Volume 80 Edition 59 ©SS 2021 THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2021 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas

stripes.com

NBA FINALS

Paul carries Sunsto Game 1 winover BucksPage 24

MILITARY

Security concernscited for timing of Bagram exitPage 6

FACES

Monsters aboundin ‘WellingtonParanormal’ Page 18

Deployment at US-Mexico border will stretch into fourth year ›› Page 3

Two members of the anti-Islam-

ic State coalition suffered minor

injuries following a rocket attack

on a base housing U.S. troops in

western Iraq, while allied troops

thwarted a drone attack on a coali-

tion outpost in Syria on Wednes-

day, military officials said.

About 14 rockets fell on al Asad

Air Base at about 12:30 p.m., said

U.S. Army Col. Wayne Marotto, a

coalition spokesman, who con-

firmed the injuries and that all

personnel had been accounted for.

Military officials did not say

whether the injured were U.S. ser-

vice members.

The projectiles landed on the

Rocket

attack

hurts 2Base housing UStroops targeted forsecond time in week

BY CHAD GARLAND

Stars and Stripes

Twitter, Security Media Cell

Iraqis inspect the damage after al Asad Air Base was hit in a rocket attack Wednesday. It was the second rocket attack targeting the base thisweek and follows two attempted drone attacks on U.S. compounds elsewhere in Iraq. SEE ATTACK ON PAGE 7

IRAQ

An Army Green Beret was in-

strumental in retaking a key al-

Shabab stronghold during a brutal

firefight six years ago, newly re-

leased records of his Silver Star

award reveal.

When Somali soldiers, backed

by Kenyan forces, retook the town

of Baardheere west of Mogadishu

in July 2015, they said they met no

resistance. But U.S. Army records

detail a harrowing battle against a

“prepared, determined and nu-

merically superior enemy” and

provide a rare glimpse into com-

bat involving U.S. ground troops

in Somalia.

“Under significant enemy fire,”

Capt. William Doyle of the Colora-

do-based 10th Special Forces

Group (Air-

borne) demon-

strated courage

and leadership

that “undoubt-

edly saved the

lives of eight

[U.S. special op-

erations troops]

and resulted in the liberation of

Baardheere,” said a narrative ac-

companying the Silver Star

awarded in 2018.

Doyle’s name was redacted

from the narrative, released un-

der the Freedom of Information

Act and provided to Stars and

Stripes this week. His name ap-

pears on a related award certifi-

cate and a public list of Army Sil-

ver Star recipients since 9/11, but

details of where and how he

earned the medal do not appear to

have been previously disclosed.

U.S. forces have been assisting

Somali troops in their battle

against al-Shabab militants

aligned with al-Qaida since at

least 2013. Earlier this year, the

Pentagon pulled hundreds of

troops from the country, but U.S.

Green Beret’s Silver Star sheds light on US ground combat in SomaliaBY CHAD GARLAND

Stars and Stripes

Doyle

SEE SOMALIA ON PAGE 7

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Growth

in the services sector, where most

Americans work, slowed in June fol-

lowing record expansion in May.

The Institute for Supply Manage-

ment said Tuesday that its monthly

survey of service industries retreat-

ed to a reading of 60.1, following a

all-time high reading of 64 in May.

Any reading above 50 indicates the

sector is expanding.

It’s the 13th straight month of ex-

pansion in the services sector fol-

lowing a two-month contraction in

April and May of last year, as busi-

nesses were forced to shut down

during the early stages of the coro-

navirus pandemic.

After five consecutive months of

expansion, the employment index

fell into contraction territory in June

with a reading of 49.3, down from

May’s 55.3, suggesting many com-

panies are still struggling to hire

enough workers.

The Labor Department reported

an encouraging burst of hiring in its

jobs report last week with 850,000

jobs added in June, well above the

average of the previous three

months. Hiring in June was partic-

ularly strong in restaurants, bars

and hotels, which collectively ab-

sorbed heavier layoffs from the re-

cession. Those businesses added

343,000 jobs, but it may not be

enough.

Comments from respondents

continued to focus on supply chain

issues, supply shortages and staffing

difficulties.

“Manpower has been a concern,”

said one; another commented:

“Lack of labor is killing us.”

Bahrain94/89

Baghdad111/80

Doha105/82

Kuwait City112/90

Riyadh111/85

Kandahar106/66

Kabul96/57

Djibouti101/87

THURSDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Mildenhall/Lakenheath

69/55

Ramstein69/55

Stuttgart64/61

Lajes,Azores69/66

Rota83/64

Morón98/60 Sigonella

97/71

Naples89/71

Aviano/Vicenza86/67

Pápa99/67

Souda Bay80/76

Brussels68/55

Zagan74/59

DrawskoPomorskie

71/56

THURSDAY IN EUROPE

Misawa64/61

Guam83/80

Tokyo69/66

Okinawa82/79

Sasebo78/75

Iwakuni78/75

Seoul83/72

Osan83/71

Busan77/73

The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,

2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

FRIDAY IN THE PACIFIC

WEATHER OUTLOOK

TODAYIN STRIPES

American Roundup ...... 11Classified .................... 13Comics .........................16Crossword ................... 16Faces .......................... 18Opinion ........................ 14Sports .................... 19-24

BUSINESS/WEATHER

Military rates

Euro costs (July 8) $1.15Dollar buys (July 8) 0.8238British pound (July 8) $1.35Japanese yen (July 8) 108.00South Korean won (July 8) 1,108.00

Commercial rates

Bahrain (Dinar) .3767Britain (Pound) 1.3808Canada (Dollar) 1.2447China (Yuan) 6.4671Denmark (Krone) 6.2989Egypt (Pound) 15.6895Euro .8470Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7685Hungary (Forint) 302.21Israel (Shekel) 3.2702Japan (Yen) 110.71Kuwait (Dinar) .3012

Norway (Krone) 8.6952

Philippines (Peso) 49.96Poland (Zloty) 3.83Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7506Singapore (Dollar) 1.3481

South Korea (Won) 1,138.95Switzerland (Franc) .9246Thailand (Baht) 32.31Turkey (New Lira)  �8.6989

(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger­many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur­chasing British pounds in Germany), check withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All  figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound,  which  is  represented  in  dollars­to­pound, and the euro, which is dollars­to­euro.)

INTEREST RATES

Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount �rate 0.75Federal funds market rate  �0.093­month bill 0.0530­year bond 2.00

EXCHANGE RATESService sector growth slightly slower in JuneAssociated Press

PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3

As many as 3,000 troops will

be deployed along the U.S. bor-

der with Mexico until Sept. 30,

2022, stretching the military’s

mission there into a fourth year,

the chief Pentagon spokesman

said Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Aus-

tin approved a request to extend

the mission that supports the De-

partment of Homeland Security

along the southwest border, Pen-

tagon Press Secretary John Kir-

by told reporters. Austin signed

the request June 23, according to

a defense official who spoke on

the condition of anonymity.

Austin authorized up to 3,000

troops to serve on the mission,

which is down from the 4,000 ap-

proved to serve at the southwest

border for fiscal 2021, Kirby

said. Deployments will continue

to be staffed primarily by Na-

tional Guard troops working in a

federal status under the com-

mand and control of U.S. North-

ern Command, the defense offi-

cial said.

About 3,800 troops are de-

ployed now to the southwest bor-

der in support of U.S. Customs

and Border Protection agents.

The troops are a mix of active-

duty service members and Na-

tional Guard troops from nearly

two dozen states. Their work in-

cludes helping to identify, mon-

itor and analyze patterns of un-

authorized entry and alert Bor-

der Patrol agents.

The Defense Department has

spent more than $840 million on

the mission so far, according to a

February report from the Gov-

ernment Accountability Office.

Former President Donald

Trump first ordered National

Guard troops to the southern

border in April 2018 and added

active-duty personnel to the mis-

sion about six months later.

When President Joe Biden

took office in January, he ended

construction of a physical border

wall initiated by Trump but he

has kept the troops in place.

Following the extension of the

mission, governors in Ohio and

North Dakota announced ap-

proval to send Guard troops on

the federal deployment.

These federal missions are

separate from state-level mis-

sions ongoing in Arizona and

Texas, where Republican gover-

nors disagree with the way that

the Biden administration is

handling border security.

Both states have activated

hundreds of Guard members to

serve at the border in support of

state law enforcement. South

Dakota and Arkansas an-

nounced last month plans to de-

ploy Guard troops to support

Texas’ state-led mission.

Deployment at US-Mexico border extendedBY ROSE L. THAYER

Stars and Stripes

thayer.rose@stripes.com Twitter: @Rose_Lori

KEITH ANDERSON/U.S. Army

A soldier from the 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas, conducts observations along the internationalborder near Nogales, Ariz., in February 2019. 

it to the final round, declined com-

ment Tuesday. In separate state-

ments, IBM said it was evaluating

the new Pentagon approach and

Google said it looked forward to

discussing it with Pentagon offi-

cials.

The JEDI project began with the

$1 million contract award for Mi-

crosoft, meant as an initial step in a

10-year deal that could have reac-

hed $10 billion in value. The project

that will replace it is a five-year

program; Sherman said no exact

contract value has been set but that

it will be “in the billions.” Sherman

said the government will negotiate

the amount Microsoft will be paid

for having its 2019 deal terminated.

Amazon Web Services, a market

leader in providing cloud comput-

ing services, had long been consid-

ered a leading candidate to run the

Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise De-

fense Infrastructure project,

known as JEDI. The project was

meant to store and process vast

amounts of classified data, allow-

ing the U.S. military to improve

communications with soldiers on

the battlefield and use artificial in-

telligence to speed up its war plan-

ning and fighting capabilities.

The JEDI contract became

mired in legal challenges almost as

soon as it was awarded to Microsoft

in October 2019. The losing bidder,

WASHINGTON — The Penta-

gon said it canceled a disputed

cloud-computing contract with Mi-

crosoft that could eventually have

been worth $10 billion. It will in-

stead pursue a deal with both Mi-

crosoft and Amazon and possibly

other cloud service providers.

“With the shifting technology

environment, it has become clear

that the JEDI Cloud contract,

which has long been delayed, no

longer meets the requirements to

fill the DoD’s capability gaps,” the

Pentagon said in a statement Tues-

day.

The statement did not directly

mention that the Pentagon faced

extended legal challenges by Ama-

zon to the original $1 million con-

tract awarded to Microsoft. Ama-

zon argued that the Microsoft

award was tainted by politics, par-

ticularly then-President Donald

Trump’s antagonism toward Ama-

zon founder, Jeff Bezos, who

stepped down Monday as the com-

pany’s chief executive officer. Be-

zos owns The Washington Post, a

newspaper often criticized by

Trump.

The Pentagon’s chief informa-

tion officer, John Sherman, told re-

porters Tuesday that during the

lengthy legal fight with Amazon,

“the landscape has evolved” with

new possibilities for large-scale

cloud computing services. Thus it

was decided, he said, to start over

and seek multiple vendors.

Sherman said JEDI will be re-

placed by a new program called

Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability,

and that both Amazon and Micro-

soft “likely” will be awarded parts

of the business, although neither is

guaranteed. Sherman said the

three other large cloud service pro-

viders — Google, IBM and Oracle

— might qualify, too.

Microsoft said in response to the

Pentagon announcement, “We un-

derstand the DoD’s rationale, and

we support them and every mili-

tary member who needs the mis-

sion-critical 21st century technolo-

gy JEDI would have provided. The

DoD faced a difficult choice: Con-

tinue with what could be a years-

long litigation battle or find anoth-

er path forward.”

Amazon said it understands and

agrees with the Pentagon’s deci-

sion. In a statement, the company

reiterated its view that the 2019

contract award was not based on

the merits of the competing pro-

posals “and instead was the result

of outside influence that has no

place in government procure-

ment.”

Oracle, which had earlier sought

the JEDI contract but didn’t make

Amazon Web Services, went to

court arguing that the Pentagon’s

process was flawed and unfair, in-

cluding that it was improperly in-

fluenced by politics.

This year, the Pentagon had

been hinting that it might scrap the

contract, saying in May that it felt

compelled to reconsider its options

after a federal judge in April reject-

ed a Pentagon move to have key

parts of Amazon’s lawsuit dismis-

sed.

The JEDI saga has been unusual

for the political dimension linked

to Trump. In April 2020, the De-

fense Department inspector gen-

eral’s office concluded that the

contracting process was in line

with legal and government pur-

chasing standards. The inspector

general found no evidence of

White House interference in the

contract award process, but that

review also said investigators

could not fully review the matter

because the White House would

not allow unfettered access to wit-

nesses.

Five months later, the Pentagon

reaffirmed Microsoft as winner of

the contract, but work remained

stalled by Amazon’s legal chal-

lenge.

In its April 2020 report, the in-

spector general’s office did not

draw a conclusion about whether

the Redmond, Wash.-based Micro-

soft Corp. was appropriately de-

clared the winner. Rather, it looked

at whether the decision-making

process was proper and legal. It al-

so examined allegations of uneth-

ical behavior by Pentagon officials

involved in the matter and general-

ly determined that any ethical laps-

es did not influence the outcome.

That review did not find evi-

dence of White House pressure for

the Pentagon to favor the Microsoft

bid, but it also said it could not defi-

nitely determine the full extent of

White House interactions with the

Pentagon’s decision makers.

Pentagon cancels disputed JEDIcloud contract with Microsoft

Associated Press

CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it is canceling a cloud­computingcontract with Microsoft.

MILITARY

PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

tem to Amami Island, south of Ky-

ushu, he said.

On Amami, the U.S. troops

worked alongside their Japanese

counterparts operating a Chu-

SAM surface-to-air missile sys-

tem, Chelala said.

At Aibano Training Area, north

of Kyoto, members of 1st Battal-

ion, 28th Infantry Regiment

“Black Lions,” 3rd Infantry Divi-

sion out of Fort Benning, Ga., ma-

TOKYO — American soldiers

fired a High Mobility Artillery

Rocket System on the Japanese is-

land of Hokkaido during a large-

scale exercise that concluded

Wednesday, according to a U.S.

Army Japan spokesman.

The live fire, conducted June

28-30, was the first time the Army

had operated the weapon known

as HIMARS in Japan, Maj. Elias

Chelala said in a telephone inter-

view Wednesday.

It was part of Orient Shield, an

annual bilateral drill that began

June 24 and involved 3,000 U.S.

and Japanese troops, Elias said at

the end of the exercise.

Orient Shield marked a return

to large-scale field training for

U.S. Army Japan, which ran a

scaled-down version of the drill

last year in association with Keen

Sword, an exercise that brought

together the Japan Self-Defense

Forces and U.S. Air Force, Army,

Navy and Marine Corps.

The U.S. and Japan have been

strengthening their alliance as

China continues to expand its mil-

itary with the stated goal of occu-

pying Taiwan, a U.S.-armed de-

mocracy the communists regard

as a rebellious province.

Japan and the U.S. would have

to defend Taiwan in the event of a

major problem, Japan’s deputy

prime minister, Taro Aso, said

during a political fundraising

event Monday, according to Kyo-

do News.

An invasion of the island by Chi-

na could be seen as an existential

threat, allowing Japan to exercise

the right to collective self-defense,

he said, according to the report.

Asked about the comments at a

press conference Tuesday, Penta-

gon press secretary John Kirby

told reporters U.S. policy on Tai-

wan remains unchanged.

“We continue to observe the

One-China Policy,” he said, refer-

ring to one acknowledging that

Beijing believes it has sovereignty

over Taiwan. The sides split dur-

ing a civil war in 1949. China con-

siders the island a breakaway

province that should be brought

under its control by force if neces-

sary.

U.S. troops arriving for Orient

Shield in Japan, where coronavi-

rus cases are increasing ahead of

the Olympic Games in Tokyo,

quarantined for two weeks at Sa-

gami General Depot in Kanagawa

prefecture and Camp Fuji in Ya-

manashi prefecture, Chelala said.

The HIMARS, along with four

AH-64 Apache attack helicopters,

arrived at Marine Corps Air Sta-

tion Iwakuni, Japan, on the logis-

tics ship USNS Fisher, he said.

Troops from the 17th Field Ar-

tillery Brigade out of Joint Base

Lewis-McChord, Wash., conduct-

ed the HIMARS training at Hok-

kaido’s Yausubetsu Training Area

alongside members of Japan’s 4th

Field Artillery Group, which fired

multiple launch rocket systems.

“It was the first time the U.S. Ar-

my has fired its HIMARS in Ja-

pan,” Chelala said.

The Marine Corps fired a HI-

MARS in early 2020 during North-

ern Viper, a bilateral exercise

with Japanese troops on Hokkai-

do.

In summer 2019, the Okinawa-

based 12th Marine Regiment fired

rockets from three HIMARS

launchers in Australia during the

biennial Talisman Sabre drills in-

volving 34,000 U.S. and Australian

troops.

The Orient Shield training in-

cluded cyber and space capabili-

ties but for the most part it was

about long-range fires, aviation,

ground operations and movement

of equipment by sea, Chelala said.

Meanwhile, the 1st Air Defense

Artillery Battalion out of Kadena

Air Base, Okinawa, sent an Ad-

vanced Capability-3 (PAC-3)

ground-based missile defense sys-

neuvered, trained on mortars and

practiced evacuating casualties

alongside the 14th Brigade of Ja-

pan’s Middle Army, he said.

The ground troops were sup-

ported by the Apaches, flown by

the Hawaii-based 2nd Battalion,

6th Cavalry Regiment, Chelala

said.

Command and control of the ex-

ercise was handled by the Califor-

nia-based 40th Infantry Division,

which established a bilateral

headquarters with the Middle Ar-

my at Camp Itami near Osaka in

Hyogo prefecture, he said.

The division’s operations offi-

cer, Lt. Col. Matt Jonkey, 47, of Re-

no, Nev., said he was impressed to

see the allies working toward a

common goal.

“In an actual situation where

Japan needed assistance from the

U.S. it might involve 40th ID,” he

said in a phone interview from

Camp Itami on Wednesday. “[Ori-

ent Shield] is a phenomenal oper-

ation for both U.S. forces and the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force

to increase regional security

throughout the Indo-Pacific.”

US Army firesHIMARS rocketsystem in Japan

BY SETH ROBSON

Stars and Stripes

robson.seth@stripes.com Twitter: @SethRobson1

ANTHONY FORD/U.S. Army

U.S. soldiers sprint off a Japan Ground Self­Defense Force helicopter during air­assault training at AibanoTraining Area, Japan, during Orient Shield drills on July 1. 

ELIAS CHELALA/U.S. Army

American soldiers fire a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System on theJapanese island of Hokkaido during a large­scale exercise thatconcluded Wednesday.

Two Army brigade combat

teams will deploy a combined

5,600 soldiers in the summer to

ongoing operations in Iraq and

Europe, the service announced

Tuesday.

