United News of Bangladesh

Early on in “Top Gun: Maverick,” Tom Cruise hops on his sleek motorcycle, wearing Aviator sunglasses and a leather jacket with patches, and speeds into a time machine. No, that’s not right. It’s actually us who take a trip back. More than 30 years after Cruise smirked his way to the cocky heights of the ’80s as the maverick Navy pilot codenamed Maverick, he effortlessly picks up the character in a new chapter of “Top Gun” that is an absolutely, thoroughly enjoyable ride — a textbook example of how to make a sequel. “Top Gun: Maverick” satisfies with one foot in the past by hitting all the touchstones of the first film — fast motorcycles, the song “Danger Zone,” military fetishisms, humorless Navy bosses, shirtless bonding sports, “the hard deck,” bar singalongs and buzzing the tower — and yet stands on its own. It’s not weighed down by its past like the last “Ghostbusters” sequel, but rather soars by using the second to answer and echo issues with the first. Cruise is, of course, back, reprising his rebel test pilot now based in a forgotten corner of the Mojave Desert, a mere captain when he should be a general because he keeps bucking authority. The years have not calmed Maverick from his impulsive, hot-headed style. Pilots do, he argues; they don’t ruminate. “You think up there, you’re dead,” he states. This is Cruise at his most Cruise-iest, coiled, sure and arrogant, teeth gleaming in the sunshine. His once-rival Iceman — Val Kilmer — is back, too, a huge Navy muckety-muck now. And even Goose is back, by way of his son, the similarly mustachioed Miles Teller, who is strikingly similar looking to Anthony Edwards, the actor who played the doomed wingman in the first film. That death looms large for Maverick even 30 years on: “Talk to me, Goose,” he’ll whisper to himself. Some things have changed, of course. The F-14A Tomcats have been replaced by the F/A-18 and the all-male cocky pilots of the first film have been infiltrated by a few cocky women. Unfortunately, it seems these are the last days of envelope-pushing men and women in naval aviation; pilotless aircraft are more reliable and they’re next. “The future is coming and you’re not in it,” Maverick is told by an imperious officer played with delicious calm fury by Jon Hamm. But Maverick, on the edge of extinction, has one last job for the Navy: Train a group of young hotshots for a dangerous bombing mission in Iran. One potential snag: The young hotshots he must train include Goose’s son, codename Rooster. Will Maverick be responsible for cooking another Goose? Also Read: Tom Cruise surprises Comic-Con with 'Top Gun' sequel trailer Director Joseph Kosinski brings a visceral feel to the film, somehow making us feel claustrophobic in the wide open sky as pilots swoop and swerve. He wonderfully alternates between loud scenes outside with airplane engines roaring and quiet ones indoors of people almost whispering. He also switches from brilliant sun to dark interiors. One welcome touch in the screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie is a new love interest for Maverick. Jennifer Connelly plays a divorced bar owner who has both a townhouse, a beach house, a sailboat and a Porsche, so business is good. But she’s also not a push-over for on-again-off-again Maverick and, in a key scene, she’s the comfortable pilot of a boat and he’s the clueless one. This is a more thoughtful Maverick, more gloomy. “Top Gun: Maverick” is in some ways a meditation on what happens to gifted rebels later in life. He is riven by guilt and in one scene he is picked up and unceremoniously tossed out of a bar by the very same hotshots that he was 30 years ago. Worst, he’s called “pops.” What is remarkable is that Cruise looks to have indeed found a way to thwart time. His chiseled body and still-boyish face are indistinguishable from the pilots three decades his junior during a football game on the beach. The film handles Maverick’s personal stuff — wooing the barmaid, repairing his relationship with Goose’s kid — while also fulfilling its promise as an action movie. There are jets pulling 10Gs, the metal sound of cockpit sticks pulled in gear, epic dogfights and the whine of machinery balking at the demands put on it. The action even takes a few unexpected and thrilling turns. So jump on Maverick’s bike, hug him tight and join him on the highway to the danger zone. “Top Gun: Maverick,” a Paramount Pictures release that hits theaters May 27, is rated PG-13 for “sequences of intense action and some strong language.” Running time: 131 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.    

