HCM CITY – HCM City has proposed spending nearly VNĐ8 trillion (US$351.2 million) to support people in need for two months to help them overcome COVID-19-related difficulties, Phan Văn Mãi, chairman of the city People’s Committee, has said.
The city will offer financial aid worth VNĐ750,000 (US$32.9) for each eligible resident per month after September 15. The package will cover September and October.
Mãi said the city had around 2 million struggling households with a total of 5.3 million residents in need of social relief.
More financial aid would be offered in the future if needed.
Districts and departments have been asked to compile lists of people in need of this package. The compilation should be completed by September 15 so that the package can be launched the next day.
The money will be sent directly to their bank accounts.
HCM City has launched many relief packages to support locals and businesses struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, and has vowed to make future ones more easily accessible.
The most recent social relief covered about one million self-employed people and 1.3 million struggling households which received VNĐ1.5 million (US$65.7) in cash and gifts.
HCM City is Việt Nam’s COVID-19 epicentre with over 258,000 cases found. Millions have lost jobs or had their incomes greatly reduced. – VNS
Disabled volunteers also play role in success of Paralympics
As media members covering sitting volleyball approached the media reception desk at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City last month, they encountered Shino Chiba — and her guide dog, a golden retriever named Nana.
Speaking from the other side of a plastic sheet, Chiba instructed them to leave their PCR samples.
Chiba, 41, was among the many disabled people who served as volunteers for the Tokyo Paralympics, which came to a close on Sunday. They hope their efforts for the Games will lead to the realization of a more inclusive society.
Chiba is from Katori, Chiba Prefecture. She was 20 and taking correspondence university classes when she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an intractable disease that causes gradual loss of sight. It was the same disease that afflicted her mother, who uses a white cane. “I can’t believe this happened to me,” she thought.
She went through a life-changing experience 1½ years later, when she casually decided to become a volunteer for a local marathon. The race was also open to people with disabilities, and Chiba watched as volunteers cheered on wheelchair racers as they battled to finish. Her eyesight was not as weak as it is now, and the scene inspired her to find a way to make a difference.
She got a job as a nursing care assistant, and decided to resume swimming, her favorite sport. She not only competed in meets, but also volunteered at more than 50 competitions.
“It gave me renewed awareness that no matter what the disability, there is definitely something one can do,” Chiba said. “I hope the Tokyo Paralympics will help more people accept that disabilities are individual traits, and lead to more disabled people advancing in society.”
■ Meaning of support
Hideaki Nagamine, who guided athletes and staff at Ariake Arena in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, the venue for wheelchair basketball, is a former player himself.
Nagamine, 30, currently a company employee living in Tokyo’s Taito Ward, has been disabled since birth. Growing up in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, he became a member of the local wheelchair basketball club team that produced Akira Toyoshima, 32, the Japan team captain at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Nagamine quit the sport at age 20, and when Tokyo was selected as the host of the 2020 Games in 2013, he applied for the first time to be a volunteer with the aim of “doing anything I can.”
During the Games, he guided foreign athletes to restrooms and the dining area, and encouraged them by giving them origami made by volunteers. A member of the championship U.S. team personally thanked him and let Nagamine touch his gold medal.
“When I was a player, I naturally received support, but I realized for the first time that there are many people providing that support behind the scenes,” Nagamine said. “I’m going to keep volunteering. I want to help increase participation by people with disabilities.”
By Azusa Nakazono and Kazuki Sato / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
Hyundai Motor vows to make hydrogen cars as cheap as EVs
Chairman Chung Euisun promises hydrogen for everyone, everything and everywhere
Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday unveiled a new hydrogen vision that includes plans to make hydrogen vehicles as cheap as electric vehicles within 10 years.
During “Hydrogen Wave,” the automaker’s first global hydrogen event, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun laid out his 20-year vision for hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen mobility.
