What we know about Idaho firefighters, sniper who ambushed themNew Foto - What we know about Idaho firefighters, sniper who ambushed them

An Idaho community is reeling days after a manset a brush fire and ambushed responding firefighters, fatally shooting two and injuring a third. Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Frank Harwood and Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief John Morrison were killed in the attack June 29, authorities said. Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Dave Tysdal was recovering after two surgeries, according to Coeur d'Alene Fire Chief Tom Greif. "This community lost two dedicated public servants," Gabe Eckert, president of the Coeur d'Alene Firefighters' union, said at anews conference. "These men were dedicated firefighters; they were dedicated to their community. These guys were hard workers who loved their families." Authorities identified the suspect, who is also deceased in an apparent suicide, as 20-year-oldWess Roley. Roley's body was discovered after a six-hour manhunt that drew a response of hundreds of law enforcement officials from local, state and federal agencies. Here's what we know: The firefightersresponded to a callat about 1:21 p.m. June 29 that fire had broken out on the east side of Canfield Mountain near Coeur d'Alene, a city of about 57,000 in the northwest part of the state. At 2 p.m., firefighters broadcast that shots had been fired, officials said. Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded, and gunfire was exchanged with the suspect, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said. "This was a total ambush," Norris said. "These firefighters did not have a chance." Investigators used cell phone data to locate a signal that hadn't moved since about 3:16 p.m. and discovered the body of the suspect, authorities announced just after 7:40 p.m. As the manhunt unfolded, the brush fire grew unchecked until it was considered safe for firefighters to access, the Idaho Department of Lands said. As of the evening of June 30, the blaze was being held at about 26 acres with no evacuations or structures at risk, the departmentsaidin an update. The suspect, a transient with a history of "minor" run-ins with police, appeared to be living out of his car at the time of the shooting, Norris said. Investigators were still looking into a possible motive and what brought Roley to Coeur d'Alene, he said. Past encounters with law enforcement were mostly about suspicions of trespassing, authorities said. He came from an "arborist family" and appeared to have fired from up a tree, Norris said. The suspect "at one point wanted to be a firefighter," Norris said. "We don't know if there's a nexus between that desire and what happened." Formerclassmates remembered Roleyin interviews with USA TODAY as having "Nazi tendencies" and "obsessed with guns." Read more. The firefighters killed in the attack wereremembered as "selfless public servants." Harwood, 42, had been with the Kootenai agency for 17 years, according to Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Way. He was married with two children. "He did an amazing job," Way said. "This loss is felt by so many." Morrison, 52, had been with the Coeur d'Alene department since 1996, said Greif, the city's fire chief. Eckert, of the firefighters' union, shared a recent memory of smoking cigars with Morrison on a backyard patio. "We talked about being better fathers, we talked about being better leaders, and we talked about being better firefighters," Eckert said. "I'm so incredibly grateful that that gets to be my last memory with him." Contributing: John Bacon, Michael Loria, Christopher Cann, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Josh Meyer and Will Carless This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What we know about slain Idaho firefighters, sniper suspect Wess Roley

What we know about Idaho firefighters, sniper who ambushed them

What we know about Idaho firefighters, sniper who ambushed them An Idaho community is reeling days after a manset a brush fire and ambushed ...
Iran assesses the damage and lashes out after Israeli and US strikes damage its nuclear sitesNew Foto - Iran assesses the damage and lashes out after Israeli and US strikes damage its nuclear sites