President Joe Biden will appeal for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19 as he convenes the second global COVID-19 summit at a time when faltering resolve at home jeopardizes that global response. Eight months after he used the first such summit to announce an ambitious pledge to donate 1.2 billion vaccine doses to the world, the urgency of the U.S. and other nations to respond has waned. Momentum on vaccinations and treatments has faded even as new, more infectious variants rise and billions across the globe remain unprotected. Congress has refused to meet Biden’s request to provide another $22.5 billion in what he has called critically needed aid funding. The White House said Biden will address the opening of the virtual summit Thursday morning with prerecorded remarks and will make the case that addressing COVID-19 “must remain an international priority.” The U.S. is co-hosting the summit along with Germany, Indonesia, Senegal and Belize. The U.S. has shipped nearly 540 million vaccine doses to more than 110 countries and territories, according to the State Department — by far more than any other donor nation. Also read: Biden, Mexican president confer on migration, diplomacy After the delivery of more than 1 billion vaccines to the developing world, the problem is no longer that there aren’t enough shots, but a lack of logistical support to get doses into arms. According to government data, more than 680 million donated vaccine doses have been left unused in developing countries because they were set to expire soon and couldn’t be administered quickly enough. As of March, 32 poorer countries had used fewer than half of the COVID-19 vaccines they were sent. U.S. assistance to promote and facilitate vaccinations overseas dried up earlier this year, and Biden has requested about $5 billion for the effort through the rest of the year. “We have tens of millions of unclaimed doses because countries lack the resources to build out their cold chains, which basically is the refrigeration systems; to fight disinformation; and to hire vaccinators,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week. She added that the summit is “going to be an opportunity to elevate the fact that we need additional funding to continue to be a part of this effort around the world.” “We’re going to continue to fight for more funding here,” Psaki said. “But we will continue to press other countries to do more to help the world make progress as well.” Congress has balked at the price tag for COVID-19 relief and has thus far refused to take up the package because of political opposition to the impending end of pandemic-era migration restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border. Even after a consensus for virus funding briefly emerged in March, lawmakers decided to strip out the global aid funding and solely focus the assistance on shoring up U.S. supplies of vaccine booster shots and therapeutics. Biden has warned that without Congress acting, the U.S. could lose out on access to the next generation of vaccines and treatments, and that the nation won't have enough supply of booster doses or the antiviral drug Paxlovid for later this year. He's also sounding the alarm that more variants will spring up if the U.S. and the world don't do more to contain the virus globally. “To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,” Biden said last September during the first global summit. The virus has killed more than 995,000 people in the U.S. and at least 6.2 million globally, according to figures kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Also read: Biden sees bigger role for US farms due to Ukraine war Demand for COVID-19 vaccines has dropped in some countries as infections and deaths have declined globally in recent months, particularly as the omicron variant has proved to be less severe than earlier versions of the disease. For the first time since it was created, the U.N.-backed COVAX effort has “enough supply to enable countries to meet their national vaccination targets,” according to vaccines alliance Gavi CEO Dr. Seth Berkley, which fronts COVAX. Still, despite more than 65% of the world’s population receiving at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, fewer than 16% of people in poor countries have been immunized. It is highly unlikely countries will hit the World Health Organization target of vaccinating 70% of all people by June. In countries including Cameroon, Uganda and the Ivory Coast, officials have struggled to get enough refrigerators to transport vaccines, send enough syringes for mass campaigns and get enough health workers to inject the shots. Experts also point out that more than half of the health workers needed to administer the vaccines in poorer countries are either underpaid or not paid at all. Donating more vaccines, critics say, would miss the point entirely. “It’s like donating a bunch of fire trucks to countries that are on fire, but they have no water,” said Ritu Sharma, a vice president at the charity CARE, which has helped immunize people in more than 30 countries, including India, South Sudan and Bangladesh. “We can’t be giving countries all these vaccines but no way to use them,” she said, adding that the same infrastructure that got the shots administered in the U.S. is now needed elsewhere. “We had to tackle this problem in the U.S., so why are we not now using that knowledge to get vaccines into the people who need them most?” Sharma said greater investment was needed to counter vaccine hesitancy in developing countries where there are entrenched beliefs about the potential dangers of Western-made medicines. “Leaders must agree to pursue a coherent strategy to end the pandemic instead of a fragmented approach that will extend the lifespan of this crisis,” said Gayle Smith, CEO of The ONE Campaign. GAVI’s Berkley also said that countries are increasingly asking for the pricier messenger RNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which are not as easily available as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which made up the bulk of COVAX’s supply last year. The emergence of variants like delta and omicron have led many countries to switch to mRNA vaccines, which seem to provide more protection and are in greater demand globally than traditionally made vaccines like AstraZeneca, Novavax or those made by China and Russia.

