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Ukrainians outline demands for security guarantees, note possible progress on Crimea after talks with Russia

Senior members of the Ukrainian delegation who spoke with Russian officers immediately stated there was progress after a day of talks in Turkey — and supplied extra element on what safety ensures Ukraine would count on after a ceasefire.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, referred to talks concerning the standing of Crimea, which annexed by Russia in 2014.
“I wish to emphasize as regards the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, it was agreed in bilateral format to take a pause for 15 years and conduct bilateral talks on the standing of those territories,” he stated.
Ukraine and the West have refused to acknowledge the Russian annexation of the peninsula, and the pause could possibly be a formulation for taking the problem off the desk for now.
“Individually, we mentioned that in 15 years whereas the bilateral talks happen, there might be no army hostilities,” Podolyak added.
He additionally referred to one of many hardest parts within the talks: safety ensures for Ukraine if and when a ceasefire and peace settlement are agreed upon.
“Undoubtedly, this treaty on safety ensures could solely be signed after a ceasefire and the whole withdrawal of Russian troops to their positions on the twenty third of February 2022,” he stated.
“We’re merely bringing our proposals as negotiators to Russia concerning the system of safety ensures of Ukraine,” he continued.
Podolyak stated the Russian negotiators have “taken the treaty that outlines methods to finish the struggle” and can work out their counter-proposals.
He added that each side are nonetheless “discussing a humanitarian ceasefire,” stressing there are “many locations the place humanitarian corridors are wanted.”
One other member of the Ukrainian workforce, David Arakhamia, additionally spoke about safety ensures. “We insist that this be a global treaty, signing all of the guarantors of safety, which might be ratified.”
He stated this might be corresponding to NATO’s Article 5, which enshrines the precept of collective protection. The association, he stated, can be just like Article 5, “however even with a stricter activation mechanism.”
“We are saying that consultations ought to happen inside three days. They should discover out if that is struggle, aggression, a army operation. … After that, the guarantor international locations are obliged to assist us. And army assist, and the armed forces, and weapons, and the closed sky — all that we’d like a lot now, and we can’t get it. That is our proposal,” he stated.
Arakhamia named the guarantors as “the [permanent] international locations of the UN Safety Council” in addition to Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel.
“We have now stipulated on this settlement that the guarantor international locations should not solely not deny Ukraine’s accession to the EU, but in addition assist with it,” he stated.
Arakhamia added: “In fact, now we have unresolved points with the occupied components of Donetsk and Luhansk areas, with Crimea and Sevastopol. And worldwide safety ensures is not going to work quickly in these territories.”
A 3rd member of the Ukrainian delegation, Oleksandr Chalyi, additionally careworn the three-day deadline for consultations within the occasion of “any aggression, army assault or army operation.”
“And if these consultations don’t result in a diplomatic resolution to the issue, the guarantor international locations should present us with army help, weapons, and even we embrace such a state of affairs as closed airspace over Ukraine,” Chalyi stated.
Talking to Ukrainian tv, he stated: “Doing the whole lot attainable to revive Ukraine’s safety is a key requirement. If we handle to consolidate these key provisions, which is essentially the most basic requirement for us, Ukraine will in actual fact be ready to repair its present standing as a non-aligned and non-nuclear state within the type of everlasting neutrality.”
“Accordingly, these ensures, that are in actual fact in keeping with NATO Article 5, as required by our nation’s Structure. [We] is not going to deploy overseas army bases or army contingents on our territory, and we is not going to enter into military-political alliances. Army trainings in our nation might be carried out with the consent of our guarantor international locations,” Chalyi stated.
“Nonetheless, it’s basic for us that nothing in these provisions will deny our accession to the EU. The guarantor international locations are additionally dedicated to facilitating these processes,” he added.

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Texas flood death toll rises as search continues for victims – UPI.com

A young girl carries a stuffed bear during a vigil for those lost in the Texas floods at the “Wall of Hope” fence memorial in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday. Photo by Dustin Safranek/EPA
July 12 (UPI) — More than 2,100 searchers from a dozen Texas Counties, other states and Mexico are continuing recovery efforts to find more victims of the deadly flash flooding in central Texas.
The confirmed-deaths toll rose to 129 with 170 still missing after officials in Travis and Kerr counties reported the recovery of more bodies, USA Today reported.
Most of the dead, 103, were found in Kerr County, including 36 children and 67 adults.
Among those missing is Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Phillips, whose rescue vehicle was swept away when flash flooding struck Burnet County.
Search crews later found the vehicle, but Phillips was not inside.
“Specialist teams and equipment continue to deploy into the search area and work themselves to exhaustion or until nightfall in the effort to find him,” the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office announced on Saturday, according to USA Today.
Many states and Mexico sent entire first responder teams, including Indiana, which deployed personnel from 15 fire and police departments to help the recovery effort, The New York Times reported.
Many volunteer groups also traveled to Kerr County, where most search efforts are focused.
“It’s overwhelming to see so many people come and help in the search,” Kerrville, Texas, resident Amy Vanlandingham told The New York Times.
“This is our town,” she said. “I do it so I can sleep.”
The Guadalupe River’s flash flooding during the early morning hours of July 4 decimated several local camps and other popular visitor destinations on one of their busiest days of the year.
The bodies of victims likely are situated in debris fields located along more than 100 miles of narrow and shallow valleys along the Guadalupe River in the mostly rural area of Texas Hill Country.
President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and others visited Kerr County on Friday to assess the situation and better gauge the need for federal assistance.
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'Helping every dang soul': Beloved camp director was among those lost in Texas flooding

