An aerial survey discovered bodies of 87 slaughtered elephants near a wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, Africa. 

Many of the dead elephants were ripped of their tusks, and left with mutilated skulls — a sign of poaching.  

Wildlife conservation organization Elephants Without Borders found the “alarming” rate of dead elephants while flying an aerial census supported by the Botswana government.

“People did warn us of an impending poaching problem and we thought we were prepared for it,” Mike Chase, director and founder, said in a statement. 

The country recently disarmed its anti-poaching unit under president Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Chase told the BBC this is the largest incident of elephant poaching he’s ever seen or read about in Africa. The carcasses were found near the the Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary, a popular tourist destination.

Poachers killed many of the elephants within the last few weeks, according to a poaching incident report obtained by NPR. Three white rhinoceroses were also killed in the same area over the past three months, according to the report. 

Botswana is home to the world’s largest elephant populations and has been praised for its protection of elephants in the past. 

More: Elephants rarely get cancer thanks to ‘zombie gene,’ study finds

The 2016 Great Elephant Census, which reported more than 130,000 elephants in Botswana, also revealed African savanna elephant populations were declining by 30 percent in 15 of the 18 Africa countries surveyed. A map from that report showed Botswana’s elephant population was in stable condition as neighboring Angola, Zimbabwe, and a small area of Zambia saw decreasing populations.   

But, that trend could be changing, as Chase told the BBC “poachers are now turning their guns to Botswana.”

More: How the power of music brought peace to this elephant

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Islamabad, Pakistan – As US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to the Pakistani capital Islamabad this week, with relations between the erstwhile strategic allies at a low ebb, analysts warn the road ahead could be even tougher for the South Asian nation.

Pompeo lands in Islamabad on Wednesday and will hold talks with the country’s top civilian and military leadership during a one-day visit, before continuing on to neighbouring India.

On Sunday, the Pentagon confirmed the US was moving to cancel $300m in Coalition Support Funds, a reimbursement payment to Pakistan’s military, “due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions” against armed groups targeting US and Afghan forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The move was part of a sustained effort by the US administration to pressure Pakistan, after President Donald Trump cut more than $1.1bn in security assistance in January, accusing Pakistan of “nothing but lies and deceit”.

Pakistan denies it supports any armed groups, saying it has carried out indiscriminate military operations against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and all other armed groups that have operated on its territory.

The TTP’s presence in the country’s northwestern tribal districts, along the border with Afghanistan, has been severely degraded by a series of military operations launched since 2014, but the group still launches sporadic large-casualty attacks on Pakistani targets.

Pakistan claims the TTP is being offered safe haven in eastern Afghanistan, from where the group has launched several attacks on Pakistani forces.

The principal US complaint for years, however, has been that Pakistan has failed to act against leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the feared Haqqani Network who, it says, have been based in Pakistan for more than a decade.

Last month, tensions rose still further when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan of supporting hundreds of Afghan Taliban fighters as they launched a raid on the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal, responding to the charge, said: “These are completely baseless allegations with no evidence.”

‘Crucial visit’

The Ghazni offensive, the first major Taliban assault on a city in months, and the timing of the aid cut mean Pompeo’s visit comes at a particularly sensitive time, as longtime Pakistani opposition politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has just taken the reins of power, analysts say.

“This visit is crucial,” said Hassan Akbar, director at the Jinnah Institute think-tank in Islamabad. “It will set the tone for the new administration in Islamabad, regarding their approach to the United States.”

The timing of the visit, coming as it does so soon after Ghazni and the aid cut announcement, is also significant, said Akbar.

“While the Ghazni offensive failed to meet its objective, it has given a serious setback to the efforts at peace in Afghanistan, and has clearly demonstrated the weakness of the US’ recent Afghanistan strategy,” he said.

“We expect that they will be looking to put more pressure on Pakistan, to either cut ties with, or use whatever influence they feel Pakistan has, with the Taliban to bring them to the negotiating table.”

The signs leading in to the visit suggest difficult conversations will be had. On Sunday night, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned that relations with the US had reached the point where they were “almost non-existent”.

