Doyle Rice and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY
Published 5:27 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018 | Updated 5:29 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018
A strengthened Tropical Storm Gordon is expected to hit the Gulf Coast as a hurricane late Tuesday, a day after pounding South Florida with heavy rain and strong winds.
The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning from the mouth of the Pearl River, which separates southern Mississippi from the easternmost part of Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border.
Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early Monday as it headed west-northwest at 17 mph. After hitting the Gulf Coast as an expected hurricane, it is forecast to move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.
Parts of the Gulf Coast could get up to eight inches of rain through Thursday.
The storm was centered 280 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, forecasters said early Tuesday morning. Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 65 mph.
The National Hurricane Center also issued a storm surge warning, meaning possible “danger of life-threatening inundation,” for late Tuesday for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama.
“The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves,” the center said.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday and said 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to the southeastern part of the state.
Berlin, Germany – Karin Hermes had just finished tutoring her 15-year-old Turkish German student when they started talking about racism.
Hermes, who is Filipino German, and the student shared experiences of the everyday racism they had been facing, discussing how bad the situation was in Berlin.
They were interrupted. A trainee teacher nearby said that if they didn’t like it in Germany, they could go somewhere else.
“I was angry. I mean, that’s a person in a position of authority saying that to a student,” Hermes, 31, told Al Jazeera. “He yelled at us, as if telling us we don’t belong here and that we should go elsewhere. How does that attitude affect students?”
Hermes, a PhD candidate in American Studies, says experiences like this are common for German people of colour.
She and her friend, 24-year-old student Farhiya Hassan, told Al Jazeera their personal boundaries are regularly crossed, with comments about their skin tone, knowledge of the German language and questions about where they are “really from” in social settings, workplaces or as they go about their day.
The concept of a German nation is closely linked to whiteness. This is where we still are.
Elisabeth Kaneza, human rights activist
It’s a situation that Art Jannik Starkarat can relate to.
Born and raised in the western state of Bonn, the 29-year-old moved to Berlin seven years ago and has been surprised at how much more racism he has experienced in the German capital.
Starkarat, whose parents are Indonesian, changed his name last year and says racism was one of the main reasons behind his decision.
Starkarat, a musician with a doctorate in Chemistry, told Al Jazeera: “When I had my old name I was always asked, ‘Where did you really come from? Where are your parents from?’ If you experience this once or twice you don’t notice, but if it happens regularly it really hurts.
“These questions showed me that I didn’t belong to this society, that this is not where I should be and this is not where I deserve to live. That feeling came just with questions around my name. And these questions don’t come from authorities, they come up in everyday life.”
Art Jannik Starkarat said he changed his name to avoid being interrogated about his origins [Courtesy: Art Jannik Starkarat]
In recent months, a string of events has forced Germany to address racism.
At the end of August, xenophobic protests exploded in Chemnitz, a city in the eastern state of Saxony, after the fatal stabbing of a German man, allegedly by two refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Thousands of protesters took part, many of them from far-right groups. Some did Nazi salutes and waved banners calling for “criminal foreigners to go out”. Migrants and journalists were injured amid the chaos.
In July, a verdict was handed down in what has been described as one of the most important trials in the country’s post-war history.
Beate Zschape, the 43-year-old sole survivor of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground (NSU) group, was sentenced to life in jail for her role in the racially motivated murders of 10 people – nine of whom were non-white – between 2000 and 2007.
The case exposed the failure of the state, media and intelligence services to properly investigate the murders, and several parliamentary inquiries have since followed.
Demonstrators hold photos of people they claim have been killed by migrants in Chemnitz after several nationalist groups called for marches protesting the killing of a German man last week, allegedly by migrants from Syria and Iraq [Jens Meyer/AP]
Also in July, Mesut Ozil resigned from the German national team amid accusations of racial discrimination from footballing authorities after he had a picture taken with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
His resignation led to a social media campaign,#MeTwo, a play on the #MeToo hashtag for survivors of sexual assault. Thousands of people of colour in Germany tweeted their stories of everyday racism.
Students said teachers had asked them when their parents would be marrying them off. Some recounted being singled out by police for identification documents on a train full of white people. Many shared racist slurs they endured on a daily basis.
