KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.”

Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the event early after the outburst and later denied making any racist comments in a Facebook post. He did not respond to a voice message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Trish Carter-Goodheart, a Democratic candidate for the House District 6 seat and member of the Nez Perce Tribe, said the blowup left her shaken and thinking about security needs for future public events. It also forced some tough conversations with her two young children, Avery and Lavender, who were in attendance.

“Having conversations about racism with an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old is not something me and my husband Dane were prepared for,” Carter-Goodheart said Friday. “They’ve never seen a grown adult man have a meltdown like that. They were scared. I was scared.”

The event was held by Democratic and Republican precinct committee members from the small north-Idaho town of Kendrick on Monday night, The Lewiston Tribune reported. It was for House and Senate candidates from the local district, including Foreman; his Democratic opponent, Julia Parker: Republican Rep. Lori McCann; and her Democratic opponent, Carter-Goodheart.

About an hour into the event, someone asked a question about a state bill addressing discrimination. The candidates were each given two minutes to answer, and when it was Carter-Goodheart’s turn, she pushed back on earlier comments that suggested discrimination is not a major issue in Idaho.

She said state hate crime laws are weak, and noted that the neo-nazi group Aryan Nations made northern Idaho its home base for many years. She also talked about being the only candidate there who was a person of color.

“I pointed out that just because someone hasn’t personally experienced discrimination doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” she said. “I was making my statement, and then he shot up out of his seat and said, ‘I’m so sick of your liberal (expletive). Why don’t you go back to where you came from?’”

The Nez Perce Tribe has lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest for more than 11,500 years, including the area where Kendrick is located. The northern edge of its reservation, while only a small fraction of the tribe’s historical territory, is less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall where the forum was held.

“It was like slow motion,” Carter-Goodheart said. “I just remember thinking, ‘Go back to where you came from’? That’s within miles of where this forum is taking place. We have literal plots of land that are being leased out to family farms nearby.”

In his Facebook post, Foreman called the incident a “quintessential display of race-baiting” and said the Democratic attendees made personal attacks and “proclaimed Idaho to be a racist state.”

“Well, here is a news flash for the lefties out there. There is no systemic racism in America or Idaho,” Foreman said. “Idaho is a great state — the best in the Union!”

He then added an attack on supporters of abortion rights, saying: “And furthermore, it is immoral and against the law of God to kill unborn babies in the womb. You do not have any right to murder the unborn. There is no such thing as your self-proclaimed ‘Women’s Reproductive Rights.’ There is no such body of rights in the state or federal constitutions. And we don’t do designer rights in Idaho.”

During the exchange at the forum, Parker and McCann both said, Foreman stood up and yelled after Carter-Goodheart’s response.

“I stood up and faced (Foreman) and tried to defuse what was going on,” Parker said.

McCann said Carter-Goodheart’s description of the incident matched her own recollection.

“Her statement is accurate,” McCann told the Tribune. “(Carter-Goodheart) leaned over to me and said, ‘Where am I supposed to go?’”

The event continued for about 20 minutes after Foreman left. Carter-Goodheart said she found herself watching the only door, worried he would come back, and the female candidates checked on each other later.

“I really appreciate that about the people who are running, specifically Lori McCann,” she said. “She’s my elder and I appreciate her and her commitment to our community. We do have a big difference in our values and what we want to do for our communities, but she checked on me and I checked on her, and that was the right thing to do.”

More candidate forums are planned in coming weeks, Carter-Goodheart said. Organizers for an upcoming League of Women Voters event emailed Carter-Goodheart on Friday to say police would be there as a precaution, she said, and the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office offered guidance about security measures her campaign can pay for.

“We’ve been told, you know, it’s not a bad idea to get security,” she said. “And we need to have honest discussions about race and discrimination and the inequalities and disparities that exist not only in Idaho but across the country.”

Sanxingdui Ruins is an archaeological site located in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province. The site has undergone heavy exploration through the years, with thousands of notable artifacts coming out of excavations. 

The Sanxingdui Ruins lie in Guanghan City. The site was first discovered in 1929 by a farmer who came across jade and stone artifacts while repairing a sewage ditch, according to Live Science. It was not until 1934 that an official scientific excavation commenced, according to China Daily. 

Since that first excavation, research and discovery has continued at the site. During the 1980s, the excavation of two pits was conducted, where over 1,000 artifacts were unearthed, according to China Daily. Those finds included figurines, human face masks and more. 