“Hyundai Motor envisions a future society where hydrogen energy is available for everyone, everything and everywhere. I have no doubt that hydrogen will bring revolutionary changes for humankind,” the chairman said.
To accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society, the auto group, which both Hyundai Motor and Kia belong to, will employ hydrogen fuel cells in all of its new commercial car models by 2028, he said.
Between now and then, the automaker will equip its new models either with hydrogen fuel cells or batteries.
At the event, Chung showcased prototypes of third-generation 100-kilowatt and 200-kilowatt fuel cells that he said would be available in the market starting in 2023.
Hyundai Motor vows to make hydrogen cars as cheap as EVs
According to Hyundai Motor, the 100-kilowatt fuel cells are 20 percent to 30 percent smaller than second-generation fuel cells mounted on the Nexo, the carmaker’s hydrogen-powered SUV. The 200-kilowatt fuel cells, though similar in size to Nexo fuel cells, offer an output capacity that is 100 percent greater.
“We will cut the price of third-generation fuel cells by more than 50 percent from the current level. By 2030, they will be cheaper and allow hydrogen vehicles to become as cheap as electric vehicles,” a Hyundai Motor official said.
The fuel cells will be mounted on a “flat” system just 25 centimeters thick, easy to install on the roof or the bottom of a vehicle. Potential applications include trams, trains, ships and air taxis, the tycoon added.
During the event, which was held virtually, Chung also introduced the e-Bogie as an example of how the automaker’s fuel cell and self-driving technologies could create synergy.
Powered by hydrogen fuel cells, the e-Bogie is a four-wheeled trailer drone that can be loaded with containers. On a single charge, the autonomous robot will be able to travel 1,000 kilometers, something no EV can do.
With the e-Bogie, Hyundai Motor aims to take the initiative in the global light commercial vehicle market, where 7 million unit sales are projected per year by 2030.
In addition, Hyundai Motor debuted its hydrogen-powered sports car, the Vision FK, letting the world know of its ambition to challenge passenger EVs. Able to go from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in less than four seconds, the Vision FK offers a maximum driving range of 600 kilometers.
In keeping with the vision to provide hydrogen everywhere by 2040, Chung showcased a portable hydrogen charging station as a solution to the nation’s weak hydrogen infrastructure.
The H Moving Station, a giant truck equipped with hydrogen chargers, can travel anywhere and provide refueling services in areas with limited hydrogen charging stations.
During a Q&A session, Kim Sae-hoon, executive vice president and head of the fuel cell center at Hyundai Motor, suggested that small ships would be one of the first sectors where fuel cells would be used outside the automotive industry.
“Fuel cells have difficulties in dissipating the heat, because they operate at 70-80 degrees Celsius. So we always have a problem of cooling. I met a lot of (ship) companies and asked about how they dissipate heat. They say, ‘Don’t worry. We have a lot of seawater and river water,’” Kim said.
Asked when Hyundai Motor expects to achieve operating profit in the hydrogen business, Kim said, “I hope it happens by 2040.”
As to when the Xcient — a heavy-duty truck that Hyundai Motor has so far exported only to Switzerland — will be available in the Korean market, Chung said domestic mass production would kick off in the first half of next year.
Hyundai Motor will display its cutting-edge hydrogen technologies at the H2 Mobility+Energy Show, which will be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the country’s largest convention center, Kintex, northwest of Seoul in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
According to the Hydrogen Council, a global CEO-led initiative of leading energy, transport, industry and investment companies, hydrogen energy will account for 18 percent of global energy demand by 2050, with a market worth $2.5 trillion. The popularization of hydrogen energy will also help cut carbon emissions by more than 6 billion tons a year while creating over 30 million new jobs.
Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm has gained approval to launch clinical trials of a COVID-19 drug based on human immunoglobulin derived from vaccinated people, the company said recently.