“Germans have a way of understanding themselves and their nation,” Elisabeth Kaneza, a human rights activist, tells Al Jazeera.
“Although it is already a very diverse nation, its own history and legacy with other cultures and nations outside of Europe is not well taught and is not in the historical memory. So what we find is the imbalance of racist behaviour towards different origins.
“If you are from western or northern Europe, you rarely get these questions of where you are from. The concept of a German nation is closely linked to whiteness. This is where we still are.”
I hope that what’s happened in the last few months leads to more of an understanding among white Germans that some of us non-white citizens have entirely different daily experiences with racism.
Karin Hermes, tutor
Germany doesn’t record data on ethnicity and race.
Early last year, a UN fact-finding team released a damning report on the institutional racism and discrimination towards the approximately 800,000 people of African descent living in Germany.
The team, which conducted interviews in a number of cities including Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne, revealed there are many areas that black people won’t travel to for fear of being attacked, and sharply criticised the school system and police force, as well as state and federal authorities for denying that the issue exists.
The refugee situation has added to xenophobic sentiment. There were more than 2,000 attacks – roughly six a day – on refugee centres in 2017.
German authorities say social cohesion is an important issue.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Al Jazeera: “The Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community runs and supports a large number of projects in order to improve the coexistence of all people living in Germany. One example is our sponsored national competition, ‘Living Together Hand in Hand – Designing Communities’, in which 21 winners received prize money of up to €25,000 ($29,000) that serves to support projects and concepts that promote integration and coexistence.
“We see the #MeTwo debate as a socio-political contribution that pursues the same goal.”
I don’t think that many people have really understood the Nazi history. It’s just a feeling of guilt and a very narrow understanding of how it came to the Holocaust and what it means to get there.
Emine Aslan, anti-racist activist
Critics say that if Germany really wants to address racism, however, society needs to dissect its roots.
“I link it to collective memory,” says Emine Aslan, an anti-racist activist from Frankfurt. “Racism and structural discrimination is closely linked to the Nazi regime and anti-semitism. People think that we have dealt with that, so racism no longer exists.
“But I don’t think that many people have really understood the Nazi history. It’s just a feeling of guilt and a very narrow understanding of how it came to the Holocaust and what it means to get there. The other thing is that Germany has only recently started speaking about its own colonial history. There is still no collective memory around German colonialism and how this affects us now.”
Kaneza, the human rights activist, said it is important to speak up.
“Whenever you raise the issue of racism, it’s perceived as an accusation to the general white population, which is not true,” she says. “By being silent about it, we are covering it up and it’s a complicity. This is still not very well understood.”
Those who have experienced racism hope events over the past few months will lead to something more positive.
“The NSU and Chemnitz, for example, have brought out the explicit racism and showed the difference in treatment towards non-white Germans and migrants,” says Hermes, the Filipino German tutor.
“I hope that what’s happened in the last few months leads to more of an understanding among white Germans that some of us non-white citizens have entirely different daily experiences with racism and safety, and that denying this won’t make the racism go away.”
Editors, USA TODAY
Published 4:05 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018
Senate Judiciary Committee begins its hearing on Kavanaugh
Senate hearings for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that begin Tuesday are expected to be contentious as Democrats plan on grilling the nominee on his judicial record and legal philosophy. The battle has been controversial from the start since the nominee will be filling the seat of retiring justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing vote on many key issues including abortion rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage. Democrats are complaining of lack of transparency, claiming much of Kavanaugh’s record and key documents are being withheld from the public. “There will be sparks at this hearing. Sparks will fly,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut. “And there will be a lot of heat.”
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Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the Supreme Court could mean abortion opponents are closer than they’ve been in 45 years to overturning _Roe v. Wade. USA TODAY
Tropical Storm Gordon expected to strengthen to hurricane as it hits the Gulf Coast
A hurricane watch has been posted for coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, as dangerous Tropical Storm Gordon is expected to strengthen into a hurricane late Tuesday when it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast with winds of 74 mph and over. Strong wind gusts, battering waves, above-normal tides, minor coastal flooding, flash flooding and a couple of isolated tornadoes and waterspouts will be the main threats from the storm, AccuWeather said. The National Hurricane Center also issued a storm surge warning, meaning possible “danger of life-threatening inundation,” for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama.