Inflation slowed in April after seven months of relentless gains, a tentative sign that price increases may be peaking while still imposing a financial strain on American households. Consumer prices jumped 8.3% last month from a year ago, the government said Wednesday. That was below the 8.5% year-over-year surge in March, which was the highest since 1981. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.3% from March to April, the smallest increase in eight months. Still, Wednesday’s report contained some cautionary signs that inflation may be becoming more entrenched. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices jumped twice as much from March to April as they did the previous month. The increases were fueled by spiking prices for airline tickets, hotel rooms and new cars. Apartment rental costs also kept rising. Those price jumps “make clear that there is still a long way to go before inflation returns to more acceptable levels,” said Eric Winograd, U.S. economist at asset manager AB. Even if it moderates, inflation will likely remain high well into 2023, economists say, leaving many Americans burdened by price increases that have outpaced pay raises. Especially hurt are lower-income and Black and Hispanic families, who are disproportionately squeezed by costlier food, gas and rent. For now, a fallback in gas prices in April helped slow overall inflation. Nationally, average prices for a gallon of gas fell to as low as $4.10 in April, according to AAA, after spiking to $4.32 in March. But since then, gas prices have surged to a record $4.40 a gallon. Grocery prices are still spiking, in part because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has heightened the cost of wheat and other grains. Food prices rose 1% from March to April and nearly 11% from a year ago. That year-over-year increase is the biggest since 1980. Turmoil overseas could accelerate inflation in the coming months. If the European Union, for example, decides to bar imports of Russian oil, world oil prices could rise. So could U.S. gas prices. And China’s COVID lockdowns could worsen supply chain snarls. In April, airfares soared a record 18.6%, the largest monthly increase since record-keeping began in 1963. Hotel prices jumped 1.7% from March to April. Southwest Airlines said last month that it is expecting much higher revenue and profits this year as Americans flood the airports after postponing travel for two years. The company said its average fare soared 32% in the first three months of the year from the same period last year to $159. There are signs that supply chains are improving for some goods. Wednesday’s report showed prices for appliances and clothing both fell 0.8%, while the cost of used cars dropped 0.4%, the third straight decline. Used cars and other goods drove much of the initial inflation spike last year as Americans stepped up spending after vaccines became widespread. Also Read: Biden sees bigger role for US farms due to Ukraine war The escalation of consumer inflation has forced many Americans, particularly people with lower or fixed incomes, to reduce their spending on things like driving and grocery shopping. Among them is Patty Blackmon, who said she’s been driving to fewer of her grandchildren’s sports events since gas spiked to $5.89 in Las Vegas, where she lives. To save money, Blackmon, 68, also hasn’t visited her hairdresser in 18 months. And she’s reconsidering her plan to drive this summer to visit relatives in Arkansas. She was shocked recently, she said, to see a half-gallon of organic milk reach $6. “Holy cow!” she thought. “How do parents give their kids milk?” Blackmon has cut back on meat, and “a steak is almost out of the question,” she said. Instead, she is eating more salads and canned soups.    