“With the visit of the US secretary of state we have an opening and a beginning can be made, and we will try to build a consensus in areas of mutual interest,” he told reporters in Islamabad. “It is our shared objective to cleanse the region and the world of terrorism.”

‘No carrots, only sticks’

Zahid Hussain, a senior journalist and security analyst based in Islamabad, said Pakistan should not expect an easy set of meetings on Wednesday, particularly giving the timing of the $300m assistance cancellation.

“The message is clear, it is basically a departure from the previous administration’s policy of the carrot and the stick,” he said. “Now it seems that there is no carrot, only a stick.”

Hussain warned while the US may be prepared to take a more aggressive stance with Pakistan, it may be impossible for Pakistan to deliver on Trump’s demands.

“To expect Pakistan to fight the US war here on Pakistani soil may be expecting too much,” he said, pointing out many Afghan Taliban commanders are understood to have rebased themselves to Afghanistan from Pakistan, as the armed group’s offensive against the Kabul government strengthens.

For Akbar, too, the prospects for positive outcomes from Pompeo’s visit are limited.

“In the coming days, I think the situation in Afghanistan is going to get worse. And as that gets worse, I see the US likely blaming Pakistan for ‘not taking action’ against armed groups,” he said.

“It’s a bleak situation.”

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim

Marvel’s Spider-Man

We gave it a B+

Marvel’s Spider-Man, at its best, is an arach-utopia for webheads of all stripes, from comic nerds to Raimi diehards to MCU aficionados. The expansive playground of a (mostly) fully realized Manhattan is a thrill to explore, and Insomniac’s production values on things like voice acting, music, and high-quality visuals are unsurpassed in the superhero genre. But despite its level of overall polish, the game isn’t without a few hang-ups, if you’ll excuse one more Spider-pun (who am I kidding? This review will contain many more Spider-puns. Brace yourself).

Beginning with the good, the traversal mechanics in Spider-Man are deeply satisfying. The wish fulfillment of getting from Harlem down to the Financial District in a matter of minutes isn’t something I was aware that I needed so badly before playing this game. Moving from point A to point B through a series of swings, jumps, web zips, wall-runs and parkour feels great. After a fairly quick learning curve, the controls for the impressive, high-speed acrobatics become second nature. It may very well be the best mobility scheme ever in an open-world game. On a side note, it’s ironic given the speed and intuitiveness of Peter Parker’s movement that the game’s “fast travel” is the MTA subway system.

Things can sometimes start to get a little tangled (Spider-pun!) when Peter lands at his destination and gets into the game’s other mechanics. Combat, aside from web-slinging, is Spider-Man’s main activity. Thinning out crowds of bad guys with stealthy takedowns is fun, and fighting, when everything’s working as intended, is fast, fluid, and exhilarating. On occasion though, Spidey’s mobility, combined with the lack of a reliable targeting system, can result in an experience that feels flighty, and the camera can have a hard time keeping up with the action.

There’s also the issue of the typical open-world RPG power curve. For the first few levels, combat controls feel overwhelming in their variety yet somehow also sort of limited. Things open up nicely once Spidey has some new abilities and gadgets under his belt and the player has had a chance to breathe, but the first hour or two of tutorial after tutorial is a bit of scramble, albeit an action-packed, adrenaline-filled one.

The cinematic scope of the combat is also something of a double-edged sword. Action set pieces contribute to the spectacular feeling that Spider-Man is a playable version of a big-budget MCU movie, but reliance on contextual button cues and quick time events makes some encounters more frustrating than they need to be. Even with the game’s tentpole moments so impressively choreographed for visual spectacle, Spider-Man is at its best when it gives control back to the player to freely explore the open world.

Like any respectable open-world title, Spider-Man is packed with collectibles, side missions, and special challenges, but unlike many games in the genre, those secondary objectives never feel like chores to accomplish. It’s such a pleasure just to move around the city that mundane tasks like collecting backpacks and chasing pigeons would be rewarding even if they didn’t give out the resources necessary for upgrading gadgets and purchasing new suits with associated suit powers.

Plotwise, the game is a cavalcade of Spider-friends and foes: Yuri Watanabe, Silver Sable, Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Miles Morales, and more feature prominently in the main story, while other Marvel mainstays like Black Cat and Taskmaster are central to some of the side missions liberally littered across the game’s version of NYC.

