War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said the United States remains committed to helping defend Bolivia’s fragile government amid ongoing warnings of a coup d’état.

In a post on X, Hegseth said the War Department and the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C), a recently established multinational military and political alliance, reject all attempts to overthrow the government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira a mere six months into his term.

“The United States is watching. Bolivia must not allow itself to fall prey to the old status quo of narco-terrorist dominance in the region,” Hegseth wrote. “We will continue to support our A3C partners like Bolivia to ensure that narco-terrorists are deterred from profiting on death and destruction in our hemisphere.”

PETE HEGSETH MAKES HOMELAND SECURITY TOP MISSION IN FIRST INTERVIEW AS SECRETARY OF WAR

Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, has been rocked by weeks of social unrest as mass protests have blocked streets in major cities amid economic inflation and rising fuel prices.

Bolivian Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas resigned Tuesday.

Upon taking office, Paz supported a land reform bill to boost agribusiness that Indigenous farmers said put them at risk of eviction. He further scrapped fuel subsidies, sending prices surging by nearly 90%. Motorists complained that the gasoline was contaminated and ruined their cars.

The Trump administration has said drug traffickers are responsible for inciting the mass unrest.

RUBIO IDENTIFIES ‘SINGLE MOST SERIOUS THREAT’ TO THE US FROM WESTERN HEMISPHERE

“Let there be no mistake: the United States stands squarely in support of Bolivia’s legitimate constitutional government,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote Wednesday on X. “We will not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected leaders in our hemisphere.”

“Let us not make any mistake about that; it is a coup financed by this perverse alliance between politics and organized crime across the region,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said Tuesday, stating that the protests were part of an ongoing “coup d’état.”

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Meanwhile, former President Evo Morales, the country’s first Indigenous president who ruled for an unprecedented 14 years, is calling for early elections. “Paz only has two paths left: a suicidal decision like militarization or … an election in the next 90 days,” he wrote on X.

For almost two years now, Morales has been hiding out in Bolivia’s central coca-growing Chapare region, evading an arrest warrant on human trafficking charges relating to allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl. He rejects the allegations as politically motivated.

At least 12 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in Russian strikes across Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commemorated at least 707 children killed by Russia during the two countries’ more than four-year-long war.

At least five people were killed and 11 others injured in Russian bomb and drone attacks on eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the National Police of Ukraine’s press service said on Thursday.

“Seven settlements were under fire: the cities of Dobropillya, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, Mykolaivka, Sloviansk, the village of Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka, and the village of Kuritsyne. 42 civilian objects were destroyed, including 16 residential buildings,” the press service said in a message on Telegram.

The damage to civilian infrastructure was extensive, read the message, with at least 14 apartment buildings and 11 cars damaged as well as “a medical institution … an evacuation vehicle and an ambulance” also destroyed.

The next deadliest Russian attack took place in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. At least three people were killed and 21 others were injured in Russian missile and drone attacks in the region, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Also in northeastern Ukraine, at least two people were killed and four others injured in a Russian attack on the village of Yampil, in the Shostka district, according to Oleg Hrygorov, the head of the Sumy regional military administration.

“The enemy attacked the central part of the Yampil community … two people died as a result of the attack … Four injured women were also taken to hospital. They are being provided with the necessary medical assistance,” Hrygorov wrote on Telegram.

At least one person was killed and five others injured in Russian shelling in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the region’s military administration.

“In the Nikopol region, the Nikopol, Marhanetska, Chervonogryhorivska, Pokrovska and Myrivska communities were under attack,” wrote Ganzha on Telegram, adding that the injured were in hospital receiving treatment.

Ganzha said that the Russian shelling caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, with fires breaking out in Slobozhanske and Petrykivska.

“The fire that occurred in the building of a logistics company was extinguished,” he added.

Lastly, one person was killed by Russian shelling on the Komyshany settlement in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the local military administration.

Over 707 children killed

Russia’s latest attacks across Ukraine came as Zelenskyy commemorated International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression by remembering the children killed over the course of Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

“This day is about the most painful episodes of the war, about the greatest injustice and the evil Russia inflicts when the most vulnerable and the most innocent are killed. Children,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media.

At least 707 Ukrainian children have been killed, said Zelenskyy, adding that “there are also thousands of children whom Russia has wounded, abducted, and thousands of children whose fate remains unknown”.

“Eternal memory to every child who was killed. It is our enduring duty to remember, to protect our children, and to do everything possible to ensure that the evil Russia has brought is punished.”

Later on Thursday, the Kremlin said that Zelenskyy is welcome to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow “any time”, after the Ukrainian president called to set a date for a face-to-face meeting between the pair to end the war.

“Zelenskyy can come at any time to Moscow,” state media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, adding that Putin had not yet been shown Zelenskyy’s letter.

Latest Ukrainian attacks

In Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, at least one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Luhansk, according to the Moscow-appointed regional governor, Leonid Pasechnik.

“In the Troitsky Municipal District, an enemy drone struck a civilian vehicle. Unfortunately, the driver was unable to escape and died at the scene from his injuries,” Pasechnik wrote on the Makh channel.

Pasechnik said that the Ukrainian army also hit a commuter train in the Novoaidar Municipal District, adding that none of the 13 passengers on board were injured.

At least one person was killed and three others injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a commuter train in the Russia-annexed Crimea, according to Sergei Aksyonov, Moscow-backed head of the Ukrainian peninsula.

Later on Thursday, Aksyonov said that three people were killed and seven others injured in a Ukrainian attack on non-residential buildings in Crimea’s Simferopol city.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Komsomolskoye, in southeast Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region.