The drug is the world’s first COVID-19 therapy that uses plasma containing rich amounts of antibodies to fight off the novel coronavirus, and it adds to the company’s expanding portfolio of medical products targeting the disease, including four vaccines that have already been rolled out or are being researched.
The experimental medication is being developed by Beijing Tiantan Biological Products, administered by China National Biotech Group, a Sinopharm subsidiary. It obtained clinical trial approval from the National Medical Products Administration on Aug 30.
Zhu Jingjin, a senior official of China National Biotech Group, said the experimental medication uses plasma from healthy people who are fully immunized with inactivated vaccines, and contains high levels of neutralizing antibodies.
“The drug can have therapeutic effects on people with moderate or severe illnesses,” he told China Central Television during an exhibition in Beijing on Saturday.
Zhu added that the drug has completed preclinical studies and animals tests, and has demonstrated marked efficacy in relieving the symptoms and damage caused by the virus in animal tests.
The new drug is based on a promising treatment used during the COVID-19 epidemic, according to the company. At the height of the domestic outbreak early last year, China began infusing patients with convalescent plasma of people who had recovered from the disease.
The National Health Commission said in February last year that the therapy had yielded positive outcomes in safety and efficacy, and it was officially added to a national diagnosis and treatment guideline the same month.
As the virus has been brought under control in China, leading to a sharp drop in patients able to donate the convalescent blood needed to make the medication, increasing numbers of fully vaccinated people in the country have helped guarantee supplies of raw materials, according to Chen Kun, another senior official at China National Biotech Group.
In an interview with Global Times, Chen said the drug has been given to patients during recent sporadic local outbreaks and has also shown efficacy against emerging variants. However, he also noted that when and whether the drug can be approved for market use remains uncertain.
“The international norm is that the first stage of clinical trials for a new drug might take seven to eight years, and it is hard to discern how long it will take for us to complete all three phases of human trials,” he said, adding that the accelerated approval procedures for COVID-19 vaccines had raised some hope.
Panic buying grips Yangon after shadow government in Myanmar declares peoples defensive war
BANGKOK – Long queues formed at supermarkets and petrol stations in Yangon on Tuesday (Sept 7) shortly after Myanmars shadow government declared a “peoples defensive war” against the junta.
In a video message broadcast online in the morning, the National Unity Government’s (NUG) acting president, Mr Duwa Lashi La, warned civil servants against going to the office, and urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and stock up on their medications and daily necessities.
He called on anti-junta armed resistance groups to quell junta forces in their respective areas, and also for Myanmar’s ethnic armed organisations to “immediately attack” the junta through various methods.
“I believe that our neighbouring countries, Asean countries, the United Nations and all other countries around the world understand that we do it out of necessity,” he said.
In a separate statement, the NUG declared a state of emergency that would end only when a civilian government was restored to power.
The announcement triggered panic buying in Yangon, with people loading up on rice, cooking oil, dried food and medicine.
Meanwhile, long queues of vehicles formed outside petrol stations as motorists rushed to secure fuel, checks by The Straits Times showed.
The NUG’s declaration comes just a week before the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, where it is vying with the junta to be recognised as the legitimate representative of Myanmar.
The NUG comprises parliamentarians ousted by the Feb 1 military coup as well as allied civil society activists and intellectuals. Both the NUG and the Myanmar junta have denounced the other as terrorists.
Asean is arranging humanitarian aid for Myanmar after the bloc appointed Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister, Mr Erywan Yusof, as its special envoy to try to facilitate political dialogue.
Over the weekend, he revealed a proposal for a four-month ceasefire in Myanmar to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers delivering aid. This idea was not opposed by the junta, he told reporters, adding that it was also communicated indirectly to parties opposed to the coup.
It is not clear whether NUG’s declaration on Tuesday will trigger a surge in armed clashes.
Over 170 localised, semi-autonomous “people’s defence forces” (PDFs) have been staging guerilla-style attacks on troops and police officers over the past few months. Some PDFs have also killed alleged junta informers and civilian ward administrators working under the junta.