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In the middle of Hurricane Season, Florida is getting hit with more extreme weather. The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Gordon is bringing 45-mile-an hour winds to parts of South Florida including the keys. Time
USA Gymnastics CEO to step down amid heavy criticism, pressure
Kerry Perry, whose nine-month tenure as USA Gymnastics CEO was marked by heavy criticism and little tangible action in helping the organization recover from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal, is expected to resign Tuesday. Though she preached transparency when she began the job, Perry’s resignation, confirmed to USA TODAY Sports by two people with knowledge of the decision, was seen as inevitable — she made very few public statements and had no experience in gymnastics or the Olympic movement when she took over Dec. 1. Her expected departure will be the latest in USA Gymnastics after former CEO Steve Penny was forced to resign under pressure from the USOC in March 2017 for the way the organization handled sexual abuse complaints.
Michigan city faces another water crisis
Students at Detroit’s city schools are starting the school year Tuesday with concerns about the safety of the city’s water. The school district shut off drinking water to all of its schools after test results found elevated levels of lead or copper in 16 of 24 schools recently tested. Detroit’s water department and the regional water and sewer agency for southeast Michigan issued a statement to assure residents that the lead and copper contamination with water in the school buildings do not extend to the pipes that deliver water to customers’ homes. The district will be providing bottled water and using portable water coolers at schools when classes start.
Trial begins in case involving misplaced bodies, crushed caskets
A trial begins Tuesday that pits relatives of about 1,200 dead people against licensed funeral homes accused of sending bodies to a Memphis, Tennessee, cemetery for three years after the cemetery said its registration expired in December 2010. The class-action lawsuit claims more than a dozen Memphis-area funeral homes failed to carry out their “sacred and contractual duties” for vulnerable, mourning relatives who expected their loved ones to be interred with dignity.Investigations revealed that Galilee Memorial Gardens’ owners, the Lambert family, misplaced hundreds of bodies, buried multiple cadavers in the same grave, and crushed caskets to fit them into single plots for years.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, who left Renault during the 2017 season, has joined the BBC team to offer insight and analysis from the point of view of the competitors.
There have been many moments during the 2018 World Championship that could be labelled “season defining”, and the Italian Grand Prix was one.
One week earlier, at the Belgian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won with the fastest car to bring Lewis Hamilton’s points lead down to 17.
And after the Ferraris locked out the front row in qualifying at Monza, the signs looked ominous for Mercedes.
But Hamilton’s drive on Sunday was exemplary. He knew he had to get among the Ferraris at the start, saying he needed to go back to his “old-school karting moves”.
Well, he did just that, passing Vettel around the outside at the second chicane – a huge moment in the season.
Hamilton was aggressive and opportunistic in his move, but he had every right to do it. Side-by-side into the corner, it took only the smallest amount of understeer for Vettel’s Ferrari to nudge the side of the Mercedes and spin.
It was a small error from Vettel but I don’t really see that he could have done too much differently. He had to fight for the position but, baulked behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, he was missing the clear air that Hamilton had and used to his full advantage, going deeper on the brakes, attacking on the outside.
The contact between the two was fairly minimal but it was enough end Vettel’s victory hopes.
A racing incident definitely seemed a fair assessment from the stewards. It was one of those that could easily have gone the other way. Instead of the Ferrari facing backwards, Vettel could have pitched Hamilton into a spin and got the rub of the green. Here he didn’t.
Vettel complained on the radio that Hamilton left him no room. In fact he did. Not a huge amount, but enough. Vettel’s moment of understeer caused that collision.
Hamilton took a chance with the pass – that chicane is bumpy under braking, it tightens and pinches through the apexes – but to be a champion sometimes you have to take risks. It’s all about calculating them in a split second and making the right decisions. It paid off massively for Hamilton.
But Hamilton’s drive wasn’t defined by one moment at the start of the race. He then hunted Raikkonen mercilessly for the next 44 laps, often following within a second, and putting the Finn under huge pressure.
To Raikkonen’s credit, he never made a significant mistake, but Ferrari’s decision to pit him early left him with worn tyres and Hamilton could pounce later on.
Throughout the race, Hamilton looked supreme on the brakes at Turn One. Every time he was in Raikkonen’s wheel tracks, he was visibly gaining on the brakes.