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Between 2019 and 2020, six more pits were excavated, according to the source, with more than 500 artifacts uncovered, including seashells, silk, ritual bronze vessels and gold masks. 

There has been an abundance of notable finds from the troves of artifacts discovered at the Sanxingdui Ruins. Among more recent discoveries, gold masks have been among the significant finds at the site. 

For example, in September 2022, it was announced by China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration that a 3,000-year-old gold mask was discovered at the site among royal tombs. 

Gold masks have been among the many notable finds that have come out of the archaeological site. (Tang Wenhao/Xinhua via Getty Images)

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The ancient mask dated back to the Shang Dynasty, ARTNews reported at the time, and predated another gold mask that was found the fall before at the Sanxingdui Ruins.

In 2021, a complete gold mask weighing about 100 grams was unearthed at the site, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency. The gold mask was larger, but weighed less than another fragment of a gold mask that was found at the site earlier on in 2021, according to the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute. 

Since 2022, there have been more than 4,000 artifacts unearthed from the Sanxingdui Ruins, which include pottery, jadeware and stoneware, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency.

More exhibits at the Sanxingdui Museum have been inspired by the ancient artifacts found in excavations. (Tang Wenhao/Xinhua via Getty Images)

To date, there have been over 60,000 relics found at the site, according to the source. 

The Sanxingdui Ruins is widely acknowledged as one of the “world’s greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century,” according to China’s Xinhua News Agency. Experts believe that the Sanxingdui Ruins are the remains of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

The Sanxingdui Museum first opened its doors in 1997, though it has been expanded since, and has provided an opportunity for visitors to see first hand many of the artifacts that have been found at the archaeological site through the years. 

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) has claimed responsibility for the killing of the head of security at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, branding him a “war criminal” and a “collaborator” with Russia.

The GUR posted a video on its Telegram channel showing a SUV exploding and hours later, the Russian Investigative Committee confirmed that Andrei Korotkiy was killed in Enerhodar, where the nuclear plant is located.

The GUR claimed that Korotkiy, a Ukrainian national, “voluntarily collaborated” with Moscow after it seized control of the nuclear facility in the early weeks of the war.

The agency alleged he had passed on personal data of the facility’s workers to Russian forces, highlighting those with a “pro-Ukrainian position”, as well as organising events which supported the “occupation”.

“The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence reminds people that every war criminal will be fairly punished,” the GUR said in a post on Telegram.

But Zaporizhzhia authorities quickly condemned the killing and vowed those responsible for Korotkiy’s would be punished.

“This is a horrific, inhumane act,” said the facility’s director, Yuri Chernichuk.

“An attack on employees ensuring the safety of the nuclear facility is a reckless, outrageous step.”

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, located in southern Ukraine, is the largest in Europe and prior to the 2022 Russian invasion, supplied Ukraine with around 30% of its electricity.

Meanwhile, at least three people – including a six-year-old girl – have been killed when the Russian military hit a car carrying liquefied natural gas in the northern village of Hirsk.

Village head Andrii Apryshko said the strike caused the gas cylinders to explode causing a fire which spread to a nearby house.

“They dropped a shell later when we were already putting out the fire here. And there were three more drones, I think. They did not let us put out the fire,” he said.

Local officials said one man had a leg blown off in the blast while one other suffered shrapnel wounds and burns.

Pokrovsk strikes

And in eastern Ukraine, residents of Pokrovsk have begun patching up their homes after overnight Russian strikes caused extensive damage and injured four people.

According to the regional police, the Russian military dropped six bombs on the city damaging a multi-story building, three houses and a shop.

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Around 80% of the city’s infrastructure was wiped out as a result of the assault, according to international media reports.

In July, Russia made a renewed effort to seize Pokrovsk, prompting authorities in the city to urge residents, particularly the elderly and families with children, to evacuate.

The city’s military administration said that as of 4 October, around 13,000 people remain in Pokrovsk, down from its pre-war population of around 60,000.

And in Sumy, near the border with Russia, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenksyy met soldiers recovering in hospital, handing out state awards.

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“Thank you for defending our country,” he said.

Sumy lies some 32 kilometres from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since 6 August in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s visit to Sumy comes a day after he met new NATO chief Mark Rutte in Kyiv where he repeated his appeal for faster deliveries of Western weapons to the battlefield.