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Survivors dig by hand after Afghanistan quake killing 1,000

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Survivors dug by hand Thursday through villages in eastern Afghanistan reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people, as the Taliban and the international community that fled their takeover struggled to aid the disaster's victims.

In Paktika province's hard-hit Gayan district, villagers stood atop the mud bricks that once was a home there. Others carefully walked through dirt alleyways, gripping onto damaged walls with exposed timber beams to make their way.

The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, and officials said the toll could rise. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.

The disaster inflicted by the 6 magnitude quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and poverty and the health system has been crumbling since the Taliban retook power nearly 10 months ago amid the U.S. and NATO withdrawal. The takeover led to a cutoff of vital international financing, and most of the world has shunned the Taliban government.

How — and whether the Taliban allow — the world to offer aid remains in question as rescuers without heavy equipment dug through rubble with their bare hands.

The AP Interview: Estonian PM says don't play down Russia

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has told The Associated Press that the West shouldn't underestimate Russia's military capabilities in Ukraine, saying Moscow is in it for the long haul as the war enters its fifth month.

Kallas said in an interview Wednesday that Europe should ensure that those committing war crimes and attempted genocide are prosecuted, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin escaped punishment for annexing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and supporting an insurgency in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region that killed over 14,000 people even before this year's war began.

“I’ve heard talks that, you know, there is no threat anymore because they have exhausted themselves. No, they haven’t,” she said of the Russian military, which failed to take Kyiv in the early stages of the war and is now concentrating its firepower in the east.

“They have plenty of troops still who can come (to fight) — They are not counting the lives that they are losing. They are not counting the artillery that they are losing there. So I don’t think that we should underestimate them in the longer term to still keep this up,” Kallas said, despite the low morale and corruption troubling Moscow's forces.

Kallas praised the unity that Europe has shown in punishing Russia for the invasion that began Feb. 24, even though she said it was clear from the beginning that it would be “more and more difficult over time” to hang together.

European Union leaders set to grant Ukraine candidate status

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders on Thursday are set to grant Ukraine candidate status to join the 27-nation bloc, a first step in a long and unpredictable journey toward full membership that could take many years to achieve.

Making the war-torn country a contender now seems to be a done deal after leaders were initially divided on how fast they could move to embrace the war-torn country's bid that was launched only a few days after Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

According to several EU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity before the summit in Brussels, Ukraine will receive the unanimous approval that is required for the launch of discussions.

The EU's 27 nations have been united in backing Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, adopting unprecedented economic sanctions against Moscow. However, leaders were initially divided on how quickly the EU should move to accept Ukraine as a member, with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark among the most skeptical.

But Ukraine's bid got a boost last week when the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, gave its seal of approval based on Ukraine’s answers to a questionnaire received in April and early May.

1/6 panel to hear of Trump's pressure on Justice Department

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Jan. 6 committee will hear from former Justice Department officials who faced down a relentless pressure campaign from Donald Trump over the 2020 presidential election results while suppressing a bizarre challenge from within their own ranks.

The hearing Thursday will bring attention to a memorably turbulent stretch at the department as Trump in his final days in office sought to bend to his will a law enforcement agency that has long cherished its independence from the White House. The testimony is aimed at showing how Trump not only relied on outside advisers to press his false claims of election fraud but also tried to leverage the powers of federal executive branch agencies.

The witnesses will include Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Three days earlier, Rosen was part of a tense Oval Office showdown in which Trump contemplated replacing him with a lower-level official, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted to champion Trump's bogus election fraud claims.

In a written statement prepared for the committee and obtained by The Associated Press, Rosen says the Justice Department had been presented with no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome of the election and therefore did not participate in any Trump campaign efforts to overturn the results, instead insisting on an orderly transfer of power.

“Some argued to the former president and public that the election was corrupt and stolen,” Rosen’s statement says. “That view was wrong then and it is wrong today, and I hope our presence here today helps reaffirm that fact.”

After year of violence, US schools try to tame tensions

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The first week of school was supposed to mark a triumphant return to classrooms at San Francisco’s Everett Middle School after more than a year of distance learning.

But as computer science teacher Yesi Castro-Mitchell welcomed a class of sixth graders last fall, a student started punching her, again and again.

Castro-Mitchell wrapped her arms around her head and hoped for the blows to stop. She remembers the stunned silence in her classroom as other students witnessed the assault. The teacher suffered a concussion, a dislocated jaw, chipped teeth and hearing loss in her left ear that now requires a hearing aid.

Across America, one of the nation’s most difficult academic years was also one of the most violent. Experts who track school behavior nationwide said fights and other aggressive behavior, including shootings, appear to have increased. Now, with students heading out on summer break, schools are taking stock of what went wrong and how to fix it.

At Everett, many of this year’s problems were no different than before the pandemic, but “they were absolutely greater in severity, intensity and frequency,” said Cris Garza, a teacher at Everett for eight years and the teachers’ union representative.