About 1,800 troops from the 1st

Stryker Brigade Combat Team,

4th Infantry Division, based out

of Fort Carson, Colo., will deploy

to Iraq to support to Operation

Inherent Resolve.

The 1st Armored Brigade

Combat Team, 1st Infantry Divi-

sion, based out of Fort Riley,

Kan., will send about 3,800

troops to Europe to support Op-

eration Atlantic Resolve.

The Fort Carson soldiers will

replace the 256th Infantry Bri-

gade Combat Team of the Loui-

siana Army National Guard, as

part of a regular rotation of

forces, the Army said.

Operation Inherent Resolve is

the mission to defeat the Islamic

State terrorist group in Iraq and

Syria.

“Our soldiers and leaders

have been training hard prepar-

ing to answer our nation’s call,”

Col. Ike L. Sallee, commander of

the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat

Team, said in a statement. “We

are ready for this mission.”

The Fort Riley troops will re-

place the Fort Hood, Texas-

based 1st Armored Brigade

Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Divi-

sion as part of Operation Atlan-

tic Resolve, a mission to support

NATO allies and partners

against Russian aggression in

Europe.

"The 1st Armored Brigade

Combat Team is honored to de-

ploy in support of Atlantic Re-

solve as a regionally allocated

force in Europe,” Col. Brian E.

McCarthy, 1st Armored Brigade

Combat Team commander, said

in a statement. “It is a great priv-

ilege to aid in the preservation of

peace by showcasing our Army's

ability to project readiness

across the globe. This brigade’s

legacy of fighting and training

alongside our European part-

ners began in the fields of

France during World War I. We

are proud to uphold our dedica-

tion to a strong Europe, and once

again stand with our allies and

partners.”

Army units have conducted

nine-month rotations in Europe

since 2014, where units conduct

multinational training events

across more than a dozen coun-

tries including Lithuania, Po-

land, Hungary and Estonia, ac-

cording to U.S. Army Europe

and Africa.

Army brigades announce deployments to Iraq and EuropeBY ROSE L. THAYER

Stars and Stripes

MILITARY

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5

One of the major companies par-

ticipating in the Defense Depart-

ment’s beleaguered privatized mil-

itary housing program announced

Tuesday that it will spend $72 mil-

lion over five years for improve-

ments at five Air Force installa-

tions.

Work should begin this year at

properties overseen by Lendlease.

“The planned improvements at

each installation are designed with

residents in mind, to not only en-

hance the look and feel of the com-

munities, but also ensure that hous-

ing is supporting today’s service

members and their families, as well

as future generations of military

families,” Jerry Schmitz, senior

vice president for Lendlease Com-

munities, who oversees the Air

Force properties, said in a news re-

lease.

The bases receiving the upgrades

are Hickam Communities at Joint

Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Ha-

waii; Tierra Vista Communities at

Los Angeles Air Force Base, San

Pedro, Calif.; Tierra Vista at Peter-

son-Schriever Air Force Base, Co-

lo.; Soaring Heights Community at

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base,

Ariz.; and Soaring Heights at Hollo-

man Air Force Base, N.M.

Private companies involved in

the housing program have been un-

der fire by service members and

Congress following reports of wide-

spread and systemic deficiencies

by those firms, including falsified

maintenance reports, mold, pest in-

festation, poor infrastructure and

retaliation against those who com-

plained.

Congress passed the Military

Housing Privatization Initiative in

1996, legislation that was itself dri-

ven by problems with maintenance

and capitalization of Defense De-

partment housing.

During a March hearing of the

House Subcommittees on Readin-

ess and Military Personnel Joint

Hearing, Chairman John Gara-

mendi said that lawmakers would

continue to demand more out of the

private firms operating the hous-

ing.

“Military families deserve quali-

ty housing, and they deserve re-

sponsive property management,

and this committee will continue to

use all of the tools at our disposal to

make sure that those families get

both quality housing and respon-

sive answers to whatever concerns

they may have,” he said.

The Australia-based Lendlease

maintains its U.S. military housing

business from headquarters in

Nashville. It oversees more than

40,000 single-family rental homes

at 28 installations in 12 states, ac-

cording to written testimony sub-

mitted by the company to the House

subcommittee.

Housing companyto put $72M intoUSAF communities

BY WYATT OLSON

Stars and Stripes

olson.wyatt@stripes.comTwitter: @WyattWOlson

JONATHAN WHITELY/U.S. Air Force

Construction workers replace theshingles on roofs at Tierra VistaCommunities at Schriever AirForce Base, Colo., in July 2019. 

That, in turn, meant no blast test.

“We’re looking for splashes or

any signs of movement,” said Jen-

nifer Klaib, lead PSO on the Ford

for the shock trials.

The team of nine observers sent

to the Ford for the shock trials use

binoculars 25 times as powerful as

the standard Navy issue.

Their job is to scan the seas for

3½ miles in every direction from

the Ford, beginning hours before

the blast.

A spotter plane flies several

miles ahead as the Ford moves to-

ward the blast site, and once the

carrier is in that area, circles over

that 3½-mile exclusion zone.

“The U.S. Navy provides great

resources toward environmental

protection and doing what’s right

out here at sea — it’s where we op-

erate, it’s where we work and

we’re passionate about it,” said

Capt. Paul Lanzilotta, the Ford’s

commanding officer.

The flow chart detailing what to

do if a PSO sees a sign of a whale or

dolphin was one part of the work

of preparing for the shock trials,

the first in 35 years to test how well

the Navy’s aircraft carriers can

weather a close-by explosion.

During the weeks before the

shock trial start last month, the

Ford’s sailors wired up sensors in

every corner of the carrier.

They drilled on scenarios of po-

tential casualties to the crew and

damage to the ship.

As the carrier approached last

month’s blast site, sailors were on

standby at the Ford’s several re-

pair lockers.

“At first, I was on the stretcher

bearer team, and then I was

moved to the shoring team,” said

Seaman Apprentice Britnee

McMahon.

“On the shoring team, we would

(practice) dealing with any buck-

led bulkheads or sagging over-

heads,” she said. “We go in there

and place wedges or wood and

metal shores to keep the bulk-

heads and decks from any further

damage. I am like anybody else. I

do my part.”

Detonating explosives next to

the USS Gerald R. Ford during

this summer’s shock trials is

meant to test the aircraft carrier

— but a team on the ship makes

sure the blasts don’t do the same

for marine mammals.

Their watch, in fact, meant the

first of three big blasts next to the

Ford got off to a late start.

“Once we began our countdown

to the explosive event, one of our

PSOs (protected species observ-

ers) spotted what was suspected to

be a marine mammal,” Lt. Cmdr.

Desiree Frame said.

“While we can’t control the be-

havior of marine animals, we were

able to change our actions,” she

said. “We stopped the countdown

for the evolution and held on sta-

tion until the 3½-nautical mile

mitigation zone was clear.”

Rough seas the two previous

days had kept the observers from

making the kind of careful inspec-

tion needed to spot marine life.

RILEY MCDOWELL/U.S. Navy

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) completes the first scheduled explosive event of FullShip Shock Trials while underway in the Atlantic Ocean in June.

On USS Ford, shock trials test shipand teach marine mammal safety

BY DAVE RESS

Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)

visitors to observe social distanc-

ing.

Visitor attractions include the

building where the armistice

agreement pausing the Korean

War was signed, as well as the

Freedom House where President

Donald Trump and North Korean

leader Kim Jong Un held an im-

promptu meeting in 2019.

South Korea’s previous one-day

coronavirus record was 1,240 new

cases on Dec. 25. Wednesday’s

count follows a solid week of the

South reporting more than 700

new cases each day, most of them

in Seoul.

Of the 19 new cases reported by

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South

Korea — South Korea recorded

1,212 COVID-19 infections

Wednesday, its highest one-day

number of patients this year and

the second-highest of the pan-

demic.

U.S. Forces Korea, meanwhile,

announced that 19 people had

tested positive for the coronavirus

respiratory disease between June

29 and July 2.

The surge in cases, which

forced Seoul to suspend plans to

ease pandemic restrictions relat-

ed to masks and social distancing,

came the same day that public

tours were temporarily halted to

the Joint Security Area at the bor-

der between the two Koreas.

United Nations Command an-

nounced the suspension after two

of its members came in contact

with an infected South Korean ci-

tizen. It said tours will resume

“once we are certain that there is

no additional risk to our force or

the South Korean population.”

Tours of the JSA at the Demili-

tarized Zone had resumed in

April after a four-month pause

due to coronavirus concerns. U.N.

Command halved the number of

people per tour to 20 and required

USFK, 17 are on active duty and

two are family members. All were

quarantined at Camp Humphreys

or Osan Air Base.

USFK is “actively conducting

contact tracing to determine

whether anyone else may have

been exposed to these individuals

and to identify and ensure all

known on-post and off-post facil-

ities visited by the individuals are

thoroughly cleaned,” the com-

mand said in a statement

Wednesday.

Less than 1% of USFK’s active-

duty force tested positive for CO-

VID-19 and over 80% of its per-

sonnel is vaccinated, according to

the command.

In Japan, the capital city an-

nounced 920 new coronavirus pa-

tients on Wednesday, 327 more

than it reported the previous day,

according to the Japan Times and

public broadcaster NHK.

U.S. military bases in Japan

had reported three COVID-19 in-

fections as of 6 p.m. Wednesday,

all assigned to the Army. The in-

dividuals tested positive some-

time between June 30 and

Wednesday after suffering mild

symptoms.

USFK reports 19 new patients amid record virus surge on peninsulaBY DAVID CHOI

Stars and Stripes

choi.david@stripes.comTwitter: @choibboy

MILITARY

PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

Afghan troops were being al-

lowed to cross on humanitar-

ian grounds, but the border

posts on the Tajik side were in

control of Tajik forces and

there was no fighting with Ta-

liban from the Tajik side.

The Taliban march gains

momentum only days after the

U.S. vacated Bagram Airfield,

just an hour’s drive north of

the capital, Kabul, — a sure

sign that the majority of Amer-

ican troops have left Afghan-

istan.

The U.S. withdrew from

what had been the epicenter of

the U.S.-led coalition’s nearly

20-year war in Afghanistan by

shutting off the electricity and

slipping away in the night,

without notifying the base’s

new Afghan commander, Af-

ghan military officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A

surge of Taliban wins in north-

ern Afghanistan has caused

some countries to close their

consulates in the region, while

across the border in Tajikis-

tan, reservists are being called

up to reinforce the southern

border, according to officials

and reports Tuesday.

Nearly 1,000 Afghan soldiers

have fled the Taliban advances

by crossing the border into Ta-

jikistan, according to reports

from Tajikistan.

The Taliban surge came as

U.S. Central Command in a

statement Tuesday said 90% of

the withdrawal of U.S. troops

and equipment is complete.

The United States says the last

troops will be gone by August.

Meanwhile, a statement

from the Tajik government

said President Emomali Rakh-

mon ordered the mobilization

of 20,000 military reservists to

strengthen its border with Af-

ghanistan.

The Afghan military exodus

comes as the Taliban have

overrun most districts in

northeastern Badakhshan

province. Many fell without a

fight, but along the province’s

northern border with Tajikis-

tan, hundreds of Afghan forces

crossed over, seeking safety in

Tajikistan.

The consulates of Turkey

and Russia have reportedly

closed in Mazar-e-Sharif, the

capital of northern Balkh prov-

ince, and Afghanistan’s fourth-

largest city. Iran said it has re-

stricted activities at its consul-

ate in the city. There has been

fighting in Balkh province, but

the provincial capital has been

relatively peaceful.

The consulates of Uzbekis-

tan, Tajikistan, India and Pa-

kistan have reduced their ser-

vices, Balkh provincial gover-

nor’s spokesman Munir Far-

had said Tuesday. He said

Turkey and Russia had closed

their consulates and their dip-

lomats had left the city.

A Turkish official, however,

said the consulate in Mazar-e-

Sharif was open and was “car-

rying on accepting visa appli-

cations and other consular re-

quests.” The official, who was

not identified by name in line

with briefing rules, said Anka-

ra was monitoring the security

situation and was taking “re-

quired measures” for the safe-

ty of Turkish missions and per-

sonnel.

He did not elaborate, and the

conflicting reports on the

Turkish Consulate could not be

immediately reconciled. The

consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif

could not be reached by phone.

The Tajik government said

Tuesday’s CENTCOM state-

ment said the U.S. has handed

over seven bases to Afghanis-

tan’s Defense Ministry.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry

Peskov said there was “height-

ened concern” over the fight-

ing, but that Russia has no

plans to send troops to assist

Tajikistan, once a part of the

Soviet Union.

“We have repeatedly said

many times that after the with-

drawal of the Americans and

their allies from Afghanistan,

the development of the situa-

tion in this country is a matter

of our heightened concern,”

Peskov said. “We’re monitor-

ing it very closely and are not-

ing that destabilization (of the

situation) is taking place, un-

fortunately.”

Meanwhile, Tajikistan’s

state news agency Khovar said

1,037 Afghan military person-

nel had entered Tajikistan

while fleeing for their lives.

The report said Monday that

they used seven of the cross-

ings along the two countries’

shared 565-mile border.

The Taliban have made re-

lentless territorial wins since

mid-April, when President Joe

Biden announced the last

2,500-3,500 U.S. soldiers and

7,000 allied NATO soldiers

would leave Afghanistan.

Most have left quietly al-

ready, well before the an-

nounced deadline in Septem-

ber. The full withdrawal is not

expected to be completed until

the end of August — and not

before an agreement on how to

protect Kabul’s Hamid Karzai

International Airport is reac-

hed.

Months-old peace talks be-

ing held in Qatar between Tali-

ban and a fractious Afghan

government have all but stop-

ped, even as both sides say

they want a negotiated end to

the decadeslong conflict.

With their victories in north-

ern and southern Afghanistan,

the Taliban are putting pres-

sure on provincial cities and

gaining control of key trans-

portation routes.

The Afghan government has

resurrected militias mostly

loyal to Kabul-allied warlords

but with a history of brutal vio-

lence that has raised the spec-

ter of civil war, similar to the

fighting that devastated Kabul

in the early 1990s.

Taliban wins in northern Af-

ghanistan are particularly sig-

nificant because that part of

the country is the traditional

stronghold of U.S.-allied war-

lords, as well as the scene of

the Taliban’s initial wide-

spread losses in 2001 when the

U.S.-led coalition launched its

battle to unseat the religious

movement.

Taliban wins close consulates; Tajikistan reinforces borderBY KATHY GANNON

Associated Press

RAHMAT GUL/AP

An Afghan soldier plays a guitar that was left behind after the American military departed Bagram air base,in Parwan province north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday.

WASHINGTON — Senior Af-

ghan officials were told U.S.

forces were leaving Bagram Air-

field about 48 hours ahead of their

departure, but the precise hour

was left secret for security rea-

sons, the Pentagon’s chief spokes-

man said Tuesday.

U.S. officials announced Friday

that they had completely left Ba-

gram, its biggest airfield in the

country and a focal point for mil-

itary operations in Afghanistan

for nearly two decades. Since that

time, the Defense Department has

faced criticism over reports the

Afghanistan base was vacated at

night without notice.

“It’s not a statement about

whether we trust or don’t trust our

Afghan partners. It’s a statement

of the fact that we have to consider

that this drawdown could be con-

tested by the Taliban, and we have

to take that in consideration. It

would have been irresponsible [to

give the exact time],” Pentagon

Press Secretary John Kirby told

reporters at the Pentagon.

Bagram’s new Afghan com-

mander, Gen. Mir Asadullah Ko-

histani, told reporters Monday

that he found out nearly two hours

after the departure that U.S.

troops had left the base. Bagram is

the seventh and final base to be

turned over to the Afghan Nation-

al Security and Defense Force.

Kirby said top Afghan military

and civilian government leader-

ship were notified about the turn-

over, in the same way that other

bases were left to Afghan control

as the U.S. withdrawal from the

country nears completion. Kirby

could not say Tuesday whether

Kohistani was notified.

“This wasn’t done in a vacuum. I

can’t speak for the level of infor-

mation that went down the Afghan

chain of command, but I can tell

you that Afghan leaders, civilian

and military, were appropriately

coordinated with and briefed

about the turnover of Bagram,” he

said.

The final discussions occurred

about 48 hours prior to the depar-

ture, and the briefings included a

walkthrough of facilities on the

base with senior Afghan officials,

Kirby said.

Some news reports said the

United Statesshut off electricity at

Bagram, which allowed looters to

enter the base. Some Afghan sol-

diers have also offered scathing

reviews of how the U.S. left the

base.

Kirby said he could not provide

details on whether electricity was

cut off at the base.

Concerns over how Bagram was

turned over come as dozens of dis-

tricts, including a key district in

Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz

province, have fallen to the Tali-

ban since May 1, when U.S. and

NATO troops officially began to

leave the country.

U.S. Central Command said

Tuesday that more than 90% of the

U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

is complete.

“We’ll be done by the end of Au-

gust, but I think it should be logical

that as you get smaller, you want

to marshal those resources much

more carefully as you press for-

ward,” he said.

DOD cites security reasons for quick Bagram exitBY SARAH CAMMARATA

Stars and Stripes

cammarata.sarah@stripes.comTwitter: @sarahjcamm

MILITARY

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7

base and its perimeter, and dam-

age was being assessed, Marotto

said in a Twitter post.

In Syria, drones were used to at-

tack the al-Omar oil field in Syria’s

eastern province of Deir el-Zour

on Wednesday morning, the U.S.-

backed Syrian Democratic Forces

said in a statement. The attack was

foiled and caused no damage, The

Associated Press reported. Sever-

al hundred U.S. troops are sta-

tioned in northeastern Syria to

help fight ISIS.

U.S. military officials in Iraq

said they had no further informa-

tion on the SDF statement

Wednesday.

The rocket attack was the fourth

on a U.S. compound in Iraq this

week. Late Tuesday, a drone im-

pacted near Irbil International

Airport, outside the capital of

Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.

U.S. troops are housed at a facility

on the airport grounds.

Just after midnight on Tuesday,

a counter-rocket system at the

U.S. Embassy in Baghdad shot

down an armed drone over the

diplomatic compound, U.S. offi-

cials said. Three rockets also

struck al Asad on Monday. None of

the attacks prior to Wednesday

caused injuries, Marotto said.

The United States has blamed

the repeated rocket attacks over

the past several years on Iran-

backed militias seeking to oust

American forces from the coun-

try, where some 2,500 troops re-

main deployed to assist the gov-

ernment in battling the Islamic

State group.

The militia groups began using

drones earlier this year with an

April attack on the Irbil airport

and have conducted at least six so

far, with several other attempts

thwarted.