In a statement, the ministry said it had launched three assaults on the Ukrainian army, resulting in losses of “up to 430 servicemen, four armoured combat vehicles, eight cars, and a counter-battery radar station”.

The assault came as Putin said the country must strengthen its air defences, a day after Ukrainian drones struck an oil complex and naval base in St Petersburg, Russia.

“Russia has an air defence system. Yes, we must improve it. Yes, we must strengthen it. And we will do so,” Putin said during a meeting with foreign journalists in St Petersburg.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Life tasks like paying bills, canceling subscriptions and answering overdue emails are becoming a reason to socialize for friends, couples, roommates and other people who get together for what’s known as “admin dates.”

The low-pressure gatherings taking place in coffee shops, accommodating bars and private homes are intended to turn tedious and procrastination-inducing adult responsibilities into productive time with a twist. Tackling a personal to-do list alongside others is a double-duty activity that combines the satisfaction of tending to necessary chores with the no less vital work of nurturing relationships.

“You can have both — getting things done and connecting with people,” Thema Bryant, a Pepperdine University psychology professor and past president of the American Psychological Association, said. “At the gym, if I’m taking a group exercise class, I’m less likely to stop in the middle of other people. … In the same way, admin dates can help with accountability, motivation and connection.”

Romantic or business partners looking to get on the same page, and club members or volunteers collaborating on a big project also may find admin dates helpful. Experts generally advise against meeting up in this way with regular work colleagues, especially supervisors, because it might add unnecessary pressure or create self-consciousness that’s counterproductive to confronting in-box gremlins.

Here’s why experts think admin dates have taken off on social media and elsewhere, and some suggestions to keep in mind when organizing one:

Why doing life together feels good

Spending time with friends and classmates at Northern Arizona University is part of the college experience for 21-year-old roommates Alexia Ruvalcaba, Sami Hawkins and Mandi Bluth, but they say their get-togethers often revolve around everyday responsibilities made more enjoyable with iced white mochas sprinkled with cinnamon.

“Being together helps us get things done,” said Ruvalcaba, a junior pursuing a degree in hotel and restaurant management. She says they look for places where other people are working. Usually that’s one of the more than dozen coffee shops in Flagstaff, Arizona.

“There’s not a single person here that doesn’t have a laptop,” Ruvalcaba said from a table inside Foxtail Coffee Co., a Flagstaff franchise of the Florida-based chain. “I don’t know them, I haven’t talked to them, but all the people here are working or studying.”

Dealing with too many uncompleted tasks can feel overwhelming to some people, but whittling away at them in the company of trusted friends or even strangers engrossed in their own screens can clear some of the mental fog and foster a sense of community, said Bryant, the author of a book titled “Matters of the Heart: Healing Your Relationship with Yourself and Those You Love.”

One reason admin dates can help with productivity is because of modeling, a theory from behavioral psychology about learning by observing and imitating others, she said. Seeing other people check off items on their agendas can motivate us to do the same, Bryant said.

“In some ways, the reward is in community. That social support is a big protector of our mental health,” she said. “On the flip side, it can cultivate a sense of joy and connection. So it can be inherently rewarding to be in the company of people that we enjoy, even if we’re not doing a fun activity per se, but that presence in and of itself can be healing.”

What to think about before an admin date

Before taking on tasks as a group, discuss how often and for how long the participants want to meet, what level or kind of social interaction they want to have, and the kind of work they have languishing, experts advise. The latter will influence where an admin date takes place. Some people work best in relative quiet, and some tasks can get noisy or are location-dependent, like grocery shopping or home maintenance.

Creating an emotionally safe and mutually productive environment also will inform who is invited to the event — again, bosses typically are a poor choice — and may require establishing some guidelines. Admin dates “are intended to be helpful to everyone,” but self-motivated participants sometimes end up coaching others instead of focusing on their own to to-dos, Bryant noted.

Attending an admin date also may require some mental preparation for every person involved. Telling yourself you are disorganized or can’t manage to get anything done is a stress response that makes it harder to overcome overwhelm or break out of procrastination mode, said Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a physician at Harvard Medical School who specializes in mental health.

Nerurkar, who is the author of “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience,” said that for individuals with harsh inner critics, having a realistic list of tasks to complete during an admin date and the company of a group can turn down the volume on unhelpful thoughts and make the process more manageable.

The goal, she said, is creating mental space to focus and for the list to “empower you instead of overwhelm you.”

Prioritizing tasks also is important since the social aspect of admin dates can become an excuse to procrastinate. Experts also caution against comparing yourself to other admin date attendees, saying the point is to draw motivation from seeing friends work toward similar goals.

“This is not about a competition. This is very much a collaboration,” Nerurkar said.

Don’t forget to have fun

Food and beverages figure into most admin dates at some point, so deciding if they will be shared and if so, how the costs will be managed are other factors to consider. Organizers also should determine how participants feel about the consumption of beer, wine or cocktails during an event mixing personal business and pleasure.

Since admin dates are supposed to be communal, focusing only on tasks that require deep concentration or silence can undercut the social element that makes them appealing in the first place. Even if your to-do list is a mile long, remember to leave room for conversation, life updates and laughs.

To preserve the enjoyment factor, experts encourage admin daters to celebrate themselves and each other. Updated a resume? Put money into savings? Take a break and acknowledge the completion or grab a sweet treat from the coffee shop. Doing so, experts say, increases motivation and confidence.

Bluth says her college friend group used to write each person’s tasks on a whiteboard and congratulate each other whenever something got crossed off.

Sometimes the students get off track having too much fun, but “by the end of the day, what we need to do gets done,” Hawkins said.