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The findings could have implications for understanding the evolution of human language, say experts. Photograph: Biology Letters Dog owners may have trouble remembering which toy is Mr Squeaky, but such names can be seared into the memory of their pets, researchers have found. Scientists previously discovered some dogs have a remarkable ability to learn the names of toys, with a border collie known as Chaser having learned the labels of more than 1,000 objects. Now researchers have discovered some dogs can remember the name of a toy even when they have not seen it for two years. Shany Dror of Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, the first author of the study, said the results showed such dogs stored object names in their long-term memory, rather than simply having their memory refreshed by their owners through frequent play with the item. Dror added the findings could have implications for understanding the evolution of human language, given memory is one of its many components. “Why is language uniquely human? To understand that, we need to understand what parts of language are available in other animals in which part are not,” she said. Some dogs had a success rate of up to 60%, researchers say. Photograph: Whisky the dog/Helge O Svela The experiment was carried out twice for each dog, and was also repeated for four of the dogs using their remaining test toys. The results reveal that, overall, the dogs picked the correct toy 44% of the time on average – with some having a success rate of up to 60%. These figures, the researchers add, are far above the level expected by chance. The results were driven by the prowess of four dogs, with these canines remembering the names of between three and nine of their test toys. The team stress that just because some dogs can learn object names, not every canine can do so, with the factors behind the skill still unclear. However, Dror noted dogs with the talent often had owners who spent a lot of time engaging with them. “The more you invest in your dog, the more you will get back from the relationship,” she said. https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/04/dogs-remember-names-toys-years-study-pets-memory

US President Joe Biden at a Labor Day campaign event with Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh [Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters] United States President Joe Biden has appeared at a campaign event with Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for the first time since dropping out of the presidential race. The pair spoke at a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday to mark the Labor Day holiday. They hope to shore up support from unions and blue-collar workers. Pennsylvania is considered a key battleground in the November 5 election, in which Harris will face off with former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump. The 81-year-old Biden was the presidential candidate until July when he abruptly dropped out of the race following a debate performance that raised concerns over his age. Speaking on Monday, Biden promised he would “be on the sidelines” and “do everything I can to help” in the final stretch of the race. He condemned Trump as anti-union, saying, “He’d rather cross [a picket line] than walk one.” “I have no problem walking the picket line,” said Biden, who became the first US president in history last year to join striking workers on a picket line. “Neither does Kamala.” “I know her. I trust. The first decision I made as nominee in 2020 was selecting her as my vice president,” he said. “It was the single best decision I made as president of the United States of America”. Harris, meanwhile, led a chant of, “Thank you Joe” before pledging to continue Biden’s legacy as the most “pro-union administration in US history”. Echoing Biden, she also said she would work to keep the country’s steel production under US control. In March, Biden said industrial giant US Steel Corp, which has agreed to a takeover by Japan’s Nippon Steel for $14.9bn, must remain a domestically-owned US firm. “We will continue to strengthen America’s manufacturing sector,” Harris said. “And on that point… US Steel is a historic American company, and it is vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies. I couldn’t agree more with President Biden: US Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated.” Harris and Biden appeared together at the Democratic National Convention and at a White House event on Medicare drug price cuts last month. However, the event in Pittsburgh was their first joint appearance at a campaign rally since Harris officially became the nominee. Earlier in the day, the vice president held an event in Detroit, Michigan – another key battleground state – where she again faced protesters calling for Washington to immediately shift its material and political support for Israel amid its ongoing war on Gaza. ‘Thread this very fine needle’ Reporting from Pittsburgh, Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle said that while Harris wanted to benefit from her association with Biden, she also wanted people to know she was different from him. “She has to thread this very fine needle between being seen to be associated with Joe Biden, being linked to his perceived achievement… because Joe Biden, remember, was the first president to walk a picket line. He’s seen as very pro-union,” he said. “At the same time, she has to carve out her own direction and be seen as a change candidate, which is what she’s trying to project herself as, a candidate for change,” Lavelle said. “Now this is something that, of course, the other side is saying is not true. They’re saying