“Coalition forces are co-located

with our (Iraqi Security Forces)

and (Kurdish) Peshmerga part-

ners on ISF bases,” Marotto said.

“Each attack against the Coalition

endangers the lives of ISF and

Peshmerga forces.”

Attack: Air base strike was 4th on US compound in Iraq this week

garland.chad@stripes.comTwitter: @chadgarland

CHRISTIE SMITH/U.S. Army National Guard

Airmen with the 443rd Expeditionary Squadron conduct a flight linepatrol with U.S. flags flying from their Mine Resistant AmbushProtected­All Terrain Vehicles at al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on Sunday.

FROM PAGE 1

Africa Command still conducts

training on a rotational basis.

In 2015, Doyle was serving with

an unidentified Operational De-

tachment-Alpha, or A-Team, ad-

vising Kenya Defense Forces

tasked with retaking Baardheere,

which militants had held since

2009, the award records show.

They were to advance through

the Jungal Valley, a bushy, unin-

habited lowland in the southern

state of Jubaland. The surround-

ing hills make for good observa-

tion points and firing positions,

Kenya’s The Star newspaper re-

ported in 2020, citing a Kenyan ar-

my officer’s description of the

mission, codenamed Operation

Piga Jangili.

“The valley offers natural

blocking positions and has been

used in past battles to thwart

movement to and from [Baard-

heere],” Col. Seif Rashid, who

served in the African Union’s

forces in Somalia, said in the book

“The Soldiers’ Legacy.” Choke-

points along the winding route

were ideal for ambushes.

Under repeated assaults on July

21, 2015, the advancing forces

fought a ferocious six-hour fire-

fight against an estimated 175 to

200 well-armed fighters, the U.S.

Army narrative states.

“Upon entering the kill zones,

the enemy engaged the convoy

with several [roadside bomb] ini-

tiated ambushes that triggered de-

lays in convoy movement and

killed and wounded multiple KDF

soldiers,” it says.

After the initial contact, Doyle

and his team’s medical sergeant

sprinted over 50 yards to the Ke-

nyan commander’s position while

taking enemy fire from within

about 80 feet, it says. Doyle coor-

dinated a medical evacuation and

aid for the wounded, then worked

out a maneuver plan to ensure

they didn’t lose the initiative.

“When the KDF Commander

proved unwilling to direct his

forces, [Doyle] ran forward into

heavy machine gun and RPG fire,

moving between KDF rifle pla-

toons directing their fires and

movement, destroying an estimat-

ed 12 enemy fighters,” the narra-

tive says.

Under heavy fire, Doyle called

in mortar and artillery fire to en-

able counterattacks, destroying

two enemy technical vehicles.

“He repeatedly displayed tre-

mendous gallantry in action by ex-

posing himself to effective fire so

he could ... keep the KDF convoy

moving through the valley,” the

narrative states. The award pa-

perwork credits his actions with

contributing to 173 enemies killed

and 60 more wounded, while sav-

ing “countless” more partner

forces.

Baardheere fell the following

day. Al-Shabab militants fled the

city for tactical reasons, a spokes-

man for the group told Voice of

America at the time. The group

has been battling Somalia’s gov-

ernment for over a decade.

Doyle is a 2007 graduate of the

Virginia Military Institute. He de-

ployed to Afghanistan in 2009 be-

fore joining the Special Forces and

receiving orders to 10th Group in

2013, the U.S. Army Command

and General Staff College Foun-

dation said in an announcement. It

named him a distinguished stu-

dent at the school’s officer course

just weeks after he received the

Silver Star.

Somalia: Silver Star recipientwas key in fight that capturedal-Shabab complex 6 years ago

garland.chad@stripes.comTwitter: @chadgarland

FROM PAGE 1

MILITARY

BAGHDAD — The leader of an

Iran-backed Iraqi militia has vowed

to retaliate against America for the

deaths of four of his men in a U.S.

airstrike along the Iraq-Syria bor-

der last month, saying it will be a

military operation everyone will

talk about.

Abu Alaa al-Walae, commander

of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, said in

an exclusive interview with The As-

sociated Press in Baghdad that the

electoral victory of Iran’s hard-line

judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as

president will strengthen Iran-

backed militant groups throughout

the Middle East for the next four

years.

Al-Walae, who rarely gives inter-

views to foreign media organiza-

tions, spoke to the AP on Monday in

an office in a Baghdad neighbor-

hood along the Tigris River.

On June 27, U.S. Air Force planes

carried out airstrikes near the Iraq-

Syria border against what the Pen-

tagon said were facilities used by

Iran-backed militia groups to sup-

port drone strikes inside Iraq. Four

militiamen were killed.

The Popular Mobilization

Forces, an Iraqi state-sanctioned

umbrella of mostly Shiite militias —

including those targeted by the U.S.

strikes — said their men were on

missions to prevent infiltration by

the Islamic State group and denied

the presence of weapons ware-

houses.

U.S. troops in eastern Syria came

under rocket fire the day after the

airstrikes, with no reported casual-

ties.The United States.S. has

blamed Iran-backed militias for at-

tacks — most of them rocket strikes

— that have targeted the American

presence in Baghdad and military

bases across Iraq. More recently,

the attacks have become more so-

phisticated, with militants using

drones.

The bearded Al-Walae, wearing a

black shirt and trousers and an ol-

ive-green baseball cap, hinted that

his militiamen might use drones in

future attacks. He did not go into de-

tails. When asked if they used

drones in the past against American

troops in Iraq, he gave no straight

answer and moved to other sub-

jects.

“We want an operation that befits

those martyrs,” he said referring to

the four fighters killed in late June.

“Even if it comes late, time is not im-

portant.”

“We want it to be an operation in

which everyone says they have tak-

en revenge on the Americans,” Al-

Walae said. “It will be a qualitative

operation (that could come) from

the air, the sea, along Iraq’s border,

in the region or anywhere. It’s an

open war.”

Iraq militia leader vows to avenge strike deathsAssociated Press

PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

WASHINGTON — The Department of

Veterans Affairs completed a review of its

$16 billion project to overhaul its electronic

health record system after hearing con-

cerns from staff in Spokane, Wash., where

the new system first went live.

Staff at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical

Center in Spokane complained about tech-

nical issues with the new system that were

affecting patient care and employee mo-

rale. When he took office, VA Secretary De-

nis McDonough announced a 12-week

pause of the rollout to review the issues. The

review has ended, and McDonough is ex-

pected to announce changes to the rollout

process within the next week.

“The strategic review is complete and

has already been instrumental in charting a

path forward,” McDonough said during a

news conference June 30. “We’re very close

to finalizing the next steps, including chang-

es to the deployment effort.”

The VA started the process in 2017 of

overhauling its electronic health record

system. It awarded a contract to Cerner

Corp., a technology company in Kansas

City, Mo. The new system is supposed to be

capable of sharing patient data seamlessly

with the Defense Department, which could

limit problems when a service member

transitions out of the military.

The new system went live in Spokane in

October. A bipartisan group of lawmakers

wrote to McDonough in February, saying

that they had heard from employees there

about “significant technical and organiza-

tional challenges” that were affecting pro-

ductivity and patient care, among other is-

sues. They asked McDonough to delay the

rollout until the problems were solved.

The department was supposed to deploy

the new system at a second site in Colum-

bus, Ohio, but it’s uncertain when the rol-

lout will continue.

“What I can say is, we will be in a position

to take some initial additional next steps in

Columbus and elsewhere, but I want to get

through the entirety of the strategic review

before we take any steps to go live,” McDo-

nough said. “We need to make sure to test

and refine our technology further if we have

to before going live.

McDonough said that during the review,

the VA dug into the technical problems “ve-

ry aggressively.” He committed during last

week’s news conference to sticking with

Cerner’s technology. Going forward,

McDonough wants to ensure that the con-

tractors working on the new system listen to

VA health care providers and are quick to

respond to their concerns.

Lawmakers applauded the end of the

strategic review and asked the VA to be

transparent with its findings.

“Transparency around the findings of the

strategic review and accountability within

the VA will be vital for righting the ship,”

said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-

Wash., whose district includes the Spokane

VA hospital.

During the news conference, McDo-

nough criticized the Senate for their delay

in confirming President Joe Biden’s nomi-

nee for the VA deputy secretary. Congress

dictated that the deputy secretary was sup-

posed to lead the electronic health record

project.

Biden nominated Donald Remy, chief op-

erating officer and chief legal officer of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association, to

take the position. Sen. Marsha Blackburn,

R-Tenn., is blocking Remy’s confirmation.

She said on the Senate floor in June that she

would hold up the confirmation process for

Remy and other VA nominees until McDo-

nough responds to her requests for infor-

mation about a piece of legislation.

McDonough said he’s in regular contact

with Blackburn, and she has indicated that

she plans to maintain the hold on the confir-

mation process.

“I can’t help but note this process is sup-

posed to be led by the Senate-confirmed

deputy secretary,” McDonough said of the

electronic health record project. “Congress

has directed the deputy secretary to over-

see the budget in this process, so I think it

reasonable that the Senate confirm him.”

VA expected to make changes to health record systemBY NIKKI WENTLING

Stars and Stripes

A child inside a car screams as a

U.S. airman outside orders the

driver out, then smashes the win-

dow in a minute-long video that

caused a controversy on social

media and led to an Air Force re-

view.

The footage from the gate of

Mountain Home Air Force Base in

Idaho had been viewed over 12

million times by Wednesday, after

the driver’s sister shared a version

of it on the social media app Tik-

Tok on June 29.

The post, in which Deja Gonza-

lez says the airman acted illegally

and says her sister Tati’s two

young children were taken away

from her, has been “liked” over 2

million times.

In a Facebook post, Tati Gonza-

lez claimed she had been mistreat-

ed by military and local police offi-

cials. But the base and the county

sheriff say authorities acted ap-

propriately.

The incident began June 26

when Gonzalez was denied entry

to the base after arriving with an

invalid military dependent ID, in-

valid driver’s license and invalid

vehicle registration, an Air Force

official said Tuesday in response

to a Stars and Stripes inquiry.

It escalated when she tried to

flee, driving her vehicle at a secu-

rity forces airman who had to

move out of the way before exe-

cuting a high-risk traffic stop “due

to the perceived risk of serious

bodily harm or injury,” said Mas-

ter Sgt. Eric Harris, a spokesman

for the base’s 366th Fighter Wing.

That is about where the video be-

gins.

“Step out of the vehicle,” Tech.

Sgt. Ryan Green is heard saying in

the original footage shared on

Facebook. He then busts in the

glass with his police baton. “Step

out of the vehicle now.”

“I’m pregnant,

don’t [expletive]

touch me,” Gon-

zalez says.

“You just com-

mitted a felony,”

Green says, re-

aching into the

car to unlock the

door. “Get out of

the vehicle.”

“For what?” Gonzalez responds.

“You’re not the police.”

Green tells her he is law en-

forcement and says he’d already

advised her she was being de-

tained, but Gonzalez responds that

he called it “a civil matter.” She

appears to resist and tells him not

to touch her, while he explains

that he’s charging her with evad-

ing police. He eventually puts her

in handcuffs, despite her protests.

The incident did not meet the

threshold for a use of force review,

but one was conducted at the secu-

rity force commander’s request,

“out of an abundance of caution,”

Harris said.

Such reviews are conducted by

senior noncommissioned officers

and may use any audio, video and

written records, he said. The NCO

in Green’s case found that he had

responded appropriately, Harris

said.

Parts of the official account

Harris provided conflict with ele-

ments of Tati Gonzalez’s version,

shared in a 40-minute Facebook

livestream with her sister June 30.

She says she had come to get her

belongings from her former

spouse, who is stationed there, and

had been told to bring her expired

ID.

She was told she’d get help from

base officials once she had a di-

vorce decree signed by a judge,

she said, but when she arrived she

was initially referred to the vis-

itor’s center. She then asked to

pull into a parking space near the

gate while the guard called for a

supervisor, she said. This part of

her story is largely consistent with

what Harris told Stars and Stripes.

Green soon arrived and asked

for her vehicle information, which

she told him was among her be-

longings with her former spouse,

she says. Then she says Green be-

gan “being weird” while question-

ing her and called her a liar, which

made her feel uncomfortable, so

she asked to be escorted off base.

Harris said Green had been try-

ing to deescalate the situation.

Gonzalez recounts questioning

Green’s authority to “stop a civil-

ian for a civilian matter” before

eventually deciding to drive off

base. But the gate was up, “so I

stopped and I was just sitting

there” until Green came up to the

door with “that weapon that he

had.”

She started filming thinking he

was going to hurt her, she said.

After being arrested, she was

booked into the Elmore County

Jail, where she says she was held

illegally until July 28, when she

was released after the charges

“didn’t stick.”

The jail has an agreement with

the air base to detain suspects ar-

rested on federal property, El-

more County Sheriff Mike Hollin-

shead said in a phone call Tues-

day.

She was held on a $600 bond

over the weekend. When the jail

staff called to get a date for her ar-

raignment in federal court the

next Monday, they were told to re-

lease her “on her own recogni-

zance.”

Federal charges she faces for

the registration violation, eluding

a police officer and putting her

children at risk have yet to be re-

solved, Harris said.

Gonzalez said she had no trans-

portation when she was released,

and that she passed out while

walking to a nearby motel. But her

debit card had been taken when

she was arrested, so she couldn’t

get into the room.

“Since the incident, Ms. Gon-

zales has had several possessions

returned to her,” Harris said.

“Mountain Home Air Force base

supports our Air Force members

and dependents in accordance

with Air Force policy.”

Video of airman smashingwindow sparks USAF review

BY CHAD GARLAND

Stars and Stripes

garland.chad@stripes.com Twitter: @chadgarland

In this screenshot from a Facebook video, a window in Tati Gonzalez’scar shatters as a security forces airman at Mountain Home Air ForceBase, Idaho, hits it with his baton. 

Tati Gonzalez

NATION

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9

NATION

SURFSIDE, Fla. — The search

for victims of the collapse of a Mia-

mi-area high-rise condominium

reached its 14th day on Wednes-

day, as workers uncovered 10

more bodies from the rubble and

officials sounded more and more

grim about the prospects of find-

ing anyone alive.

Miami-Dade Assistant Fire

Chief Raide Jadallah broke the

discovery of the additional bodies

and human remains to family

members in a private briefing

Wednesday morning. The death

toll now stands at 46.

The latest retrieval reflects

what rescue officials have said

would be a ramped-up pace of

work throughout the debris field

after the remaining portion of the

condo building was demolished

Sunday night.

Crews “did some significant re-

moval of the pile,” Jadallah said.

“They were able to get down to

various areas to inspect.”

Jadallah also reported the som-

ber news that so far no new

“voids” have been discovered in

the areas that became accessible

for the first time after the demoli-

tion. Rescuers had hoped to find

new pockets where there might

potentially be survivors.

Still, Jadallah told families the

work continues to be a search and

rescue operation and has not yet

transitioned to a recovery mode.

“We’re not there yet,” he said.

No one has been rescued from

the site since the first hours after

the building collapsed on June 24

when many of its residents were

asleep.

Workers on Tuesday dug

through pulverized concrete

where the Champlain Towers

South building in Surfside once

stood, filling buckets that were

passed down a line to be emptied

and then returned.

The up-close look at the search,

in a video released Tuesday by the

Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue

Department, came as eight more

deaths were announced — until

Wednesday, the most for a single

day since the search began. It also

came as rain and wind from Trop-

ical Storm Elsa disrupted the ef-

fort.

“Unfortunately, we are not see-

ing anything positive,” county fire

chief Alan Cominsky said Tues-

day night, referring to workers not

finding any open spaces within the

mounds of rubble where addition-

al survivors might be found.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella

Levine Cava said Tuesday that the

families of the missing were pre-

paring for news of “tragic loss.”

She said President Joe Biden, who

visited the area last week, called

on Tuesday to offer his continued

support.

“I think everybody will be ready

when it’s time to move to the next

phase,” she said.

Reporters got their closest in-

person look at the site Tuesday,

though it was limited to the por-

tion of the building that workers

tore down Sunday after the initial

collapse left it standing but dan-

gerously unstable. A pile of shat-

tered concrete and twisted steel

stood about 30 feet high and

spanned roughly half the length of

a football field. A pair of backhoes

pulled rubble off the pile, which

blocked any view of the search ef-

fort.

Severe weather from Elsa hin-

dered search efforts to a degree.

Lightning forced rescuers to

pause their work for two hours

early Tuesday, Jadallah said. And

winds of 20 mph, with stronger

gusts, hampered efforts to move

heavy debris with cranes, officials

said.

Crews have removed 124 tons of

debris from the site, Cominsky

said. The debris was being sorted

and stored in a warehouse as po-

tential evidence in the investiga-

tion into why the building col-

lapsed, officials said.

No signs of condo survivors after 2 weeks

MATIAS J. OCNER, MIAMI HERALD/AP

Workers make their way past the rubble and debris of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside,Fla., on Tuesday. The rubble shown here is from the front portion of the condo towers, which wasdemolished 11 days after the back part of the tower collapsed with people inside. 

BY TERRY SPENCER

Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A

weakened Tropical Storm Elsa

dumped rain across Florida’s north-

ern Gulf Coast early Wednesday but

spared the state significant damage

as it headed northward.

Elsa wobbled through the Gulf of

Mexico, briefly reaching hurricane

strength, but moved ashore as a

tropical storm, the U.S. National

Hurricane Center said Wednesday.

The storm made landfall in lightly

populated Taylor County with maxi-

mum sustained winds clocking 65

mph.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a morn-

ing news conference that no major

structural damage or deaths from

the storm had been reported.

“Clearly, this could have been

worse,” the Republican governor

said, adding that many storm-relat-

ed deaths come after the system pas-

ses. “Be very careful when you’re

working to clear debris.”

The Tampa Bay metropolitan ar-

ea — while wet and windy — ap-

pears to have emerged mostly un-

scathed.

DeSantis said there were up to

26,000 customers without power in

the region, most of them in Hillsbor-

ough, Pinellas and Polk counties

that surround Tampa Bay. Crews

were working to restore electricity

and DeSantis said no hospitals re-

ported an outage, which has been a

major problem in past storms.

Elsa was forecast to cross from

Florida into southeast Georgia on

Wednesday afternoon, and the Na-

tional Hurricane Center issued a

tropical storm warning for the

state’s entire 100-mile coast. Elsa

was expected to bring 2 to 4 inches of

rain to Georgia as it churns to the

northeast before entering South

Carolina to the west of Savannah

early Thursday. By Friday, the

storm’s effects were expected to be

felt as far north as New England.

