City and federal parks authorities are beefing up resources near Jamaica Bay in Queens following The Post’s expose last week of surginganimal sacrificesin the area.
The National Parks Service promised to install a pair of mobile lights by the Addabbo Bridge in the federally-managed Spring Creek Park to ward off people torturing and killing animals under the cover of darkness, Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) announced.
The federal National Parks Service promised to provide mobile lights and parks police patrol to deter animal torture.J.C. Rice
NPS spokeswoman Daphne Yun said the agency would also provide additional parks police patrol in the area, where animal rescuers said at least eight animals were found dead or maimed since late July.
These have included five wounded pigs, a near-dead baby rat stuffed in a bag with chicken bones, and a dog carcass with its neck snapped.
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The city’s Parks Department also pledged to increase overnight patrols in Sunset Cove Park, Broad Channel, where gruesome animal remains also have been found, Ariola’s office said.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola said the city Parks Department would provide additional parks enforcement patrols in the Sunset Cove area.J.C. Rice “I’ve gotten in touch with my partners at both the federal and city level, and we are going to bring a new level of enforcement to the area and really crack down on this sickening behavior,” Ariola told The Post. “Animals should not be getting tortured and mutilated for any reason. This ends now.”
Sloane Quealy, president of Zion’s Mission Animal Rescue, called the additional enforcement resources a “great first step,” but called for more patrols.
“Until then we’re going to do 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., we’re going to walk the beach, just to see about interrupting anything that’s going on,” she said.
Outraged family members of US troops hurt in the line of duty slammed Kamala Harris’ brazen claim that no Americans are serving in war zones — a statement which flies in the face of her own administration’s official list of active combat zones.
As many as 50,000 US service members currently patrolling countries and oceans across the Middle East and Africa are receiving either “hostile fire” or “imminent danger pay,” monthly payments of up to $225 for troops deployed in areas where they could easily be subjected to — or do come under — enemy attack, retired Army Col. and military analyst Jonathan Sweet told The Post.
Yet during Tuesday’s ABC debate with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the vice president to make it seem as if the Harris-Biden administration has heralded in a period of peace not seen in decades — and that all American military members are safe.
Outraged family members of US troops hurt in the line of duty slammed Kamala Harris’ brazen claim that no Americans are serving in war zones.Getty Images
“As of today there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, for the first time this century,” she insisted before a TV audience of 67 million.
Earlier in the debate, Trump warned that the United States is “playing with World War III” by allowing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to continue.
He has long argued that during his presidency he kept international rivals at bay, and that Russia would not have dared to invade Ukraine, nor Hamas assault civilians in Israel, on his watch.
Brad Illerbrunner was not buying Harris’ claims of peace.
His son, Chief Warrant Officer Garrett Illerbrunner of the US Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, was critically injured in Iraq on Christmas Day.
A drone launched by the terror organization Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups struck the Erbil Air Base in Iraq where Garrett was stationed.
Garrett Illerbrunn received a Purple Heart following the drone attack.Courtesy of Lorna Illerbrunn
A month after the attack that critically injured Illerbrunn, three National Guard members were killed and 34 other troops injured by a drone strike launched by Iran-backed militants at US base in Jordan known as Tower 22.
And in mid-August, seven US soldiers were hurt during a joint raid with Iraqi forces in Western Iraq that killed 15 ISIS terrorists, who were armed with grenades and explosive “suicide” belts.
The vice president’s claims on the debate stage offended wide swaths of the military community because they fail “a basic kind of smell test,” said Michael DiMino, a fellow at the think tank Defense Priorities.
Nearly two dozen nations are recognized as combat zones by the IRS, according to reports.Mike Guillen/NY Post
“If you’re in Jordan in the middle of nowhere to fight ISIS, and you’re getting attacked by Iranian drones and rockets on a daily basis, you’re in a war zone,” he said.