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is assessing the damage and lashing out over theAmerican and Israeli airstrikeson its nuclear sites, though Tehran kept open the possibility Tuesday of resuming talks with Washington over its atomic program. The comments by government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani also included another acknowledgment that Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz — key sites within Iran's nuclear program — had been "seriously damaged" bythe American strikes. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted Mohajerani as making the remarks at a briefing for journalists. That acknowledgment comes as Iran's theocracy has slowly begun to admit the scale of the damage wrought bythe 12-day war with Israel, which saw Israeli fighter jets decimate the country's air defenses andconduct strikesat will over the Islamic Republic. And keeping the door open to talks with the United States likely shows Tehran wants to avoid further economic pain as another deadline over U.N. sanctions looms. "No date (for U.S. talks) is announced, and it's not probably very soon, but a decision hasn't been made in this field," Mohajerani said. Iran offers rising death toll Israeli airstrikes, which began June 13,decimated the upper ranksof Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles. The strikes also hit Iran's nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran within reach of a nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. On Monday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir offered a sharply increased, government-issued death toll from the war. He said that the Israeli attacks killed 935 "Iranian citizens," including 38 children and 102 women, IRNA reported. "The enemy aimed to change the country's circumstances by assassinating military commanders and scientists, intending to spread fear and exert pressure," Jahangir added. However, he asserted — like others up to 86-year-old Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei— that Iran had "won" the war. Iran has a long history of offering lower death counts around unrest over political considerations. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, has put the death toll at 1,190 people killed, including 436 civilians and 435 security force members. The attacks wounded another 4,475 people, the group said. Activity seen at Iran's Fordo facility Meanwhile, it appears that Iranian officials now are assessing the damage done by the American strikes conducted on the three nuclear sites on June 22, including those at Fordo,a site built under a mountainabout 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show Iranian officials at Fordo on Monday likely examining the damage caused by American bunker busters. Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. That corresponded to images shot Sunday by Maxar Technologies similarly showing the ongoing work. The tunnels likely had been filled in by Iran before the strikes to protect the facility. The presence of trucks before the attacks has raised questions about whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been spirited away before the attack, something repeatedly claimed by Iranian officials. Even before the strikes, the IAEA warned that its inspectors hadlost their "continuity of knowledge"regarding the program, meaning material could be at undeclared sites in the country. Iran hasn't said what work is being done at the sites, though it has said that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran planned to issue a report about the damage done by the strikes. Hard-liners lash out Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whose profile sharply rose during the war, also has kept open the possibility of talks with the U.S. However, hard-liners within Iran are increasingly criticizing any effort at negotiations or cooperation with the West. Iran's hard-line Kayhan newspaper, in a piece written by its Khamenei-appointed managing editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, mocked any possible talks Tuesday by saying being a "traitor or stupid are two sides of the same coin." Shariatmadari's newspaper on Saturday also suggested that the IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, should be "tried and executed" if he visited Iran — something that drew immediate criticism from European nations and others.

Iran assesses the damage and lashes out after Israeli and US strikes damage its nuclear sites

Iran assesses the damage and lashes out after Israeli and US strikes damage its nuclear sites DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is ass...
Man accused of gathering information on Jews in Berlin for Iran arrested in Denmark, officials sayNew Foto - Man accused of gathering information on Jews in Berlin for Iran arrested in Denmark, officials say

BERLIN (AP) — A man suspected of gathering information on Jewish locations and individuals in Berlin for Iranian intelligence, possibly with a view to attacks, has been arrested in Denmark, German prosecutors said Tuesday. The Danish national, identified only as Ali S. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested on Thursday in the Danish city of Aarhus, federal prosecutors said in a statement. The man was tasked by an Iranian intelligence service early this year with gathering information on "Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals" in Berlin, prosecutors said. They didn't elaborate. He spied on three properties in June, "presumably in preparation of further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets," prosecutors said. German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said that "if this suspicion is confirmed, we are dealing with an outrageous operation," adding in a statement that "the protection of Jewish life has the highest priority for the German government." German security authorities stepped up protection for Jewish and Israeli facilities after a12-day warbroke out between Israel andIranin June. The suspect is accused of working for an intelligence service of a foreign power. The information leading to his arrest came from Germany's domestic intelligence service, prosecutors said. He will be brought before a judge in Germany to determine whether he's kept in custody pending formal charges after extradition from Denmark. It wasn't immediately clear when that will happen. Iranian Ambassador Majid Nili Ahmadabadi was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry after prosecutors announced the arrest. The Iranian Embassy in Berlin rejected what it called "unfounded and dangerous allegations" of an apparent plan for an attack on Jewish facilities. It said in an emailed statement that they "appear to be part of a deliberate campaign" to divert attention from "the recent aggression of the Israeli regime against Iranian territory" and the killing of Iranians. Germany is a staunch ally of Israel and has a history of tense relations with Tehran, though it has been one of the three leading European powers trying toengage Iran in diplomacyover its nuclear program. In October, Germanyordered the closureof all three Iranian Consulates in the country in response to the Iranian judiciary's announcement of the execution of Iranian German prisonerJamshid Sharmahd, who lived in the United States and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces. That left the Islamic Republic with only its embassy in Berlin.