So when he finally had a shot around the outside, he knew it could work. Raikkonen braked as late as he dared, but it wasn’t enough. Hamilton was through and had an unchallenged run to a brilliant victory.
A masterclass from start to finish
Hamilton’s win on Sunday followed previous wins at Monza in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017
It wasn’t just in the race that Hamilton was brilliant.
All weekend he was a chunk quicker than team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Almost every single lap he did throughout practice and qualifying was faster than his team-mate by at least 0.3 seconds. He was truly dragging his Mercedes into a fight for a race win it probably didn’t deserve to be in.
With championships won and lost by small margins, brilliant performances and costly mistakes, this was a weekend that summed it all up.
Hamilton’s performance speaks for itself. Putting everything together for the win, in one of the best drives I’ve seen him produce. It was less visually impressive than some of his wet-weather masterclasses, but he was ruthless and never made a mistake.
In fairness, Vettel drove a very measured race after his early spin. Recovering to fourth was as good as he could have hoped for, helped out by Max Verstappen’s juvenile antics in the closing stages in defending from Bottas.
This was supposed to be the race that Vettel staked his claim for the 2018 title.
If he had won, the gap to Hamilton would have been at most 10 points, maybe seven if Raikkonen could have finished ahead as well. And with Ferrari having the fastest car at the moment, the title fight would be swinging his way.
Instead, that one moment at the start of the race means a potential 10-point gap is now 30 – as big a lead as either man has had this season – and crucially more than the 25 points awarded for a race win.
Psychologically, that makes a difference to a driver. Hamilton will head to Singapore, one of Mercedes’ weakest tracks, knowing that even if he fails to finish he will leave ahead in the standings. It’s a far more comfortable position to be in.
By contrast, Vettel goes to Singapore with the knowledge that if he fails to finish the title race will likely be effectively over, as it was there last year with his start-line crash.
Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel crashed into each other on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix in 2017
Where do Ferrari go from here?
The questions are again all going to be on Ferrari and Vettel – why is he not able to win, despite having the fastest car?
This has been the case in Germany,Hungary and now Italy. Three of the last four races. He should be ahead in the championship by now. Instead, he has a deficit to make up.
The first thing that should be obvious to the team will surely be the use of the second driver.
It’s ironic that Ferrari as a team has a reputation for using team orders controversially.
Back in 2002 at the Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello let Michael Schumacher through on the run to the line to take the win, amid a chorus of boos and much embarrassment. It was entirely unnecessary, as they had no competition for the title that season.
Then in 2010, when team orders were banned, Felipe Massa got a coded team order to allow Fernando Alonso through to win the German GP.
Again, it was met with reservations and technically broke the rules – Ferrari were fined – but at least that time it was the right thing to do, as Alonso almost went on to win the title.
Now, Ferrari seem insistent on giving Raikkonen and Vettel equal opportunity. It’s the ethical, fair thing to do. But amid a ferocious title battle, it’s foolhardy, and Mercedes, traditionally anti-team orders, are doing the opposite.
Bottas was off the pace of Hamilton in Monza, and Mercedes used him to help Hamilton’s, and the team’s victory bid.
In qualifying, after it became apparent Bottas wasn’t in the mix for pole, he was used on the last run to create a slipstream for Hamilton, to aid his final attempt. It didn’t quite work in qualifying, as Hamilton was ultimately beaten by both Ferraris.
Despite being ahead, though, Vettel was unhappy at being out qualified by Raikkonen, with clear frustration in his voice on the team radio on the in-lap, saying: “Let’s speak afterwards”. It was a curt response to his engineer congratulating him and saying he was second.
There was a stark contrast in tactics from the two teams.
At Mercedes, Bottas was towing Hamilton around. At Ferrari, Vettel was towing Raikkonen around. Why? It made no sense and Vettel knew it.
In the grand scheme of things, it is the fairest way for a team to operate, and most if not all teams alternate who goes out first in qualifying from one weekend to the next.
But when the championship is coming down to the wire and the margins are so fine, Ferrari surely have to put all their efforts behind Vettel.
It was no guarantee that Vettel would have been on pole had he been following Raikkonen in qualifying and not the other way around, but he would have had a better chance.