Harris was trying “to finagle a wording . . . to make a point we’re not engaged in all these conflicts — which we are,” he added.
“Those quibbling qualifiers ignore the fact American men and women in uniform are getting shot at on daily basis, and many just in the last eight months have died or been injured.”
The US currently has roughly 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq and another 1,000 in Syria as part of the US-led international efforts to eliminate the Islamic State, known as Operation Inherent Resolve.
Iraq is among nearly two dozen areas designated as “combat zones” by the Harris-Biden administration’s own IRS, which allows soldiers to receive tax exemptions for serving in “hostile areas … [including] actual combat areas, direct combat support areas and qualified hazardous duty areas.”
A Harris campaign spokeswoman repeated the vice president’s debate point that for the first time in decades, the nation is not at war, but she acknowledged American troops stationed around the world are “taking risks for our country that should be honored no matter where they serve.”
Michael DiMino, a fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank, suggested Harris and her team were trying to score a technically accurate point that belied the fact that US service members were still coming under fire and dying during deployment.AFP via Getty Images
A Defense Department official also echoed the claim that the United States currently is not involved in any wars nor are troops fighting in any active war zones.
“An aspect of military service includes serving in locations where hostile actions may occur,” the official said. “Those locations are designated by executive order and/or the Secretary of Defense. However, it’s important to note that just because a service member is in one of these locations does not mean they are engaged in war.”
Holly Davis, whose husband is a National Guardsman currently deployed in Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, said the threat of combat and violence is ever-present.
Vice President Kamala Harris implied during the debate that the Harris-Biden had heralded in a period of peace.AFP via Getty Images
“It’s very hurtful that someone who is currently our vice president is making these claims when my husband is literally sacrificing his life every day over in the Middle East,” Davis said.
On Aug. 9, her husband’s base was hit by a drone strike. During a recent phone call, she heard the blares of an alarm ringing, warning of an incoming attack.
“I had to sit in those literal two minutes of hearing that, wondering if he was going to come back on the phone,” she said. “It’s very real. Very war zone.”
PfizerPFE.Nis trying to increase doctor awareness of and testing for a rare lung cancer mutation to help boost use of its drug Braftovi, which the pharmaceutical maker anticipates could grow to become the standard of care.
The company presented three-year follow-up data from a Phase 2 study on Saturday looking at patients with BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who received Braftovi and another Pfizer drug, Mektovi, as a first treatment. The study showed they had a median of over two-and-a-half years of progression-free survival, a measure of how long treated patients live before their cancer gets worse.
Chris Boshoff, Pfizer's Chief Oncology Officer, said the new data supports the use of the drug as standard of care for that group and said it expects to get market penetration of up to 60% in lung cancer patients with the mutation.
He said approximately 2% to 3% of lung cancers have the mutation in question.
Standard of care for such patients is currently an immunotherapy paired with chemotherapy, Boshoff said. The combination of Braftovi and Mektovi has been approved for patients with non-small cell lung cancer with the mutation since last year.
"All patients with lung cancer should be tested for BRAF mutations, and that could be done with a simple blood test," he said. "It's a relatively easy test to identify these patients who clearly would benefit significantly from having a targeted therapy."
He said that fewer than 50% of lung cancer patients in the U.S. are currently tested for the mutation. That number is even lower globally.
"This is a space where Pfizer is particularly well equipped, not just in the US, but globally, to encourage testing and to help educate physicians, pathologists, patients, and patient advocate groups," Boshoff said. He said the test is covered by insurance in the U.S.
Pfizer sold close to $400 million of Braftovi and Mektovi last year, but analysts are not currently forecasting significant growth for the drugs, according to LSEG data.
One area where Boshoff said Braftovi could expand its market is in colorectal cancer, where BRAF-mutated cancers make up 10% of the cancers. Data from the company's late-stage study in colorectal cancer is expected to be announced by the end of the year, he said.