The NUG first mentioned a “D-Day” in June, but had been coy about spelling out exactly what it meant before Tuesday.
In a separate announcement on Tuesday, it urged resistance fighters to abide by a code of conduct that includes compensating civilians for the use of their properties during emergencies and not killing or torturing captives.
Analysts say that an armed uprising against the junta cannot succeed without support from Myanmar’s numerous ethnic armed groups. Yet the most powerful of these, like the United Wa State Army and the Arakan Army, have so far stayed above the fray.
The junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has killed over 1,000 people and imprisoned over 6,000 since the coup, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners. The military seized power after alleging that the November 2020 election, in which the National League for Democracy government emerged victorious, was fraudulent. The junta has invoked a state of emergency which Gen Min Aung Hlaing says will be lifted by August 2023.
In what it said was an effort to combat Covid-19, the junta has declared public holidays since July. Government offices have been shut too.
#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.
In 9/11 commemorations, an elegy for what the nation lost that day – and in the 20 years since
NEW YORK – A wife told her husband about the son he never knew who had grown to be “the spitting image” of his dad.
Aveteran reflected on his sacrifice in a war launched in a spirit of vengeance and ended in a haze of defeat.
Presidents past and present wondered what had become of national unity, and whether a common sense of purpose could be recovered.
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, commemorations of a calamitous moment in American history played out on a tableau eerily similar to the original set: a glorious late summer’s day up and down the East Coast, one seemingly incongruous with planes crashing out of the clear-blue sky.
At Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field, the names of the dead were read at a clipped yet mournful cadence. Family members held photos of their loved ones aloft. Bells rang. Bagpipes wailed. Silence marked the most acute moments of horror, when planes crashed or buildings fell.
Yet the events were as much an elegy for what has been lost in the two decades since as they were for the terrible toll from that day. The accumulation of personal grief as children grew up without parents. The wounds inflicted on a nation by ruinous wars and poisonous politics.
At the site in Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 crashed, the hijackers’ apparent plans to attack the U.S. Capitol foiled by a rebellion among passengers, relatives of those who died questioned whether the country had gone off course.
“Are we worthy of their sacrifice?” asked Gordon Felt, whose brother, Edward, was a passenger on the doomed flight. “Do we as individuals, communities and as a country conduct ourselves in a manner that would make those that sacrificed so much and fought so hard proud of who we’ve become?”
Speaking minutes later, the man who was president on 9/11, George W. Bush, seemed to offer an answer. On the day America was attacked and in the immediate aftermath, Bush said, the country had been unified. But increasingly, he said, America is menaced not only by foreign dangers but by “violence that gathers from within.”
“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” he said. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols – they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”
Although Bush did not say so outright, the reference to insurrectionists who on Jan. 6 laid siege to the U.S. Capitol – the target that Flight 93 passengers had defended – was difficult to miss.
So, too, was the difference in tone between this anniversary and the ones that have preceded it. Bush and the presidents who have followed have often used 9/11 as an opportunity for chest-beating bravado, with threats to rain down fury upon U.S. enemies.
But with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the chaotic American exit only weeks old, there was far less of that than usual.
While Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley vowed at a Pentagon commemoration that “no terrorist anywhere on Earth can ever destroy” American ideals, he also noted that feelings among U.S. service members were “very conflicted” this year, following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The country, after all, had lost 2,461 troops, including 13 who died in a suicide attack just two weeks ago. More than 20,000 had been injured, and countless more were afflicted, he said, “by the invisible wounds of war.”
That cost became a source of quiet tension for some within the audience gathered in Shanksville, with Air Force Academy classmates of LeRoy Homer Jr., the co-pilot on Flight 93, speaking about his heroism and then quietly questioning how and why the United States left Afghanistan.
