Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro attend the UK premiere of 'A Complete Unknown' on the BFI Southbank cinema in London on January 14, 2025.

Jett Modkins, a special teams assistant for the Detroit Lions since 2021, interviewed with the 49ers as special teams coordinator on Sunday.

Modkins, 39, has been an assistant special teams coordinator for Detroit for the past 4 seasons. The 49ers fired special teams coordinator Brian Schneider last week after three seasons.

Coach Kyle Shanahan said moving deposed defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen to the opening special teams spot was a possibility if Sorensen was accessible. There can be the query of interviewing a minority candidate for the position, which is what Modkins is suitable for.

Shanahan said last week the plan was to call passing game coordinator Klay Kubiak offensive coordinator. The 49ers made no announcement regarding the hiring, and CBS Sports reported that under the Rooney Rule, the 49ers were required to interview two different outside candidates.

The 49ers are also in search of a defensive coordinator and have already interviewed two minority candidates: Robert Saleh, their former defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2021, and DeShea Townsend, who can be a defensive position coach with the Lions.

Modkins is the son of Minnesota assistant coach Curtis Modkins. Jett Modkins played at Glendale (Arizona) Community College and Kent State and spent the 2020 season with Denver because the Broncos' diversity coaching intern.

Originally published: January 12, 2025 at 6:07 pm PST

The African Union (AU) develop into member states select a brand new leadership of the AU Commission in February 2025.

The commission was originally conceived as a secretariat of the AU. Over the years it has develop into the driving force of the Pan-African project.

The positions of the chairman and deputy of the AU Commission in addition to many of the six AU commissioners are controversial. The position of the Chair rotates between the five African regions; Now it's East Africa's turn. There are 4 candidatesall male. North Africa will propose candidates for deputy chairman.

According to the Articles of Association of the African Union (2002)the Chair of the AU Commission is the Chief Executive Officer of the AU, its legal representative and its accounting officer.

The chairman's duties are complex. Essentially, they deal with policy coordination and harmonization between the AU, member states and the eight officially recognized regional economic communities. The term of office is 4 years and could be prolonged once.

As a long-time observer of the African Union – including as editor of African Union Yearbook (Open Access at Brill Academic Publishers) – I actually have identified six areas where the coordination and harmonization role of the longer term chair might be of utmost importance.

These are:

• Renewing Member States' commitment to the The shared values ​​of the AU

• Finalization of the policy on the division of labor between the AU and the regional economic communities

• Increase in number Common African positions on crucial global challenges

• Adopt a scientific approach to the AU's strategic partnerships with multilateral and bilateral actors

• Completion of the means of financial and institutional reform of the organization

• Promoting the event of a “civil union” – as provided for in Agenda 2063The Africa We Want, the blueprint for the longer term of the continent.

Structurally, these six areas form the core of the African Union's long-term policy development. Unless they’re systematically addressed, the pan-African agenda won’t make much progress.

Six big challenges

The shared values ​​on human rights, the rule of law and the rights of girls, youth and minorities, which the AU has agreed on up to now, are in danger.

The reasons include the democratic recession on the continent since 2006, member states' policies of denying human rights violations or the specter of violent extremism and terrorism of their countries, and the increasing variety of so-called unconstitutional changes of presidency.

The AU's existing policy on unconstitutional changes of presidency not appears to be working. There is an absence of support from member states and regional economic communities. National sovereignty is defended at almost any cost.

The coups in Mali (2021), Burkina Faso (2022) and Niger (2023) are only essentially the most recent examples by which neither the AU nor the affected regional economic community (Ecowas) have been capable of bring a couple of return to constitutional order.

Second, the division of labor between the AU and the regional economic communities have to be finalized. The vital policy documents and associated practices aren’t yet in place. And there are constant contradictions in various policy areas. This applies particularly to peace and security, but additionally to trade. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is just certainly one of many examples.

Third, the AU has developed several positions on key global challenges, including the reform of the UN Security Council and climate change. This is very important for influencing international forums similar to the United Nations and the G20 (where the AU works). became a member in September 2023).

The means of developing common African positions have to be more systematic. And the impact on AU member states must be defined more precisely.

The AU is currently developing a particularly essential position on the connection between climate change and peace and security.

Fourth, the AU Commission have to be clear concerning the criteria by which a world organization or country becomes a strategic partner and what practical implications this has. And there isn’t any mechanism to observe and evaluate strategic partnerships.

