours Chechnya and is likely one of the poorest areas of Russia.

“This night within the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala armed assaults have been carried out on two Orthodox church buildings, a synagogue and a police checkpoint,” the Nationwide Antiterrorism Committee stated in a press release to the state-run RIA Novosti information company.

“Because of the terrorist assaults, in response to preliminary data, a priest from the Russian Orthodox Church and cops have been killed.”

The Russian Orthodox Church stated its archpriest Nikolai Kotelnikov had been “brutally killed” in Derbent.

Kremlin dismisses wider risk

Dagestan’s authorities introduced on Monday the beginning of three days of mourning.

Flags will likely be flown at half-mast all through the republic, RIA reported, whereas cultural establishments and tv and radio corporations have cancelled all leisure and leisure occasions and programmes.

“This can be a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the entire nation,” regional governor Sergei Melikov stated in a video revealed on the Telegram messaging app.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in the meantime dismissed the opportunity of a wave of violence within the North Caucasus, as plagued the area 20 years in the past.

“Now there’s a completely different Russia,” he asserted. “Society is consolidated and such terrorist manifestations aren’t supported by society in Russia or in Dagestan.”

‘Worldwide terrorist organisation’

The assault on the Derbent synagogue came about about 40 minutes earlier than night prayers have been as a result of begin.

“The synagogue in Derbent is on hearth,” the chairman of the general public council of Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities, Boruch Gorin, wrote on Telegram. “The synagogue in Makhachkala has additionally been set on hearth and burned down.”

The rabbi of Makhachkala, Rami Davidov, later instructed RIA that nobody was killed or injured there.

Dagestan’s Ministry of Inner Affairs stated 19 individuals took shelter inside a church within the metropolis earlier than they have been led to security.

Governor Melikov stated the six attackers had been “liquidated”.

The Russian information company TASS, citing regulation enforcement companies, reported that the gunmen have been members of “a world terrorist organisation”.

The attackers haven’t but been recognized.

“Tonight in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown individuals made makes an attempt to destabilise the general public state of affairs,” Melikov stated.

“Dagestan cops stood of their method. Based on preliminary data, there are casualties amongst them. All companies are appearing in accordance with the instruction … The identities of the attackers are being established.”

The assaults come three months after some 133 individuals have been killed when gunmen opened hearth at a rock live performance within the Crocus Metropolis Corridor on the outskirts of Moscow. Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), primarily based in Afghanistan, stated it was behind that assault, though Moscow claimed with out proof that Ukraine had a job.

Russia’s FSB safety service in April stated it had arrested 4 individuals in Dagestan on suspicion of involvement in plotting the Crocus Metropolis Corridor assault.

In an replace on the occasions of June 23, the US-based Institute for the Examine of Struggle (ISW), famous that the Russian department of ISKP’s Al-Azaim Media had praised “their brothers from the Caucasus” for demonstrating their capabilities in Dagestan.

“Al-Azaim didn’t declare credit score for the assault itself, notably, and the reference to the Caucasus strongly means that Wilayat Kavkaz [ISIL’s northern Caucasus branch] is accountable for the assault,” ISW stated.

Daniel Hawkins, reporting for Al Jazeera from Moscow, famous that Dagestan had seen unrest within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s.

“Violence there, because the years have gone on, has died down,” Hawkins stated, explaining that the area by no means noticed the sort of battle that engulfed the neighbouring Russian republic of Chechnya, the place Russian forces fought two brutal wars throughout the identical interval.

“This type of assault that’s coordinated and has focused civilian spiritual infrastructure could be very uncommon and can little question be stunning to Russians throughout the nation,” Hawkins stated.

In October final 12 months, tons of of individuals stormed the airport in Makhachkala over a flight from Israel touchdown there. At the least 60 individuals have been arrested after they broke by means of safety to the runway and inundated the world across the plane shouting anti-Jewish slogans.