And from there, if Vettel had started on pole, he would have led the race and been out of reach of a Hamilton attack at the start. The whole outcome and title picture would be looking different.
Even in the race, Mercedes used Bottas to help Hamilton’s race chances, leaving him out long enough to slow Raikkonen down and damage his tyres in the process.
It didn’t particularly affect Bottas’ race. In fact, it might have been the most obvious thing for Mercedes to do anyway. But it clearly shows where their loyalties are at this stage of the season.
In the hybrid-engine era, this is by far the toughest title fight Mercedes have had and they know it. After the race, team members declared it as their most enjoyable victory in years. Against the odds, in Ferrari’s backyard, spurred on by the boos of the disappointed tifosi.
Bottas said after Budapest that he hated being called a wingman. Well, that’s exactly what he is for the remainder of this year while the title remains in the balance, and if Ferrari want to win the championship they must do exactly the same with Raikkonen.
Other things have gone wrong for them as well. Vettel needs to cut out his own mistakes. That was how the German GP slipped away, as Vettel slid off the track in the damp. While the Hungarian GP got away because of wet weather in qualifying – another Ferrari weakness and a massive Hamilton strength.
Thirty points is not insurmountable by any means, but it is imperative that Vettel and Ferrari have a perfect final seven races if they want to win the title. This, after all, is the stage of the season when their 2017 championship bid unravelled.
The pressure in Italy was immense, having the fastest car, in front of around 100,000 passionate Italian fans.
But Ferrari’s actions and failure there mean that that pressure will now remain immense for the run-in.
It’s far from over, but you just start to feel that it’s Mercedes’ and Hamilton’s to lose.
The Singapore Grand Prix has been held every year since 2008 and Mercedes have won the race in three of the past four years
Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina – When 67-year-old Ramiz Tiro was finally released from the concentration camps run by Croat forces during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovinain 1994, he felt like an animal.
Starved and dehydrated, he had lost 33kg. Having spent 262 days in “hell”, as he described it, he had forgotten what it felt like to be treated as a human being.
“I thought I wouldn’t make it out alive because you lose hope,” Tiro told Al Jazeera.
“I was tortured so much; they made an animal out of me. There was psychological [torture], hunger, thirst, non-stop labour, working on the frontline amid shootings; you didn’t feel like you were going to survive and that there would ever be end to this.”
It’s important to tell our stories so that we don’t forget and so that it doesn’t happen ever again.
Ramiz Tiro, Bosnian concentration camp survivor
It was under the leadership of the so-called Croat wartime statelet “Herceg-Bosna” and its military (HVO) that thousands of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) were rounded up from their homes and transferred to a network of concentration camps where they were regularly abused – enduring severe beatings, psychological torture, hunger and thirst while others were shot dead.
Detainees were forced to carry out dangerous work on the front lines for the HVO – digging trenches, building forts, or picking up dead bodies – and were forced to serve as human shields, confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, (ICTY) in 2017.
Some detainees were forced to drink their urine, others were made to eat shoe polish cream and grass off the ground. Another detainee was subjected to electric shocks until he blacked out, the ICTY noted.
In another case, the Croat military police forced a Bosniak to lick his own blood off the floor so that “the blood of a ‘Balija’ [derogatory word for a Bosniak Muslim] does not remain on Croatian soil,” they told him.
It was under these conditions from that Tiro, as prisoner number 320243, spent nine months between 1993 and 1994 in three detention centres including “Dretelj”, the most notorious camp held in the former barracks of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) in so-called Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna.
Removing Muslims
This past week marked the 25th anniversary of the declaration of the unrecognised statelet of Herceg-Bosna as a Croatian republic, with Mostar designated as its capital city.
It was formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991 with the intent to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and unite with Croatia, confirmed by the ICTY.
In November 2017, the ICTY sentenced six high-ranking officials of Herceg-Bosna to 111 years in prison.
They were found guilty of contributing to the joint criminal enterprise (JCE), which had as its ultimate goal creating Croatian territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Mostar – the southern city besieged for nine months.
Croatia was also complicit in the JCE, ICTY confirmed.
Crimes committed against Muslims between 1993 and 1994 “were not random acts of a few unruly soldiers”, ICTY stated in 2013.