One classmate, Scott Hoffman, had deployed within days of 9/11. His son was in second grade, and he told his wife as he prepared for his mission to avenge the attacks: “I’ll do this so our children don’t have to.”
Last month, that son, now Capt. Christopher Hoffman, was among the Americans to pilot a C17 filled with Afghans fleeing a country taken over by the Taliban.
“I feel sick to my stomach,” Scott Hoffman said about the Afghan evacuation. “Our chance to stand up to the Nazis of our time and we turned our back.”
President Joe Biden paid tribute to 9/11 victims in visits to all three sites where people were killed. Although he did not deliver formal remarks, he recorded a video in which he described “the central lesson” of Sept. 11.
“It’s that at our most vulnerable, in the push and pull of all that makes us human, in the battle of the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed that sentiment with a speech in Shanksville in which she paid tribute to Flight 93 passengers and called for Americans to “honor their courage, their conviction, with our own – that we honor their unity by strengthening our common bonds.”
Former president Donald Trump did not attend any of the commemorative services, though he fired off statements critical of Biden as they got underway. He later made an unannounced visit to a New York police precinct in which he strongly hinted he will run for president again and decried the “rigged election.”
Those comments were sharply at odds with the tenor of the 9/11 remembrances, which have traditionally been apolitical. At each one on Saturday, the focus remained squarely on the day’s victims – particularly on all the ways their absence continues to reverberate, 20 years on.
In New York, the ceremony at Ground Zero began with the first moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. – the time Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The last moment of silence came at 10:28 a.m., in observance of the fall of the North Tower. The reading of the names of the victims, an annual tradition, went on for more than four hours, a reflection of the extraordinary toll from the worst terrorist attack in American history.
With violins and flutes for a backdrop, along with the sound of rushing water from the inverted fountains that occupy the footprint where the twin towers once stood, the names were read by relatives of the victims, their voices occasionally breaking.
Among the readers: Lisa Reina, who was eight months pregnant when she lost her husband, Joseph Reina Jr., an operations manager for Cantor Fitzgerald who worked on the 101st floor of the North Tower.
“Joe, we love and miss you more than you can ever imagine,” she said. “Our son is the spitting image of you. He lights up my world every day. I see you in everything that he does.”
After the moment of silence at the time that Flight 175 struck the South Tower, Bruce Springsteen – wearing a suit, and playing acoustic guitar and harmonica – performed “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” Many in the audience dabbed their eyes as they listened.
Among the sea of loved ones there to honor the dead was retired Army Sgt. Edwin Morales, who said he comes to the service every year to remember his cousin, Ruben “Dave” Correa, a New York City firefighter. Correa, 44, a Marine and 1991 Persian Gulf War veteran from Staten Island, died at the Marriott hotel that once stood in the shadows of the towers, his cousin said.
“His soul is right there where we did the ceremony. He was never found,” Morales said of Correa, pointing to the nearby spot where he and others placed roses and tiny American flags. “Every day is 9/11 for me.”
Remembrances on Saturday were not limited to the United States. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played Saturday morning at a special changing of the guard ceremony at Windsor Castle.
The scene echoed the one 20 years ago when, two days after 9/11 and by order of Queen Elizabeth II, troops played the U.S. national anthem during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The moment became a symbol of the outpouring of sympathy around the world, from allies and foes alike.
Yet there were reminders Saturday that much of that international goodwill has evaporated. China’s Foreign Ministry, for instance, issued a lashing statement calling the United States “the culprit of the Afghan issue” and suggesting that it should learn some “hard lessons.”
Those lessons were on the minds of many of those mourning in the United States.
Patrick J. Mahaney, a retired Green Beret who lost a cousin and six friends on 9/11, served seven tours in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2011 and said he came to love the country. But leaving it the way that the United States did, he said, “is a bipartisan disaster.”