that she is part of the current administration. How can she be a changed candidate?” Jeremy Zogby, an independent pollster, said it will be particularly important for Harris to draw a distinction on the economy, which has been central to Republican attacks on the Biden administration. Zogby added that while some polls suggest Harris is leading Trump nationally and in key battleground states, much could change before election day. Harris and Trump will face off in their first debate on September 10. “Battleground states are called battleground states because the needle is always moving,” he told Al Jazeera. “Right now, we’re kind of leaving this wave of the Kamala honeymoon, where there’s been a focus on personality. “I sense that that’s coming to an end and the issues are going to come back into the forefront. Between now and election day, you are going to have a lot of things happen.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/2/biden-joins-harris-at-first-joint-election-campaign-stop-since-leaving-race

A Palestinian child cries during a polio vaccination campaign conducted during the Gaza war in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza [Hussam Al-Masri/Reuters] Israeli forces have killed at least 35 people across Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, as brief and partial pauses in fighting in central Gaza have allowed medics to conduct a further day of polio vaccinations for children. Among those killed over the latest 24-hour reporting period were four women in the southern city of Rafah and eight people near a hospital in Gaza City in the north, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said on Tuesday. Later, an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians inside a house near Omar Al-Mokhtar Street in the middle of Gaza City, medics said. Another strike hit near a college in Sheikh Radwan, a northern suburb of the city. Others were killed in air strikes across the territory, medics said. The Israeli military said it killed eight Palestinian gunmen, including a senior Hamas commander who took part in the October 7 attacks in Israel, at a command centre near the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. A statement said Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia had taken command of a “massacre of civilians” in Israel’s Netiv HaAsara community near the Gaza border. There was no immediate response from Hamas. The armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said they were battling Israeli forces in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City and also in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south. Polio vaccination campaign ‘ahead of targets’ Nevertheless, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Tuesday, the third day of a mass campaign, and had inoculated about a quarter of Gaza’s children under 10. After the first confirmed polio case in the territory in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sunday. The campaign relies on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas fighters in specific areas of the besieged enclave. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the suspensions in fighting to allow children to be vaccinated as a “rare ray of hope and humanity in the cascade of horror”, his spokesperson said. “If the parties can act to protect children from a deadly virus, … surely they can and must act to protect children and all innocents from the horrors of war,” Stephane Dujarric said. With Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.3 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel’s military assault – often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions – disease has spread. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said medical teams were going around tents of displaced people to find children who need to be vaccinated. “Many families lined up early in the morning to provide their children with additional protection through two oral drops of the polio vaccine,” he said. “Meanwhile, areas excluded from the so-called humanitarian pause policy are suffering constant bombardment,” he said. “Consequently, people in these areas are struggling to bring their children to vaccination centres.” The campaign aims to fully vaccinate more than 640,000 children in the besieged territory, devastated by almost 11 months of war. Polio primarily affects children under five and can cause deformities, paralysis and in some cases death. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the Palestinian territory, said it is vital for the vaccination campaign to reach at least 90-percent coverage to avoid the spread of the disease both within Gaza’s borders and beyond. The campaign began in the central part of the densely po[CENSORED]ted Gaza Strip, where the WHO initially expected to vaccinate 156,500 children under the age of 10. “Our target for the central zone was an underestimation,” Peeperkorn said, adding that this was probably due to more people being crowded into the area than anticipated. He said the vaccination drive was expected to shift to southern Gaza on Thursday with the aim of immunising 340,000 children there. It is to then move to the north of the Strip, where about 150,000 children are to be vaccinated. “We still have 10 days to go at least” for the initial portion of the campaign, Peeperkorn said, and the rollout of the necessary second dose would begin in four weeks. While polio vaccinations are best carried out in house-to-house campaigns, Peeperkorn said, those are impossible in Gaza because “there’s very few houses left and people are everywhere.” ‘Extremely concerned’ Peeperkorn also warned that the WHO is “extremely concerned” about Gaza’s wider health situation. With only 16 of 36 hospitals partially operational, the Strip has seen a “huge increase in infectious diseases”. “We’ve seen more than a million, mainly children, diagnosed with acute respiratory infections,” Peeperkorn said, adding that more than 600,000 children had suffered from diarrhoea. Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official Israeli statistics. Promising to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 40,819 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian officials. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/3/israeli-attacks-in-gaza-kill-35-people-as-polio-vaccinations-continue