Beginning several years into Parker’s tenure as Spider-Man, the plot kicks off with Pete rushing to take down Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of NYC’s organized crime, who he believes is his last great nemesis. At the start, a significant fraction of Spidey’s usual gallery of villains are already safely incarcerated at the Marvel universe’s supermax prison, the RAFT. Most of the front half of the story is devoted to building up a lesser-known villain, Mister Negative, with a host of other more mainstream baddies looming in the background. At a certain turning point, however, a few foes from Spider-Man’s past return and, along with some new actors, form an incarnation of the Sinister Six.

Spider-Man himself is well written throughout, and his snarky jokes and references feel on point for the character. He’s also, as he should be, refreshingly good and wholesome, despite a bit of moral cognitive dissonance that creeps in (Spider-pun?).

Any superhero story will feature its share of extra-judicial justice, but Spider-Man seems to miss some of the irony in calling out the excesses of an overenthusiastic mercenary police force just moments after Spider-Man himself has been hacking into corporate-run city-wide surveillance towers, conducting B&Es to perform searches and seizures, and kicking drug offenders off skyscrapers. It all gets a little sticky (Spider-pun!) if you allow yourself to think about it too hard, but the game, for the most part, encourages you not to, and that’s okay.

Speaking of issues with surveillance, Spider-Man’s mandatory, non-superpowered stealth missions are doubtless the weakest part of the experience. One or two slower-paced segments would have made sense. After three, four, five, six or more of these laborious levels starring MJ and another non-super character, the game’s momentum slows down to a crawl (Spider-pun!). The amount of time this Spider-Man game forces the player to play as not-Spider-Man is a little baffling.

These issues aren’t enough to pull the overall experience down though. When the explosive action sequences work, they really work, and the strength of the excellent swinging and on-the-fly crime fighting is compelling even in spots where the pace of the main storyline drags. Fans of any iteration of the Spider-Man franchise will feel their spider senses tingling throughout, and any PS4 owner who enjoys exploration and collectibles will find just as much to get excited about. B+

Hours after apparel company Nike unveiled a new ad featuring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, country singer John Rich responded with a series of tweets blasting the decision.

“Hey @Nike I guess you made @Kaepernick7 your new ‘face’ of the brand because you love the way his socks look with your shoes? @Reebok here we come.”

Rich, one half of the Big & Rich and owner of Lower Broadway’s Redneck Riviera honky-tonk, followed it up with a picture of his soundman after cutting out the Nike logo from his socks. 

The singer, whose signature hit with the multi-platinum selling Big & Rich is “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” followed it up saying to watch Nike stock by this time next week and responded to several tweets responding to the cut up socks. 

Kaepernick, who remains a free agent after last playing in the NFL in 2016, will be one of the faces of Nike’s 30th anniversary of the “Just Do It” campaign. 

The quarterback has become a polarizing figure due to his protests of police brutality and social inequality during the playing of the national anthem at NFL games. He sat and kneeled during the anthem in the 2016 preseason and continued the protest through the rest of that season. 

During that preseason, Kaepernick wore socks depicting cops as pigs. Something which Rich referenced in his many tweets criticizing the company. 

The Nike ‘Just Do It 30th’ Anniversary ad and the NFL

“Believe in something,” the advertisement reads in white letters in front of a black-and-white portrait of Kaepernick. “Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

The ad arrives ahead of the NFL season, marked by controversy over the league’s response to the protests inspired by Kaepernick. The quarterback has also filed a grievance against the NFL, alleging that owners have purposefully denied him employment. 

“We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward,” Gino Fisanotti, Nike’s vice president of brand for North America, told ESPN.

Nike is the NFL’s official apparel sponsor and manufactures the jerseys and game day apparel worn by all 32 franchises. 

USA Today contributed to this report. 

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Actor Geoffrey Owens, who once played Bill Cosby’s son-in-law Elvin on “The Cosby Show,” says he is proud to work at Trader Joe’s and is unfazed by what he feels is job-shaming.

