Ohio Senator JD Vance (R-OH) issued a statement Monday with questions regarding the 50-car freight train transporting hazardous goods that crashed earlier this month near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. The crash was treated with a controlled release of chemicals to prevent an explosion.
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Report: Afghan Women Forced into Marriages with Men Eligible for Evacuation
Afghan women were reportedly forced into marriages with men who were eligible for evacuation from the country, CNN reported Thursday.
U.S. officials notified the State Department about some Afghan women and girls showing up with men pretending to be their husbands or after being forced into marriages with men eligible for evacuation, two sources familiar with the matter reportedly told CNN.
Some women are reportedly resorting to these unusual relationships in order to flee Taliban rule, CNN reported. Families of Afghan women at a transit hub in the United Arab Emirates arranged for such marriages at the Kabul international airport in Afghanistan so that women may leave, according to CNN.
Read the full storyBiden Officials Gave the Names of Americans and Afghan Allies Trying to Evacuate to the Taliban
U.S. officials in Kabul have given the Taliban “a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies” who should be granted entry through Taliban checkpoints outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), Politico reported Thursday. This decision to trust the Taliban with this information has reportedly “prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.”
The U.S. military has been sharing “information with the Taliban” since Aug. 14 ostensibly to prevent attacks, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr. confirmed during a Pentagon briefing Thursday.
Read the full storyBiden Administration Continues to Tell Fleeing Americans to Pay Their Way out of Afghanistan, Hours After Telling the Press Otherwise
The Biden administration continued to inform American citizens in Afghanistan as of Thursday evening they could have to pay more than $2,000 to board an evacuation flight out of the country, despite the State Department telling the press hours before that it had no intention of levying any such charges.
The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has stated in multiple security advisories since Monday that any U.S. citizen seeking to evacuate the country must complete an online form in order to secure their repatriation flight. “This form is the only way to communicate interest in flight options,” the embassy said in a security advisory Wednesday.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told the Daily Caller News Foundation and other news outlets late Thursday afternoon that the Biden administration has “no intention of seeking any reimbursement from those fleeing Afghanistan.”
Read the full storyPet Owners Loath to Leave Their Pals During Evacuations
Nila Belfiore-Dulay and her husband, Henryk, took seven days to drive cross-country to their new life in Charleston, South Carolina, last week, because they didn’t want to risk flying their dogs, Josie and Annie. Soon after they arrived, they were told to turn back. Charleston, in the line of Hurricane Florence, was in a mandatory evacuation zone. “We were there about five days before they told us we would have to evacuate,” Belfiore-Dulay said, sounding politely upbeat but a bit uncertain from a La Quinta motel in Jacksonville, Florida. Who goes to Florida to escape a hurricane? (Florida is the most “hurricane-prone” state in the U.S., according to several weather-forecasting sites and the U.S. government.) Some pet owners from South Carolina and Georgia wound up there because they couldn’t find rooms any closer as they evacuated the area Hurricane Florence was expected to pummel. “The hotel is packed with dog owners. The dogs are having a blast,” Belfiore-Dulay said. “They were unsettled at the beginning. But now that they are settled, they are having a blast.” Proprietor’s call While rumors have been spread on the internet thathotels and motels have to accept guests with pets during emergencies, it is up to…
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