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From the September/October 2024 issue of Car and Driver. Every new car is a pretty good first date. It's the second and third dates when annoyances start to reveal themselves. Add in some competition, and it becomes easier to separate the one you want to settle down with from the rest. HIGHS: "I can't believe it's not a V-12" smoothness, luxury-car isolation, compact-car fuel economy. When the BMW 540i xDrive visited our office, we were charmed by its incredible inline-six, an engine free of harshness or bad vibes. It's strong too, with 375 horsepower giving the 4365-pound 540i the ability to leap to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds. The powerful six has a good mate in its eight-speed automatic partner. Gear-changes are smooth, and downshifts come quickly. There's a slickness to the entire powertrain, as if friction does not apply. It pays dividends in fuel economy, with the 3.0-liter returning 37 mpg in our 75-mph highway test. Sounds like love, right? Well, we were pretty smitten—until a 2024 Mercedes-Benz E450 rolled in like an attractive contestant number two. Next to the Benz, the 540i suddenly felt a size too big. There's a sense that there's less glass, and as a result, the cabin seems more confining. Drive the two back to back, and the BMW's reactions and feel-free steering make it seem heavier than the Benz, despite weighing 101 pounds less. LOWS: Feels larger than it is, aloof handling, some steering feel would be nice. Both have a supple ride, though the Benz's optional adaptive dampers can go softer than our BMW's electronically controlled units, making them more suitable to Michigan roads. The 540i takes corners with ease, but there's an aloofness to the handling, largely due to the steering, which is light on both effort and feedback. Still, we're grateful for the turbocharged six. We also like the look and finish of the 540i's interior, although the digital gauges could be easier to read—the cluster offers different display options, all terrible—and the infotainment system's menus are daunting at first. The rear seats are adult-ready, and front-seat comfort is excellent. You'll be fidget-free for the duration of a tank of gas, which at 37 mpg will last 580 miles. Graced with charm and an engine so smooth that you'd think a V-12 might be under the hood, the 540i xDrive is more about luxury than sportiness. The 5-series used to be the mid-size sports sedan to beat, but the more dates we went on, the more it revealed itself to be less of a big 3-series and more of a smaller 7-series. VERDICT: Let's keep it a situationship for now. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a61973442/2024-bmw-540i-xdrive-test/

Virgil van Dijk’s calmness in leading Liverpool on the pitch was a marked contrast with his Manchester United counterpart, Bruno Fernandes, who endured a difficult afternoon on Sunday. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images After three games in charge of Liverpool, Arne Slot has enjoyed as close to a perfect start as possible. The Dutchman’s team head into the international break with nine points and zero goals conceded, further boosted by a jaunt of a victory over their arch-rivals, Manchester United. Slot is yet to use a player who was not available to Jürgen Klopp, opting for small adjustments across the pitch as he gets everyone on his wavelength. A great communicator and calming character, Slot encountered one of few negatives across his 270 minutes in needing to withdraw Jarell Quansah at half-time of the opening victory at Ipswich, concerned by the number of duels the 21-year-old defender lost. It was an indication that alongside the jovial demeanour, Slot is happy to make difficult decisions. It was proven to be the right choice; Ibrahima Konaté replaced Quansah and Slot stuck with the same lineup for wins over Brentford and United, as teams struggled to lay a glove on Liverpool. Slot has become the third manager in the Premier League era to win their first three matches in England’s top tier without conceding. José Mourinho at Chelsea achieved the feat in 2004 and Sven Göran-Eriksson did so three years later at Manchester City. All included a victory against Manchester United. Four of the back five at Liverpool have been settled for a long time, when fitness has allowed. It is an experienced unit of Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson. Quansah and Konaté have fought to be the second centre-back alongside the captain and the judgment has been made on who has the shirt at this point. Erik ten Hag dreams of a stable defence. He brought in Matthijs de Ligt for a full debut alongside Lisandro Martínez to create the latest centre-back pairing in a cast of characters that has changed on an almost weekly basis over the past 14 months. Consistency in football is imperative because knowing what you are getting from the player next to you helps someone to do their own job better. One problem that curtailed Liverpool’s title challenge last season was a porous defence which conceded too many shots. Making