Police find students swimming during school hours

THIRTEEN students from years 7 to 13 from different schools in the Southern Division were found swimming at the Kalabu waterfalls during school hours on Thursday.

Divisional Police

Commander South Senior Superintendent of Police Wate Vocevoce had directed the officers to conduct patrols in the area following concerns raised by members of the public about students swimming and gathering in the said location during and after school hours.

SSP Vocevoce said having found children at the site during school hours posed great concerns and are pleading with parents and guardians to speak to their children on the need to be in school and to head straight home after. this time of the year due to atmospheric circulation, these extreme temperatures have been exacerbated by El Nino and an increasingly warming planet.

Police said the respective principals were informed and the students’ parents were contacted.

SSP Vocevoce said the operations team had come across similar worrying gatherings of children when conducting patrols within the Southern Division.

He said the operations team would continue to ask children to return home, calling for parental and guardians’ support in the protection and well-being of students.

He added that while it’s often hard to establish a connection between extreme weather events and climate change, temperatures in parts of Chile have been breaking records year after year.

“It’s a pretty robust sign of warming,” Jacques said. “The connection between temperature and long-term climate change is much more evident.”

The winter season has been eventful in Chile, with the most intense rainstorms in decades leaving thousands homeless, isolated towns and blocked roads in the south-central area of the country.

Many hope the rains would help the replenish the country’s water reservoirs after more than a decadelong drought, but Jacques described the situation as “quite fragile” as long as snow in the Andes isn’t being replaced.

“Winter hightemperature events do affect the spring flow rate that can be expected from melt,” Jacques said.

According to the latest service reports, high temperatures in the north and center of the country will last all week.

(Reporting by Jorge Vega, Natalia Ramos and Alexander Villegas)

By ANDREA SHALAL RUMFORD, Maine

(Reuters) – U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis

McDonough urged veterans across the country to apply by Wednesday to get an extra year of retroactive benefits under a new law passed last year to aid veterans sickened by gases from military toxic burn pits.

McDonough told dozens of veterans in Rumford, Maine, they could get an additional year of benefits worth up to thousands of dollars per month if they filed a claim, or their intention to do so, by Aug. 9. Claims can still be filed after that, but will only take effect from the date the claim is filed.

“War is hell,” McDonough said. “What we know now is exposure to those burn pits, and exposure to particulate matter, especially in the deserts of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan … has real health effects on our veterans.”

McDonough is taking part in a travel blitz by senior cabinet members and President Joe Biden to tout the benefits of the veterans law, or PACT Act, and other legislation enacted during Biden’s tenure.

He said more than 800,000 veterans across the country had applied for the benefits, with some 450,000 claims already assessed and 80% of those claims being granted.

The U.S. military used burn pits to dispose of waste on foreign bases until the mid-2010s. Fumes from burning everything from rubber, chemical waste, and ammunitions to human feces have caused rare cancers and respiratory illnesses in veterans.

The bill is expected to cost an estimated $180 billion over the first four years. It would benefit nearly 3.5 million veterans who developed cancer and other illnesses after being exposed to fumes from the pits.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

THE upcoming web series

Scam 2003: The Telgi Story will premiere on Sony LIV on September 2. The series is based on the life of Abdul Karim Telgi, who is known for running one of the biggest stamp paper scams in India.

The series is produced by Applause Entertainment in association with StudioNEXT. It is helmed by the National award-winning director Hansal Mehta and directed by Tushar Hiranandani.

The 1-minute-26-second long teaser of the series was released on social media on August 4. The