Fifth, the institutional and financial reform of the organization, which began in 2016/2017, remains to be ongoing. Progress has been made in restructuring the AU Commission, but financial reform has yet to be accomplished.

The AU has raised a further $341 million for the Peace Fund since 2017. However, it continues to depend on international partners. That was the case in the present budget assumed In Accra in July 2024, AU Member States and African institutions contribute 41.85% of estimated expenditure (mainly on salaries and maintenance) and international partners contribute 58.15% (mainly on program implementation and peacebuilding activities).

This continues to lift questions on personal responsibility, commitment and independence.

And finally, the ambition to develop into a “civil union” remains to be unfulfilled. This includes cooperation with civil society organizations, their role within the economic, social and cultural council and the possibly creative role of the Pan-African Parliament – established to make sure the total participation of Africans within the economic development and integration of the continent.

There are also issues similar to the free movement of individuals and the African passport, in addition to bridging the gap between the AU and what is occurring on the local level in member states.

African residents should experience the AU as relevant to their lives.

Complex agenda

This is a big and sophisticated agenda. There are the reason why most of the issues discussed here have been dragging on for years. And the brand new chairman of the AU Commission has only limited room for maneuver when coping with unwilling member states.

The future chairman will once more should forge a coalition of the willing and able – in relation to the member states, the regional economic communities and the AU commissioners.

Hello, that is James Mangold. I co-wrote, directed and co-produced A Complete Unknown. “Mr. Pete Seeger.” This is Gerde's Volksstadt, an early scene within the film. Joan Baez has just sung a panoramic song and Pete Seeger comes on stage, played by the sensible Edward Norton, and introduces his protégé, a really young one 19-year-old Bob Dylan, who now we have only heard singing one other time, may be seen within the film thus far and comes on stage for his debut. Timothée Chalamet in fact plays Bob Dylan and is live on this scene, as he does the entire time We're also introducing Dan Fogler, who plays Albert Grossman within the audience. He'll be a eternally presence in Bob's life. that's lots to live as much as. Monica Barbaro is Joan Baez, type of a really strong presence in the people scene and an enormous star in folk music at this point “How about this Joan Baez, guys?” It's pretty good and she or he's pretty. Sings pretty. Maybe somewhat too pretty.” I really like this moment where Timothy portrays Bob's barely cocky, inappropriate and provocative nature. “I was young when I left home. I was wandering around. And I never wrote a letter home. To my home.” This is an early song by Dylan called “I Was Young When I Left Home” which I found fitting, especially because it is so deeply autobiographical, in the sense that Dylan was young when he left home and started his life again in New York. “I brought home my wages. And I met an old friend that I knew…” It’s interesting to inform the story of that point. I felt like quite a lot of Dylan's filmography, though it's mostly documentaries, may be very handheld, very vivid and electric within the sense that he chases the actors around in a documentary style. I felt like Bob's style itself was so profound that I wanted to take a seat back and just observe and permit the ability of the music that we play live throughout the film. Let this music communicate. “It's very good, isn't it?” “Yes.” “He is my client.” Folk music is in fact essentially easy, easy, a human voice and a guitar. And due to that, I felt like we actually couldn't risk making these pieces with an excessive amount of technical intervention. I just desired to allow the actors to transition from chatting with singing and back to speaking again in a way that felt completely natural and such as you were there.

Unimaginable pain and restlessness. Vomiting so frequent and violent that it could actually result in perforation of the esophagus. Blood pressure and heart rate are so high that they damage the center. Sweat soaking through clothes and sheets. Nervous sensitivity that makes even the gentlest touch painful. A persistent panic attack that’s provoked and worsened by even on a regular basis activities and conversations.

The withdrawal symptoms of “Tranq dope” – the mix of the synthetic opioid fentanyl and the Animal tranquilizer xylazine The dominates Philadelphia's street supply of opioids – tends to much worse than those that have experienced even the heaviest heroin users of the past.

So it's no surprise that folks are doing all the things they will to get ahead of them. This includes leaving the hospital before treatment is complete.

I’m a Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine who worked as an emergency room physician in Center City and South Philadelphia for a decade. I spent most of my time leading projects to enhance look after individuals who use drugs.

Starting in 2022, our team – a bunch of emergency and addiction medicine specialists – began experimenting with latest approaches to treating narcotic withdrawal.

We were capable of reduce the likelihood of those patients leaving the hospital before completing treatment by greater than half – from 10% to almost 4%.