sure Alisson is not kept busy is part of the new mantra under Slot. Alexander-Arnold can still move into midfield and Robertson is afforded the luxury of pushing forward to help attacks down the left but it is not at the detriment of stability. The manager was still critical of Alexander-Arnold’s passing at Old Trafford because standards have to be maintained even when cruising. A settled defence has helped those in front to adapt with their roles knowing the final line is well-drilled. Without a defensive midfielder eager to break up play, Liverpool are more about keeping the ball, with Ryan Gravenberch the No 6. He may not be the first into a tackle but he showed at Old Trafford how well he reads the game, intercepting Casemiro’s pass and instigating a counterattack that culminated in Luis Díaz heading home to make it 1-0. Ryan Gravenberch read the game superbly and frustrated Manchester United in a dominant midfield performance at Old Trafford. Photograph: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Getty Images Each goal at Old Trafford came from aggression in midfield, with the visitors pressuring United to make mistakes. This will be the routine in all games and sometimes opponents will be able to break the press but Liverpool’s players know they are taking less of a risk because of who they have at the back. Brentford caused problems on the counter at Anfield but there was never panic. Even when chances have been created to test Alisson, the Brazilian has been equal to , happier with not being overworked and able to maintain concentration with greater tranquillity in front of him. There is joy and verve to the attacking play, with Slot offering trust and freedom in equal measure to Díaz, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah. The players want to enjoy and express themselves, something Van Dijk and Konaté do in a different way. The captain orchestrates those in front and manages his teammates on the pitch because he knows where everyone needs to be. The Liverpool defence is the foundation for the team and the season. Tougher tests lie ahead as Liverpool return to the Champions League and twice-weekly matches. The hectic schedule will result in a need to change personnel to keep people fresh for what will be a long slog of a season for those with ambitions of winning trophies. Ipswich were playing their first game in the Premier League for two decades, Brentford were without a recognised striker and United are short of confidence and competence but keeping each side out strengthens the mindset and reinforces within Liverpool that Slot’s way is the right one. Arne Slot’s side comfortably bested his fellow Dutchman Erik ten Hag on Sunday. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Liverpool won their opening three games without conceding in 2018-19, going on to secure 97 points, only to finish runners-up to Manchester City, who have had a decent start themselves. Last season Liverpool completed 10 shutouts in 38 games on their way to third, whereas City, the champions, had 13 and Arsenal 18, an indication improvements need to be made to battle for the title. The early signs are promising. As Sir Alex Ferguson said: “Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/sep/02/arne-slot-solid-stable-liverpool-defence-foundation-season-ahead

‘It’s massively rewarding to put yourself out there for strangers’ … Craig Miller at his fire station. Photograph: Richard Beaven/The Guardian When Craig Miller moved from California to the Catskill mountains in upstate New York in 2019, the freelance journalist wanted to get away from traffic jams and wildfires and enjoy a quieter pace of life. Yet, one year into his stay, at the age of 65, he became his town’s newest volunteer firefighter. “It was something I realised I had to do as rural fire departments are desperate for people to help out,” he says. “Answering the pager for callouts at all hours of the day isn’t an ideal retirement, but four years in, it has become one of the most rewarding parts of my life.” It was Miller’s eye for a story that first alerted him to the issue facing volunteer fire departments. Driving around town and noticing recruitment signs, he decided to dig further for the PBS website Next Avenue. “Speaking to fire chiefs, I realised they are in crisis since more than 60% of all firefighters in the US are volunteers, and rural areas can’t get young people to join,” he says. “The chief was trying to recruit me as soon as I hit town and said that it didn’t matter about my age as there is a job for everyone.” Miller was unsure about the level of commitment and training required, while his partner, Heidi, wasn’t keen on the danger it might involve. Yet, as the Covid lockdowns were enforced, Miller realised that volunteering would be a good way to become a part of the community. He signed up to train as an external firefighter, which meant he only tackled blazes from outside the burning structures rather than potentially running inside buildings to rescue people. He was soon ready to respond to emergencies, and given a uniform, helmet and pager. “The exterior firefighting training owned my life for three months, with night classes and Saturday sessions covering everything from operating a pump panel to throwing ladders,” he says. “We started every session with a ‘donning drill’, racing to put 40lb [18kg] of equipment on in under a minute. We sometimes had to do it four or five times and I was staggering by the end. It immediately improved my fitness.” Passing his certification and becoming a full member of his crew, Miller witnessed the extent of the problem facing rural fire departments. “The average age of our crew is 54 and only three of us are under 45,” he says. “We have some