President Joe Biden wants to put a spotlight on the spike in food prices from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when he travels to an Illinois farm to emphasize how U.S. agricultural exports can relieve the financial pressures being felt worldwide. The war in Ukraine has disrupted the supply of that country’s wheat to global markets, while also triggering higher costs for oil, natural gas and fertilizer. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its food price index in April jumped nearly 30% from a year ago, though the index did decline slightly on a monthly basis. Americans are also bearing some pain as food prices are up 8.8% from a year ago, the most since May 1981. The trip to Illinois on Wednesday is an opportunity for Biden to tackle two distinct challenges that are shaping his presidency. First, his approval has been dogged by high inflation and his visit will coincide with the release of the May consumer price index, which economists say should show a declining rate of inflation for the first time since August. Read: Trump-backed US Rep. Alex Mooney wins W.Va. GOP primary But much more broadly, it’s an opportunity to reinforce America’s distinct role in helping to alleviate the challenges caused by the war in Ukraine. The trip follows a similar pattern as Biden’s recent visit to an Alabama weapons factory highlighted the anti-tank Javelin missiles provided by the U.S. to Ukraine. “He’s going to talk about the support we need to continue to give to farmers to help continue to produce more and more domestically,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. “Just as we are providing weapons, we are going to work on doing what we can to support farmers to provide more wheat and other food around the world.” The president noted in remarks Tuesday about inflation that Ukraine has 20 million metric tons of wheat and corn in storage that the U.S. and its allies are trying to help ship out of the country. This would help to address some supply issues, though challenges could persist. Several House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with Biden on Tuesday after having visited Ukraine. They warned that the food shortage meant the consequences of the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin would extend well beyond Ukrainian borders to some of the world’s poorest nations. Read: Biden, Mexican president confer on migration, diplomacy “It’s going to result in a hunger crisis, much worse than anybody anticipated,” Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern following the White House meeting. An analysis this month for the center-right American Enterprise Institute by Joseph Glauber and David Laborde noted that countries in the Middle East and North Africa are mostly likely to suffer from the higher prices caused by grain shortages. There are limits to how much wheat the U.S. can produce to offset any shortages. The Agriculture Departmen t estimated in March that 47.4 million acres of wheat were planted this year, an increase of just 1% from 2021. This would be the fifth lowest amount of acres dedicated to wheat in records that go back to 1919. Biden will be traveling with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to Illinois. After the president speaks at the farm, he will go to Chicago to speak at a convention for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

In an early victory for a Donald Trump-endorsed candidate at the start of midterm season, Rep. Alex Mooney on Tuesday beat fellow incumbent Rep. David McKinley in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District Republican primary. “Donald Trump loves West Virginia, and West Virginia loves Donald Trump,” Mooney said in his victory speech. McKinley was sharply criticized by the former president when he broke with his party as one of 13 Republicans to vote with the Democrats to support President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Trump called McKinley a RINO, or “Republican in Name Only” and endorsed Mooney the day Biden signed the infrastructure law. The two incumbents, who have taken dramatically different approaches to their time in office, were pitted against each other in the state’s 2nd Congressional District after population losses cost West Virginia a U.S. House seat. McKinley, who has represented the state in the House since 2011, said in a statement Tuesday night that serving the people of West Virginia had been the honor of his life — and made a subtle reference to the infrastructure vote. “I’m proud that I have always stood up for what’s right for West Virginia — even when it hurt me politically,” he said. “The groundwork we have laid over the last twelve years has paved the way for a more prosperous and diverse West Virginia economy.” Mooney, who has served in West Virginia’s House delegation since 2015, gave his victory speech surrounded by supporters at a hotel watch party in Charles Town in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, where he lives. McKinley was watching the results come in at home with his family. West Virginia’s election was the first of five primaries in which two incumbent U.S. House members will compete against each other. It will be followed by similar contests in Georgia and Michigan and in two Illinois districts. The race was one of the most-watched of the day. In Nebraska, another Trump-backed candidate, Charles Herbster, was in a crowded field of GOP contenders for governor. The contests