We also reduced the severity of their suffering and cut their withdrawal scores – or how they rate their pain and other symptoms – by greater than half.

Conventional treatments don't work

Before Tranq Dope, treating opioid withdrawal within the emergency room was relatively easy well studied, conventional Protocols.

For patients without chronic pain, health care providers began taking buprenorphine, known by the brand name Suboxone, when patients began experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

Buprenorphine works by partially, reasonably than completely, stimulating the opioid receptors within the body. This subtle difference eases withdrawal symptoms but reduces the chance of overdose if patients proceed to make use of other opioids. It is within the truest sense of the word saves lives.

However, Tranq Dope presented even greater challenges.

fentanyl and others There are dozens of synthetic opioids 100 times stronger than heroin. Xylazine, meanwhile, adds symptoms of sedative withdrawal to the combination: restlessness, adrenaline activation, and agitation.

As synthetic opioids have develop into ubiquitous in Philadelphia's drug supply over the past decade, The variety of overdose deaths in the town has tripled. These numbers are begins to sinkfor Reasons that remain unclear.

Meanwhile, Tranq users began sharing horror stories about buprenorphine. They refused the medication as a consequence of a phenomenon called “accelerated withdrawal.” Accelerated withdrawal is a condition through which taking buprenorphine paradoxically worsens withdrawal symptoms reasonably than improving them. Due to the severity of their symptoms, some patients with severe illnesses even require treatment within the intensive care unit.

In addition, when patients took buprenorphine, their withdrawal symptoms could not be effectively controlled, even at very high doses. We were adrift.

Patients demand discharge

When individuals with serious substance use disorders are admitted to the hospital, even compassionate staff sometimes lose patience.

Stretcher placement in a loud, chaotic environment, withdrawal, and prior traumatic experiences in healthcare may cause patients to develop into reactive. They may press ringtones repeatedly, use inappropriate language, make impulsive decisions, or secretly bring medication to the hospital.

This creates so much Stress for nurses and employees and distracts from the care of others.

So when patients demand to go away before treatment is accomplished, exhausted care teams are sometimes quick to offer in. Traditionally this was known as “leaving.”against medical advice“, but now it means “patient-controlled discharge.”

Patient-directed discharge is related to higher rates mortality, everlasting disability And Rehospitalization.

Rates of patient-directed discharge could be 10 to 50 times higher in individuals with opioid use disorder in comparison with the overall population.

A Cycle of mistrust It can even develop when the expectation that a patient might leave causes the care team to develop into less engaged, which in turn can result in patients becoming disengaged reasonably go.

In staff meetings, some compared the challenges of caring for these individuals to those in the course of the most difficult periods of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New approach required

Many physicians have been reluctant to think about other options for treating opioid withdrawal. I believe there are two essential reasons for this. One is the dearth of Food and Drug Administration approval for alternative treatments. The other reason is that federal regulations view addiction as a behavioral disorder reasonably than a medical condition, effectively separating most physicians from addiction treatment for these individuals.

As fentanyl and xylazine became ubiquitous in Philadelphia's street drugs, local hospitals reported astronomical rates of patient-directed discharges of those patients. This occurred despite one of the best efforts of hospital staff, who’ve extensive experience in conventional opioid withdrawal treatment.

In 2021, an editorial within the journal Annals of Internal Medicine made the case Use of short-acting opioids for some patients’ opioid withdrawal – which is already the case common practice In Canada. Short-acting opioids are medications that doctors traditionally use to treat acute pain.

Hospitals in Philadelphia began experimenting with the usage of these previously banned drugs. This included our team at Jefferson Health.

Oxycodone, hydromorphone and ketamine

By using short-acting opioids reminiscent of oxycodone or hydromorphone together with a low-dose version of buprenorphine, we’ve been capable of prevent accelerated withdrawal and treat opioid withdrawal and pain in our patients.

The low-dose bupenorphine could be increased to constant doses over time. This shows patients that the drug is protected and offers them a bridge to long-term treatment.

The short-acting opioids replace the opioids your body is desperately looking for. They reduce their pain and misery and reduce in weight when their symptoms are under control.

Patients with opioid use disorder often do all the things they will to remain out of the hospital for fear of withdrawal. The query of how one can take care of withdrawal symptoms is due to this fact often the primary priority during a hospital stay. We see this even after they have conditions that require complicated and time-sensitive treatments.