Tropical Storm Elsa weakens,spares Florida major damage

Associated Press

MARTHA ASENCIO­RHINE, TAMPA BAY TIMES/AP

Michael Ciarleglio with the city of Pinellas Park, Fla., cleans up a fewtree branches while working the morning after Hurricane Elsa movedover the Tampa Bay area Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of

State Antony Blinken met virtually

on Tuesday with Uyghur Muslims

who were detained at camps in Chi-

na’s northwest Xinjiang region to

hear about their experiences and

seek advice on how best to pressure

China to halt repression there.

The State Department said Blin-

ken wanted to hear directly from

the seven former detainees, rela-

tives of others and advocates about

conditions that they and the Uygh-

ur community more broadly face.

“The secretary thought it impor-

tant to meet with these individuals

to hear firsthand their stories, to

hear firsthand their impression of

the ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang

and the internment of a million

Uyghurs,” department spokesman

Ned Price said. “Also, it’s an oppor-

tunity for these participants to offer

any recommendations they may

have.”

China has come under severe in-

ternational criticism and sanctions

for detaining more than 1 million

Uyghurs and and other minorities

for political re-education in Xin-

jiang.

Price said the meeting showed

continuity in American policy on

the matter between the widely di-

vergent Biden and Trump adminis-

trations. Both administrations have

termed the campaign in Xinjiang a

“genocide” and slapped sanctions

on China for human rights abuses.

Former Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo met several times with

Uyghur ex-detainees during his

tenure as America’s top diplomat.

“America has spoken out very

clearly and consistently about the

abuses, about the atrocities, about

the ongoing genocide that is taking

place in Xinjiang,” Price said.

“And, as we deem appropriate, I

suspect we’ll be employing addi-

tional tools going forward to hold to

account those officials responsible

for what has taken place there.”

Since the Trump administration,

the U.S. has steadily ramped up

pressure on China on a number of

fronts, notably over repression in

Xinjiang and a clampdown on polit-

ical dissent and human rights in

Hong Kong. Those have included

travel bans, financial sanctions and

commercial restrictions on Chi-

nese imports to the U.S.

Blinken meets with Uyghursas US warns of new sanctions

Associated Press

PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden

said Tuesday that damage to U.S. busi-

nesses in the biggest ransomware attack

on record appears minimal, though infor-

mation remained incomplete. The compa-

ny whose software was exploited said few-

er than 1,500 businesses worldwide ap-

peared compromised but cybersecurity

experts caution that the incident isn't over.

Also Tuesday, a security researcher

who chatted online with representatives of

the Russia-linked REvil gang behind the

attack said they claimed to have stolen da-

ta from hundreds of companies, but of-

fered no evidence.

Answering a reporter's question at a

vaccine-related White House event, Biden

said his national security team had updat-

ed him Tuesday morning on the attack,

which exploited a powerful remote-man-

agement tool run by Miami-based soft-

ware company Kaseya in what is known as

a supply-chain attack.

“It appears to have caused minimal

damage to U.S. businesses but we’re still

gathering information,” Biden said. "And

I’m going to have more to say about this in

the next several days.” An official at the

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Securi-

ty Agency, speaking on condition they not

be further identified, said no federal agen-

cies or critical infrastructure appear to

have been impacted.

On Wednesday, Biden and Vice Presi-

dent Kamala Harris were leading an in-

teragency meeting to discuss the adminis-

tration’s efforts to counter ransomware.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki

held out the prospect of retaliatory action.

What Biden told President Vladimir Putin

in Geneva last month still holds, she said:

“If the Russian government cannot or will

not take action against criminal actors re-

siding in Russia, we will take action or re-

serve the right to take action on our own.”

What sort of action that would be is un-

clear.

Biden has said repeatedly that the

Kremlin bears responsibility for giving

ransomware criminals safe harbor, even if

it is not directly involved. There is no in-

dication that Putin has moved against the

gangs. Psaki said Russian and U.S. repre-

sentatives were meeting next week and

would discuss the matter.

Friday’s attack hobbled businesses in at

least 17 countries. It shuttered most of the

800 supermarkets in the Swedish Coop

chain over the weekend because cash reg-

isters stopped working, and reportedly

knocked more than 100 New Zealand kin-

dergartens offline.

Ransomware criminals infiltrate net-

works and sow malware that cripples

them by scrambling all their data. Victims

get a decoder key when they pay up. Most

ransomware victims don’t publicly report

attacks or disclose if they’ve paid ran-

soms. In the U.S, disclosure of a breach is

required by state laws when personal data

that can be used in identity theft is stolen.

Federal law mandates it when healthcare

records are exposed.

Security researchers said that in this at-

tack, the criminals did not appear to have

had time to steal data before locking up

networks. That raised the question wheth-

er the motivation behind the attack was

profit alone, because extortion through

threatening to expose sensitive pilfered

data betters the odds of big payoffs.

Analysts say the chaos ransomware

criminals have wrought in the past year —

hitting hospitals, schools, local govern-

ments and other targets at the rate of

about one every eight minutes — serves

Putin’s strategic agenda of destabilizing

the West.

A broad array of businesses and public

agencies were hit, apparently on all conti-

nents, including in financial services,

travel and leisure and the public sector —

though few large companies, the cyberse-

curity firm Sophos said.

REvil, previously best known for extort-

ing $11 million from the meat-processing

giant JBS after hobbling it on Memorial

Day, broke into at least one Kaseya server

after identifying a “zero day” vulnerabil-

ity, cybersecurity researchers said.

Dutch researchers said they alerted Ka-

seya to the zero day and a number of “se-

vere vulnerabilities” ahead of the attack.

Neither they nor Kaseya would say how

far in advance.

Biden: Damage minimal in ransomware attackBY FRANK BAJAK

AND ZEKE MILLER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President

Joe Biden is turning his focus to

pitching his proposed invest-

ments in families and education,

using a visit to a community col-

lege in a key Illinois swing district

to highlight how his spending on

so-called human infrastructure

would boost the economy.

The president on Wednesday

was to visit McHenry County Col-

lege in Crystal Lake, a communi-

ty college with a workforce devel-

opment program and a child care

center. He’ll promote his vision to

invest in child care, health care,

education and other important

aspects of everyday life for Amer-

icans. His plans were shared by a

White House official who insisted

on anonymity to preview remarks

that have not been made public.

The visit marks a fresh focus on

the portions of Biden's economic

agenda that didn’t make it into the

bipartisan infrastructure deal

that the president signed onto in

June. That package includes hun-

dreds of billions of dollars of in-

vestments in roads and bridges,

transit systems and broadband,

but it constitutes only a fraction of

the $4 trillion in spending Biden

has proposed as part of a broader

plan to reinvigorate the economy

and boost the middle class.

On Wednesday, the Democrat-

ic president was expected to

highlight the rest, including his

plans to invest in child care and

workforce development pro-

grams and provide two years of

free community college, univer-

sal prekindergarten and paid

family and medical leave. He'll

make the case that investments in

such programs are needed to

maintain America's economic

growth and competitiveness

globally.

He’ll also highlight his propos-

als to establish a clean energy

standard and invest in home care

for seniors and affordable hous-

ing. And he'll speak about his

plans to make permanent the ex-

pansion in the child tax credit and

expanded health care premium

subsidies from the COVID-19 aid

bill.

Democrats plan to include

much of the rest in a bill they hope

to pass through a legislative ma-

neuver that would require just a

simple majority vote, skirting the

60-vote hurdle in an evenly divid-

ed Senate.

“As the president presses for

the bipartisan infrastructure

framework, he’s also pressing

ahead on a dual track for the full

breadth and scope of the Build

Back Better agenda, which in-

cludes his critical climate prior-

ities and the American Families

Plan,” White House press secre-

tary Jen Psaki said Tuesday when

previewing his plans.

Psaki noted that congressional

Democrats are at work on the lat-

ter proposal now and that she ex-

pected “a lot of behind-the-

scenes bill writing, negotiations,

discussions on Capitol Hill” as

the details are hammered out.

EVAN VUCCI / AP

President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID­19 vaccination programTuesday. On Wednesday, he was to be in Illinois to pitch his proposedinvestments in families and education.

In Illinois,Biden topush moneyfor families

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Cali-

fornia is poised to approve repara-

tions up to $25,000 to victims who

were among the thousands of peo-

ple — some as young as 13 — who

decades ago were sterilized be-

cause state officials deemed them

unfit to have children.

The payments, part of the state’s

new $262.6 billion operating bud-

get that is awaiting Gov. Gavin

Newsom’s signature, will make

California at least the third state af-

ter Virginia and North Carolina to

pay victims of the so-called eugen-

ics movement that peaked in the

1930s. Proponents believed steril-

izing people with mental illnesses,

physical disabilities and other so-

called undesirable traits would im-

prove the human race.

California’s proposal is unique

because it would apply to more

than just victims of the eugenics

law that was repealed in 1979. The

state also will pay female inmates

who were coerced to get sterilized,

a disgrace first exposed by the

Center for Investigative Reporting

in 2013.

A subsequent audit found the

state sterilized 144 women be-

tween 2005 and 2013 with little or

no evidence that officials counsel-

ed them or offered alternative

treatment. While all of the women

signed consent forms, in 39 cases

state officials did not do everything

that was legally required to obtain

their permission.

“We must address and face our

horrific history,” said Lorena Gar-

cia Zermeño, policy and communi-

cations coordinator for the advoca-

cy group California Latinas for Re-

productive Justice.

California’s forced sterilization

program started in 1909, following

similar laws in Indiana and Wash-

ington. California’s program was

by far the largest. The state steril-

ized more than 20,000 people, ac-

counting for about a third of every-

one sterilized in the United States

under those laws.

California’s law was so promi-

nent it even inspired similar prac-

tices in Nazi Germany, according

to Paul Lombardo, a law professor

at Georgia State University and an

expert on the eugenics movement.

“The promise of eugenics at the

very earliest is: ‘We could do away

with all the state institutions —

prisons, hospitals, asylums, or-

phanages,’” Lombardo said. “Peo-

ple who were in them just wouldn’t

be born after awhile if you steril-

ized all of their parents.”

Sterilizations in California pris-

ons appear to date to 1999, when

the state changed its policy for un-

known reasons to include a steril-

ization procedure known as “tubal

ligation” as part of inmates’ medi-

cal care. Over the next decade,

women reported they were co-

erced into this procedure, with

some not fully understanding the

ramifications.

A state law passed in 2014 bans

sterilizations for the purpose of

birth control at state prisons and

local jails. The law permits steril-

izations that are “medically neces-

sary,” such as removing cancer,

and requires facilities to report

each year how many people were

sterilized and for what reason.

Calif. to pay victimsof forced sterilizations

Associated Press

NATION

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11

AMERICAN ROUNDUP

World’s tallest horse dies at age 20

WI POYNETTE — The

world’s tallest horse

died in Wisconsin.

The 20-year-old Belgian named

Big Jake died several weeks ago,

WMTV reported. The horse lived

on Smokey Hollow Farm in Poy-

nette.

Big Jake was 6-foot-10 and

weighed 2,500 pounds. The Guin-

ness Book of World Records certi-

fied him as the world’s tallest liv-

ing horse in 2010.

The farm’s owner, Jerry Gil-

bert, said Big Jake was a “super-

star” and a “truly magnificent ani-

mal.” He said Big Jake was born in

Nebraska and weighed 240

pounds at birth, about 100 pounds

heavier at birth than a typical Bel-

gian foal.

Rare wolverine caught ondoorbell camera

UT SALT LAKE CITY —

Wildlife officials said a

rare animal spotted in a Utah

neighborhood likely has been on

the move in search of a new place

to live.

A home doorbell camera caught

the wolverine on video in west

Layton about 15 miles west of Salt

Lake City, The Salt Lake Tribune

reported.

Utah Division of Wildlife Re-

sources officials believe it was the

same animal seen on nearby Ante-

lope Island in early May.

Wolverines have been spotted

in Utah only six times. The last

time before this year was in 2016.

Members of firefighterband help driver of float

MA QUINCY — A group

of off-duty Massachu-

setts firefighters in a bagpipe and

drum band participating in a

Fourth of July parade jumped into

action when the driver of a parade

float went into cardiac arrest.

The members of the Greater

Boston Firefighters Pipes and

Drums were behind a school near

the end of the parade in Quincy

when they heard a commotion, ac-

cording to a Facebook post by the

Quincy firefighters union.

They noticed the driver of a

flatbed truck hauling a float

slumped over the wheel as the ve-

hicle slowly rolled forward.

Members of the band jumped

into the cab, stopped the truck,

pulled the ailing driver free, and

started performing life-saving

measures. Someone retrieved a

defibrillator from a fire truck,

which was used to administer two

shocks and revive the driver, who

was then taken to a hospital.

Police: Man arrested forthrowing rocks onto road

WA SEATTLE — The

Washington State Pa-

trol said a man was arrested in

connection with at least four inci-

dents in which concrete rocks

were hurled at passing vehicles

traveling in the southbound lanes

of Interstate 5 during the over-

night hours.

KOMO reported the man was

being held at the King County Jail,

where he faces charges of second-

degree assault and second-degree

malicious mischief.

In answering complaints, a

trooper arrived at the scene and

saw a man walking southbound on

the other side of the concrete bar-

rier. The trooper saw several

chunks of concrete nearby that ap-

peared to have been broken off

from the barrier, the patrol said.

There were at least four victims

who told patrol troopers that their

vehicles had been struck by

chunks of concrete.

2 hurt when ice creamshop ceiling collapses

CT WEST HARTFORD —

Two people were in-

jured when the ceiling of a Con-

necticut ice cream shop collapsed,

authorities said.

Two people inside Milkcraft

suffered minor injuries, West

Hartford Fire Chief Greg Priest

said. One of the victims was taken

to a local hospital for treatment, he

said.

Six employees and at least a

dozen customers were inside the

shop when the ceiling collapsed,

authorities said.

Police raid illegal potgrow operation

OR GRANTS PASS —

Multiple law enforce-

ment agencies served a search

warrant at an illegal marijuana

grow operation in southwestern

Oregon, authorities said.

More than 86,500 illegal mari-

juana plants were seized and de-

stroyed in Selma, and a firearm,

water pumps and generators were

seized as evidence, according to a

Josephine County Sheriff’s Office

news release.

Twelve people were detained

because of safety concerns, au-

thorities said.

Boys help turtles crossdangerous road

IA VENTURA — The road

running between a marsh

wildlife area and Clear Lake in

Ventura in northern Iowa is dan-

gerous for turtles, even with a tur-

tle crossing sign.

So five boys spent some time

this summer helping the turtles

cross it. On one recent summer

day, they spent several hours as-

sisting turtles, saving 20 to 30 from

being flattened by motorists, the

Mason City Globe Gazette

reported.

“One time, I saw a pile of flat-

tened turtles and two baby turtles,

their parents must’ve died, so that

motivated me to save other tur-

tles,” said 10-year-old Zacaious

Moe, one of the boys.

Four friends have joined Za-

caious in the turtle rescuing —

Keygan Hoover, 9; Blake Meyer,

8; Cole Meyer, 10, and Casen Wen-

zel, 8.

“That’s such a neat thing for

them to spend their day doing

that,” said Ventura City Adminis-

trator Else Taylor.

Taylor said the turtle crossing

sign — and a geese crossing sign

— have been up for several years.

Officials investigate spikeof ill, dying songbirds

IN INDIANAPOLIS — Indi-

ana officials are asking

people to take down bird feeders

as they try to determine an unex-

plained increase in sick and dying

songbirds.

The Indiana Department of

Natural Resources has counted

285 ill or dead birds since May.

The Indianapolis Star reported

that officials aren’t sure what’s

causing the birds to become ill, in-

cluding eye swelling, crusty dis-

charge and neurological issues.

State officials ask residents to

take in any bird feeders and baths

to prevent birds from gathering

there and transmitting the disease

to others.

WARREN DILLAWAY, THE (ASHTABULA, OHIO) STAR­BEACON/AP

Boats return to port on the Ashtabula River after time on Lake Erie on Monday in Ashtabula, Ohio. 

Passing through

THE CENSUS

21 The number of smallAmerican flags that

were burned at a South Carolinacemetery. The flags were gatheredand burned under the bell tower atForest Lawn Memorial Park in Ander-son, where a message about separat-ing church and state also was spraypainted, authorities said. It’s the sec-ond time the graveyard has been van-dalized in the past two years. Thecemetery also had 21 American flagsburned in July 2019 in the section forveterans at the memorial park.

From The Associated Press

PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

NATION

CHICAGO — One hundred people — in-

cluding two police officers — were shot in

Chicago over the long Fourth of July week-

end, including 18 homicides, the city’s po-

lice department said Tuesday.

Among those injured were at least a doz-

en children with at least three of the minors

in critical condition.

The bloodshed was comparable to the

long Fourth of July weekend last year,

when 17 people were fatally shot and 70

more were wounded. A 7-year-old girl and

14-year-old boy were among the dead that

weekend.

Police Superintendent David Brown put

much of the blame for the gun violence on a

court system that allows people charged

with violent crimes, including murder, to

be released from custody on electronic

monitoring.

“The courts releasing people charged

with murder back into the communities ...

is creating an unsafe environment for all of

us,” Brown said at a news conference.

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans

took issue with Brown’s criticism of elec-

tronic monitoring, saying in a statement

Tuesday that it is “based on the constitu-

tional principle should not be imprison-

ment before they are tried, unless they pose

a significant danger to the community.”

Evans did not mention Brown by name or

respond directly to his comments about a

7-year-old girl who was fatally shot in

April, allegedly by a man who was on elec-

tronic monitoring in another case. But he

made it clear that such comments were un-

fair.

“Looking at individual tragic cases in iso-

lation may contribute to the speculation

that releasing individuals before trial rath-

er than incarcerating them — whether by

placing them on Electronic Monitoring or

other forms of supervision — means an in-

crease in crime,” he said. “But speculation

based on isolated cases is not the same as

reality based on a complete picture, and re-

search has shown that bail reform has not

led to an increase in crime.”

Brown has been under pressure for the

violent crime that rose dramatically in 2020

compared to the year before and shows lit-

tle sign of slowing down thus far this year.

Even before the holiday weekend, the de-

partment said in the first six months of the

year there were 332 homicides compared

to 338 for the same period last year and that

there were more shooting victims and

shooting incidents than during the same

six-month period last year.

He picked up Tuesday where he left off

last week, when he was called before the

City Council to explain his crime fighting

strategies ahead of what is traditionally one

of the most violent weekends of the year.

As he did in his City Council appearance,

Brown defended his department, including

in his briefing to reporters that his officers

had recovered 244 illegal guns over the

long weekend.

“Strategy-wise, we did our part,” he said.

100 people shot during violent holiday weekend in ChicagoAssociated Press

MEDFORD — Some of the 11

people charged in connection with

an armed standoff along a Massa-

chusetts highway last weekend,

including the purported leader of

the group, refused to cooperate

with court authorities during their

arraignments Tuesday.

Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latim-

er, 29, also known as Jamhal Talib

Abdullah Bey, told the judge, “I

don’t understand how these

charges can be brought against

me.”

Latimer, a former U.S. Marine

from Providence, R.I., waived his

right to an attorney, but the judge

said she would have a lawyer

speak to him about this rights be-

fore the next hearing in the case.

Not guilty pleas were entered on

behalf of all the defendants, who

were held without bail pending a

hearing Friday to determine

whether they are dangerous.

The first to appear, Quinn Cum-

berlander, 40, of Pawtucket, told

the judge in a courtroom with a

heavy security presence he was a

“foreign national” who cannot

face criminal charges, and said he

did not want a defense attorney.

Cumberlander invoked his Sec-

ond Amendment right to bear

arms, said the case should be

heard in federal court, and said he

meant no harm.

“We didn’t want to cause fear. I

object to being held without bail. I

am not a threat to society or any-

body,” he said in court.

Another defendant, Robert Ro-

driguez, 21, of the Bronx, N.Y.,

asked that a fellow defendant

serve as his attorney, but the judge

noted the man is not a licensed

lawyer.

He also refused to be inter-

viewed by Probation.

“I was seen by a probation offi-

cer,” Rodriguez said. “But I did

not commit a crime.”

A third defendant, who has re-

fused to identify himself to author-

ities, told the judge he was a “free

Moor.”

The judge ruled he had waived

right to counsel, then ordered him

out of the courtroom to watch pro-

ceedings on Zoom because he kept

interrupting her.

The defendants, 10 men and a

17-year-old juvenile, say they are

members of a group called Rise of

the Moors. Several of their sup-

porters were also in court, while

others watched remotely, some-

times interrupting.

They face several charges in-

cluding unlawful possession of a

firearm and ammunition and the

use of body armor in commission

of a crime, in connection with the

standoff that started early Satur-

day morning on Interstate 95 in

Wakefield.

SUZANNE KREITER, THE BOSTON GLOBE/AP

Quinn Cumberlander, left, one of 11 people charged in connection with an armed standoff along a Mas­sachusetts highway last weekend, appears during his arraignment at Malden District Court on Tuesday inMedford, Mass.

Mass. standoff defendantsrefuse to cooperate in court

Associated Press

ALBANY — New York can

try to sue gun manufacturers

over harm caused by their

products under legislation that

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed

Tuesday.

The new law comes at a time

when New York City in partic-

ular is facing a rise in shoot-

ings. Overall, violence is well

short of the historic highs of the

1990s, or even in the New York

of the early 2000s.

But the Democratic-led Leg-

islature has pushed to pass sev-

eral gun control measures this

year, including legislation that

would prohibit the sale, pur-

chase or transfer of firearms to

anyone with an outstanding

warrant for a felony or serious

offense.

The federal Protection of

Lawful Commerce in Arms Act

of 2005 gave gun manufactur-

ers immunity from lawsuits re-

lated to the criminal misuse of

their products. Supporters of

New York’s bill argue that gun

manufacturers can still be held

liable if they violate other laws

concerning the sale or market-

ing of firearms.

“Plain and simple, this was

federal overreach to protect the

gun industry in every way pos-

sible,” Attorney General Letitia

James said. “But, today, New

York state took an important

step to right that wrong and

protect its citizens from gun vi-

olence.”

It’s unclear, however, wheth-

er that argument will survive

being challenged in court.

James said she is “ready to

defend” the law, which, for ex-

ample, would allow her or a lo-

cality to sue gun manufacturers

for harming the public by ne-

glecting to take steps to prevent

firearms from being sold un-

lawfully in New York.

Cuomo also said Tuesday that

he would declare gun violence

in his state to be a “disaster

emergency” and start tracking

hotspots of shootings. Cuomo

said declaring the emergency

will make it easier to spend

money on efforts to address and

reduce gun violence.

The Democrat said he’s

launching an office on gun vio-

lence prevention to collect data

from the state’s major police

departments. And he said a new

Governor’s Council on Gun Vi-

olence Reduction will come up

with recommendations to ad-

dress gun violence.

Cuomo didn’t release specif-

ics on the initiatives immedi-

ately Tuesday, including the

cost of the new office, how

much emergency money or

what kind of “resources” would

be sent to hot spots, or how ex-

actly the state plans to reduce

and prevent gun violence.

NY can try to suegun makers undernew state law

BY MARINA VILLENEUVE

Associated Press “Today, NewYork state tookan importantstep to ... protectits citizens fromgun violence.”

Letitia James

New York attorney general

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —

Gunmen assassinated Haitian

President Jovenel Moïse and

wounded his wife in their home

early Wednesday, inflicting more

chaos on the Caribbean country

that was already enduring gang

violence, soaring inflation and

protests by opposition supporters

who accused the leader of increas-

ing authoritarianism.

Interim Prime Minister Claude

Joseph, who confirmed the killing,

said the police and military were

in control of security in Haiti, the

poorest country in the Americas

where a history

of dictatorship

and political up-

heaval have long

stymied the con-

solidation of

democratic rule.

Despite Jo-

seph’s assuranc-

es that order would prevail, there

was confusion about who should

take control and widespread anx-

iety among Haitians. Authorities

declared a “state of siege” in the

country and closed the interna-

tional airport.

The normally bustling streets of

the capital, Port-au-Prince, were

empty Wednesday. Sporadic gun-

shots were heard in the distance,

public transportation was scarce,

and some people searched for

businesses that were open to food

and water. Businesses had been

ransacked in one area earlier.

Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian

ambassador to the United States,

said the attack on the 53-year-old

Moïse was carried out by “well-

trained professional commandos”

and “foreign mercenaries” who

were masquerading as agents of

the U.S. Drug Enforcement Ad-

ministration.

Moïse’s wife, Martine, was in

stable but critical condition and

efforts were under way to move

her to Miami for treatment, Ed-

mond said in Washington.

Haiti has asked the U.S. govern-

ment for assistance with the inves-

tigation, he said, adding that the

assassins could have escaped over

the land border to the Dominican

Republic or by sea.

“We know for sure that if they

are not currently in Haiti,” he

said, refusing to comment on who

they were.

Haiti appeared to be heading for

fresh volatility ahead of general

elections later this year. Moïse

had been ruling by decree for

more than a year after failing to

hold elections, and the opposition

demanded he step down in recent

months, saying he was leading it

toward yet another grim period of

authoritarianism.

Joseph said the gunmen spoke

Spanish or English, but he gave no

details on the attack.

Former President Michel Mar-

telly, whom Moïse succeeded,

called the assassination “a hard

blow for our country and for Hai-

tian democracy, which is strug-

gling to find its way.”

Gunmen assassinate Haitian president in his homeAssociated Press

Moise

WORLD

MOSCOW — Rescuers have found the

bodies of 19 victims a day after a plane crash

in a remote area in Russia’s Far East, the au-

thorities said.

An Antonov An-26 carrying 28 people

crashed Tuesday near its destination town

of Palana in the region of Kamchatka, appar-

ently as it came in for a landing in bad weath-

er. The plane was en route from the city of

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana on

Tuesday morning when it missed a sched-

uled communication and disappeared from

radar.

Wreckage was found Tuesday evening on

a coastal cliffside and in the sea, and the

search and rescue operation was suspended

until Wednesday morning after night fell, as

the crash site was difficult to access in the

dark.

The governor of Kamchatka, Vladimir So-

lodov, told the state Tass news agency that

the “first bodies are being pulled out (of the

water).” Russia’s Emergency Ministry said

that remains of 19 victims have been found

so far, and one of them has been identified al-

ready.

Russian media reported Tuesday that

none of the six crew members or 22 passen-

gers on board had survived. The head of the

local government in Palana, Olga Mokhire-

va, was among the passengers, spokespeo-

ple of the Kamchatka government said.

In the aftermath of the crash, the author-

ities in Kamchatka have declared three days

of mourning. Officials said that families of

the victims will receive payments of about

$47,200that will include compensation from

the airline, an insurance payment and a sub-

sidy from the regional government.

Bodies of plane crash victims found in Russia’s Far EastAssociated Press

PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher

Lt. Col. Marci Hoffman, Europe commander

Lt. Col. Michael Kerschbaum, Pacific commander

Michael Ryan, Pacific chief of staff

EDITORIAL

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OPINION

Presidents, Cabinet secretaries, gen-

erals, special envoys, congressional

delegations and other assorted

VIPs know Bagram Airfield near

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The base

was where they arrived bearing countless

stirring promises, and where they departed

laden with depressing doubts.

U.S. forces abandoned the base in the dark

of night on July 2 without a word to Afghan au-

thorities, leaving tons of supplies behind. Af-

ter nearly 20 years, the ugly last act of Amer-

ica’s longest war is officially underway.

As expected, Taliban fighters have retaken

the offensive after a winter hiatus. It’s unclear

how much resistance they’ll face. Precious lit-

tle in the provinces, it seems. The other day,

1,000 Afghan government troops — members

of the force America has been paying, arming

and training — fled into neighboring Tajikis-

tan rather than fight. But in Kabul, where eco-

nomic freedom and human rights have made

real inroads, Afghans may yet make a stand

for modernity rather than return meekly to

the Taliban’s dark age.

Predictably, some Republicans are taking

the opportunity to paint President Joe Biden

as the weakling author of this ignominious

withdrawal. In fairness, he is only keeping

close to the timeline set by former President

Donald Trump, who — again, in fairness —

shared former President Barack Obama’s de-

sire to escape the Afghanistan fiasco.

Leaving has been the United States’ biparti-

san goal and promise for many years.

What’s more, the force that Biden is remov-

ing had already been reduced to 2,500 troops.

That number, if they stayed, would not be

enough to stop the Taliban. U.S. special oper-

ators are the finest combat troops in the world.

They call to mind the old motto of the legend-

ary Texas lawmen: “One riot, one ranger.”

Even so, they have not been able to stem the

steady advance of the ousted Islamists against

the corrupt and listless Afghan government.

Those who criticize Biden for adhering to

the Trump timetable have an obligation to

own the alternative. To stay in Afghanistan

would have meant committing American

lives to a bloody summer of desperate fighting

against an adversary we long ago gave up on

defeating. It would have required another

surge of troops and treasure.

Doing the same failed thing in hopes of a dif-

ferent outcome is, they say, a definition of in-

sanity.

Biden’s critics suggest our adversaries are

gloating. If they are, they won’t be for long.

Russia beat the same retreat from Afghanis-

tan after its own decade of failure there. Mos-

cow has been happy to have the United States

keeping a lid on the place.

As for China: Its 21st-century Belt and Road

Initiative is drawing Beijing inexorably in the

direction of Afghanistan. The ruling Commu-

nist Party is already waging an undeclared

war against Islam in its western provinces, in

hopes of clearing a path to Europe through the

Muslim heartland. In pursuit of this goal, a

million Uyghur Muslims are being brain-

washed in Chinese concentration camps. A

Taliban state next door is Beijing’s nightmare.

But if Biden deserves credit for bringing

this failed war to an end, there’s still a wrong

way to go about leaving. The Washington

Post’s intrepid veteran war correspondent

Pamela Constable and reporter Ezzatullah

Mehrdad relate that an untold number of Af-

ghans who have served U.S. forces as inter-

preters and in other roles still have no word

about plans to bring them to safety beyond the

Taliban’s reach.

“I gave everything I had to the Americans,

but once they are gone, I will be killed,” Abdul

Rashid Shirzad told the journalists. The 35-

year-old husband and father mastered En-

glish and risked his life to serve two years as a

battlefield interpreter for Navy SEALs. Shir-

zad said his identity and those of other U.S.

employees are well known to Taliban extre-

mists: “They keep track of us, and they don’t

shoot us like they do Afghan soldiers. If they

catch me, they will behead me.”

U.S. officials in Kabul were tight-lipped

about last-minute arrangements to rescue our

friends. But it appears that authorities have

given the same attention to planning for our

departure from Afghanistan as we gave to our

arrival — which is to say, zip.

The last time the Taliban ruled, mass exe-

cutions were carried out in the Kabul soccer

stadium. If such scenes are repeated in com-

ing months or years, and the victims are aban-

doned friends of the United States, that will in-

deed be shameful, and the Biden administra-

tion will own that shame. Time is quickly run-

ning out to make the safety of those friends our

top priority.

For those old enough to remember Saigon

1975, the feeling today is of deja vu. The Af-

ghanistan quagmire involved different tactics

but betrayed the same lack of strategy. The

lesson, then and now, is: Never start a war

without a clear definition of victory and the

plans and means to achieve it.

Let’s hope the learning lasts longer this

time.

On the verge of the wrong way to withdraw from warBY DAVID VON DREHLE

The Washington Post

Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle is the author offour books, including “Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln andAmerica’s Most Perilous Year.”

The latest cyberattack, apparently

emanating from Russia again, has

hit at least 20 software firms affect-

ing at least 1,000 businesses. It fol-

lows a cyberattack that left parts of the U.S.

without adequate gasoline supplies for sever-

al days, and one on the Irish public health sys-

tem. There are undoubtedly many more at-

tacks that go unreported, if only because the

victims do not wish to advertise their willing-

ness to pay ransom.

And so the obvious question arises: How is

all this supposed to stop? For an answer, it’s

useful to apply some game theory.

The scalability of the internet can be a ma-

jor virtue. But it also makes it easier for vices to

proliferate. There are now the equivalent of

venture capital markets to help fund ransom-

ware attacks.

Consider street crime, for example. There

is a natural limit to it if only because most peo-

ple have better options than to pursue such a

life, and many who do so are simply not good at

it and get caught. What’s more, street crime is

constrained by the need for physical pres-

ence; you can only commit so many carjack-

ings in a month.

In the cyber realm, these constraints do not

apply. In low-wage, low-trust countries, such

as Russia, you can just hire more hackers to

pull off more attacks. Even if the perpetrators

can be identified, Russia doesn’t seem so ea-

ger to help U.S. law enforcement. Other

havens for cybercriminals could emerge.

More aggressive regulation of cryptocur-

rency markets could make ransom payment

more difficult, but the hackers could always

resort to anonymized cryptocurrencies.

Some have proposed that paying ransoms

should be made illegal. That might be hard to

enforce, and is it really wise to penalize busi-

nesses that seek to restore services to their

customers? Criminalization might also incen-

tivize hackers to create more destructive at-

tacks in an effort to get the ransom spigot turn-

ed back on. At least under the status quo, hack-

ers have some incentive to seek out quiet at-

tacks that will yield a ransom but not wreak too

much havoc or attract too much attention.

What about military drone attacks on ran-

somware terrorists? It might be an option if

they are in a relatively weak country, but that

is hardly likely with Russia. U.S. President Joe

Biden already is trying to pressure Russian

President Vladimir Putin to help stop the at-

tacks, but Putin seems happy to see the U.S.

squirm. A laissez-faire attitude toward the

hackers doesn’t cost him money, and he has a

degree of plausible deniability.

Ultimately, the primary long-run solution is

for businesses to pay for more secure systems.

This could mean much less reliance on pass-

words (iris scans, anyone?), additional re-

liance on hardware, and greater use of multi-

factor authorization. Health care providers

and insurers may have to become a bit more

like the CIA.

None of this will stop ransomware attacks.

But it will likely cause them to decline.

How all this will unfold is clear, though un-

pleasant to contemplate. Many businesses

and institutions still don’t view a ransomware

attack as a major threat, and they won’t invest

much more in security until they do. As more

security-conscious institutions fortify their

protections, hackers will switch to the less se-

cure targets. Most countries have millions of

soft targets, and this crime will continue until

most of them have improved their defenses.

That could take decades.

It gets worse: In economic terms, the pri-

vate value of internet security is often less than

the public value. A ransomware attack that re-

sults in only a slight decrease in profits for a

business could translate into a major social in-

convenience.

One consolation is that hackers will almost

certainly “overfish” the pool of victims. At

some point there will be so many attacks that

most institutions will have no choice but to re-

spond with significant defensive measures.

The hackers themselves will accelerate this

process, because each will try to maximize

their profits before the game is over. Curious-

ly, this means that a successful attempt to

“slow down” the hackers could just delay the

necessary adjustments that businesses need

to make, leaving everyone worse off.

Game theory doesn’t help very much in pre-

dicting how long this cat-and-mouse game

will go on. But it’s safe to say that it will be here

for a long time to come.

Ransomware attacks will stop, but not anytime soonBY TYLER COWEN

Bloomberg Opinion

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is aprofessor of economics at George Mason University andwrites for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include“Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero.”

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15

PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

ACROSS

1 Forehead

5 Rain-delay cover

9 TV schedule

abbr.

12 Drill

13 “The Time

Machine” people

14 — Majesty

15 Mattress spec

17 Nosh

18 Gems

19 Chef’s hat

21 Tagged player

22 “— Crazy Moon”

(Sinatra hit)

24 Golfer’s cry

27 Wish otherwise

28 Estate recipient

31 “Hail, Caesar!”

32 — standstill

33 Green prefix

34 June honorees

36 Baseball’s

Hodges

37 Rebuff

38 Line

40 Undergrad deg.

41 Future beetles

43 Fragrant wood

47 Fib

48 Elizabeth’s

grandmother

51 Chest-beating

beast

52 Desire

53 Elevator name

54 Gents

55 Carolina college

56 Tidy

DOWN

1 Cookouts, briefly

2 Lopsided win

3 Layered cookie

4 Hot dog

5 Hardy heroine

6 Frazier foe

7 Cartoonist Chast

8 Devoutness

9 2006 Helen

Mirren film

10 Boyfriend

11 Jocular Johnson

16 Court divider

20 Sound of delight

22 Belly button type

23 Make well

24 Passing craze

25 Eggs

26 “Through the

Looking-Glass”

character

27 Prego rival

29 Hosp. area

30 Filch

35 Deli creation

37 Game fish

39 Suffix akin

to “ish”

40 Prohibit

41 Glitz partner

42 Ready for

harvest

43 Existed

44 Fill up

45 La Scala solo

46 Island in a

computer game

49 Online address

50 Conceit

Answer to Previous Puzzle

Eugene Sheffer CrosswordFra

zz

Dilbert

Pearls B

efo

re S

win

eN

on S

equitur

Candorv

ille

Beetle B

ailey

Biz

arr

oCarp

e D

iem

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17

PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

FACES

Americans will soon learn there are more

creatures in New Zealand than just hob-

bits.

Thanks to the expanding cinematic uni-

verse of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, the list

now includes vampires, werewolves, zombies, disco-

era ghosts and projectile-vomiting demons.

The “Flight of the Conchords” star Clement and

the “Thor: Ragnarok” director Waititi co-wrote, co-

directed and co-starred in the 2014 film about a group

of New Zealand vampire housemates, “What We Do

in the Shadows,” and co-created the U.S. TV series of

the same name on FX.

