Kim and Kanye West head to fortress in the Caribbean to work on marriage – Evening Standard

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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have reportedly reunited once again - but this time in a more remote location.

The couple, who has been married for six years, is said to have flown to the Caribbean for a trip that is make or break for their marriage, according to The Sun.

The tabloid has also reported that Kardashian planned to fly out the couples pastor, Rich Wilkerson Jr., who officiated their wedding in 2014.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in 2020 (Getty Images)

TMZ has also reported that Kardashian and West are joined by their four children, and that the family is staying in a fortress to evade paparazzi.

Speculation about Kardashian and Wests relationship began following the rappers public breakdown, which appeared to begin when he declared he would run for the US presidency on July 4 through Twitter.

Later that month, West held a campaign rally in South Carolina where he shared a series of bizarre and personal statements, including his claim that revered abolitionist Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, and a tearful confession that he and Kim considered terminating their first pregnancy.

Kanye West's July 19 campaign rally in South Carolina (REUTERS)

Kardashian released a statement on Instagram defending her husband. In it, she called West a brilliant but complicated person, and spoke of the incredibly complicated and painful struggle Wests bipolar disorder was for him and the entire family.

West later shared an apology to Kardashian on Twitter, writing: I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me, he posted.

To Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me. Days after Wests July 25 tweet, TMZ published photos of Kardashian in tears as the two reunited in Wyoming.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

Kardashian was reported to have returned to Los Angeles following their meeting with a renewed sense of hope about the state of their marriage, despite previously stating the family was powerless in getting West help if he refused.

Before the trip, she was ready to end her marriage, a source told People following Kardashians visit to Wyoming.

But Kanye has been listening to her concerns. He has made some promises to her. Kim still sees divorce as a last resort. She is not there yet.

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Kim and Kanye West head to fortress in the Caribbean to work on marriage - Evening Standard

There Are Now Almost 40,000 Active COVID-19 Cases In The Caribbean – Caribbean and Latin America Daily News – News Americas

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Cuban medical personnel checks the temperature of every visitor who stands in line to pay tribute and to write in the condolence book for late Eusebio Leal, Havanas historian, in the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, the official headquarters of Leals office as the citys historian, on August 1, 2020 in Havana, Cuba.Leal, who died yesterday at the age of 77, on July 31, 2020 is well known for his role in leading the restauration of Old Havana, declared World Heritage by UNESCO. (Photo by Sven Creutzmann/Mambo photo/Getty Images)

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Aug. 4, 2020: The Caribbean is trying its hardest to get back to the business of tourism, but COVID-19 cases continue to occur in several countries daily. A News Americas tally Monday shows the region now has almost 40,000 active cases of the virus in all but four islands.

One place where the virus continues to show no signs of slowing down, despite the fact that it remains open to tourists, is the Dominican Republic. The country reported another 874 cases alone Monday to send its active case load surpassing 33,000.

Overall, the confirmed cases are almost double as it continues its daily spiral past 73,000 to keep the country as the epicenter of the disease. The death toll also up ticked to 1,183, as five more people died Monday.

French Guiana is nowhere near that number but has the second highest cases in the region at 7,948 confirmed cases but only 1,137 active cases. The French dependency also added another death Monday to reach 44.

Haiti ranked third in the region with the most cases at 7,476, but its active case load is 2,705. The country added another 8 cases Monday, but its death total remains at 165.

Puerto Rico has the fourth highest cases in the region at over 7,100 and 230 deaths to date.

Heres where the other countries stand currently.

Cuba

Cuba has 2,670 total cases but only 210 active cases. Only 87 people has died in Cuba so far. Still there is some concern as the country added 24 new cases alone Monday.

Suriname

Suriname now has 1,849 confirmed cases and 628 active cases and 27 deaths.

Jamaica

Jamaica up ticked by 11 new cases Monday to reach 894 confirmed cases, even though the island has only 139 active cases. However, two more people succumbed to the virus Monday as the death toll climbed to 12.

The Bahamas

The Bahamas now has 648 confirmed COVID-19 cases as its active cases load is at 543. The islands have also seen 14 deaths so far.

USVI

The USVI has 77 active cases currently and 439 overall, along with 8 deaths.

Guyana

Guyana now has 474 COVID-19 cases, of which h268 are active cases. The South American CARICOM nation has also seen 21 deaths to date.

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe saw its coronavirus cases increase by 7 Monday to reach 272 as its active cases are now 79 but its death tally is still 14.

Martinique

Martinique has 269 cases, of which 156 are active cases. Only 98 people have recovered to date, but the French Caribbean territorys death tally is still 15.

Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago has reported 182 total cases of the virus to date but only has 39 active cases even as it seen only 8 deaths to date.

Bermuda

Bermuda now has 157 and has reported only 9 deaths since the virus struck, while its active case load is even lower at 5.

Sint Martin

Sint Martin has a total of 146 COVID-19 cases, 66 of which are active cases. So far, the island has reported 16 deaths.

Barbados

Barbados has 132 confirmed COVID-19 cases but only 27 remain active cases as the island has seen only 7 deaths.

Aruba

Aruba currently has 122 confirmed cases of the virus but only 8 remain active even as the Dutch Caribbean island has seen only 3 deaths.

Turks & Caicos

The Turks and Caicos up ticked to 116 new cases Monday even as its active case load remains at 76. Still the British dependency has seen only 2 deaths to date.

Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda has reported 91 cases to date but only 21 remain active cases. Only 2 people have died from the virus there.