Due to the big amount of opioids that a lot of our patients eat, we also give them strong medications or “Additional therapies“to enrich the results of short-acting opioids and low-dose buprenorphine. One of those is ketamine, an anesthetic that affects nerve impulses and is increasingly getting used as a treatment depression, Post-traumatic stress disorder And Substance use disorders.

Ketamine can be an efficient painkiller that may potentiate the results of opioids Reduce the variety of doses needed.

We also add muscle relaxants – which work similarly to xylazine – together with anti-nausea medications and IV fluids to offer patients a likelihood of healing.

Side effects and future problems

The risk of significant unintended effects was minimal in patients receiving our medications. The few patients who experienced serious unintended effects had other acute medical problems which will have contributed to the unintended effects. Almost all the unintended effects we saw were mild and went away on their very own.

As strong synthetic opioids and other contaminants As an increasing number of U.S. cities develop into more prevalent, emergency rooms are having to determine how one can look after withdrawal patients in order that they don't drop out of treatment.

We hope this work will encourage others to higher serve patients affected by this complicated and serious disease.

Three sisters of their 70s found a novel technique to connect with one another and their relations – by running a half marathon in all 50 states.

In 2009, Mary Vedborg, a 48-year-old Poway resident, set out on the half-marathon mission along with her sisters Patty Armstrong of Carmel Valley in central California and Ann Penfield of Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe.

That's a hike of 13.2 miles in each state.

The first state they entered was Washington and in July they ended with Alaska.

“It was incredible,” said Vedborg, 74. “We were thrilled that we finally did it. “We at all times looked forward to the trips because, along with the walks, we just enjoyed one another's company and had a terrific time.”

And the sisters said their mother would have been really proud of their achievement.

When they were children, their mother, Martha McAvoy, regularly took them on walks through their hometown of Torrance, during a time Veborg described as President Kennedy's “era of vigor and vigor.” When she was only 10, the walks were sometimes 20 miles long, she recalled.

“When we were kids, she used to let us go for walks,” said Vedborg, a retired Poway High School library worker. “She just believed in being physically fit. Sometimes we couldn't afford to drive, so we walked. She had really long legs, so it was difficult to keep up with her.”

The sisters' lives took different directions over the years, but they always remained active. The youngest, Penfield, 72, is an avid skier and backpacker; middle child, Vedborg, keeps fit with water aerobics and yoga; and the eldest, Armstrong, 76, enjoys playing golf and tennis.

In their later years, the sisters remained in touch, but bonded over a shared tragedy when Armstrong was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 and Vedborg was diagnosed with breast cancer two years later. Both were 50 years old at the time of their diagnosis.

“Luckily we’re both strong and healthy and got through it,” Armstrong said.

Not the type to give up hope, the sisters decided after their recovery to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation on a three-day walk. The 60-mile hike was then known as the Avon Hike, the sisters said.

That gave them the confidence to attempt the Big Sur hike in 2004. Vedborg's daughter Kate McCord, now 45 and living in Poway, accompanied her on the hike when she was still early in her pregnancy.

“We thought if we could run 20 miles in one day on the Avon Walk, we could do 21 miles in 6 hours on the Big Sur Power Walk,” said Armstrong, who taught fourth graders for 25 years.

After that, the sisters regularly ran half marathons around Lake Tahoe and signed up for another Big Sur Power Walk in 2009. By a stroke of luck – or coincidence – Vedborg spotted a man wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a map of the United States on it. He told her he was trying to complete a marathon in every state.

And so the sisters came up with the idea of ​​organizing their own half marathons in each state.

“We decided, what the heck, we’ll try all 50,” said Penfield, who continues to work part-time as an accountant. “It was a good way to connect with each other, and by figuring out when to schedule the hikes on the calendar, we had the incentive to travel to all 50 states. We did a few different trips every year and probably did three or more half marathons every year.”

After McCord told their mother, “If you walk in a single state yearly, you'll be 110 years old by the tip,” the sisters decided to take it a step further and walked in four or five states every year until they Alaska reached its 50th state in July.

Since Penfield had lived in Alaska in the late 1970s and early '80s, she took her sisters through the cities of Fairbanks, Anchorage and Homer, as well as Denali National Park, where grizzly bears live.

“We researched and found cool places to visit and then set out to find the highlights of the state we were traveling in,” Penfield said.