Now, they’re bringing their New Zealand TV show,

“Wellington Paranormal,” to the U.S. with a pre-

miere on The CW on Sunday.

A mockumentary with echoes of

“Cops” and “The X-Files,” “Wel-

lington Paranormal” follows a pair

of uniformed police officers,

played by Mike Minogue and Ka-

ren O’Leary, in the title city as they

investigate monstrous happenings

with bureaucratic banality.

“The way that the characters re-

act to things are quite New Zealand, the way that peo-

ple either are understated or they don’t know what to

do,” Clement said with a laugh in an interview with

The Associated Press via Zoom from Wellington.

The show is a spinoff of the “What We Do in the

Shadows” film, with Minogue and O’Leary reprising

their roles.

But unlike the New York-set “Shadows” TV series,

which was made for an American audience, U.S.

viewers will see the same episodes that first aired in

2018 in New Zealand, where the show’s third season

just aired and the fourth is in production.

Clement isn’t worried about the jokes getting lost

between hemispheres.

“We try to cram it with jokes so that you won’t real-

ly notice if you don’t get a specific cultural refer-

ence,” he said.

A more significant difference may be the coun-

tries’ police cultures, and the prevailing attitudes

around them.

“I know that this comes at an odd time for America

and the image of police in America,” Clement said.

“There’s a different feeling around the police here.

There’s some crossover and some of the same issues,

but because they don’t carry guns, there is not the

fear of the police.”

And some of the jokes might play a little differently

in 2021 after major U.S. protests of police violence

than they did in 2018 when the first season of “Wel-

lington Paranormal” was made.

In one episode, Minogue has blood all over his po-

lice uniform after trying to empty a pint into an evi-

dence bag.

“I didn’t brutalize anybody!” he feels the need to

tell the people who see him.

“There’s a few jokes like that

that we did three years ago that I

wonder if we could make today, be-

cause it’s changed so quickly,”

Clement said. “I hope people still

find that funny, but it feels more

probably on the nose than it was at

the time.”

It was an easy call for Clement

and Waititi to give these characters their own show,

and to have O’Leary and Minogue play them, though

both were basically beginners when they appeared in

“What We Do in the Shadows.” Their gifts for come-

dy, and for the improv that “Wellington Paranormal”

relies on, were clear.

“We just put them together and instantly they had a

chemistry like a great comedy duo, and we were just

lucky,” Clement said.

He and Waititi had a hard time keeping it together

when they watched the two on the monitors as they

directed the film, and an even harder time acting

alongside them.

“You can see it in the movie if you watch the scenes

where they’re on and we’re on,” Clement said.

“We’re all hiding our faces and scratching our noses,

covering our smiles.”

THE CW/AP

From left: Mike Minogue, Maaka Pohatu and Karen O’Leary star in “Wellington Paranormal.” The comedyseries, premiering Sunday on The CW, is a spinoff of the film “What We Do in the Shadows.”

Expanding universeMany types of monsters mess with New Zealand capitalin Clement-Waititi collaboration ‘Wellington Paranormal’

BY ANDREW DALTON

Associated Press

Waititi  Clement

The musical “Waitress” closed

on Broadway in January 2020 af-

ter a long natural life. It’s coming

back after the pandemic — with

Sara Bareilles leading the way.

The “Brave” and “Love Song”

singer-songwriter will star in a

resurrection of the musical, play-

ing the lead role of Jenna Hunter-

son. She’ll be in the show when it

restarts at its new home in the Eth-

el Barrymore Theatre from Sept. 2

through Oct. 17. Bareilles did

three stints in the show during its

four years on Broadway that end-

ed a few months before the pan-

demic hit.

“Broadway is grit and grace,

magic and mayhem, and I can’t

wait to feel the electricity that

pulses through all of us as the cur-

tains rise once again,” Bareilles

said in a statement Wednesday.

The musical tells the story of a

waitress and pie maker trapped in

a small-town diner and a loveless

marriage. It’s adapted from a 2007

film starring Keri Russell.

Other news

■ The streaming service Pea-

cock is ramping up its offerings

with a new deal with Universal

Filmed Entertainment Group.

The companies said Tuesday that

starting in 2022 all Universal

films, including the new “Jurassic

World” and “Minions” movies,

will become available exclusively

on Peacock no later than four

months after their theatrical pre-

mieres. The multi-year deal guar-

antees that in an 18-month win-

dow, Universal films will be avail-

able on Peacock for the first and

last four months. The films can be

licensed to other services in the

middle 10 months.

■ Former Fox News and NBC

personality Megyn Kelly will host

a weekday live talk show on Siri-

usXM this fall, building upon a

successful podcast. “The Megyn

Kelly Show” will premiere Sept. 7,

and the deal she struck means her

radio show will become available

to her podcast listeners after pre-

miering on SiriusXM.

Bareilles tolead returnof ‘Waitress’to Broadway

Associated Press

AP

Singer­songwriter Sara Bareilleswill return for her fourth stint in“Waitress” when the musicalreopens on Sept. 2.

Britney Spears’ court-appoint-

ed attorney on Tuesday filed docu-

ments to resign from her conser-

vatorship, the latest of several

such moves that have come in the

fallout from the pop singer’s com-

ments in court decrying the legal

arrangement that controls her

money and affairs.

Samuel Ingham III filed docu-

ments in Los Angeles Superior

Court requesting that the court ap-

point Spears a new attorney, and

saying his resignation would take

effect as soon as that happened.

During her June 23 speech in

court, in which she condemned

the conservatorship and asked

Judge Brenda Penny to end it,

Spears was critical of Ingham, and

said she wished the court would

allow her to hire a lawyer of her

choice.

Last week, Bessemer Trust, the

estate-management company that

Spears had requested replace her

father as conservator of her fi-

nances, filed its own documents

withdrawing from the case. The

filing said that circumstances had

changed after Spears’ comments

in court on June 23.

At a hearing in November, Pen-

ny denied Spears’ request to have

her father replaced entirely, but

said James Spears and Bessemer

Trust could work together as co-

conservators of her finances.

And on Monday, in a letter ob-

tained by entertainment industry

publication Deadline, Britney

Spears’ longtime manager Larry

Rudolph also resigned, saying she

had no intention of resuming her

career after a 2½-year hiatus that

has left him with no work to do for

her.

A veteran probate attorney, In-

gham was for years a largely silent

figure in the conservatorship, at

least publicly, but became a more

vocal advocate for Britney Spears

starting last year.

AP

As Britney Spears tries to breakfree from the conservatorshipthat controls her money andaffairs, several key players haveremoved themselves from thelegal proceedings.

Britney Spears’court-appointedattorney resigns

BY ANDREW DALTON

Associated Press

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19

SCOREBOARD/STANLEY CUP FINAL

PRO SOCCER

MLS

EASTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GA

New England 7 2 3 24 20 15

Orlando City 6 2 3 21 19 9

Philadelphia 5 3 4 19 15 11

Nashville 4 1 6 18 14 11

NYCFC 5 3 2 17 18 11

D.C. United 5 6 1 16 17 14

New York 5 5 1 16 16 14

CF Montréal 4 3 4 16 12 10

Columbus 4 3 4 16 11 9

Atlanta 2 3 6 12 11 13

Cincinnati 3 5 2 11 10 18

Chicago 2 7 2 8 10 17

Inter Miami CF 2 7 2 8 9 17

Toronto FC 1 8 2 5 13 27

WESTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GA

Sporting KC 8 3 2 26 24 15

Seattle 7 0 5 26 21 8

LA Galaxy 7 4 0 21 17 17

Colorado 5 3 2 17 16 12

LAFC 4 4 3 15 13 12

Minnesota 4 4 3 15 12 14

Houston 3 3 6 15 16 17

Portland 4 6 1 13 14 19

Real Salt Lake 3 3 4 13 14 12

Austin FC 3 5 4 13 10 12

San Jose 3 7 2 11 14 22

FC Dallas 2 4 5 11 13 17

Vancouver 2 6 3 9 12 18

Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie. 

Wednesday’s games

Toronto FC at New England New York City FC at CF Montréal Orlando City at Chicago Houston at Seattle Los Angeles FC at Austin FC Minnesota at Colorado Real Salt Lake at Vancouver FC Dallas at LA Galaxy 

Thursday’s games

Philadelphia at New York Atlanta at Nashville 

Friday’s game

Columbus at Cincinnati

NWSL

W L T Pts GF GA

North Carolina 5 2 1 16 14 4

Orlando 4 2 3 15 12 10

Portland 5 3 0 15 14 6

Houston 4 3 1 13 10 8

Gotham FC 3 1 3 12 7 3

Washington 3 2 3 12 8 8

Chicago 3 4 2 11 6 13

Louisville 3 4 1 10 6 12

Reign FC 2 5 1 7 5 10

Kansas City 0 6 3 3 5 13

Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie. 

Friday’s game

Louisville at OrlandoSaturday’s game

North Carolina at Washington Sunday’s games

Gotham FC at PortlandHouston at ChicagoKansas City at Reign FC

PRO BASKETBALL

WNBA

EASTERN CONFERENCE

W L Pct GB

Connecticut 12 6 .667 —

Chicago 10 9 .526 2½

New York 10 9 .526 2½

Washington 7 10 .412 4½

Atlanta 6 11 .353 5½

Indiana 2 16 .111 10

WESTERN CONFERENCE

W L Pct GB

Las Vegas 14 4 .778 —

Seattle 14 4 .778 —

Minnesota 9 7 .563 4

Dallas 9 10 .474 5½

Phoenix 7 9 .438 6

Los Angeles 6 11 .353 7½

Tuesday’s games

No games scheduledWednesday’s games

Dallas at MinnesotaLos Angeles at SeattlePhoenix at Las Vegas

Thursday’s games

No games scheduledFriday’s games

Atlanta at ConnecticutNew York at IndianaSeattle at PhoenixMinnesota at Las Vegas

Nordea OpenTuesday

At Bastad Tennis StadiumBastad, SwedenPurse: $125,000

Surface: Red clayWomen’s Singles

Round of 32Nuria Parrizas­Diaz, Spain, def. Varvara

Lepchenko, United States, 6­4, 6­2.Anna­Karolina  Schmiedlova  (5),  Slova­

kia, def. Clara Burel, France, 0­6, 7­5, 6­2. Anna Kalinskaya (2), Russia, def. Fanny

Ostlund, Sweden, 6­2, 2­6, 6­4. Maddison  Inglis  (8),  Australia,  def.  Ja­

queline Adina Cristian, Romania, 3­6, 7­6(5), 7­6 (3). 

Mihaela Buzarnescu, Romania, def. Zu­zana Zlochova, Slovakia, 6­2, 6­1. 

Leonie Kung, Switzerland, def. Daria Lo­patetska, Ukraine, 6­4, 6­4. 

Anna  Bondar,  Hungary,  def.  KarmanKaur Thandi, India, 7­6 (5), 6­0. 

Aliona  Bolsova  Zadoinov,  Spain,  def.Mirjam Bjorklund, Sweden, 6­2, 6­2. 

Mayar Sherif (3), Egypt, def. FrancescaJones, Britain, 6­4, 6­7 (6), 6­0.

Lara  Arruabarrena,  Spain,  def.  GiuliaGatto­Monticone, Italy, 6­2, 6­3. 

Rebecca  Peterson  (1),  Sweden,  def.Grace Min, United States, 7­6 (6), 6­1.

Women’s DoublesRound of 16

Mirjam Bjorklund, Sweden, and Leonie

Kung, Switzerland, def. Fanny Ostlund andVanessa Ersoz, Sweden, 7­5, 6­2. 

Hamburg European OpenTuesday

At Am Rothenbaum Rot-Weiss TennisClub

Hamburg, GermanyPurse: $235,238

Surface: Red clayWomen’s Singles

QualificationMandy  Minella  (7),  Luxembourg,  def.

Kristina Kucova (2), Slovakia, 6­3, 6­3.Elena­Gabriela  Ruse  (4),  Romania,  def.

Isabella Shinikova (5), Bulgaria, 6­3, 6­3. Anna Zaja, Germany, def. Katharina Ger­

lach (6), Germany, 7­5, 3­6, 6­4. Marina Melnikova (3), Russia, def. Kath­

arina Hobgarski, Germany, 6­4, 6­0.Women’s Singles

Round of 32Bernarda  Pera  (7),  United  States,  def.

Katarzyna Kawa, Poland, 6­1, 6­2. Ana Konjuh, Croatia, def. Jasmine Paoli­

ni, Italy, 7­5, 7­5. Ysaline Bonaventure, Belgium, def. As­

tra Sharma, Australia, 1­6, 6­2, 6­4.Women’s Doubles

Round of 16Sara Errani, Italy, and Irina Bara, Roma­

nia, def. Elixane Lechemia, France, and In­grid Neel (2), United States, 6­2, 6­2.

TENNIS

Tuesday’s transactionsBASEBALL

Major League BaseballMLB — Named Tom Hallion to serve as

umpire  crew  chief,  CB  Bucknor  (firstbase),  Chris  Guccione  (second  base),Lance Barrett (third base), David Rackley(left field) and Adam Hamari (right field),manager  Dave  Roberts  invited  ReggieSmith and Bud Black as honorary coachesfor  the  National  League,  manager  KevinCash invited Terry Francona to be honor­ary  coach  for  the  American  League  andDave  Einspahr  named  official  scorer  forthe 2021 All­Star Game.

American LeagueCHICAGO WHITE SOX — Placed C Yasma­

ni Grandal on the 10­day IL. Recalled C Se­by Zavala from Charlotte (Triple­A East).

CLEVELAND INDIANS — Signed C WilsonRamos  to  a  minor­league  contract.  Op­tioned LHP Logan Allen to Columbus (Tri­ple­A East).

HOUSTON ASTROS —  Reinstated  RHPBryan Abreu from the 10­day IL.

LOS ANGELES ANGELS —  Recalled  2BJack  Mayfield  from  Salt  Lake  (Triple­AWest). Placed 3B Anthony Rendon on the10­day  IL,  retroactive  to  July  5.  Sent  RFScott Schebler outright to Salt Lake (Tri­ple­A West) after clearing waivers.

NEW YORK YANKEES — Placed RHP Dar­ren O’Day on the 10­day IL. Recalled RHPNick Nelson from Scranton/Wilkes Barre(Triple­A East).

TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Acquired RHPsTrevor Richards and Bowden Francis fromthe  Milwaukee  Brewers  in  exchange  forINF Rowdy Tellez. Reinstated RHP ThomasHatch from the 60­day IL and optioned himto Buffalo (Triple­A East). Transferred LHPRyan Borucki from the 10­day IL to the 60­day IL.

National LeagueARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS — Activated

RHP  Jordan  Weems.  Optioned  CF  NickHeath to Reno (Triple­A West). Recalled LFStuart Fairchild  from Reno. Sent RF KoleCalhoun to Reno on a rehab assignment.

ATLANTA BRAVES — Recalled RHP JacobWebb  from  Gwinnett  (Triple­A  East).Placed 1B Pablo Sandoval on the restrict­ed list.

CHICAGO CUBS — Placed 2B Eric Sogardand RHP Kohl Stewart on the 10­day IL. Re­instated Trevor Williams from the 10­dayIL. Recalled SS Sergio Alcántara from Iowa(Triple­A East).

COLORADO ROCKIES — Reinstated RHPMychal  Givens  from  the  10­day  IL.  Op­tioned LHP Ben Bowden  to Albuquerque(Triple­A West).

LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Selected thecontract of RHP Jake Reed from OklahomaCity (Triple­A West). Designated LF StevenSouza  Jr.  for  assignment.  Recalled  LHPGarrett  Cleavinger  from  Oklahoma  City.Placed LHP Victor González on the 10­dayIL.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS —  Traded  LHPNathan Kirby to Pittsburgh Pirates. Rein­stated  LHP  Brett  Anderson  from  the  10­day IL.

NEW YORK METS —  Placed  RHP  CoreyOswalt on the 10­Day IL, retroactive to July5. Recalled RHP Robert Stock from Syra­cuse (Triple­A East).

PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Placed RF Gre­gory Polanco on the 10­day IL. Placed LFPhillip Evans on the 7­day concussion/IL.Recalled 3B Rodolfo Castro from Altoona(Double­A Northeast) and SS Cole Tucker

from Indianapolis (Triple­A East).SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS —  Placed  RF

Jaylin Davis on the 10­day IL. Recalled RHPTyler  Beede  from  his  rehabilitation  as­signment and reinstated him from the 60­day IL. Recalled 3B Jason Vosler from Sac­ramento (Triple­A West). Designated RHPJimmie Sherfy for assignment.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS — ReinstatedRHPs Erick Fedde and Kyle Finnegan fromthe 10­day IL. Optioned RHP Ryne Harperand LHP Kyle Lobstein to Rochester (Tri­ple­A East). Signed RHP Nick Goody to aminor­league contract.

BASKETBALLWomen’s National Basketball

AssociationATLANTA DREAM — Suspended Chenne­

dy Carter until further notice for conductdetrimental to the team.

MINNESOTA LYNX —  Signed  NatashaMack to a seven­day first contract.

FOOTBALLCHICAGO BEARS —  Promoted  LaMar

Campbell to vice president of player en­gagement,  Jeff  King  to  director  of  proscouting,  Sam  Summerville  from  areascout to national scout, Scott Hamel fromMidwest  Area  scout  to  Southeast  Areascout, Brendan Rehor from combine scoutto Midwest Area scout, and Drew Raucinafrom scouting assistant to combine scout.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS —  Signed  QBTrevor Lawrence.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Signed QBMac Jones.

NEW YORK JETS —  Signed  OT  MorganMoses. Waived DB Jordyn Peters.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Placed DT De­marcus Christmas on injured reserve.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS —  Waived  LBNathan Gerry.

HOCKEYARIZONA COYOTES — Signed Alan Hep­

ple  as  the  team’s  new  director  of  proscouting.

BUFFALO SABRES — Named Sam Ventu­ra vice president of hockey strategy andresearch.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Re­signed G ScottWedgewood to a one­year, two­way con­tract worth $825,000 at the NHL level and$375,000 at the AHL level.

SOCCERMajor League Soccer

MLS DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE —Found Columbus Crew MF Pedro Santosguilty of simulation­embellishment in thematch against  the New England Revolu­tion on July 3 and fined him an undisclosedamount for his action.

ATLANTA UNITED —  Acquired  M  AmarSejdic from CF Montreal in exchange for$100,000  in  General  Allocation  Money(GAM),  with  the  potential  to  rise  to$150,000  GAM  if  performance  incentivesare met, effective July 7.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY — Signed D JulianAraujo to a four and a half­year contractextension through the end of the 2025 MLSregular  season  and  will  occupy  an  MLSU22 Initiative roster spot.

