By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

(CNN) — Beneath a diaphanous white veil, four family members sit together on tan leather chairs, the woman in the center holding a baby in her arms. They gaze pointedly at the viewer, their concealed-yet-visible state a potent metaphor. Now in their 60s, they are the children born from a Japanese soldier and Vietnamese wife in the years that Japan occupied Vietnam during World War II. Like others born from these taboo unions, they have dealt with social hardships and the lifelong absence of their father. Though some troops stayed after the war, many families faced forced separation by the mid-1950s, when soldiers were required to return.

That was the case for the family of Lê Thị Xuân and Yoshiharu Shimizu (whose Vietnamese name is Nguyễn Văn Đức), who had two sons and one daughter, pictured above. When photographer Phan Quang took this portrait of the siblings in 2014, the family spanned four generations – including a great-grandchild seated on the woman’s lap. The image belongs to a larger multiyear series, “Re/cover,” which Phan embarked on to tell these families’ stories and completed a decade ago. In each of the portraits, his subjects are draped by the white veil, both a symbol of matrimony and silence. Part of the work is exhibiting at the Rencontres d’Arles photo festival in France this summer and fall.

Because of Japan’s occupation, including its military’s harrowing history of sexual slavery through “comfort women,” any union between Japanese soldiers and Vietnamese women endured extreme prejudice. In “Re/cover” Phan sought out the families born from mutual consent and love, whose stories were untold.

“Japanese soldiers who married local women were often looked down upon by their peers, as these women came from what was then seen as a ‘lesser’ country,” Phan said. “On the other hand, their Vietnamese wives and children were stigmatized for carrying the bloodline of a former occupying force.” Their children’s dual identity resulted in legal and social hardships, a kind of in-between state where they could not integrate fully into Vietnamese society nor visit their father’s homeland.

“Their lives seemed entirely erased by history, and they themselves appeared trapped in a melancholic loop of the past, with no way out,” Phan added.

Xuân, one of the few Vietnamese wives who was still alive as Phan made the work, “spoke about her love with a surprising warmth and devotion,” he recalled. Shimizu voluntarily stayed in Vietnam after World War II to join the Việt Minh resistance, opposing French colonial reoccupation, the photographer explained. The couple married in Hanoi and lived together for nine years before she and Shimizu were separated. “Their love was genuine, and she remained deeply proud of her husband, carefully preserving his belongings for decades.”

Without recognition from the Japanese government, or a way for Shimizu’s family in Vietnam to immigrate, they never reunited as a family. Shimizu faced hardship upon his return to Japan in 1955 and was unable to support them financially, Phan explained. In 1986, when Vietnam underwent historic reforms and began to open the country to travel, he returned with his new Japanese wife to see his adult children. Xuân “welcomed them both with extraordinary generosity,” he added.

Locating the families of “Re/cover” presented challenges to Phan, who, with his news reporting experience, spent years tracking them down and earning their trust. Despite writing more than 200 letters to Japanese consulates, historical institutions and other organizations, he received scant replies, which he attributed to the sensitive nature of the topic.

While developing the series, the veil as a visual device came to him after he visited a traditional Japanese kimono workshop in 2013. Phan saw connections between Japan and Vietnam in its use — a facto

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By Nicole Chavez, Karina Tsui, CNN

(CNN) — In an uncanny echo of the recent past, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in Texas for 35 years and a young Colombian father halfway across the country in Maine were killed days apart in shootings at the hands of immigration agents.

While the shootings this month are still in their investigative infancy, they are a grim callback to January and the separate killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota when each encountered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.

Within a week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, became the third and fourth people to have been fatally wounded by federal immigration agents this year as President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda has led to immigration enforcement crackdowns resulting in not only arrests and removals, but also violence and death.

Here’s what we know about the four people killed this year by federal agents involved in immigration enforcement activities and other shootings in which agents opened fire:

Renee Good

Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was killed on January 7 when an ICE agent shot into her vehicle in Minneapolis.

The mother of three had been participating in demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge dubbed Operation Metro Surge and stopped her burgundy SUV for a few minutes on a snowy residential Minneapolis street, obstructing the flow of traffic. When Good began pulling forward, an ICE officer standing in front of her vehicle pulled his weapon and fired at least three shots into the car, killing her.

Alex Pretti

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who treated veterans, was shot and killed on January 24 by federal immigration agents.

Video of the encounter shows Pretti sought to aid a woman shoved to the ground by an immigration agent, getting pushed to the ground himself as he and others get into a physical skirmish with a group of agents before at least two eventually

Análisis por Stephen Collinson, CNN

Irán parece estar jugando con Donald Trump en su propio terreno.

El presidente se quejó el lunes de que no se puede confiar en que la República Islámica cumpla un acuerdo, y reprendió a sus gobernantes por una de sus propias medidas emblemáticas.

“Era un trato cerrado, y luego lo rompieron. Siempre lo rompen”, declaró a Fox News refiriéndose al memorando de entendimiento que suspendió brevemente la guerra.

Trump no pareció apreciar la ironía de su crítica, dado su hábito de abandonar múltiples acuerdos internacionales, incluido el Acuerdo de París sobre el Clima (dos veces).

Algunos críticos atribuyen la actual situación de Estados Unidos a la decisión de Trump, durante su primer mandato, de desechar el acuerdo de la era Obama que limitaba el programa nuclear iraní.