came on the heels of a victory by Trump-endorsed conservative JD Vance, author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” who defeated six other candidates to win the Ohio Republican primary for U.S. Senate last week. Read: Pulitzer Prizes award Washington Post for Jan. 6 coverage Earlier Tuesday night, Trump-endorsed incumbent U.S. Rep. Carol Miller breezed to the Republican nomination in West Virginia’s 1st District, defeating four little-known candidates and setting herself on a clear path to reelection. Miller will vie for her third term in the House in the fall against Democrat Lacy Watson, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Watson, of Bluefield, lost in the 2020 Democratic primary in the former 3rd District. In Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, in the Omaha area, three-term Republican Rep. Don Bacon won the primary over long-shot candidate Steve Kuehl, an Omaha consultant who got a shoutout from Trump when the former president visited earlier this month. Trump blasted Bacon as a “bad guy” during a recent rally in the state and had criticized him previously for his support of a federal infrastructure bill that most GOP lawmakers opposed. Bacon also has been mildly critical of Trump in the past, saying the former president bore some responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Read: Brazil's ex-president Lula launches presidential campaign Trump stopped far short of officially endorsing Kuehl, however, saying: “I think Steve will do well. Good luck, Steve, whoever the hell you are.” Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, won in the state’s 1st Congressional District over five other Republican candidates. Flood wants to fill the seat abandoned by Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican who resigned from office and ended his reelection bid after he was convicted of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign contribution. Fortenberry’s name still appeared on the ballot for the 1st Congressional District because he withdrew after a deadline to certify the ballot. In the rural, geographically vast 3rd Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith easily won his party’s nomination. Two Democrats were vying for their party’s nomination within the district, which is overwhelmingly Republican. In West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, McKinley’s decision to support the infrastructure bill was on voters’ minds. Susan Smith, a small-business owner in Valley Grove, voted for Mooney at a local elementary school Tuesday morning. She lives in McKinley’s former district and said she always voted for him in the past. But not in this election. “When Mr. McKinley started voting with the Democrats and the current administration, that’s when things changed,” said Smith, who cited McKinley’s vote for Biden’s infrastructure bill and the Jan. 6 commission. “I’m sorry to be losing a congressman, but we cannot have a Republican congressman voting with the Democrats. West Virginia did not need the money from this un-infrastructure bill.” In the general election, Mooney will face openly gay former Morgantown city councilor Barry Wendell, who bested security operations manager Angela Dwyer during Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Mooney enters the general election as a heavy favorite to win. West Virginia hasn’t elected a Democrat to the House since 2008.

The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize in public service journalism Monday for its coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an attack on democracy that was a shocking start to a tumultuous year that also saw the end of the United States’ longest war, in Afghanistan. The Post’s extensive reporting, published in a sophisticated interactive series, found numerous problems and failures in political systems and security before, during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in the newspaper’s own backyard. The “compellingly told and vividly presented account" gave the public “a thorough and unflinching understanding of one of the nation’s darkest days," said Marjorie Miller, administrator of the prizes, in announcing the award. Five Getty Images photographers were awarded one of the two prizes in breaking news photography for their coverage of the riot. The other prize awarded in breaking news photography went to Los Angeles Times correspondent and photographer Marcus Yam, for work related to the fall of Kabul. The U.S. pullout and resurrection of the Taliban’s grip on Afghanistan permeated across categories, with The New York Times winning in the international reporting category for reporting challenging official accounts of civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Also read: Slain photographer in Afghanistan among Pulitzer winners The Pulitzer Prizes, administered by Columbia University and considered the most prestigious in American journalism, recognize work in 15 journalism categories and seven arts categories. This year’s awards, which were livestreamed, honored work produced in 2021. The winner of the public service award receives a gold medal, while winners of each of the other categories get $15,000. The intersection of health, safety and infrastructure played a prominent role among the winning projects. The Tampa Bay Times won the investigative reporting award for “Poisoned,” its in-depth look into a polluting lead factory. The Miami Herald took the breaking news