Part of the fun was sharing adventures with their family members. Vedborg's husband, Chris Vedborg, was unable to run due to an injury, but traveled alongside them, and Penfield's late partner, Jim Delehanty, accompanied them in a dozen states. And long-lost cousins ​​reunited with them on walks in New York and Colorado.

Over the years, they collected photo albums containing photos of the scenic areas they hiked and preserved special memories.

Vedborg said while they were in upstate New York, they came across an old church that their grandparents had converted into a summer vacation home.

“A neighbor said she had a key to the house and let us in,” she said. “The house was exactly as it was 50 years ago when my grandmother sold it.”

They found that a couple living in New Jersey brought their five children into the house during the summer, and since they spent most of their time outside, they decided they didn't need to change the inside of the house at all, Vedborg said.

Armstrong said there was something interesting and different in every state they visited, and that the sisters particularly enjoyed trying each region's unique dishes, from gumbo in the South to lobster in Maine.

“We went to Acadia National Park (in Maine) for a few days,” Armstrong said. “One of our first walks was on Cape Cod and it was beautiful. We went to Boston on one trip and to Niagara Falls on another trip. Some of the places we visited were really exciting, and there were places some people never got to see.”

Their commitment to walking in all 50 states waned during the COVID pandemic, but they never thought about stopping. Penfield said they persevered even in the rain because their trips were planned through the company Mainly Marathons, which organizes hikes in regions such as the prairie states of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.

“It was always an adventure,” Armstrong remembers. “We would travel to Michigan, Illinois and Iowa together. In Michigan we drove through a pretty Dutch town with windmills called Niles, where the Dutch settled. Then we drove to Illinois and Iowa, where we walked on both sides of the Mississippi.

“Between the two walks, we took a boat trip on the Mississippi,” she said. “Wherever we went, we found fun things to do or visited historical places. There was always something entertaining. It was fun.”

Vedborg said it was great to have a typical goal and shared experiences.

“It was fun to be together and explore the realm,” Vedborg said. “My two sisters travel more than I do, so it was a real pleasure for me.”

Now that they’ve accomplished the hikes in all 50 states, they’ve a brand new goal.

“We want to visit all the national parks, about 63,” Vedborg said. “We’ve been to at least 20 of them.”

Your next stop: Montana's Glacier National Park in fall 2025.

Originally published: September 27, 2024 at 5:21 am

US-backed forces in eastern Syria launched a serious attack on three posts manned by pro-government gunmen and killed at the least 18 fighters in a rare provocation near the border with Iraq.

The attack marked the heaviest clashes in eastern Syria in almost a yrBeginning of August Eight US soldiers stationed in Syria were injured in a drone attack suspected of being carried out by Iran-backed militants.

These incidents underscore a undeniable fact that is commonly forgotten: the United States remains to be energetic in Syria. The Deir ez-Zor Military Council, which is behind the August 12 attack, is an element of the Syrian Democratic Forces – a Kurdish-led coalition that could be a key US partner in Syria. The group and its local allies control a big a part of the territory which were once controlled by the terrorist group Islamic State.

And as of early 2024, the US still had nearly 1,000 military personnel stationed in eastern Syria. Recent reports suggest that, given the growing tensions within the region, additional resources and soldiers have made their way into the country torn by civil war.

The US troops in Syria serve several purposes: Help in stopping the resurgence of the terrorist militia “Islamic State”supporting Washington’s Kurdish allies and curbing the influence of Iran and Russia – each also have a military presence in Syria.

But the prices and risks related to this indefinite U.S. deployment could possibly be significant. A continued presence risks keeping America entangled in a protracted and dear conflict for ever and ever, and will alienate NATO ally Turkey, which views Kurdish groups in Syria as a cross-border threat.

As an authority for Security within the Middle EastI deal with the evolving geopolitical landscape and argue that the United States must fastidiously balance its engagement in Syria against the broader goals of regional stability and its relationships with allies and adversaries alike. Ultimately, whether the United States decides to remain or withdrawThe decision may have profound implications for Syria and for regional and global actors involved within the country's ongoing civil war.

Growing US commitment

The US involvement within the Syrian civil war is a fancy matter. Shortly after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 imposed sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supported opposition factions.

However, the administration has been largely undecided about when, how and to what extent to act against the Assad regime, reflecting partially the American public's growing war-weariness after a decade of engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington initially had difficulties finding reliable partners on site in Syria.