Samsung, Xiaomi and other smartphone companies colluded with Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart to exclusively launch products on the e-commerce firms' Indian websites in breach of antitrust laws, according to regulatory reports seen by Reuters.
Antitrust investigations conducted by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) have found that Amazon and Flipkart violated local competition laws by giving preference to select sellers, prioritising certain listings, and steeply discounting products, hurting other companies, Reuters reported this week.
The CCI's 1,027-page report on Amazon also said the Indian units of five companies - Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Realme and OnePlus - were "involved in the practice of exclusive" phone launches in "collusion" with Amazon and its affiliates, breaking competition law.
In Flipkart's case, a 1,696-page CCI report said the Indian units of Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo and Realme conducted similar practices.
The inclusion of smartphone makers like Samsung and Xiaomi in the case could increase their legal and compliance headaches.
"Exclusivity in business is anathema. Not only is it against free and fair competition but also against the interest of consumers," CCI's additional director general G.V. Siva Prasad wrote in the Amazon and Flipkart reports, in identical findings.
Reuters is first to report the smartphone companies have been accused of anticompetitive behavior in the CCI's reports which are dated Aug. 9 and are not public.
Xiaomi declined to comment, while the other smartphone makers did not respond to requests for comment.
Amazon, Flipkart and the CCI did not respond, and have not so far commented on the reports' findings.
Both the CCI reports said that during investigations Amazon and Flipkart "deliberately downplayed" allegations of exclusive launches, but officials found the practice was "rampant".
Counterpoint Research data shows that South Korea's Samsung and China's Xiaomi are two of India's biggest smartphone players, together holding an almost 36% market share, with China's Vivo on 19%.
India's e-retail market is set to exceed $160 billion by 2028, up from $57-60 billion in 2023, consultancy firm Bain estimates.
The investigation findings are a major setback for Amazon and Flipkart in a key growth market where they have faced the ire of small retailers for years for hurting their offline businesses.
The Kremlin has issued yet more warnings following reports that the Biden administration could soongreenlight long-range attacksby Kiev forces on Russian territory using US-supplied arms.
Both the UK and Canada are on board, we reported earlier, and British Prime Minister Ken Starmer is visiting Washington where he's directly lobbying Biden to jump on board and grant Zelensky's urgent request to lift all restrictions on Western weaponry.
However, The New York Times suggests that saner minds are prevailing at this point. "President Biden’s deliberations with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain about whether to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range Western weapons were fresh evidence that the president remains deeply fearful of setting off a dangerous, wider conflict," the publication writes.
Let's hope this is the case, given this is arguably the most dangerous moment and decision-point of the war to date. Pentagon leadership has recently stressed that granting the permission for long-range strikes will do little strategically to change the battlefield, where Russian momentum has continually gained in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov on Friday added to prior Kremlin warnings, telling Rossiya 24 channel that he fears American leadership and the people are under "illusion".
He said they seem to think that "if there is a conflict, it will not spread to the territory of the United States of America."
Antonov continued by stressing that Americans can't hide from nuclear war if this unthinkable happens. "I am constantly trying to convey to them one thesis that the Americans will not be able to sit it out behind the waters of this ocean. This war will affect everyone, so we constantly say – do not play with this rhetoric," Antonov stated according to state media translation.
As for UK PM Starmer's visit to Washington, The Wall Street Journal had earlier previewed that "While the final decision on Storm Shadow will be made by the U.K. government, British officials will ask for the Biden administration to weigh in because some components of the missiles are made in the U.S."
But based on NSC spokesman John Kirby's words as of Friday afternoon, Washington's policy has not changed and no permission has yet been given to Ukraine.
So far, Ukraine forces have pummeled sights across Russia with drones, but unleashing missiles in the area of Moscow oblast for example would take the war to a whole new level.
President Putin has warned that Russia would make no distinction between Ukraine forces and their NATO suppliers at that point. It won't matter which pulled the trigger.