in their 70s and I’ve seen other crews where people are in their 80s. Every person counts.” While younger volunteers might be needed to rush into burning buildings, older members are typically external firefighters. Averaging 60 callouts a year, many of them due to faulty smoke detectors or part of mutual aid requests from neighbouring departments, Miller has experienced his fair share of hair-raising moments. “I’ve been on car fires and wildfires, which are stubborn and difficult. Cars can also give off some gnarly fumes when they are melting,” he says. “The worst feeling is when you get paged, show up and you’re the only one at the station. That happened once when I was early into my training and it was terrifying thinking I would have to lead the callout. Luckily, when I arrived on the scene there were other emergency medical staff there to help.” Despite the urgent need for volunteers, Miller has learned to set boundaries and not respond to calls when he might be putting himself at risk. “You need to know when to say no. No one will call you up on it, since the pressure to show up is all self-imposed,” he says. “If it’s 90F [32C] outside and I’m running in all my gear, I’m putting myself in too much danger at my age. So it’s better to stay at home.” Now 69, Miller has noticed a huge positive effect on his physical fitness thanks to his fire crew’s weekly drills. “Manoeuvring a fire hose that’s fully pressurised is like handling a 200ft python that doesn’t want to be moved,” he says. “It’s a workout being on the nozzle and it’s definitely kept me feeling young.” The greatest impact has come from helping people during some of the worst moments of their lives. “It’s massively rewarding to put yourself out there for strangers and they are so grateful for us, too,” he says. “Someone accidentally started a forest fire with his chainsaw and after we put it out he sent us a very nice donation. It showed how much people appreciate us.” Despite initially thinking he would stop volunteering at 70, as that milestone approaches, Miller is now committed to carrying on. “I feel like I’m still learning and that’s really exciting to me,” he says. “One of the essential things in life is to feel you have a purpose, and this is mine. I’ll keep going as long as I’m able. It gets in your blood.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/sep/02/a-new-start-after-60-i-was-hoping-for-a-quiet-retirement-but-instead-i-became-a-firefighter

An arctic tern with a sand eel in north Wales. The species is among several at grave risk of local extinction. Photograph: Chantal Macleod-Nolan/RSPB/PA Five seabirds have been added to the UK’s conservation red list, meaning they are at dire risk of local extinction. The government has been urged to act as the arctic tern, Leach’s storm petrel, common gull, great skua and great black-backed gull join other seabird species such as the puffin on the list after severe po[CENSORED]tion declines. The research, published in the journal British Birds, has assessed that these species should join the kittiwake, herring gull, roseate tern and arctic skua on the red list. Seabirds are in a precarious position as their breeding areas are under threat from climate breakdown, and the food they eat such as sand eels are overfished and at risk from warming seas. Invasive predators such as rodents decimate their young, and bird flu has caused po[CENSORED]tion declines in several species. Conservationists have asked the government to expand protected marine areas to stop overfishing of their food and bycatch, whereby seabirds are caught in fishing nets. Great skua in the Highlands. Conservation groups are calling for robust and resourced seabird conservation strategies. Photograph: Arterra/Universal Images Group/Getty It is important for global seabird po[CENSORED]tions that the UK takes action because Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands support most of the global po[CENSORED]tions of breeding manx shearwater (96%), northern gannet (70%) and great skua (64-67%). The RSPB has welcomed decisions by the English and Scottish governments to bring forward a ban on sand eel fishing in UK waters. Katie-jo Luxton, the global conservation director for the RSPB, said: “We need urgent action from our governments to address this dire situation to tackle the drivers of these declines and enable recovery. “We are calling for robust and resourced seabird conservation strategies that can deliver rapid protection of seabird breeding islands from invasive predators, improvements in the marine protected areas network for seabirds, better spatial planning of marine developments to avoid important areas, better fisheries management to ensure there are sufficient prey species and new measures on boats that tackle the bycatch of seabirds in fishing gear.” The data adds to a worrying picture for the health of the UK’s bird po[CENSORED]tion. They have been added to the Birds of Conservation Concern review, which shows that of 245 regularly occurring bird species in the UK, 73 (30%) are on the UK red list. A puffin at RSPB Bempton Cliffs reserve in East Yorkshire. Warmer seas are contributing to po[CENSORED]tion decline. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images The figures were collected during the previous national seabird census, published in November 2023, and have been supplemented with newer data from the British Trust for Ornithology/joint nature conservation committee seabird monitoring programme. David Noble, the principal ecologist at the BTO, said: “Seabirds are an iconic part of nature along our coastlines, whether foraging on beaches and rocky shores, patrolling urban seafronts or breeding in spectacular colonies on cliffs. “The multiple pressures that they face from reductions in food sources caused by climate change and overfishing, from invasive nest predators on islands and avian flu have resulted in some significant changes in numbers. “Continued monitoring, by volunteers as well as professionals, is essential to provide timely evidence of the impact of these and other threats, and to assess the effectiveness of any conservation actions.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/02/arctic-tern-common-gull-red-list-uk-species-crisis-seabirds-climate-breakdown-overfishing