When popular protests escalated right into a full-scale military conflict in 2012, President Barack Obama declared that using Chemical weapons can be a “red line” for the USA The following yr The Syrian military has done just that: Chemical weapons were utilized in an attack on the rebel-held region of Ghouta, killing an estimated 1,500 civilians, including over 400 children.

But the Obama administration hesitated to involve the USA militarily into the conflict due to fears of escalation attributable to increasing Russian and Iranian support for the regime.

The US military operation in Syria began in September 2014, when a US-led coalition including Britain, France, Jordan, Turkey, Canada, Australia and others launched an air strike against the terrorist militia “Islamic State” and the equally radical Al-Nusra Front in Syria.

Following the airstrikes, US troops entered northeastern Syria to support a Syrian Kurdish force called the People's Protection Units (YPG) and later the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella organization made up mostly of Kurds and other ethnic and rebel groups.

The United States didn’t take direct military motion against the Assad regime until April 2017, when the Trump administration launched a missile attack at Shayrat Air Base in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack within the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province.

In December 2018, President Donald Trump said ordered the retreat of the two,000 to 2,500 US ground troops in Syria, because he believed that the coalition's operations against the terrorist militia “Islamic State” had been largely successful and that the US presence in eastern Syria was unnecessary.

But as an alternative of an entire withdrawal, the US announced an emergency force would stay indefinitely.

Military presence today

From 2024, around 900 US soldiers and an undisclosed variety of contractors deployed in Syriabased on the Defense Department. Most U.S. forces are stationed in northeastern Syria to support the Syrian Democratic Forces. Some support the Free Syrian Army within the al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, along a transit route between Iraq and Syria utilized by each Islamic State fighters and Iran-backed militias.

But US military support for Kurdish groups in Syria has angered NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is assessed as a terrorist organization.

The Trump administration prioritizes Turkey’s security concerns ordered all US forces to withdraw from Rojava in early October 2019 against a Turkish invasion of the region. But this step also damaged the US alliance with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

To appease their Kurdish allies, relocated to Eastern Syriaand are increasing their presence within the governorates of al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor – two regions of Syria controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces which might be wealthy in oil and gas.

What an American withdrawal could mean

The US military presence currently serves three purposes.

First, their presence in northeastern Syria acts as a deterrent to military incursions by the Syrian regime or Turkey into the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Should US troops withdraw, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which act because the AANES's de facto military, would need to negotiate the region's autonomy with Turkey and the Syrian regime, each of which have made their opposition to Kurdish autonomy very clear.

Recent attempts at rapprochement between Turkey and Syria have also fuelled Kurdish fears that an entire US withdrawal would shift the balance of power in divided Syria to their drawback and endanger their survival.

Second, the US presence in southeastern Syria puts pressure on neighboring Iran, whose influence the US desires to limit within the region. The US presence also serves as a counterweight to Russian influence and ambitions in Syria and the Middle East. In particular, Russian air strikes in 2015 The attacks on opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo and the bombing of hospitals were crucial in helping Assad regain territory and stay in power.

Third: The United States and its local partners According to reports, around 5,000 Islamic State fighters and 50,000 indoctrinated members of the family. If these prisoners were released by any authority, the group could possibly be re-established and grow. The US underscores the threat by working with the Syrian Democratic Forces foiled a serious prison break by fighters of the terrorist group Islamic State in early 2022.

Nevertheless, a continued US presence in Syria is just not certain. In 2023, Republicans within the House of Representatives tried to force the Biden administration to withdraw the remaining troops. They failed. But Trump, who’s the Republican presidential candidate again in 2024, has made it clear that he no role for the USA in “endless wars.”

In the meantime, a US troop withdrawal, no matter the results, is a priority. The Biden administration withdrew all American troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and is formally transitioning to an advisory role in Iraq.

But for now, the U.S. military presence in Syria stays, emblematic of the larger challenges facing American foreign policy within the Middle East. The decision to remain or withdraw is a strategic one that can reverberate throughout the region.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is counting on a big sum of cash from the federal government to assist complete the $12.75 billion BART extension in San Jose. But if those dollars don't are available, the transit agency doesn't appear to have a backup plan.

For greater than twenty years, transportation officials have planned to construct a rail ring across the Bay Area. In 2020, BART reached its southernmost point, opening stations in Milpitas and the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose. But now VTA, the agency tasked with expanding BART, has set its sights on the ultimate stage: a six-mile, four-station extension through downtown San Jose to Santa Clara.