Más tarde, un Trump frustrado prometió imponer su propio peaje a los barcos que transitaran por el estrecho de Ormuz. Irán, con una oferta cargada de sarcasmo, intervino con un precio mejor que el del autor de “El arte de la negociación”.

“El presidente tiene toda la razón”, escribió en X el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, Abbas Araghchi, argumentando que Trump había legitimado la postura de Teherán sobre el cobro por el paso por la vital vía fluvial. Araghchi añadió con ironía: “El 20 % es, por supuesto, demasiado. Seremos justos”.

Trump está descubriendo que Irán es un negociador duro y tiene su propia interpretación del contenido del memorándum. Y aún no ha explicado claramente a los estadounidenses por qué reavivó una guerra que, según él, ya había ganado.

Semanas después de declarar con gran pompa que un memorando de entendimiento que firmó significaba que había puesto fin para siempre al programa nuclear de Irán y traído la paz a Medio Oriente por primera vez en 3.000 años, el presidente ha cambiado de opinión.

El lunes, en el programa de radio de Hugh Hewitt, Trump declaró que el acuerdo era una “prueba” que Irán había suspendido y que “no significaba gran cosa”.

En otro tiempo, sus admiradores podrían haber argumentado que las marcadas contradicciones de Trump demostraban que estaba jugando una partida de ajedrez diplomático en cuatro dimensiones. Ahora, en el mejor de los casos, se encuentra en un punto muerto.

El memorando de entendimiento fracasó porque Irán actuó para defender su mayor victoria en la guerra: el control efectivo del estrecho.

Esto reforzó una dura realidad para Estados Unidos: a pesar de las amenazas y el poderío militar de Trump, Teherán sigue marcando el rumbo del conflicto.

Y la ecuación que definió la guerra permanece inalterada: la República Islámica utiliza la geografía y un astuto conocimiento de su propio poder limitado para superar a una superpotencia adversaria.

La nueva prueba de voluntades surgió en parte de la prisa del Gobierno por negociar un memorando de entendimiento con un lenguaje impreciso.

El equipo de negociadores inmobiliarios de Trump, liderado por el vicepresidente J.D. Vance, pareció pasar por alto lo que los críticos más versados ​​en historia y diplomacia comprendieron de inmediato: que Irán lo usaría para obtener una mayor ventaja.

Por ejemplo, el acuerdo instaba a Teherán a “tomar las medidas necesarias” para el libre y seguro paso de buques comerciales por

* WHAT…Dangerous rip currents and breaking waves with elevated
surf expected. Minor coastal flooding possible.

* WHERE…San Luis Obispo County Beaches, Santa Barbara County
Central Coast Beaches, Santa Barbara County Southwestern
Coast, Santa Barbara County Southeastern Coast, Ventura County
Beaches, Malibu Coast and Los Angeles County Beaches.

* WHEN…Through Wednesday evening.

* IMPACTS…There is an increased risk of ocean drowning. Rip
currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Waves can
wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats
nearshore.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS…Southerly swell combined with abnormally
high tides of 7.0 to 7.6 feet will bring the potential for
minor coastal flooding in low-lying areas in the evening.
Remain out of the water due to hazardous swimming conditions, or
stay near occupied lifeguard towers. Rock jetties can be deadly
in such conditions, stay off the rocks.

The post Beach Hazards Statement issued July 13 at 9:31PM PDT until July 15 at 11:00PM PDT by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was drained Monday to make repairs and that it “will be refilled and put back into service soon,” again claiming that vandals gashed the pool’s lining.

CNN observed that much of the water had been drained, revealing dried sediment, algae and some debris on what was supposed to be a freshly renovated landmark painted what Trump previously called “American flag blue.

Since Trump called for the pool’s renovation in April, the more than $14 million project has been plagued by massive algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and allegations of vandalism.

The president said Monday night on Truth Social, “We drained the beautiful ‘Reflecting Pool’ today in order to fix the scars and damage that was done by the Vandals two weeks ago.”

“The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs,” Trump said in the post.

Trump’s latest claim that the gashes in the lining were “300 yards long” — which would be 900 feet, or the length of three football fields — is considerably longer than his past claims, which have increased in length several times.

He first called it a 250-foot cut and later claimed there were “actually numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length.”

A CNN crew visited the pool late Monday afternoon and did not notice any obvious signs of long gashes in the recently installed lining, but they were not able to access the full length of the pool because of fencing that has been installed around much of the landmark.

CNN has reached out to the Department of the Interior, the National Park Service and US Park Police to ask if they found evidence of gashes in the pool lining now that most of the pool has been drained.

“The Parks Department had to empty the water in order to fix the water tight basin,” the president said Monday night. “It will be refilled and put back into service soon. These Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done.”

Trump posted again later Monday night, complaining about news reports on the pool and insisting the lining “was slashed with a knife, or a box cutter” and that even the algae blooms were “caused by vandals.”

In recent weeks, at least three people were charged with destruction of property after allegedly removing pieces of blue paint from the pool — they all recently pleaded not guilty. And a former Olympic canoeist, David Hearn, indicted on the same charge pleaded not guilty last week.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in a July 5 interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the government could “absolutely” prove the damage was caused by vandals, and that there are photographs supporting the claim. But he dodged a question about whether those photographs show anyone damaging the pool.

Bergum said on a podcast last week that crews began draining the pool after the July Fourth fireworks show, noting that some of the fireworks debris was still in the water.

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