NASHVILLE SC — Loaned D Tom Judge toPittsburgh Riverhounds SC of USL Cham­pionship  through  the  2021  season  andmaintains the ability to terminate the loanagreement  at  any  point  throughout  theseason.

COLLEGETEXAS RIO GRANDE VALLEY — Promoted

Paulina Ramirez to women’s volleyball as­sistant coach.

DEALS

July 8

1889 — John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kil­rain in the 75th round in Richburg, Miss.,for  the  U.S.  heavyweight  championship.It’s  the  last  bare­knuckle  boxing  matchbefore  the Marquis of Queensbury rulesare introduced.

1922 —  Suzanne  Lenglen  beats  MollaBjurstedt  Mallory,  6­2,  6­0  for  her  fourthstraight singles title at Wimbledon. 

1939 — Bobby Riggs beats Elwood Cookein five sets to win the men’s singles title atWimbledon. 

1941 — Ted Williams of the Boston Red

Sox hits a three­run, two­out homer in theninth inning to give the American League adramatic 7­5 victory in the All­Star gameat Detroit’s Briggs Stadium. 

1955 — Peter Thomson wins his secondconsecutive  British  Open,  finishing  twostrokes  ahead  of  John  Fallon.  Thomsonshoots a 7­under 281 at the Old Course inSt Andrews, Scotland. 

1967 — Billie Jean King sweeps three ti­tles at Wimbledon. King beats Ann HaydenJones 6­3, 6­4, for the singles title; teamswith  Rosie  Casals  for  the  women’s  dou­bles title, and pairs with Owen Davidsonfor the mixed doubles title. 

AP SPORTLIGHT

Stanley Cup Final(Best-of-seven; x-if necessary)

Tampa Bay 3 Montreal 1 �Tampa Bay 5, Montreal 1Tampa Bay 3, Montreal 1Tampa Bay 6, Montreal 3Montreal 3, Tampa Bay 2, OTWednesday: at Tampa Bayx-Friday: at Montrealx-Sunday: at Tampa Bay

NHL scoreboardTAMPA, Fla. — With star de-

fenseman Shea Weber having a

relatively quiet series, an argu-

ment can be made that Montreal

is fortunate to still be playing in

the Stanley Cup Final.

The same could be said about

the likelihood of Tampa Bay be-

ing on the brink of repeating as

champion without last year’s

playoff MVP Victor Hedman on

top of his game through four

games.

Both players had forgettable

moments in Game 4.

Weber sat in the penalty box,

unable to help his team, while the

Canadiens staved off possible

elimination in the final 61 seconds

of regulation and first three min-

utes of overtime before Montreal

extended its season with a 3-2 vic-

tory on Monday night.

Weber’s high-sticking penalty

against the Lightning’s Ondrej

Palat put Montreal in a vulnera-

ble position, but the Canadiens

captain was bailed out by one of

the NHL’s best penalty-killing

units before Josh Anderson won it

with a goal a little under four min-

utes into overtime.

“It shows the character of our

group again,” Montreal coach Do-

minique Ducharme said. “There

was no question we were going to

do everything we could to kill that

penalty for our captain.”

In addition to being one of the

NHL’s top defenders, Hedman is

a key contributor on Tampa Bay’s

potent power play.

But after leading last year’s ti-

tle run, the reigning Conn Smythe

winner hasn’t been nearly as

dominant in helping the reigning

champs build a 3-1 series lead

against the Canadiens.

A big moment for Hedman in

Game 4 was being set up in the

high slot on a power play only to

have his shot glance off Carey

Price’s blocker and off the left

post with 4:15 left in the second

period.

Some 15 seconds later, the big

defenseman was set up in the

same spot and had his blast go off

teammate Brayden Point’s right

knee. Point was prone on the ice

before hobbling to the bench.

Hedman lauded Montreal’s

penalty kill.

They’re a good team,” Hedman

said. “They’re here for a reason.”

By contrast, defenseman Ryan

McDonagh has picked up his of-

fensive production as the playoffs

have gone on. He helped set up

Yanni Gourde’s semifinal-clinch-

er to get the Lightning to the Final

and then in Game 4 made a per-

fect pass to slide the puck to Bar-

clay Goodrow for a goal.

“Just tried to go to the net and

create something and glad that

the guys hung around the net

there a little bit for a play to be

made for Goody to put it in the

net,” McDonagh said.

PHELAN M. EBENHACK /AP

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber has had a relativelyquiet Stanley Cup Final series and took a four­minute penalty in Game4 near the end of regulation that carried over into overtime. 

Top defensemenrelatively quietthrough 4 games

BY FRED GOODALL

Associated Press

PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

OLYMPICS

Banned sprinter Sha’Carri Ri-

chardson was not on the Olympic

roster released Tuesday by USA

Track and Field, a decision that

means the American champion’s

positive test for marijuana will

cost her a chance at running on

the relay team in Tokyo, in addi-

tion to her spot in the 100-meter

individual race.

Richardson’s positive test nulli-

fied her win at the Olympic trials

in Eugene, Ore., last month and

the spot that went with it for To-

kyo in the 100. Her 30-day suspen-

sion will end before the start of the

relays on Aug. 5, which left open

the possibility she could win a

medal as part of the 4x100 relay

team.

But her name was missing from

the 130-person roster USATF sent

out. The federation had two dis-

cretionary picks beyond the top

four finishers in the 100-meter fi-

nal at trials but chose not to offer a

spot to the 21-year-old sprinter,

who was expected to challenge for

Olympic gold.

Asked about how Richardson

was taking the news, her agent,

Renaldo Nehemiah, responded:

“We haven’t spoken about it at all.

It was actually not a topic we fo-

cused on.”

In a statement, USATF said it

was “incredibly sympathetic to-

ward Sha’Carri Richardson’s ex-

tenuating circumstances” and

“fully agrees” that international

rules regarding marijuana should

be reevaluated.

“So while our heartfelt under-

standing lies with Sha’Carri, we

must also maintain fairness for all

of the athletes who attempted to

realize their dreams by securing a

place on the U.S. Olympic Track &

Field Team,” the statement read.

In this case, that meant offering

the remaining relay spots to the

sixth- and seventh-place finish-

ers, each of whom moved up in the

pecking order after Richardson’s

DQ. They are English Gardner

and Aleia Hobbs.

Richardson tested positive for a

chemical found in marijuana af-

ter her victory on June 19. She

said the stress of her biological

mother’s recent death combined

with the pressure of preparing for

trials led her to use the drug.

“I was definitely triggered and

blinded by emotions, blinded by

badness, and hurting, and hiding

hurt,” she said on NBC’s “Today”

show. “I know I can’t hide myself,

so in some type of way, I was try-

ing to hide my pain.”

Shortly after the 2012 Olym-

pics, international regulators

loosened restrictions on marijua-

na use, increasing the threshold

for a positive test to a level de-

signed to catch athletes only who

were using it in the immediate

hours before competition. Poten-

tial bans were reduced from two

years to as little as the 30-day sus-

pension that Richardson is serv-

ing.

But where some professional

leagues, such as the NFL, NHL

and NBA, have greatly reduced

enforcement of marijuana rules,

with the acknowledgement that

the drug does not enhance per-

formance, the Olympic world con-

tinues to test for and punish use in

some circumstances. According

to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in

addition to substances that trigger

performance enhancement, the

banned list can include drugs that

can pose health risks to athletes or

violate the “spirit of sport.”

No relay: SprinterRichardson leftoff Olympic team

BY EDDIE PELLS

AND PAT GRAHAM

Associated Press

ASHLEY LANDIS/AP

Sha’Carri Richardson won the women’s 100 meters at the trials, but apositive test for marijuana has kept her off the U.S. Olympic team.

Gregg Popovich knows he doesn’t have to spend a

whole lot of time teaching the game of basketball to his

U.S. Olympic players.

His top priority right now: Making those players a

team.

That process is officially underway, with the Amer-

icans holding their first practice together Tuesday in Las

Vegas to prepare for an Olympic Games that begin in

less than three weeks. Popovich’s message in the first

team meeting on Monday night and in the first practice

on Tuesday was simple and similar, in that he wants the

unit to find a way to jell quickly — knowing that many of

the international teams they’ll face at the Olympics have

played together for years.

“We’ve got to take advantage of their abilities, their

strengths and play together, play for each other, with

one thought in mind,” Popovich said. “That’s winning

the whole deal.”

This is the first Olympics for Popovich as head coach.

He coached the U.S. at the Basketball World Cup in Chi-

na in 2019, taking a team that was put together after

about three dozen invitees and commitments backed out

of playing. The result was a seventh-place finish, the

worst for the U.S. men in a major international competi-

tion.

This roster is different. It has a past NBA Finals MVP

in Kevin Durant. It has players with NBA championship

rings such as Durant, Draymond Green and Kevin Love

— a list that will grow after the NBA Finals since three

U.S. Olympians are playing in that Milwaukee-Phoenix

matchup.

“They are bona fide big-time players, so they’re not

here to develop their individual games,” Popovich said.

“They’re here to come together, become a team, fall in

love as quickly as possible, and want it as badly as for-

eign teams want it.”

Players — nine of the 12 on the Olympic team anyway,

the exceptions being Milwaukee teammates Khris Mid-

dleton and Jrue Holiday, plus Phoenix’s Devin Booker,

all absent because they’re playing in the NBA Finals —

arrived in Las Vegas on Monday, were taken to their ho-

tel to get settled in and take their first coronavirus test,

then gathered for a team meeting in the evening.

Popovich greeted them all warmly, then started talk-

ing about the challenge that awaits.

“We know what we’re supposed to do,” U.S. center

Bam Adebayo said.

Practices started Tuesday and will continue through

the end of the week. The U.S. plays its first international

friendly on Saturday against Nigeria, and they’ll be

spending most waking hours together over the next few

weeks — which is exactly what Popovich wants.

U.S. forward Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics

played his college basketball at Duke, for former Olym-

pic coach Mike Krzyzewski, and now will play for Pop-

ovich at the Tokyo Games. Tatum also played for Pop-

ovich at the Basketball World Cup in China two years

ago and said one aspect of the coach’s personality

shocked him.

“He has an amazing sense of humor,” Tatum said. “I

guess the casual fan sees the person who does those in-

terviews postgame, but that’s not the case of who he is at

all. I absolutely love spending time with him and now

building a relationship with him. I’m just really fortu-

nate to say I played under Pop and Coach K.”

The U.S. won the last three Olympic gold medals un-

der Krzyzewski, and now it’s Popovich’s turn. The U.S.

will be favored, and remains the world’s No. 1-ranked

team by FIBA. Day 1 was about getting some basic of-

fense and defense installed — “trying to invent the

wheel will not work,” Popovich said — and establishing

how the Americans want to play.

After that, it was time to resume the team-building.

“They’re sacrificing a lot,” Popovich said. “After the

year in COVID — actually more than that — to leave

their families, and to commit to represent their country

at this point I think is really laudable and a great sacri-

fice.”

JOHN LOCHER/AP

Head coach Gregg Popovich, center, coaches during practice for USA Basketball on Tuesday in Las Vegas. 

Camp Pop: US basketballopens practice in Vegas

BY TIM REYNOLDS

Associated Press “They’re here to cometogether, become a team,fall in love as quickly aspossible, and want it asbadly as foreign teamswant it.”

Gregg Popovich

Coach of Team USA

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21

MLB

American League

East Division

W L Pct GB

Boston 54 33 .621 _

Tampa Bay 49 36 .576 4

Toronto 43 40 .518 9

New York 43 41 .512 9½

Baltimore 28 57 .329 25

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Chicago 50 35 .588 _

Cleveland 42 40 .512 6½

Detroit 39 47 .453 11½

Kansas City 36 49 .424 14

Minnesota 35 49 .417 14½

West Division

W L Pct GB

Houston 53 33 .616 _

Oakland 49 38 .563 4½

Seattle 45 41 .523 8

Los Angeles 43 42 .506 9½

Texas 34 52 .395 19

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GB

New York 44 37 .543 _

Philadelphia 41 42 .494 4

Washington 41 43 .488 4½

Atlanta 41 44 .482 5

Miami 37 47 .440 8½

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Milwaukee 51 35 .593 _

Cincinnati 44 41 .518 6½

St. Louis 43 44 .494 8½

Chicago 42 44 .488 9

Pittsburgh 32 53 .376 18½

West Division

W L Pct GB

San Francisco 53 32 .624 _

Los Angeles 53 33 .616 ½

San Diego 51 37 .580 3½

Colorado 37 49 .430 16½

Arizona 24 63 .276 30

Tuesday’s games

Baltimore 7, Toronto 5Texas 10, Detroit 5Chicago White Sox 4, Minnesota 1Houston 9, Oakland 6Kansas City 7, Cincinnati 6L.A. Angels 5, Boston 3N.Y. Yankees 12, Seattle 1Cleveland at Tampa Bay, ppd.Pittsburgh 2, Atlanta 1Miami 2, L.A. Dodgers 1, 10 inningsPhiladelphia 15, Chicago Cubs 10Arizona 4, Colorado 3St. Louis 6, San Francisco 5San Diego 7, Washington 4Milwaukee at N.Y. Mets, ppd.

Wednesday’s games

Cleveland at Tampa Bay, 2Chicago White Sox at MinnesotaDetroit at TexasCincinnati at Kansas CityBoston at L.A. AngelsToronto at BaltimoreOakland at HoustonN.Y. Yankees at SeattleAtlanta at PittsburghMilwaukee at N.Y. Mets, 2L.A. Dodgers at MiamiPhiladelphia at Chicago CubsColorado at ArizonaSt. Louis at San FranciscoWashington at San Diego

Thursday’s games

Oakland (Montas 7-7) at Houston(McCullers Jr. 6-1)

N.Y. Yankees (Montgomery 3-3) at Seat-tle (Gilbert 2-2)

Toronto (Manoah 2-0) at Baltimore (Akin 0-4)Kansas City (Duffy 4-3) at Cleveland (Plesac 4-3)Detroit (Skubal 5-7) at Minnesota (Happ 4-4)L.A. Dodgers (Urías 10-3) at Miami (Al-

cantara 5-7)Colorado (González 2-5) at Arizona (Fa-

ria 0-0)Pittsburgh (Brubaker 4-8) at N.Y. Mets

(Walker 7-3)Philadelphia (Eflin 3-6) at Chicago Cubs

(Alzolay 4-8)Cincinnati (Mahle 7-3) at Milwaukee

(Houser 5-5)Washington (Scherzer 7-4) at San Diego

(Darvish 7-3)Friday’s games

Chicago White Sox at BaltimoreKansas City at ClevelandPhiladelphia at BostonToronto at Tampa BayOakland at TexasDetroit at MinnesotaN.Y. Yankees at HoustonL.A. Angels at SeattleSt. Louis at Chicago CubsAtlanta at MiamiPittsburgh at N.Y. MetsCincinnati at MilwaukeeWashington at San FranciscoArizona at L.A. DodgersColorado at San Diego

Scoreboard

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani pitchedseven innings of five-hit ball and hit an earlyRBI double, leading the Los Angeles Angels toa 5-3 defeat of the Boston Red Sox.

Ohtani yielded two runs and struck out four,winning his matchup with fellow All-StarNathan Eovaldi.

Ohtani (4-1) didn’t walk a batter. Althoughhe went 1-for-4 at the plate and failed to homerfor the second straight game after hitting 14 inhis previous 17 games, Ohtani still cracked adouble in the first inning that drove in the An-gels’ first run.

Max Stassi hit a two-run homer and doubledand singled for the Angels, while DavidFletcher went 4-for-4 in their fifth win in sixgames.

Padres 7, Nationals 4: Wil Myers hit athree-run homer and had five RBIs, and Man-ny Machado celebrated his 29th birthday withthree hits and three runs as host San Diegobeat Washington.

Machado singled in the go-ahead run duringthe three-run fifth and also had two doubles.

Yankees 12, Mariners 1:Giancarlo Stantonclubbed a three-run homer off the railing ofthe second deck in the first inning, Luke Voithad a career-high five hits and three RBIs, andNew York won at Seattle.

DJ LeMahieu singled in each of the firstthree innings, becoming the first Yankeesplayer to have three hits in the first three in-nings since Aaron Judge in April 2018.

Pirates 2, Braves 1: Bryan Reynolds drew a

four-pitch walk from Tyler Matzek, forcing inthe winning run in the ninth inning as hostPittsburgh beat Atlanta and extended its win-ning streak to three games.

Matzek (0-3) threw just eight of 20 pitchesfor strikes.

Orioles 7, Blue Jays 5: Pedro Severino andCedric Mullins homered off Steven Matz, An-thony Santander also went deep and host Bal-timore beat Toronto.

The Blue Jays hit three home runs, too, in-cluding No. 28 by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Allthe homers came after the Orioles had taken a7-1 lead.

Rangers 10, Tigers 5: John Hicks becamethe first player to homer in his first four gameswith the Rangers/Washington Senators fran-chise and added a go-ahead single in the sev-enth inning to lead host Texas over Detroit.

Hicks hit a two-run homer in the fourth thatput the Rangers ahead 2-1 in a four-run inning.

Astros 9, Athletics 6: Yordan Álvarez hittwo homers and drove in five runs, José Altuvedrove in the go-ahead run with a single, andhost Houston rallied to beat Oakland for itsfifth straight win.

White Sox 4, Twins 1: Carlos Rodón pitchedsix strong innings and Chicago took advantageof sloppy play to win at Minnesota.

Marlins 2, Dodgers 1 (10): Automatic run-ner Starling Marte advanced to third on BlakeTreinen’s wild pitch and continued homewhen catcher Will Smith threw wildly pastthird base for a game-ending error in the 10thinning, giving host Miami a win over Los An-geles.

Royals 7, Reds 6: Salvador Perez’s walk-off single capped Kansas City’s four-run rallyin a win over visiting Cincinnati.

Diamondbacks 4, Rockies 3: David Peraltawas hit by a pitch with the bases loaded toforce in the winning run and Arizona beat vis-iting Colorado.

Cardinals 6, Giants 5: Nolan Arenado andEdmundo Sosa homered to back AdamWainwright’s fourth straight winning deci-sion, Paul Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead two-runsingle in the fourth inning, and St. Louis won atSan Francisco.

Ohtani pitches, hits Angels past Red SoxAssociated Press

ASHLEY LANDIS/AP

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher ShoheiOhtani allowed five hits in seven innings in theAngels’ defeat of the Red Sox on Tuesday inAnaheim, Calif.

ROUNDUP

CHICAGO — Bryce Harper canfeel everything coming togetherfor him and the rest of the Phillies’lineup. At the moment, they arecrushing the ball.