The megaproject's costs have exploded over the past decade, rising from $4.4 billion to greater than $12 billion estimated earlier this 12 months. The project has also faced repeated delays, from a gap date of 2026 to 2037.

VTA has already committed funds from state and native sources that may cover just over half of the project cost. But this 12 months the agency will submit a grant application to the Federal Transit Administration asking it to fund the remaining 49.4%, or $6.297 billion.

But what if the VTA doesn't get the cash it needs for the BART extension? General Manager Carolyn Gonot told the Mercury News this week that they will not be engaging in contingency planning right now because their “top priority” is to work with the FTA on a financing plan.

“We understand that we may need to do that, but right now that's not our focus,” she said of making an emergency plan.

It is feasible that the FTA won’t allocate the $6.297 billion for the project, Gonot admits, because other megaprojects received less money than requested, “because (the agency) wants to make sure that they are using what is available to them from the infrastructure program.” can finance as many projects as possible.”

Suds Jain, a Santa Clara city councilor and member of the VTA board, believes that “it's entirely possible that the government won't even give us 45%.” If that happens, he feels that “the staff hasn't given us any real options in case of an emergency,” equivalent to closing considered one of the 4 stations.

“This BART project is eating up all the transit money,” Jain said, pointing to 2 major VTA funding sources getting used to construct the project.

Just last week, the FTA pledged $3.4 billion for the Transbay Downtown Rail Extension Project, which is able to extend Caltrain from Fourth and King Street Station to the Salesforce Transit Center in downtown San Francisco. Project planners had also asked the federal government to cover 49.4 percent, or $4.077 billion, of the fee – but ultimately they only received 41 percent of what they asked for.

“I don't know if we can get to 41%,” Gonot said when asked about Transbay funding. “We're working with the Federal Transit Administration to see what we might be able to get to, but I'm not thinking about 41%.”

Gonot was unable to say what the minimum amount required by the FTA would need to be to make sure the viability of the project. He said the federal government was still within the “review phase of our financial plan.”

Gonot's comments come several weeks after San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan pressed VTA officials at a recent committee meeting about whether or not they were “planning and preparing scenarios so we can quickly adapt” if full funding doesn’t flow.

Mahan told The Mercury News that VTA officials “need to do a financial analysis to understand from a contingency planning perspective where the money is going to come from to fill the gap and at what point, if the VTA is unable to fill that gap, we need to talk about the overall design of the system.”

“I just want to make sure that when we get the numbers from the federal government, we are either in a position to move forward with the current blueprint immediately, or we have a selection of alternatives that are ready to go and we don't need another six months of analysis to get to that point,” he said.

While Gonot was unable to comment on various projections, VTA CFO Greg Richardson said on the May 9 meeting that they “had the group come up with different scenarios with different percentages, the impacts, the This would have an impact on the financing element, and the impact it would have on the project cost if it reached a certain level.”

Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County councilwoman and chairwoman of the VTA board, said one of the reasons for the extension's high cost is because the federal government asked her to increase the estimated cost after its own assessment of the project. Tom Maguire, VTA's megaproject delivery chief, said at a board meeting in April that the agency had $2.7 billion in emergency funding.

“That means we're almost actually going to have the option to remain inside that budget. That's why I suggest we actually encourage the federal government to take a position,” Chavez said.

The agency recently increased the amount of money it receives from 2000's Measure A – a 30-year, half-cent sales tax on a range of capital improvement projects and operations – and 2016's Measure B, another 30-year sales tax. annual sales tax of half a cent would be used to improve local transport, motorways and expressways. VTA officials have said they would likely dip further into Measure A coffers if necessary because Measure B funding has already been exhausted.

Gonot could not say which projects funded by Measure A would be affected by this case.

Jain isn't the only board member raising alarm about the VTA's lack of an emergency plan. San Jose City Councilwoman Dev Davis said she “has not yet seen enough detail to be sure that we have adequate emergency plans in place.”

The councilor said that while she believes the board should have seen these details already, she is not blaming Maguire, but rather placing the blame on the previous project management.

“I feel it's appropriate for the general public to be concerned concerning the status of such a big project and the transparency of the project,” Davis said. “The board and management at the moment are united and pushing in the identical direction to enhance transparency and be sure that now we have not only an appropriate level of control on this project, but an appropriate level of control. Going forward, the general public can expect far more than they’ve received from previous project leaders on these fronts.”