award for its work covering the deadly Surfside condo tower collapse, while The Better Government Association and the Chicago Tribune won the local reporting award for “Deadly Fires, Broken Promises,” the watchdog and newspaper’s examination of a lack of enforcement of fire safety standards. “As a newsroom, we poured our hearts into the breaking news and the ongoing daily coverage, and subsequent investigative coverage, of the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse story,” The Miami Herald's executive editor, Monica Richardson, wrote in a statement. “It was our story to tell because the people and the families in Surfside who were impacted by this unthinkable tragedy are a part of our community.” Elsewhere in Florida, Tampa Bay Times' editor and vice president Mark Katches mirrored that sentiment, calling his newspaper's win “a testament to the importance of a vital local newsroom like the Times.” Also read: Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist killed in Afghanistan The prize for explanatory reporting went to Quanta Magazine, with the board highlighting the work of Natalie Wolchover, for a long-form piece about the James Webb space telescope, a $10 billion engineering effort to gain a better understanding about the origins of the universe. The New York Times also won in the national reporting category, for a project looking at police traffic stops that ended in fatalities, and Salamishah Tillet, a contributing critic-at-large at the Times, won the criticism award. A story that used graphics in comic form to tell the story of Zumrat Dawut, a Uyghur woman who said she was persecuted and detained by the Chinese government as part of systemic abuses against her community, brought the illustrated reporting and commentary prize to Fahmida Azim, Anthony Del Col, Josh Adams and Walt Hickey of Insider. Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic won the award for feature writing, for a piece marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks through a family's grief. Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star won for commentary, for columns about a retired police detective accused of sexual abuse and those who said they were assaulted calling for justice. The editorial writing prize went to Lisa Falkenberg, Michael Lindenberger, Joe Holley and Luis Carrasco of the Houston Chronicle, for pieces that called for voting reforms and exposed voter suppression tactics. The staffs of Futuro Media and PRX took the audio reporting prize for the profile of a man who had been in prison for 30 years and was re-entering the outside world. The prize for feature photography went to Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and Danish Siddiqui of Reuters for photos of the COVID-19 toll in India. Siddiqui, 38, who won a 2018 Pulitzer in the same category, was killed in Afghanistan in July while documenting fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban. The Pulitzer Prizes also awarded a special citation to journalists of Ukraine, acknowledging their “courage, endurance and commitment” in covering the ongoing Russian invasion that began earlier this year. Last August, the Pulitzer board granted a special citation to Afghan journalists who risked their safety to help produce news stories and images from their own war-torn country.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched Saturday his campaign for the presidency alongside his proposed vice president, former Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin. Lula announced his candidacy and unveiled the seven-party alliance Let's Go Together for Brazil Movement to a crowd of about 4,000 people here. READ: At least 8 dead after heavy rains in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro "It is more than urgent to restore the sovereignty of Brazil," he said during his speech at the rally, adding that if he wins the elections scheduled for Oct. 2, he will work "again on the mission to combat hunger."

"The exploitation of Black women continues," according to an article recently published on the website of the U.S. newspaper The Washington Post. The writer, Eddie Neal, noted in a letter to the newspaper's editors that "the spectrum of African American skin color results from the rape of Black women during and following the slave era." "As an amateur genealogist tracking my Black ancestors in North Carolina, I find instances in which females were selectively groomed by enslavers as children and then gave birth to multiple offspring by these men before they reached adulthood," Neal wrote, adding that "enslavers often fathered children when they were fathering children in their marriages." READ: Exploitation of desperate workers should never be ‘new normal’: UN expert "My research shows that the practice of rape of Black women by White men who wielded legal and economic control of their lives continued into the mid-20th century" and "mothers of mixed-race children played a pivotal and heroic role in documenting fatherhood by informing their children who their fathers were and entering the names of biological fathers on official documents, especially birth, marriage and death certificates," the writer pointed out. "Genetic analysis using DNA samples provides a quantitative method of tracking fatherhood to the actual father or close relatives," wrote the writer, adding that "data sharing between Black and White descendants of enslavers and their researchers can facilitate the process.