Wearing his red store badge and smiling, the 57-year-old actor whom outlets spotted working at the supermarket in Clifton, New Jersey, appeared on Tuesday’s “Good Morning America.” During a conversation with “GMA” anchor Robin Roberts, he reflected on the outpouring of support he’s received from celebrities like Terry Crews, Blair Underwood and Pamela Adlon.

“It’s really overwhelming in a good way,” Owens shared with Roberts. “I really want to thank everybody out there: family, friends, Hollywood community and the general public for the incredible support, the amazing support and positivity that they’ve shown for me. It’s quite astounding, it’s very encouraging.”

Owens said he felt the reports about his workplace were in fact attempts at job-shaming. 

“I was really devastated, but the period of devastation was so short, because so shortly after that, the responses – my wife and I started to read these responses from literally all over the world of support and so, fortunately, the shame part didn’t last very long,” he said.

Owens explained he decided to work at Trader Joe’s, where he’s been employed for about 15 months, after being unable to make ends meet. 

“I got to a point where I’d been teaching, acting, directing for 30+ years, but it got to a point where it just didn’t add up enough and you gotta do what you got to do,” he shared, adding the job offered “flexibility,” so he could “try to stay in the business.”

“I didn’t advertise that I was at Trader Joe’s,” he added, “not that I was ashamed of it, but because I didn’t want the entertainment community to kind of decide, ‘Well, he’s doing that, he’s not pursuing acting anymore.’ I felt like I had to be careful about that.” 

Owens said his return to the limelight hasn’t resulted in any jobs offers, but also shared getting work from his recent publicity wouldn’t feel right. 

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable getting acting jobs from this event,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind getting auditions, I don’t mind if people call me in to try out for things, due to what’s happened, but I actually wouldn’t feel comfortable (with) someone giving me a job because this happened. I want to get a job because I’m the right person for that job.”

Before his interview concluded, Owens discussed what he found to be a silver lining in the unexpected spectacle. 

“This business of my being this ‘Cosby’ guy who got shamed for working at Trader Joe’s, that’s going to pass… but I hope what doesn’t pass is this idea… this rethinking about what it means to work, the honor of the working person and the dignity of work,” he said. “And, I hope that this period that we’re in now, where we have a heightened sensitivity about that and a re-evaluation of what it means to work, and a reevaluation of the idea that some jobs are better than others because that’s actually not true.

“There is no job that’s better than another job,” he continued. “It might pay better, it might have better benefits, it might look better on a resume and on paper, but actually it’s not better. Every job is worthwhile and valuable, and if we have a kind of a rethinking about that because of what’s happened to me, that would be great, but no one should feel sorry for me, either from a positive or a negative perspective. I’ve had a great life, I’ve had a great career, and I’ve had a career that most actors would die for.”

More: What happens if Bill Cosby is classified as a ‘sexually violent predator?’

 

 

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Critics have burned Nike trainers and clothing in protest at Colin Kaepernick’s appointment as the face of the brand’s new advertising campaign.

The American football quarterback, 30, protested against racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling during the US national anthem.

In announcing the deal, Nike said he was “one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation”.

But opponents took to social media, promising to destroy Nike products.

On Twitter, they hit out at the deal using the hashtag #JustBurnIt – a play on Nike’s slogan ‘Just Do It’ – which trended on Twitter alongside #BoycottNike.

According to social media analysis site Spredfast, there were more than 800 tweets using the hashtag #JustBurnIt in a matter of hours on Tuesday morning.

Andrew H. Scott, the mayor of Kentucky city Coal Run, said he was “officially done” with Nike and the NFL and asked Nike to cancel an order, while several videos showed Nike trainers being burned.

Country singer John Rich tweeted a photo of a pair of Nike socks with the brand’s swoosh logo cut off.

However, another Twitter user Teri Shockey countered: “To everyone who is planning to #JustBurnIt, might I suggest you donate your @Nike merch instead? Plenty of people in need, including vets and families of active duty military, would be more than grateful to wear it. #JustDoIt”

However, there has been an outpouring of support for ostracised former San Francisco 49ers player Kaepernick, who first protested by sitting during the national anthem in August 2016, later opting to kneel.

Other players followed suit, leading to criticism from President Donald Trump.

Kaepernick, who has received Amnesty International’s highest honour, has been without a team since he opted out of his contract with the 49ers in March 2017.