“We abandoned our Afghan partners, who we fought with shoulder-to-shoulder,” he said. “They were willing to keep fighting because we said, ‘We’re still with you, we’ll always be with you, because of 9/11.’ “
Beyond New York, Shanksville and the Pentagon, there were commemorations in cities from coast to coast Saturday.
Across Boston and its suburbs, people gathered in churches, firehouses and public parks. The city has a uniquely painful connection to 9/11: The planes that flew into the World Trade Center departed from the city’s Logan airport.
Leslie Blair, whose sister Susan Leigh Blair was killed on 9/11, five months after starting a job at the World Trade Center, was among those gathered at a remembrance service at Boston’s John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Following the ceremony, she said, she planned to spend the rest of the day performing acts of service, “to remember and to honor, and to push those ripples” of life from her sister a little farther outward.
Across the country, in Orange County, Calif., hundreds of people gathered to remember, including Tom Frost, whose daughter, Lisa, was due to fly back to California that day, but never made it: Her plane crashed into the South Tower.
“Lisa was just the dearest, sweetest gift I ever received. I miss her so much,” he said as his voice filled with emotion. “It’s a bright blue sky today. It’s just like it was 20 years ago in New York, before the events of that day changed it all.”
Trump skips joining Biden, other former presidents at official 9/11 memorial ceremonies
Donald Trump, instead of appearing at the ceremonies, traveled several blocks from his Trump Tower building in Manhattan to the 17th police precinct and the neighboring fire station in NYC.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump was absent at official 9/11 memorial ceremonies in New York City and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton all attended a somber ceremony Saturday morning at the National September 11 Memorial where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades ago.
Biden traveled next to the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville to attend a wreath-laying ceremony. Earlier, former President George W. Bush and Vice President Kamala Harris both spoke at the memorial.
Trump, instead of appearing at the ceremonies, traveled several blocks from his Trump Tower building in Manhattan to the 17th police precinct and the neighboring fire station in NYC.
During an unannounced stop at a Shanksville fire department, Biden praised Bush for encouraging American unity in his speech. He also defended his administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan in brief remarks to the press pool.
A guard of honor salutes during a commemoration ceremony of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, the United States, on Sept. 11, 2021.
Biden’s last stop in the day was the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, where he attended a wreath-laying ceremony along with first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Biden did not deliver formal remarks on Saturday but released a video statement on Friday recognizing the lives lost in the deadliest attack in U.S. history and calling for national unity.
Nineteen terrorists hijacked four fuel-loaded U.S. commercial airplanes bound for west coast destinations on Sept. 11, 2001. A total of 2,977 people were killed in the attacks.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush warns against domestic extremism on 9/11 anniversary
Bush lamented the division in the United States, contrasting the current political climate to the spirit of unity that he said he observed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday warned against domestic extremism, saying the country has seen “growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within.”
“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” said Bush in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them,” he said.
Bush, who was in his first year as president when the horrific attacks took place, paid tribute to the passengers and crew members of Flight 93, which crashed in a field after those on board fought back against the hijackers and diverted them from their intended target.
The former Republican president lamented the division in the United States, contrasting the current political climate to the spirit of unity that he said he observed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
“A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear, and resentment,” Bush said. “That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.”
Bush has been outspoken about condemning violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election results for President Joe Biden.
Families, residents pay tribute to 9/11 victims as U.S. still healing 20 years on
Dale Nacke noted that the 9/11 attacks helped galvanize the country and bring the society together, but it didnt last long. “Now 20 years later, I see a country thats largely divided.”
When Dale Nacke talked about the last moments of his late brother Joey before the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed 20 years ago, he said his brother didn’t make any phone call because he wouldn’t share that burden with anybody.
“He wouldn’t put that kind of pain on the rest of us, so he didn’t make any phone calls. That isn’t our brother,” Dale, 49, told Xinhua on a chilly Friday night after a Luminaria Ceremony at the plane’s crash site surrounded by meadows and hills, located in the Pennsylvania countryside outside of Shanksville.