With the worst of the thick wildfire smoke having blown out of town, residents of this small northern New Mexico city tried to recapture a sense of normalcy Saturday as their rural neighbors hunkered down amid predictions of extreme fire conditions. Shops and restaurants reopened, the historic center was no longer just populated by firefighters, but there was a widely felt sense of anxiety, loss, and wariness of what lay ahead. “It’s literally like living under a dark cloud," said Liz Birmingham, whose daughter had persistent headaches from the smoke. "It’s unnerving.” While the city for now seemed spared of danger, rural areas were still threatened as the fire was driven by winds so fierce all firefighting aircraft had to be grounded. And the worst could be yet to come. A combination of strong winds, high temperatures and low humidity were forecast by the National Weather Service to create an "exceptionally dangerous and likely historic stretch of critical to extreme fire weather conditions" for several days. Some 1,400 firefighters worked feverishly to contain the largest fire burning in the U.S. The blaze, now more than a month old, has blackened more than 269 square miles (696 square kilometers) — an area larger than the city of Chicago. Part of the fire was started by Forest Service workers who lost control of a prescribed burn meant to reduce fire risk. State leaders have called on the federal government for accountability, including reparations. READ: President declares disaster in New Mexico wildfire zone Nationwide, close to 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) have burned so far this year, with 2018 being the last time this much fire had been reported at this point, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. And predictions for the rest of the spring do not bode well for the West, where long-term drought and warmer temperatures brought on by climate change have combined to worsen the threat of wildfire. Thousands of residents have evacuated due to flames that have charred large swaths of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northeastern New Mexico. The fire’s main threat was now to the north, where flames burning vegetation clogging the forest floor threatened several small rural communities, fire spokesman Ryan Berlin said. Firefighters, who typically rely on calmer winders and lower temperatures to make progress in the evening, have been hindered by unexpectedly strong winds at night. The threat to Las Vegas, a city of 13,000, was reduced after vegetation was cleared to create containment lines. Local officials on Saturday allowed residents of several areas on the city’s northwestern outskirts to return to their homes, Berlin said. The city looked like a ghost town earlier in the week, with businesses shuttered, schools closed and the tourist district empty but for resting firefighters. By Saturday, it was in a partial state of recovery. National Guard troops carried cases of water, people lined up to sign up for relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., met with local officials and toured the shelter housing some of the displaced. “We don’t know if our houses are getting burned, or if it’s gonna stop,” said Domingo Martinez, an evacuee from rural Manuelitas northwest of Las Vegas. “I hope it dies down so we can go home.” Martinez, who is staying with his son on the east side of town, visited an old friend and neighbor who had been living in the middle school shelter for 15 days. Outside the school, Martinez got a free haircut from Jessica Aragón, a local hairdresser who volunteered her time. “I love that everyone is coming together,” Aragón said. “I think a smile is worth a thousand words." Birmingham was one of four dog owners leading German shepherds and a black Labrador through an obedience course in a park next to a library. All had been touched in some way by the fire. One was a construction worker whose work sites had all been reduced to ash. Fire officials warned Las Vegas residents that they should still be ready to leave and not to let their guards down because winds will pick up. High winds and increasing smoke will also make it difficult — or impossible — to fly water-dropping choppers and planes dumping fire retardant. On a mountain ridgeline outside of town, a sloppy line of red retardant could be seen on the trees. Residents were praying that the line and the wall of rock would hold.