“Colin Kaepernick drew our collective attention to the problem of continued racial injustice in America,” said former CIA director John Brennan on Twitter.

“He did so not to disrespect our flag but to give meaning to the words of the preamble of our Constitution-‘in order to form a more perfect union.’ Well done, Colin, well done.”

Nike’s new advertising campaign, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its ‘Just Do It’ slogan, also includes ads featuring tennis star Serena Williams, New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr and Seattle Seahawks rookie linebacker Shaquem Griffin.

The death toll from ongoing fighting in Libya‘s capital, Tripoli, has risen to at least 50, health officials said, as violence between rival militias rages on.

The health ministry said on Tuesday clashes between armed groups had also left more than 138 people wounded.  

The previous death toll stood at 39 people, including 18 civilians.

On August 27, fierce battles erupted in Tripoli’s districts after the Seventh Brigade, an armed group based in Tarhouna, 65km southeast of the capital, launched a surprise offensive against rival militias.

A truce was reached the next day but clashes resumed shortly after, forcing authorities to close Tripoli’s only functioning airport.

The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli declared a state of emergency on Sunday.

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said the situation remained tense with sporadic fighting and indiscriminate rocket fire continuing to land in residential areas.

“Several attempts have failed to put a ceasefire in force since the clashes erupted on August 26,” Abdelwahed said.

“The Seventh Brigade whose commanders say it works under the presidential guard of the GNA was disavowed by the government in April.”

Facebook blackout 

On Monday, social media website Facebook was blocked in Tripoli and surrounding cities.

Libyan utility LPTIC, which owns the two state telecoms firms, said in a statement that a lack of security had led to outages. Maintenance engineers were unable to reach some stations which had stopped working due to a lack of power.

It did not address the Facebook issue.

Access to the web is controlled by state firms and monitored by security bodies which are effectively controlled by armed groups working with the weak GNA.

Independent national media based inside Libya scarcely exists as journalists often face threats from armed groups or officials unhappy with critical coverage

Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew and ruler Muammar Gaddafi and led to his death.

The country is governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country’s east, each of which are backed by an array of militias. 

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Arizona Republic

Published 9:11 p.m. MT Sept. 3, 2018 | Updated 9:15 p.m. MT Sept. 3, 2018

Former Arizona State University and Arizona Cardinals football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman is back in the political spotlight after Nike on Monday revealed the face of its 30th-anniversary campaign: Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, garnered international attention in 2016 when he began kneeling during the national anthem to push for racial equality and draw attention to police brutality.

The new ad depicts his face and the quote, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

The ad drew passionate support and opposition on social media, with some promising to buy more Nike products and others posting videos setting their Nikes on fire. 

But among the most consistent themes were comments about how the company should have chosen Tillman’s face instead, and alleging that Tillman would have been opposed to NFL players taking a knee during the anthem.

Political pundits also weighed in, including Fox commentator Stephen Miller, who said the soldier sacrificed “just a bit more” than Kaepernick. 

Others pushed back, saying Tillman would have supported players’ right to peacefully protest or suggesting they leave Tillman out of the debate altogether.

Tillman, an Army Ranger who was initially lauded as a war hero for his death in combat, was killed by friendly fire. 

His family was not informed of this fact until after his nationally televised memorial service, despite several senior Army officials knowing prior to the service.

After they learned of the circumstances of his death, Tillman’s parents and his widow vocally criticized the Army for how they handled the situation. 

They also criticized President Donald Trump when he first referenced Tillman in relation to Kaepernick. 

Marie Tillman, the widow of the former NFL player, released a statement last year saying her husband’s service “should never be politicized in a way that divides us.”

“As a football player and soldier, Pat inspired countless Americans to unify,” she said. “It is my hope that his memory should always remind people that we must come together. Pat’s service, along with that of every man and woman’s service, should never be politicized in a way that divides us. We are too great of a country for that. Those that serve fight for the American ideals of freedom, justice and democracy. They and their families know the cost of that fight. I know the very personal costs in a way I feel acutely every day.”

None of Tillman’s family has released any statement in response to the calls on social media for him to be the “Just Do It” face.

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