Asked how long it took for the family members to recover from the tragedy, Dale said 20 years doesn’t make much of a difference. “I don’t think we do (recover),” he said, choking back tears. “I’ll live the rest of my life without my brother and that absence in our family never goes away.”
Flight 93 was one of the four hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the deadliest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. The other three planes hit the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York, and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.
A wreath is seen at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the United States, Sept. 9, 2021.
Experts believe that the target of the Flight 93 hijackers was likely the U.S. Capitol Building or the White House. The 40 passengers and crew members attempted to seize control from hijackers and eventually forced down the plane, which crashed only 20 minutes flying-time from Washington, D.C.
“If I had the opportunity to say anything to him, given what this is, I would love to tell him how much, how proud I was of him,” Dale said.
His elder brother Louis Joseph Nacke II, a toy company executive, had just turned 42 two days before the 9/11 attacks. Dale said his brother liked to be called “Joey” by family members, while he preferred the name “Lou” with colleagues and friends.
“He had a Superman tattoo. He was afraid of nobody. He was my big brother. He was always my protector. And he was, he was a little brash. He was a little loud, but he was very loyal, very loving. As my big brother, I always looked up to him,” Dale said, bursting into laughter when describing what kind of person his brother was.
The Luminaria Ceremony, held a few hours before President Joe Biden and some former presidents gathered at the site to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, was attended by hundreds of families and friends of the victims, as well as many others who traveled hours to pay their tribute to the courageous heroes they never met.
Fourty candle lanterns were lit and carried by family members and friends, and placed below each victim’s name, engraved on tall slabs of white marble, known as Wall of Names. Flowers, mini American flags and a toy bear were easy to spot.
Glenna Putyrski, who lived in a nearby town, said she was a sixth grader when the plane crashed and had no idea what was going on, and attending the Luminaria Ceremony makes things real.
“Seeing the family members, I was really choked up too, because it just makes it so much more real seeing a family member of each person. And you just realize all those individual families and their own stories and everybody that was affected,” Glenna told Xinhua.
Asked about one of the major changes the 9/11 attacks have brought, Glenna highlighted the loss of trust among people and among countries. “Just overall distrust in the world, I feel like that just changed everybody’s outlook on everything,” she said.
“That sense of fear that people have now, maybe they didn’t before,” Glenna’s mom Anne Putyrski added.
“I’d say that we as a nation are not as arrogant about our own security as we were perhaps 20 years ago,” Dale said. “And I think we have a better heightened awareness, and are maybe more vigilant.”
Dale also noted that the 9/11 attacks helped galvanize the country and bring the society together, but it didn’t last long. “Now 20 years later, I see a country that’s largely divided,” he said.
Lanterns are placed at the Wall of Names during a candlelight memorial to the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the United States, Sept. 10, 2021.
#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.
5 soldiers killed, 6 wounded in ELN attack in Colombia
According to authorities, the wounded men were promptly transferred to a health center, where they are recovering from their injuries, while the army “is coordinating the corresponding legal procedures with the relevant authorities.”
At least five soldiers were killed and six were wounded on Saturday in an attack by guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN) in a rural area of the Colombian municipality of Arauquita in the department of Arauca.
According to authorities, the wounded men were promptly transferred to a health center, where they are recovering from their injuries, while the army “is coordinating the corresponding legal procedures with the relevant authorities.”
“The soldiers of Colombia express their heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of our murdered heroes,” said the Colombian Army.
Colombian President Ivan Duque condemned the attack, saying on Twitter, “These cowardly acts are the product of despair in the face of military pressure. For the memory of our heroes, we will continue attacking narco-terrorism and dismantling its structures.”
Hyundai Motor vows to make hydrogen cars as cheap as EVs
Lanterns are placed at the Wall of Names during a candlelight memorial to the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the United States, Sept. 10, 2021.
SootinClaimon.Com 