Relatives of the missing in Cuba’s capital desperately searched Saturday for victims of an explosion at one of Havana's most luxurious hotels that killed at least 27 people. They checked the morgue, hospitals and if unsuccessful, they returned to the partially collapsed Hotel Saratoga, where rescuers used dogs to hunt for survivors. A natural gas leak was the apparent cause of Friday’s blast at the 96-room hotel. The 19th-century structure in the Old Havana neighborhood did not have any guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations ahead of a planned Tuesday reopening after being closed for two years during the pandemic. On Saturday evening, Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, raised the death toll to 27 with 81 people injured. The dead included four children and a pregnant woman. Spain's President Pedro Sánchez said via Twitter that a Spanish tourist was among the dead and that another Spaniard was seriously injured. Cuban authorities confirmed the tourist’s death and said her partner was injured. They were not staying at the hotel. Tourism Minister Dalila González said a Cuban-American tourist was also injured. Representatives of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA, which owns the hotel, said during a news conference Saturday that 51 workers had been inside the hotel at the time, as well as two people working on renovations. Of those, 11 were killed, 13 remained missing and six were hospitalized. González said the cause of the blast was still under investigation, but a large crane hoisted a charred gas tanker from the hotel's rubble early Saturday. Search and rescue teams worked through the night and into Saturday, using ladders to descend through the rubble and twisted metal into the hotel’s basement as heavy machinery gingerly moved away piles of the building’s façade to allow access. Above, chunks of drywall dangled from wires, desks sat seemingly undisturbed inches from the void where the front of the building cleaved away. READ: Rescuers look for victims at Cuba hotel after blast kills 25 At least one survivor was found early Saturday in the shattered ruins, and rescuers using search dogs clambered over huge chunks of concrete looking for more. Relatives of missing people remained at the site while others gathered at hospitals where the injured were being treated. A desperate Yatmara Cobas stood outside the perimeter waiting for word of her daughter, 27-year-old housekeeper Shaidis Cobas. “My daughter is in the Saratoga; she’s been there since 8 a.m. (Friday), and at this time I don’t know anything about her,” Cobas said. “She’s not at the morgue, she’s not in the hospital.” The mother said she had gone everywhere seeking answers from authorities, but coming up empty. “I’m tired of the lies,” she said. Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata said Saturday evening that 19 families have reported loved ones missing and that rescue efforts would continue. Lt. Col. Enrique Peña briefed Comandante Ramiro Valdés, who fought alongside Fidel Castro, on the search efforts at the site. Peña said the presence of people had been detected on the first floor and in the basement and four teams of search dogs and handlers were working. He did not know if the victims were alive or dead. “I don’t want to move from here,” Cristina Avellar told The Associated Press near the hotel. Avellar was waiting for news of Odalys Barrera, a 57-year-old cashier who has worked at the hotel for five years. She is the godmother of Barrera’s daughters and considers her like a sister. Neighbors were still in shock a day after the explosion. “I thought it was a bomb,” said Guillermo Madan, a 73-year-old retiree, who lives just meters from the building, but was not injured. The three-decade resident of the neighborhood was cooking and watching television when he heard the blast. “My room moved from here to there. My neighbor’s window broke, the plates, everything.” Katerine Marrero, 31, was shopping at the time. “I left the store, I felt the explosion,” she said. “Everyone started to run.” Although no tourists were reported injured, the explosion is another blow to the country’s crucial tourism industry. Even before the coronavirus pandemic kept tourists away from Cuba, the country was struggling with tightened sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump and kept in place the Biden administration. Those limited visits by U.S. tourists to the islands and restricted remittances from Cubans in the U.S. to their families in Cuba. Tourism had started to revive somewhat early this year, but the war in Ukraine deflated a boom of Russian visitors, who accounted for almost a third of the tourists arriving in Cuba last year. A 300-student school next to the hotel was evacuated. The emblematic hotel had a stunning view of Cuba's center, including the domed Capitol building about 110 yards (100 meters) away. The Capitol suffered broken glass and damaged masonry from the explosion. The hotel was renovated in 2005 as part of the Cuban government’s revival of Old Havana and is owned by the Cuban military’s tourism business arm, Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA. The company said it was investigating the cause of the blast and did not respond to an email from the AP seeking more details about the hotel and the renovation it was undergoing. In the past, the Hotel Saratoga has been used by visiting VIPs and political figures, including high-ranking U.S. government delegations. Beyoncé and Jay-Z stayed there in 2013. García Zapata said structures adjacent to the hotel were being evaluated, including two badly damaged apartment buildings. Díaz-Canel said families in affected buildings had been transferred to safer locations. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived in Havana for a visit late Saturday. He was scheduled to meet with Diaz Canel Sunday morning and return to Mexico Sunday night.