“On the contrary, these crimes were the result of a plan drawn up by members of the JCE whose goal was to permanently remove the Muslim population from Herceg-Bosna.”
An illustration from Tiro’s book, Dretelj: At the door to hell, picturing a scene in the camp, by artist Ekrem Moca Dizdar [Courtesy: Ramiz Tiro]
Croat forces began their new wave of arrests in May and July 1993.
At night, apartment by apartment, one block after the other, separation awaited each Bosniak family. The men were transported to camps and the rest of the family was typically expelled from their homes in west so-called Croat Mostar to east so-called Muslim Mostar.
Tiro was arrested on the night of June 30, 1993 with the rest of the Muslim men from his neighbourhood, and transported to Heliodrom, a former JNA military facility.
Once the heavy, steel doors opened, he saw hundreds of drained faces packed in the room, sitting on the concrete floor. There was barely any room to stand, let alone sit, Tiro said.
However, the 19 days that he later spent in Dretelj was by far the worst.
“They wouldn’t open the door for days, leaving us shut inside without any food or water,” Tiro said.
When they were given a meagre ration of food, they had only a few seconds to eat it under threat of punishment.
All the while Tiro kept asking himself: Why? Why am I being arrested? Why am I being tortured? Why are we being expelled from our homes when our families have lived here for the past 500 years?
“We went to school together [with Croats], we lived together and all of a sudden he’s my enemy now?” he said.
Tiro recognised one of the soldiers who would shut the door on them as a former schoolmate.
Tiro asked him, “Why is this being done to us?I’m just like you.”
“No, no, you’re ‘balije’ [Muslims]. You’re the enemy of our state,” the soldier said.
“This was unfathomable for me,” Tiro recalled. “But I realised what it was about during my time as a prisoner.”
Serving as a human shield
At Heliodrom, being picked from the rows of detainees for labour was a “nightmare”.
On some days, they knew they would face “a guaranteed death”, Tiro said, working on the frontline amid clashes between HVO and Bosnian forces (ARBIH).
“When you went for labour on these days, you weren’t sure if you were going to come back,” Tiro said.
It was here that the majority of detainees would be killed. The truck would leave with 60 detainees in the morning and come back in the evening with 50 or 43.
Those who survived were covered in blood and in shock.
These crimes were the result of a plan drawn up by members of the JCE whose goal was to permanently remove the Muslim population from Herceg-Bosna.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Tiro’s turn to work on the frontline as a human shield came on Saturday, August 14, 1993 – the most frightening day in his life.
Forty men were brought to the frontline in the middle of Mostar. An HVO soldier ordered them to head into the clearing and build a protective wall out of sandbags just 10 metres away from ARBIH’s position, putting its security at stake.
They hesitated, knowing they would surely be shot at.
“Get out!” the soldier shouted at them. “Or do you want me to kill you all now on the spot?” he said, aiming his loaded gun at them.
With no choice, they headed for the clearing carrying sandbags two by two. Halfway there, bullets began hitting the sandbags, sending sand spilling onto the ground. Another bullet hit a branch above them.
How many warning shots will there be? Tiro thought to himself.
But there was no turning back or running away as the HVO soldier who had given them the orders kept them in his crosshairs, threatening to shoot them if they did.
“We were surely headed towards death. I was just waiting for the moment when I would fall to the ground,” Tiro said.
They set down their first sandbags unscathed, but when they returned back to for more, an explosion went off and they found themselves on the ground.
Tiro had been hit by shrapnel in the head. Blood ran onto his face. He could hardly see. He held his hand to his head stop the bleeding, but felt as if a large part of his head was missing. His fellow detainees were also injured, covered in blood.
Luckily, the shrapnel hadn’t damaged his brain, the surgeon told him later on when he regained consciousness in the hospital.
His friend and fellow detainee had also survived after undergoing surgery to repair veins and arteries that were ruptured in the explosion.
Yet, sometimes hunger was so dire in the camp that detainees would risk their lives and volunteer to work on the frontlines, just so they could get a tin of food.
Twenty-five years later, 700 bodies of killed detainees are still being searched for, according to the Association of Mostar Concentration Camp Detainees.
To this day, Tiro still has trouble sleeping and suffers from pain. Despite everything he’s been through, he says he doesn’t hold negative feelings.