Man accused of gathering information on Jews in Berlin for Iran arrested in Denmark, officials say

Man accused of gathering information on Jews in Berlin for Iran arrested in Denmark, officials say BERLIN (AP) — A man suspected of gatherin...
Kremlin denies U.S. claims that Russia is stalling in Ukraine peace talksNew Foto - Kremlin denies U.S. claims that Russia is stalling in Ukraine peace talks

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin on Tuesday denied claims by U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine that Russia was stalling in peace talks, adding that Moscow had fulfilled all the agreements reached so far in the negotiations. Trump's senior envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said on Monday that "Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine." Asked about the remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was grateful to Trump's team for helping to facilitate talks but that Moscow was not stalling the talks. "No one is delaying anything here," Peskov told reporters in Moscow. "We are naturally in favor of achieving the goals that we are trying to achieve through the special military operation via political and diplomatic means. Therefore, we are not interested in drawing out anything." Peskov noted that the dates of the third round of talks still needed to be agreed. (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Kremlin denies U.S. claims that Russia is stalling in Ukraine peace talks

Kremlin denies U.S. claims that Russia is stalling in Ukraine peace talks MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin on Tuesday denied claims by U.S. Pre...
France shuts schools, Italy limits outdoor work as heatwave grips EuropeNew Foto - France shuts schools, Italy limits outdoor work as heatwave grips Europe

By Emma Pinedo PARIS/MADRID (Reuters) -Several Italian regions banned outdoor work during the hottest hours of the day, France shut scores of schools and Spain confirmed last month as its hottest June on record as a severe heatwave gripped Europe, triggering widespread health alerts. Spanish authorities were investigating whether a street sweeper's death over the weekend in Barcelona was caused by the heatwave and trade unions blamed the heat for the death on Monday of a 47-year-old man on a construction site near Bologna. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier in the year, and persisting into later months. "What is exceptional, and I would stress exceptional but not unprecedented is the time of year," said World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis. "We are the first of July and we are seeing episodes of extreme heat which normally we would see later on in the summer. Higher temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea tend "to reinforce the extreme temperatures over land areas," she said. The Mediterranean Sea was up to 6 degrees Celsius warmer than usual for the time of year, hitting a record of as much as 30 C (86 F) in Spain's Balearic Sea as a heat dome trapped hot air above Europe, the country's AEMET weather forecaster said. Spain recorded its hottest June last month, with an average temperature of 23.6 C, AEMET said. The Red Cross has set up an air-conditioned "climate refuge" in southern Malaga, said IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa, to help residents cope with the searing temperatures. Extreme heat kills up to 480,000 people annually around the world, according to Swiss Re, which notes this exceeds the combined toll from floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. HEALTH ALERTS The heat was set to peak in France on Tuesday, reaching 40-41 C in some areas and 36-39 C in many others, weather forecaster Meteo France said. Sixteen departments will be on the highest level of alert from noon, with 68 on the second highest. Some 1,350 schools were fully or partially closed, up from around 200 on Monday, the Education Ministry said. The top floor of the Eiffel Tower will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, with visitors advised to drink plenty of water. Italy, meanwhile, issued heatwave red alerts for 17 cities, including Milan and Rome. In Sicily, a 53-year-old woman with a heart condition died while walking in the city of Bagheria, news agencies reported, possibly of heatstroke. Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a key cause of climate change, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet's hottest on record. "We keep hearing about climate change. I think we're definitely feeling it now," Omar Bah, a rental company worker said in London, where temperatures hit 32 C. "When I was younger, summer wasn't like this." Across Europe, tourists also sought ways to keep cool. "We woke up as early as possible to get out as early as possible so we can rest during the afternoon," Susana Leivonen, a 45-year-old from Finland said in Paris. The family were prepared with water and sun lotion, and planned to seek respite in shops or take an afternoon nap. The scorching temperatures have raised the risk of field fires as farmers in France, the European Union's biggest grain producer, start harvesting this year's crop, with many working through the night to avoid peak temperatures in the afternoon. (Additional reporting by Emma Farge, Michaela Cabrera, Ingrid Melander, Kate Abnett, Gus Trompiz, Rachel More, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Alvise Armellini; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

France shuts schools, Italy limits outdoor work as heatwave grips Europe

France shuts schools, Italy limits outdoor work as heatwave grips Europe By Emma Pinedo PARIS/MADRID (Reuters) -Several Italian regions ban...

 

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