Just after the summer session ended in late June, Heart O’ the Hills camper Sydney Sutton sent this photo to the camp’s director, Jane Ragsdale, who was killed in the July 4 flooding in Kerr County, Texas.
Erika Sutton
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Erika Sutton
Jane Ragsdale spent her summers by the Guadalupe, the very river that killed her a week ago today in the catastrophic July Fourth flood. Mention her name in Kerrville, Texas, this week, and folks tend to do two things: tear up and smile.
“I mean I can’t tell you how many people, acquaintances of mine say, ‘My dear, dear friend died.’ And then they said, ‘Did you know Jane Ragsdale?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, I did,’ ” said Karen Taylor, who lives in nearby Hunt, Texas. For her, Ragsdale was West Kerr County personified.
“Everybody’s friendly here, but she embodied that friendliness and generosity and love for others. I just can’t imagine life without her,” Taylor said.

Ragsdale, who was in her late 60s, did a lot of things, but she’s best known as the owner and director of Heart O’ the Hills camp for girls. She was born into the business.

Jane Ragsdale ran the Heart O’ the Hills camp for girls in Kerr County, Texas. The camp was between sessions when the deluge hit. The only person killed there was Ragsdale.
Kerrville Daily Times
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Kerrville Daily Times
Her family bought a boys’ camp, Camp Stewart in 1966, the year Ragsdale turned 9. They bought Heart O’ the Hills about a decade later. Ragsdale helped run it from the start. By 1988, she was in charge.
Unlike Camp Mystic, the girls camp where at least 27 perished when the deluge hit, Heart O’ the Hills was between sessions. The only person killed there was Ragsdale.

“I’ve never in my life met someone like Jane,” said Kathy Simmons, who was a good friend of Ragsdale’s.
Simmons was at Heart O’ the Hills picking up her granddaughter just the week before the flood, on the last night the camp was open.
“We had a candlelight service on the river at 9 p.m., and it was so beautiful. There were prayers and there were songs,” Simmons said. “Jane always led the children in songs. And every one of those girls and those counselors absolutely idolized her.”

After Heart O’ the Hills camper Sydney Sutton sent a photo of herself to Jane Ragsdale, the camp director wrote this letter back to Sydney.
Erika Sutton
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Erika Sutton
The summer camps on the Guadalupe River in Kerr County are institutions. Generations of girls and boys go through them, often forming life-long attachments. Simmons considered Ragsdale the heart and soul of her camp, both spiritual leader and educator.
“I mean, Jane taught these girls how to change a tire, how to ride a horse, how to swim, how to shoot a gun, archery, cooking. I mean, the necessities of life,” Simmons said.
In the off-season, when she wasn’t running the camp, Ragsdale often traveled to Guatemala, where she volunteered as an interpreter and a project organizer. It was mission work she started doing when she was 19 and studying journalism. She was a badass. But she was also about the sweetest person in town.
“Jane was one of the most genuine, kind, honest people and very intelligent, very warm,” recalls Mindy Wendele, president and CEO of the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce. “She had a smile that you knew Jane Ragsdale was smiling at you.”
Wendele grew up with Ragsdale, who she describes as a real go-getter: deeply involved in the Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the local liberal arts college, a class leader in high school.
“Anytime that we were out with Jane and her family at Heart O’ the Hills, we had just a fabulous time, just fabulous memories out there,” Wendele said.
Now, with some of the camps and almost all of the riverfront in ruins, Kerr County faces a monumental clean-up and rebuilding effort.
Another reason to miss Jane Ragsdale.
“Oh, she would be out there volunteering. She would be out there clearing property,” Simmons said. “She would have her boots on, her gloves on, she would be helping every dang soul that needed to be helped.”
So the flood took one of Kerr County’s most capable citizens, but Ragsdale’s influence on the community and the girls who came through Heart O’ the Hills camp is going to last a long time.
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Video: Clashes After Immigration Raid at California Cannabis Farm

new video loaded: Clashes After Immigration Raid at California Cannabis Farm
transcript
transcript
Clashes After Immigration Raid at California Cannabis Farm
Federal agents fired crowd control munitions at protesters who blocked a road outside of the farm. Some demonstrators threw objects at the agents’ vehicles.
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Please make a path for emergency vehicles or chemical munitions will be deployed.
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