“By writing my book [“Dretelj: At the door to hell”], I was able to return to my old self,” Tiro said.
“It’s important to tell our stories so that we don’t forget and so that it doesn’t happen ever again.”
An illustration from Tiro’s book, Dretelj: At the door to hell, picturing a scene in the camp, by artist Ekrem Moca Dizdar [Courtesy: Ramiz Tiro]
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Monica Lewinsky storms offstage in Israel after ‘off limits’ Bill Clinton question
Israeli news anchor Yonit Levi asked Lewinsky if she still expected a personal apology from Clinton over the fallout from the scandal of their affair 20 years ago.
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Associated Press
Published 3:06 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018
JERUSALEM – Monica Lewinsky says she stormed offstage at a Jerusalem event because of an interviewer’s “off limits” question about former President Bill Clinton.
The former White House intern turned anti-bullying activist tweeted early Tuesday that there were agreed-upon parameters regarding the topics of her conversation about the perils of the internet.
She called Israeli news anchor Yonit Levi’s first question about her relationship with Clinton a “blatant disregard for our agreement.”
Levi asked Lewinsky if she still expected a personal apology from Clinton over the fallout from the scandal of their affair 20 years ago. Lewinsky responded: “I’m so sorry. I’m not going to be able to do this.” She then put down her microphone and walked offstage.
Lewinsky says on Twitter: “It became clear to me I had been misled.”
Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro beat Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-3 in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows
2018 US Open
Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 27 August-9 September Coverage: Live radio coverage on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website
Maria Sharapova says being a teenager with “a few hundred dollars” and “no sense of the future” was the toughest period of her career – not losing in the US Open last 16.
The five-time Grand Slam champion has not gone past the quarter-finals in her five major appearances since returning from a doping ban in 2017.
“I think I’ve done plenty in my career,” said Sharapova.
“[I’ve] established a lot for myself personally, professionally.”
Sharapova became a household name when she won the 2004 Wimbledon title as a 17-year-old, going on to claim a career Grand Slam with victories at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open over the next 10 years.
The former world number one slid down the rankings after being given a 15-month doping ban for using meldonium.
She tested positive for the banned substance, which is used to control heart disease-related conditions, at the 2016 Australian Open, but has always denied cheating.
Since returning to Grand Slam action at last year’s US Open, she has climbed to 22nd in the rankings and reached one quarter-final at Roland Garros in June.
Asked if Monday’s defeat represented the most challenging period of her career, Sharapova – who left Russia for the United States with her father as a seven-year-old – said: “What’s challenging is when you’re a teenager and you have a few hundred dollars and you’ve got no sense of the future.
“You don’t know where you’re going to end up. You just have a dream.
“That’s a lot tougher than being 31 years old and having the opportunity to do whatever I want in my life.”
‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could win again’
After losing to 30th seed Suarez Navarro 6-4 6-3, Sharapova added she would not still be playing if she did not believe she could challenge for Grand Slam titles again.
“If you don’t have belief, it’s your choice to not continue that,” she said.
“If I didn’t have the belief to keep doing this and to keep having the motivation and the grind of doing this every day in order to get myself in these positions, I don’t think I would be here.
“The belief is not something that I’m eager to show everybody else.
“The belief matters most when it’s internal and when you have a passion for something.”
Some of the biggest names in sports, entertainment and politics have taken to Twitter to show their support for civil rights activist and Black Lives Matter supporter Colin Kaepernick, after the former American football player become the new face of Nike’s ‘Just Do it’ ad campaign.
Kaepernick, 30, who is currently without a team, sparked a wave of protests across the National Football League and other athletic events in 2016 after he started kneeling during the American national anthem to protest against police brutality against African Americans.
“Believe in something,” Nike’s new tagline read in a tweet posted by Kaepernick.
“Even if it means sacrificing everything”.
The tweet immediately went viral, garnering millions of interactions and the #Nike hashtag becoming a worldwide trending topic.
Kaepernick, who has not played football since 2017 after he was released by the San Francisco 49ers, has repeatedly been attacked by US President Donald Trump over his public stand, with Trump calling on NFL team owners to fire such players.