Vice presidential nominee JD Vance has made fighting the opioid crisis a focus of his campaign for the November 5 election [Josh Reynolds/AP Photo] The Republican running mate has made his family history with addiction a key talking point in the US presidential race. Middletown, Ohio – The speech was JD Vance’s chance to introduce himself to a national audience. A freshman senator from Ohio, Vance had only 18 months of experience in Congress when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump picked him to be his 2024 running mate. It was a Monday in July when the announcement about Vance’s selection was made. By that Wednesday, Vance was on stage at the Republican National Convention, preparing to address voters across the United States. What he decided to share was a glimpse at his family’s history with opioid addiction. “Our movement is about single moms like mine who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up. I’m proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober. I love you, mom,” he said, as his mother, Bev Vance, blew him a kiss from the crowd. The audience erupted in chants of “JD’s mom! JD’s mom!” Vance has made tackling the opioid crisis a mainstay of his campaign appearances ever since. This month, when he rallied in Byron Center, Michigan, he outlined a vision in which he and Trump would close US borders to “stop the drugs”. Then, a few days later in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he called for drug dealers to receive the death penalty. But in Vance’s home state of Ohio, addiction experts and advocates say they have yet to hear policy proposals in this year’s presidential race that would adequately address the complex nature of the opioid crisis. Jackie Phillips Carter, the health commissioner for the city of Middletown, Vance’s hometown, said neither Democrats nor Republicans have put forward viable solutions. “There are so many obstacles and roadblocks,” she said, “that I don’t think anybody is serious about addressing the issue.” JD Vance’s hometown of Middletown, Ohio, has struggled since the collapse of the American steel industry in the late 20th century [Stephen Starr/Al Jazeera] Barriers to access When advocate Dennis Cauchon reflects on the hurdles to confronting the opioid crisis, he thinks of his colleague Dylan Stanley. Cauchon serves as president of Harm Reduction Ohio, a drug policy nonprofit based east of the state capital, Columbus. In 2018, he hired Stanley to lead community outreach. She excelled at the role. Cauchon credits her with saving countless lives. “Dylan was one of our earliest and best distributors of naloxone,” Cauchon said, referring to the nasal spray used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. But Stanley herself struggled with addiction, and she relied on methadone to treat her opioid use disorder. Getting the medication, though, required her to criss-cross Columbus by bus: Only certified treatment programmes can dispense the tightly regulated drug. And there was regularly a line at the door by the time she arrived. Four years ago this month, Stanley died of a probable overdose at age 30, Cauchon said. She left behind a two-year-old daughter, Ruby. While Cauchon said he respects Vance’s personal story, he feels it is unlikely the Republican’s hard-knuckle proposals will move the needle when it comes to helping those struggling with addiction, like Stanley. “I don’t think he has a good understanding of what needs to be done. A lot of people are well-meaning but do the opposite of what’s needed because it’s a complex issue,” said Cauchon. “His policies — increasing the drug war and prison sentences and arrests — do the opposite. I don’t think that’s his intent, but I do think that’s the result.” A chronicle of decline Since the mid-2010s, Ohio has consistently had one of the steepest proportions of overdose deaths in the country. While the number of deaths has fallen significantly in recent years, the state still averages 45.6 deaths for every 100,000 people — the 10th highest rate in the country. The crisis hit Vance’s hometown of Middletown particularly hard. In the five years from 2017 to 2022, Middletown’s Butler County saw one of the most elevated rates of overdose-related deaths in the state. Vance captured the crisis in his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. It painted a portrait of Middletown as a Rust Belt city in decline, full of shuttered shops and fading parks. It also relayed the story of his mother’s struggles with heroin and OxyContin, a prescription opioid. The book’s publication in 2016 propelled Vance to national stardom, and that same year, he established Our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit formed to “combat Ohio’s opioid epidemic”. Vance explained that the organisation’s focus was to assist “the grandparents and aunts and uncles taking care of a lot of the kids who had been orphaned by the epidemic”. It even pushed the state legislature to support the “caregivers” who help family members affected by opioid addiction. But in 2021, Our Ohio Renewal closed down. It had faced criticism for employing an addiction specialist with ties to Purdue Pharma, a now-bankrupt