Gas prices sting US workers who depend on their cars

DETROIT (AP) — High gas prices have Wallace Reid looking for a new career.

Reid, who drives for Uber and Lyft in New York, fills up his Lexus at least three times a week. He pays around $95 each time, about double what he was paying last year. To make up for that, he’s driving more often, but he’s also applying for other jobs that wouldn’t require his car.

“It’s more hours, more stress,” he said. “New York City is not an easy city to work and it’s affecting our lives.”

Reid isn’t alone. Millions of Americans who rely on their cars for work are changing their habits, signing up for carpools or even ditching their cars for bicycles as gas prices recently hit $5 per gallon for the first time ever. This week, it's averaging $4.95 per gallon nationwide, up from $3.06 per gallon a year ago, according to AAA.

Some help could be on the way. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden asked Congress to suspend federal gas taxes for three months, which would shave 18.4 cents per gallon off the price of gas. He also called on states to suspend their own gas taxes.

EXPLAINER: Why Sri Lanka's economy collapsed and what's next

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s prime minister says the island nation’s debt-laden economy has “collapsed” as it runs out of money to pay for food and fuel. Short of cash to pay for imports of such necessities and already defaulting on its debt, it is seeking help from neighboring India and China and from the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office in May, was emphasizing the monumental task he faces in turning around an economy he said is heading for “rock bottom.”

Sri Lankans are skipping meals as they endure shortages, lining up for hours to try to buy scarce fuel. It's a harsh reality for a country whose economy had been growing quickly, with a growing and comfortable middle class, until the latest crisis deepened.

HOW SERIOUS IS THIS CRISIS?

Airport chaos: European travel runs into pandemic cutbacks

LONDON (AP) — Got European travel plans this summer? Don't forget to pack your passport, sunscreen and plenty of patience.

Liz Morgan arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport 4 1/2 hours before her flight to Athens, finding the line for security snaking out of the terminal and into a big tent along a road before doubling back inside the main building.

“There’s elderly people in the queues, there’s kids, babies. No water, no nothing. No signage, no one helping, no toilets," said Morgan, who is from Australia and had tried to save time Monday by checking in online and taking only a carry-on bag.

People “couldn’t get to the toilet because if you go out of the queue, you lost your spot,” she said.

After two years of pandemic restrictions, travel demand has roared back, but airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the COVID-19 crisis are struggling to keep up. With the busy summer tourism season underway in Europe, passengers are encountering chaotic scenes at airports, including lengthy delays, canceled flights and headaches over lost luggage.

Teen's miraculous survival in Florida collapse finds purpose

SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — Jonah Handler’s miraculous rescue from one of the deadliest building collapses in U.S. history might seem to have an obvious parallel, given his name.

The teenage boy fell from the 10th floor of the beachfront condo tower that collapsed a year ago in Surfside, Florida, killing 98 people, including his mother. He landed in a crevice, trapped inside a pocket amid fallen concrete. A man who had been walking his dog saw Jonah’s hand waving from the rubble and got help.

For his father and others, the rescue brings to mind the Old Testament tale of the prophet Jonah, swallowed by a whale sent by God to save him from drowning.

“Plucked from the jaws of death,” Neil Handler said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I truly believe that God puts people in situations that help us build character.”

Now, Handler is sharing his son's journey to physical and mental recovery as they start a foundation to help families and first responders dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, like Jonah.

Fin-tastic! Growing 'mermaiding' subculture makes a splash

SYDNEY (AP) — There was a pivotal moment in Queen Pangke Tabora’s life that eclipsed all others: It was the moment, she says, when she first slid her legs into a mermaid tail.

For the transgender Filipina woman approaching middle age, seeing her legs encased in vibrant, scaly-looking neoprene three years ago was the realization of a childhood dream. And it marked the beginning of her immersion into a watery world where she would find acceptance. The former insurance company worker described the experience of gliding under water, half-human and half-fish, as “meditation in motion.”

“The feeling was mermai-zing,” Tabora said one recent morning while lounging in a fiery red tail on a rocky beach south of Manila, where she now teaches mermaiding and freediving full-time. “The world outside is really noisy and you will find peace under water. … It’s a good skill in the real world, especially during the pandemic.”

Across the world, there are thousands more merfolk like her — at its simplest, humans of all shapes, genders and backgrounds who enjoy dressing up as mermaids. In recent years, a growing number have gleefully flocked to mermaid conventions and competitions, formed local groups called “pods,” launched mermaid magazines and poured their savings into a multimillion-dollar mermaid tail industry.

On a planet plagued by war, disease and social upheaval, many merfolk have found life in the water a refuge. Perhaps Sebastian, the ornery crab in the 1989 film “The Little Mermaid,” said it best in his warning to land-loving mermaid Ariel: “The human world, it’s a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there!”

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