Harper homered and tied a ca-reer high with five hits, AndrewMcCutchen smacked a grandslam and Philadelphia handedChicago its 11th straight loss, beat-ing the Cubs 15-10 on Tuesdaynight.

Rhys Hoskins also went deep.The Phillies jumped on Jake Ar-rieta (5-9) after beating Chicago13-3 the previous night and fin-ished two shy of a season high with16 hits.

“I think we’re coming into ourown as a team,” Harper said. “Ev-erybody’s getting healthy. Andwe’re just looking forward to thenext couple of games, getting intothe All-Star break and enjoyingour time down, coming back andget going.”

The Cubs, meanwhile, extendedtheir worst skid since they drop-ped 12 in a row in May 2012. Theyremained winless since Zach Da-vies and three relievers combinedto no-hit the Dodgers in Los An-

geles on June 24. And with Arrietafailing to make it through the sec-ond inning in his second straightstart, they fell into a huge hole.

Harper hit his seventh homer in13 games when he crushed athree-run drive in the seventh, ex-

tending the lead to 15-4. He fin-ished with a season-high fourRBIs.

McCutchen, the game’s fourthbatter, smacked his third careergrand slam and second this seasonin the first inning.

Hoskins chased Arrieta with atwo-run double in the second,making it 7-0, and hit the left-fieldscoreboard with a drive leadingoff the seventh. Jean Segurachipped in with four hits and fourruns.

Phils hand Cubs 11th straight lossPhiladelphia wins 15-10as Harper has 5 hits,McCutcheon hits a slam

ANDREW SELIGMAN

Associated Press

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen watches his grand slam off Chicago Cubs starting pitch­er Jake Arrieta during the first inning of the Phillies’ 15­10 win Tuesday in Chicago.

PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

NBA FINALS

PHOENIX — Running in full

stride, Giannis Antetokounmpo

chased down Mikal Bridges then

soared to smack the Phoenix for-

ward’s fastbreak layup off the back-

board and deny what looked like

two easy points for the Suns.

The two-time league MVP wast-

ed no time demonstrating he is

more than healthy enough to play

— and possibly dominate — in the

NBA Finals.

Antetokounmpo’s presence

didn’t lead to a Bucks win on Tues-

day night, but did serve notice that

he will likely have a major impact

on the series. He finished with 20

points, 17 rebounds and four assists

in 35 minutes after missing two

games in the Eastern Conference

finals with a hyperextended knee.

“Obviously I’m trying not to

make it about me, but felt great,”

Antetokounmpo said. “The medi-

cal staff cleared me to play. Out

there, I had my balance. I felt my

knee was stable. I did not feel pain. I

felt good.”

And he looked good.

He was a surprise starter in

Game 1 — a seemingly questiona-

ble move — but the Bucks’ first of-

fensive play of the game was a lob to

Antetokounmpo that resulted in a

pair of free throws. Antetokounmp

used a Euro-step to avoid defenders

on a move to the basket and threw

down a pair of baseline dunks in the

first half; he had a double-double by

early in the third quarter.

Antetokounmpo rested during

timeouts, often with a towel over his

shoulders, and never seemed to

need any special treatment. He

worked out on the court before

Tuesday night’s 118-105 loss and

showed Bucks officials that he was

ready to play after being sidelined

with the left knee injury.

“I don’t think he’s fully 100%,”

Bucks forward Khris Middleton

said. “But he’s close to it.”

Areminder that Antetokounmpo

isn’t an indestructible robot came

during postgame interviews. He

gingerly climbed onto the podium

to answer questions and then care-

fully stepped down afterwards.

The 26-year-old is known for not

making a big fuss about injuries. He

repeatedly insisted that his medical

situation wasn’t a problem, even

though he admits his initial reac-

tion to the injury was “I’m going to

be out for a year” and that his knee

swelled up to twice its normal size.

He said the effort to get his knee

ready for Tuesday was a 24-hour

process complete with treatment,

weight-lifting, getting on the court,

pool sessions and keeping the knee

elevated.

“I’m trying my best to not make it

about my knee,” Antetokounmpo

said. “My knee felt good. Obviously

when you go play a game, you never

know what’s going to happen. …

I’m just happy that I’m out there

and I’m able to help my team in any

way possible and participate in my

first NBA Finals. I’m just trying to

put my attention on that and not on

if my knee hurts.”

There will be huge interest in

how Antetokounmpo’s knee feels

Wednesday, but it would be unwise

to count him out of Game 2.

He jogged onto the court Tues-

day about two hours before tip-off

with a large pair of headphones on

his head. The athletic 6-foot-11 for-

ward immediately got to work, do-

ing dribbling drills on the sideline

and then putting up shots from

three-point range.

“I think Giannis played well. I

feel like when you sit out three or

four games, it’s maybe a little tough

to come to the first game of the fi-

nals and really put on a show like he

would, but I think he played well,”

Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer

said. “He looked well. His body

looked well.”

Budenholzer said before the

game he was sure his star would be

able to make an important contri-

bution, even if he couldn’t score as

much as usual.

Entering the finals, Anteto-

kounmpo was averaging 28.2

points, 12.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists

in the postseason.

ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo loses control of the ball as he’s fouled during the firsthalf of Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Suns on Tuesday in Phoenix. 

Antetokounmpo returns,plays well in Game 1 loss

BY DAVID BRANDT

Associated Press

NBA Finals(Best-of-seven)x-if necessary

Phoenix 1, Milwaukee 0Tuesday: Phoenix 118, Milwaukee 105Thursday: at  Phoenix,  AFN­Sports,

3.a.m. Friday CET; 10 a.m. �Friday JKTSunday: at  Milwaukee,  AFN­Sports,  2

a.m. Monday CET; 9 a.m. Monday JKTWednesday, July 14: at Milwaukee, AFN­

Sports, 3 a.m. Thursday CET; 10 a.m. Thurs­day JKT

x-Saturday, July 17: at  Phoenix,  AFN­Sports, 3 a.m. Sunday CET; 10 a.m. SundayJKT

x-Tuesday, July 20: at Milwaukeex-Thursday, July 22: at Phoenix

Scoreboard

AP basketball writer Brian Mahoney contributedto this report.

looked as if they could make this

ending different than the other

two.

“We’ve been building all season

long for these moments,” Paul

said. “We’re going to keep playing.

This is just one game. We’ve got to

stay locked in.”

Deandre Ayton added 22 points

and 19 rebounds to continue his

breakout stretch of play in his first

postseason.

Antetokounmpo had 20 points

and 17 rebounds after missing two

games with a hyperextended left

knee. Khris Middleton scored 29

points, but the Bucks will have to

play from behind again after drop-

ping Game 1 for the third straight

series.

“We know it’s not going to be

easy. We know it’s going to be

tough,” Middleton said. “There’s

times where we’re going to be

down in this series. But this series

isn’t over. We’re down. We’ve still

got to keep competing and just

playing.”

The series opener was the first

NBA Finals game in Phoenix since

Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls

won their third straight cham-

pionship here in Game 6 in 1993.

The Suns, who came into the NBA

with Milwaukee in 1968, made

their only other finals appearance

in 1976.

They hadn’t even made the

playoffs since 2010 and just two

years ago were last in the Western

Conference with a 19-63 record.

But Booker was already headed

for stardom by then, and 2018 No. 1

pick Ayton has played at that level

in the postseason. Paul has been

steady as always since his arrival

in an offseason trade.

Now 36 and a 10-time All-NBA

selection, he is on the list of best

players to never win a champion-

ship. It appeared he might never

even get to play for one until Okla-

homa City dealt him to Phoenix,

then on the rise, and he might be

the final piece that takes it all the

way to the top.

Despite so many debuts on the

Finals stage — the Suns’ Jae

Crowder was the only player who

had appeared in them, and that

was for Miami at a neutral site last

year — there didn’t appear to be

many first-time jitters.

But Paul shifted the team into

another gear in the third. His

opening jumper provided the first

double-digit lead of the game, and

he followed with a four-point play

for the Suns’ next basket.

He scored eight straight Phoe-

nix points later in the period, hit-

ting a three-pointer, dancing

around Bobby Portis for a layup

and then hitting another three. He

then fired a pass to Ayton, who

was fouled and made both free

throws to make it 88-68 with 2:20

left.

“Their pick-and-roll game is

tough to guard,” Bucks coach

Mike Budenholzer said. “I think

we’ve just got to keep getting bet-

ter. We’ll look at the film. We’ll see

how we can maybe take away

some of the rhythm.”

Milwaukee also is making its

third finals appearance, having

won the title in 1971 but not getting

another chance since losing in

1974.

Happy to be homeThe Bucks coach used to be a

Suns fan.

Budenholzer is from Holbrook,

Ariz., about three hours from

Phoenix. He said his parents and

other family members would be at

the game.

Postseason pastThis isn’t the first postseason

matchup between the Bucks and

Suns. Milwaukee was formerly in

the Western Conference and beat

Phoenix in the first round of the

1978 playoffs.

MATT YORK /AP

Suns forward Mikal Bridges, right, shoots under Milwaukee Buckscenter Brook Lopez during the first half of Game 1 of the NBA Finalson Tuesday in Phoenix. The Suns won 118­105.

Game 1: Paul seekingfirst NBA championshipFROM PAGE 24

Thursday, July 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23

WIMBLEDON/SPORTS BRIEFS

WASHINGTON — Defense

Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tues-

day that the U.S. military will al-

low Naval Academy graduate

Cameron Kinley to pursue a ca-

reer in the NFL with the Tampa

Bay Buccaneers.

Acting Navy Secretary Tom

Harker had denied Kinley’s re-

quest to delay his commissioning.

But Austin reversed that decision,

saying that “we know Cameron

will take every opportunity on and

off the field to ably represent the

Navy and the military to the

American people and to assist us

in our recruiting efforts.”

President Joe Biden said he was

“pleased” by Austin’s decision,

adding, “I am confident that Cam-

eron will represent the Navy well

in the NFL, just as he did as a

standout athlete and class presi-

dent at the Naval Academy.”

In a letter posted Tuesday on

Twitter, Kinley wrote: “I am ex-

tremely appreciative of Secretary

Austin’s decision and I am excited

to represent our fine military in

the National Football League. This

past month has been very chal-

lenging and I am thankful for ev-

eryone who has supported me in

any way.”

Kinley, a cornerback, signed

with Tampa Bay as an undrafted

free agent. He will now be able to

attend the Buccaneers’ training

camp later this month.

Austin said Cameron will be en-

listed in the Inactive Ready Re-

serve during his NFL career, after

which “we look forward to wel-

coming him back inside the ranks

as a naval officer.”

Van Aert claims stage,Pogacar keeps lead

MALAUCENE, France — Bel-

gian champion Wout van Aert

twice conquered the daunting and

grueling Mont Ventoux to win the

prestigious Stage 11 of the Tour de

France on Wednesday.

Van Aert was part of a break-

away that formed in the early

stages of the nearly 200-kilometer

trek in southern France featuring

an unprecedented double climb of

the iconic mountain known as the

“Giant of Provence.”

Race leader Tadej Pogacar was

one minute and 37 seconds be-

hind, according to provisional re-

sults, and kept the yellow jersey.

Gym owner offers NIL

deal for Miami playersMIAMI — A Florida business

owned by a longtime Miami foot-

ball fan has committed to a large

financial deal for Hurricanes foot-

ball players to profit from use of

their name, image and likeness.

American Top Team, a chain of

mixed martial arts gyms, is offer-

ing a $500 monthly contract to

Miami’s 90 scholarship players

for advertising the gyms on social

media — a commitment worth

$540,000 if every player signed on.

Owner Dan Lambert has also

started a marketing company

called “Bring Back the U,” de-

signed to connect local businesses

with Miami players to allow them

to take advantage of the NCAA’s

recent move to allow college ath-

letes to cash in on their fame.

JOE RONDONE/AP

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the U.S. militarywill allow Naval Academy graduate Cameron Kinley, above, to pursuea career in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Pentagon chief willallow Navy’s Kinleyto pursue NFL job

Associated Press

BRIEFLY

WIMBLEDON, England — Roger

Federer has been feted by plenty of

ovations at Centre Court. None quite

like this one, though. This was not a

celebration. It felt more like a “Thank

you” or — just in case — a “Good-

bye.”

The eight-time Wimbledon cham-

pion lost 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0 to 14th-seed-

ed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the

quarterfinals at the All England Club

on Wednesday, a surprisingly lopsid-

ed finish to Federer’s 22nd appear-

ance in the tournament.

Federer underwent two operations

on his right knee in 2020 and was

sidelined for more than 12 months in

all. He arrived at Wimbledon having

played a total of eight matches this

season.

Factor in age — Federer turns 40

on Aug. 8, so this was his last major in

his 30s — and maybe it was just too

much to ask that he make his way to

the closing weekend, even if this is a

tournament he’s won more than any

other man, and even if it’s contested

on a surface, grass, on which he’s

best.

He simply never was able to sum-

mon the serving and shot-making

that have carried him to 20 Grand

Slam titles overall, tied with Rafael

Nadal for the men’s record.

Hurkacz, a 24-year-old from Po-

land, never had made it beyond the

third round at any major; that’s when

he lost to Djokovic at Wimbledon two

years ago.

Still, Hurkacz looked quite com-

fortable on this unfamiliar stage. He

played sublimely, with three times as

many winners, 36, as unforced er-

rors, 12.

In the opening set, he didn’t face so

much as a single break point and was

guilty of just four unforced errors to

Federer’s 10.

It appeared Federer finally was be-

ginning to make some headway early

in the second set, earning a trio of

break points and nosing ahead 2-0 on

a double-fault. After his second serve

found the net, Hurkacz pointed an in-

dex finger at his temple, then shook

his head.

Federer then weathered three

break points in the next game to lead

3-0.

But Hurkacz conceded nothing.

Undaunted by the setting, the stakes,

the foe or the almost-uniformly-for-

Federer fans, Hurkacz claimed four

of the next five games to pull even at

4-all, breaking along the way with a

stinging forehand return of a 101 mph

serve that rushed Federer and drew a

backhand into the net.

In the tiebreaker — which was pre-

ceded by loud chants from the full-to-

capacity stands of “Let’s go, Roger!

Let’s go!” and rhythmic clapping — it

was more of the same: Hurkacz hit-

ting his spots and Federer stumbling.

On one foray to the net, Federer

lost his footing and, in the process of

catching his balance, missed what

could have been a simple volley.

The third set went by in a blink, and

when it ended with Federer missing a

forehand well wide, he quickly

packed his bags and hustled off to-

ward the locker room with a wave

and a thumbs-up.

Novak Djokovic and Denis Shapo-

valov also reached the semifinals

with wins Wednesday.

If Djokovic beats Shapovalov and

then goes on to claim a sixth Wimble-

don title — and third in a row — on

Sunday, that would allow the 34-

year-old from Serbia to pull even

with Federer and Nadal at 20 Slam

trophies.

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP

Switzerland’s Roger Federer, an eight­time Wimbledon champion, fell Wednesday in the tournament’squarterfinals in straight sets to Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.

Federer falls in straightsets to Hurkacz in quartersEight-time Wimbledon champion was seeded sixth, turns 40 next month

BY HOWARD FENDRICH

Associated Press Scoreboard

Wimbledon

WednesdayAt All England Lawn Tennis

and Croquet ClubLondon

Surface: GrassMen’s SinglesQuarterfinals

Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. MartonFucsovics, Hungary, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Denis Shapovalov (10), Canada, def. Ka-ren Khachanov (25), Russia, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7,6-1, 6-4.

Hubert Hurkacz (14), Poland, def. RogerFederer (6), Switzerland, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0.

Men’s DoublesQuarterfinals

Marcel Granollers, Spain, and HoracioZeballos (4), Argentina, def. Andre Go-ransson, Sweden, and Casper Ruud, Nor-way, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Simone Bolelli, Italy, and Maximo Gon-zalez, Argentina, def. Raven Klaasen,South Africa, and Ben Mclachlan (14), Ja-pan, 7-6 (0), 6-4, 6-3.

Rajeev Ram, United States, and Joe Sa-lisbury (6), Britain, def. Robert Farah andJuan Sebastian Cabal (3), Colombia, 6-3,6-4, 7-6 (2).

Women’s DoublesQuarterfinals

Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan, and Elise Mertens(3), Belgium, def. Aleksandra Krunic andNina Stojanovic, Serbia, 6-1, 6-3.

Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara (5),Japan, def. Lucie Hradecka and MarieBouzkova (16), Czech Republic, 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Storm Sanders, Australia, and CarolineDolehide, United States, def. Latisha Chanand Hao-Ching Chan (7), Taiwan, 7-5, 6-2.

Mixed DoublesThird Round

Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada, and MatePavic (2), Croatia, def. Hayley Carter, Unit-ed States, and Sander Gille (13), Belgium,6-4, 6-4.

Neal Skupski, Britain, and DesiraeKrawczyk (7), United States, def. TaraMoore and Arthur Fery, Britain, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Jeremy Chardy, France, and NaomiBroady, Britain, def. Darija Jurak, Croatia,and Raven Klaasen (10), South Africa, 6-3,7-5.

PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, July 8, 2021

SPORTSQuarterfinal casualty

Federer ousted in straight setsat Wimbledon ›› Page 23

Sprinter Richardson left off Olympic team ›› Page 20

PHOENIX — Chris Paul waited

16 years to get to the NBA Finals,

bringing with him a team starving

for its first championship.

The setting was entirely new.

The performance was same ol’

Chris Paul.

“Just knew he’s ready,” Phoe-

nix forward Mikal Bridges said.

“He’s prepared his whole life for

this moment and it shows out

there on the court.”

Paul had 32 points and nine as-

sists in an NBA Finals debut that

was well worth the wait, Devin

Booker scored 27 points and the

Suns beat the returning Giannis

Antetokounmpo and his Milwau-

kee Bucks 118-105 on Tuesday

night in Game 1.

Paul scored 16 points during a

sensational third quarter that had

Phoenix fans who waited 28 years

to see the NBA Finals again

screaming in delight.

“Every time he shoots it we

think it’s going in,” Booker said.

It almost did in the third quar-

ter, when Paul was 6-for-7 and

made all three three-pointers.

Finally playing for the title in his

16th season, the star point guard

has the Suns in the NBA Finals for

only the third time, and it sure

PHOTOS BY ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP

Suns guard Chris Paul, left, scores as Milwaukee Bucks forward P.J. Tucker looks on during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday in Phoenix. 

Suns fans pose for a photo before the game. Phoenix hadn’t made theplayoffs since 2010 and hadn’t made the NBA Finals since 1993.

Suns take Game 1Paul carries Phoenix past Milwaukee

BY BRIAN MAHONEY

Associated Press

NBA FINALS

Inside: Giannis returns, Page 22

SEE GAME 1 ON PAGE 22