pharmaceutical company accused of aggressively pushing highly addictive opioids like OxyContin to consumers. And the experts who spoke to Al Jazeera questioned whether the nonprofit amounted to much. “It really didn’t do anything. I deal with this issue every day across the whole state, and we had no contact with it,” said Cauchon. “It didn’t do any good, but it didn’t do any harm.” Pastor Scotty Robertson fears Vance’s portrayal of his upbringing has reinforced local stereotypes [Stephen Starr/Al Jazeera] Feeding stereotypes? Some critics, however, argue that Vance’s depiction of the region did indeed cause harm, by feeding into stereotypes about the root causes of addiction. In Hillbilly Elegy, for instance, Vance credits a “culture in crisis” with creating the situation in Middletown. “You can walk through a town where 30 percent of the young men work fewer than twenty hours a week and find not a single person aware of his own laziness,” Vance writes. Scotty Robertson, a pastor in Middletown who grew up in West Virginia’s Appalachian coalfields, found Vance’s airing of his family’s addiction struggles problematic for several reasons. The book, Robertson explained, allowed Vance to present himself as a paragon of success, while those around him are often depicted as uneducated and drug-addicted. “I think the context in which the story is told actually reinforces the stereotype, in light of how he uses the story to elevate himself,” he said. Robertson believes Vance’s current political stance is another reflection of those stereotypes. Vance, for example, has opposed “housing-first” policies that would offer lodging to those facing homelessness, for fear they would introduce “people with serious drug problems” into communities. “It’s a political agenda that dehumanises,” Robertson said. “If [his] story was told for Vance to achieve the right kinds of outcomes, then I think the story very much could have been used for the purpose of humanising.” Phillips Carter, the Middletown health commissioner, also believes part of the difficulty in addressing addiction lies in breaking down stereotypes about who is vulnerable. She wants the public to understand that those struggling with addiction are simply everyday people. “The biggest challenge now is always bringing the human component,” she said. “So often the biggest challenge is trying to bring the humanity and education that addiction is a disease.” JD Vance spent much of his childhood in the steel-working town of Middletown, Ohio [Megan Jelinger/Reuters] Turning the tide There are also significant hurdles to getting treatment for addiction and related conditions, Phillips Carter added. “Mental health treatment is very difficult to get,” she explained. “There is insurance. There is red tape. People can’t go into multiple programming. Sometimes women can’t get treatment where men go. Sometimes a family will lose its kids if [a parent] goes into treatment.” But she and other experts believe there is reason to be hopeful. Overdose deaths in Ohio are down 34 percent so far in 2024, compared to the same period last year. Nationally, deaths fell in 2023 for the first time in five years. New federal regulations easing restrictions on methadone were also announced in April. Ohio itself invests nearly $100m a year in prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery responses. Cauchon, the president of Harm Reduction Ohio, credits local and state leaders like Governor Mike DeWine with working across party lines to lower the number of deaths. “Is the response everything it could be?” Cauchon asked. “No, but it’s much better than five or 10 years ago.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/30/in-jd-vances-home-state-of-ohio-an-ongoing-fight-against-opioid-addiction

Israeli troops have handed to the Palestinian health authorities the body of a Palestinian man arrested about an hour earlier in the occupied West Bank. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Monday that it had received the body of 58-year-old Ayman Rajeh Abed, who belonged to Kafr Dan village outside Jenin, shortly after he was arrested at dawn on Monday. The director of the Jenin Government Hospital said the body bore signs of beatings and torture. The Israeli military said Abed was detained during “counterterrorism” operations and experienced a “cardiac event” on arrival at a detention facility. He was given initial treatment by medical staff from the military before being transferred to the hospital in Jenin. “[Israel’s army] is aware of reports that the suspect died during his evacuation by the Red Crescent,” the military said in a statement, adding that details of the incident were under review. Israeli military vehicles are stationed along a street as a plume of smoke rises during an ongoing raid in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp on September 1, 2024 [Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP] The incident came as the Israeli forces expanded their operations in the flashpoint city of Jenin and the surrounding areas for a sixth day. Bulldozers continued to dig up streets and major thoroughfares to find roadside bombs on Monday. Israel launched the operation, one of the largest in months, last Wednesday, saying Iranian-backed fighter groups were planning to attack civilian targets. Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and helicopters have taken part in the operation, which has caused extensive damage to houses and infrastructure in Jenin and the densely-packed refugee camp adjacent to the city. ‘Collective punishment’ Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Kafr Dan, said the Palestinians in Jenin kept repeating that what has been happening over the past six days is “collective punishment”. “They say Israel wants to show that Palestinians would pay a heavy price for supporting armed fighters – those who pick up arms and try to combat Israeli forces while they are raiding Palestinian homes, refugee camps and cities,” she said. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed in less than a week, with Israel claiming they were members of armed factions including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Another 121 people have been wounded, according to Palestinian health authorities. Late on Sunday, a man was killed in the west of Jenin city. On Monday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said another man was hit in the chest by gunfire in Qabatiya near Jenin. His condition was described as serious. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/2/palestinian-dies-an-hour-after-israel-arrested-him-from-occupied-west-bank

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William Ellard celebrates after winning gold in the pool. Photograph: Eng Chin An/Reuters ParalympicsGB enjoy Super Saturday in pool as Clegg, Ellard and Tai win gold Trio of swimmers take gold in flurry at La Défense Arena Maskill adds a silver and Fiddes bronze in medal deluge John Ashdown Sat 31 Aug 2024 18.17 BST Share ParalympicsGB swimmers enjoyed a Super Saturday in Paris, collecting five medals – including three golds – in a 40-minute flurry at La Défense Arena, and breaking two world records in the process. The deluge helped solidify Great Britain’s spot in second place in the medal table – China having disappeared over the horizon at the top – on a day in which joy in the pool was matched by heartbreak at the velodrome, where a late crash denied Archie Atkinson a seemingly certain gold. Stephen Clegg kicked things off in the pool with a dominant swim in the S12 100m backstroke, coming home nearly two seconds ahead of his nearest rivals in a world record time of 59.02sec. The Scot had collected three medals at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 but none of them the gold he so desperately wanted. Such was his frustration after those Games that he took a break from the pool and turned to jujitsu in an attempt to refresh his mindset. That has paid off handsomely, and his performance bodes well for his chances in the butterfly and freestyle later in Paris. “I’m speechless. I wanted to bury my head in the sand after Tokyo,” the 28-year-old told Channel 4. “I think coming into this I wanted to get the monkey off my back. This gold has been a long time coming. The pressure is off a bit in terms of that barrier. What a way to start.” Clegg was followed on to the top step of the podium by William Ellard in the S14 200m freestyle. The 18-year-old from Suffolk said the buildup was “probably the most nervous I’ve ever been before a race” but betrayed no sign of nerves as he took gold by a distance, his time of 1min 51.30sec another world record. Alice Tai secured a third gold for Britain three minutes later in the women’s S8 100m backstroke. The 25-year-old, who was born with bilateral talipes (also known as clubfoot), is an eight-time world champion and won a gold at the Rio Games in 2016. Great Britain’s Stephen Clegg (centre) with his gold medal. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA Tai missed Tokyo through injury – instead having to settle for a spot on the punditry sofa – and in 2022 had her right leg amputated below the knee due to increasing pain in her foot. She has returned to her best since then and her performance in Paris was sensational, coming home almost six seconds ahead of the field. There was also a double for ParalympicsGB in the women’s S14 200m freestyle, with Poppy Maskill picking up a silver to add to the gold she won in the 100m butterfly, and Louise Fiddes a bronze as neutral athlete Valeriia Shabalina won gold. Earlier there was drama in the velodrome as Atkinson tumbled to the boards in the men’s C4 4,000m individual pursuit final. With less than two laps to go the 20-year-old crashed when well clear of his opponent and had to be helped from the track, though his silver medal proved some consolation. “I just ran out of energy and went down but I’m so proud, so happy,” he said. “A world record and a silver medal, I wouldn’t have believed that in my wildest dream.” Jaco van Gass narrowly missed out on another medal, after his gold on Friday, breaking the world record but finishing fourth after time adjustments in the C1-3 1,000m time trial. In the table tennis, the British pair of Paul Karabardak and Billy Shilton were forced to settle for bronze in the MD14 men’s doubles after a 3-0 defeat against the No 1 seeds from Thailand in their semi-final at the South Paris Arena. “When we were leading we could have been a bit more positive,” said Welshman Karabardak, a silver and bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020, following the 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 loss. “Had we taken one of those first two sets it might have been a different game – that’s sport and we have to give them credit for taking their opportunities.” GB’s men’s wheelchair basketball team made it two wins out of two in the group stage with an impressive 88-58 win over the London 2012 gold medallists Canada, with the captain Philip Pratt contributing 20 points. The women’s team, though, were beaten 63-54 in their group-stage game against Canada. “The most important thing from this is staying together and staying united,” said the captain, Sophie Carrigill. “We’ll keep our heads up.” This article was amended on 1 September 2024 to correct the spelling of Louise Fiddes’ last name. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/31/paralympics-britain-swimming-super-saturday-golds