Brushing aside the issue of racism, Trump attacked the protesting players last year, accusing them of showing “total disrespect of our heritage”.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you’d say, Get that son of a b**** off the field right now. Out! He’s fired”.
Kenney Stills, a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins tweeted: “#IMWITHKAP”.
Kelvin Beachum, who plays for the New York Jets tweeted a raised fist emoji, which is commonly used to show support for African American and minority rights issues.
Samuel L. Jackson, who has starred in hit films such as Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained and the Avengers franchise tweeted: “Oh s**t @Nike done stepped in it now!!! Sanctions tbd!!!”
Oh shit @Nike done stepped in it now!!! Sanctions tbd!!!
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who’s been tweeting with greater frequency as of late, called Kaepernick “one of the best quarterbacks in the league”.
“The #NFL season will start this week, unfortunately once again @Kaepernick7 is not on a NFL roster,” he wrote. “Even though he is one of the best Quarterbacks in the league”.
US Senator Ted Cruz used the tweet for political point-scoring, and quote-tweeted the former anti-American president.
“When a radical anti-Semite, anti-American Iranian dictator emphatically agrees with you, maybe that’s a sign that Beto, the NFL, and Nike are all on the wrong side of the American people,” Cruz wrote.
When a radical anti-Semite, anti-American Iranian dictator emphatically agrees with you, maybe that’s a sign that Beto, the NFL, and Nike are all on the wrong side of the American people…. https://t.co/7MYcLfIsBz
Sandra Harwitt, Special to USA TODAY
Published 1:17 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018 | Updated 2:46 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018
NEW YORK — Roger Federer will not increase his men’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles at this year’s US Open.
The second-seeded Federer unraveled after winning the first set against John Millman to allow the Australian to record his first career victory over a top-10 player with a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) fourth-round win. Millman failed in his previous 10 career attempts against top-10 opponents.
“I just thought it was very hot tonight and was just one of those nights where I guess I felt I couldn’t get air,” Federer said. “There was no circulation. For some reason, I just struggled with the conditions tonight. It was one of the first times it happened to me.
“It was uncomfortable and kept sweating, sweating as the match went on. When you feel like that, everything is off.”
This is the first time that the 29-year-old Millman’s ever reached a Grand Slam fourth-round. The Brisbane native has yet to win a tour-level title, which was in stark contrast to Federer with 98 career titles to his credit.
“I’m probably in a little bit of disbelief,” Millman told the crowd after scoring the shocking victory. “I have so much respect for Roger. Obviously, today his game was not at his best, but I’ll take it.”
Absolutely stunning upset as @johnhmillman defeats Federer 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium!
It’s been 10 years since Federer won the last of his five consecutive US Open trophies in 2008. He won his 20th Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open this year.
Making his 18th appearance at the US Open, Federer had previously never lost to a player ranked outside of the top 50 in 40 matches played at Flushing Meadows.
Federer, 37, looked a shadow of the legend fans expect to see when the Swiss sensation takes to the court. From the start of the second set, he seemed a step slow, error-prone, and confused as to how to get out of trouble.
He had set points at 5-4 40-15 in the second set and three set points in the third set, but couldn’t capitalize on any of those opportunities.
“I started missing on chances I had and I was unhappy about that,” Federer said. “But at some point I was happy the match was over.”
Federer posted a surprising 77 unforced errors to just 28 for Millman, which including 10 double faults.
In contrast, Millman played top-flight tennis and his confidence kept building as the match progressed.
MORE US OPEN:
Even when Federer momentarily looked to be recovering in the fourth-set when he broke Millman’s serve in the sixth game of the fourth-set for a 4-2 lead the Australian held his nerve. This wasn’t the Federer fans were used to seeing, and from 40-30 ahead in the next game he surrendered his serve to let Millman back even.
Federer’s final blunder, which ushered him to the exit, was in the fourth-set tiebreaker. At 2-1 for Millman, Federer hit two consecutive double faults to go down 4-1. On a third match point for Millman, Federer sailed a forehand long to end what was a 3 hour, 35 minute misery of a match for him.
The hoped for quarterfinal matchup between Federer and the sixth-seeded Novak Djokovic, the reigning Wimbledon champion, will not materialize. Instead it will be Millman who will be playing Djokovic in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
what happened… 
trustedenews 