Belize

Belize has 57 confirmed cases and 25 active cases while only two deaths have been reported on the island.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been one of a handful of islands to see no deaths from the virus to date and of its 55 total cases, only 10 remains active.

Saint Martin

Saint Martin now has 53 confirmed cases but only 9 remain active. The island has also seen only 3 deaths.

Curacao

Curacao has only 29 cases but only 4 remain active. Only one person has died from COVID on the island.

Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia has seen only 25 cases to date and only 3 remain active. No one has died of COVID-19 on Saint Lucia.

Grenada

Grenada has had only 24 cases and only 1 remain active. Like St. Lucia, The Spice Isle has seen no deaths from the virus so far.

Saint Kitts & Nevis

Saint Kitts & Nevis has reported only 17 cases of the coronavirus even as only 1 active case remains. No one has died of COVID-19 in the Federation.

Montserrat

Montserrat has seen only 13 cases of the virus and only two remain active. There has been only 1 date to date.

Netherland Antilles

The Netherland Antilles has seen 13 cases only and 6 remain active even as the death toll remains at zero.

St. Barths

St. Barths has confirmed 9 cases and only 3 remain active. No deaths have been reported from the virus.

NO ACTIVE CASES

The islands with no active cases are The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Anguilla and the BVI.

COIVD-FREE ISLANDS

Dominica and Anguilla are the only COVID-19 free islands in the region.

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There Are Now Almost 40,000 Active COVID-19 Cases In The Caribbean - Caribbean and Latin America Daily News - News Americas

Mexico and Caribbean Heat Up With Openings and Future Projects – Hotel Business

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INTERNATIONAL REPORTHotel offerings in Mexico and the Caribbean include the soon-to-open Conrad Punta de Mita, the already open Radisson Hotel Tapatio Guadalajara and projects in the works in the Bahamas and Dominica.

Conrad Punta de MitaOpening in Mexicos Riviera Nayarit on Sept. 1, the new-build Conrad Punta de Mita will be the Hilton brands first resort in the country. The property will open at 30% capacity with 96 of 324 guestrooms available for booking.

All rooms and suites will have views of the Pacific Ocean, with suites and villa Casitas offering patios, plunge pools, freestanding soaking tubs and outdoor showers. Amenities will include three pools, including an adult, lap and kids pool, spread out among the resorts outdoor areas; four restaurants and three bars; the indoor/outdoor Conrad Spa; and a fitness center with an outdoor lawn for yoga and stretching.

Conrad Punta de Mita is located in the same private development as the Litibu Golf Course, offering guests an 18-hole golf course designed by Greg Norman.

Radisson Hotel Tapatio GuadalajaraRadisson Hotel Tapatio Guadalajara in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, has opened following an extensive $2-million renovation. Offering city views from the hills of Tlaquepaque, the upscale hotel is located near Guadalajaras historic district and 10 minutes from Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport.

The hotel offers 127 guestrooms and suites offering panoramic views of the propertys garden or the Guadalajara cityscape. All rooms include free WiFi and in-room coffee services, while the Master and Presidential Suites include a balcony and a whirlpool for two. Amenities include the on-site restaurant Los Laureles, 24-hour room service, three on-site bars, a 24-hour fitness center, a game room, an outdoor pool in the center of the hotel, a childrens playground area and volleyball courts. The hotel also offers five event spaces.

Montage CayMontage Cay, a 48-acre private-island resort and residential community from Montage Hotels & Resorts in The Abacos Islands in the Bahamas, is expected to open in 2023. Owned in partnership with Sterling Global Financial, the project will see the rebranding and complete redevelopment of the private island of Matt Lowes Cay in The Abacos, reemerging as Montage Cay, alongside the launch of The Residences at Montage Cay.

The private-island resort will feature 50 all-suite accommodations and a limited collection of Montage Residences, and will include a 46-slip marina. Suite amenities will include plunge pools, outdoor showers, private gardens and lounge areas.

F&B outlets will include an all-day eatery; a signature dinner-only restaurant; two beach bar and grills; lobby and pool bars; and a spa caf and juice bar. Additional resort amenities will include a full-service Spa Montage, an extensive health and wellness program, fitness center, swimming pools and Montages signature Paintbox Childrens Club.

Tranquility Beach ResortTranquility Beach Resort in the Commonwealth of Dominica expects to open between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. Part of Hiltons Curio Collection, the five-star resort is eligible under the countrys world-leading Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Program. Offering cliff-hanging villas and ultra-luxury facilities, the environmentally sensitive resort will feature 99 rooms and create up to 300 permanent jobs.

An investment starting at $200,000 in Hiltons Tranquility Beach Resort qualifies an individual for citizenship in Dominica, provided they also pass all the due diligence checks. Families can apply jointly, including siblings and grandparents of the main applicant or their spouse, according to the most recent changes.

Tranquility Beach Resort is one of the few shortlisted hotels eligible for citizenship by investment in Dominica. Alternatively, applicants can make a one-off contribution to a government fund. If successful, they earn the right to live, work and study on the Nature Isle of the Caribbean. They can also easily travel to around 140 destinations and pass the citizenship on to future generations.

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Mexico and Caribbean Heat Up With Openings and Future Projects - Hotel Business

What Makes You Proud To Be Jamaican? – South Florida Caribbean News

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by Howard Campbell

SOUTH FLORIDA On August 6th the Island of Jamaica and Jamaicans worldwide will celebrate its 58th Anniversary of Independence.

The theme for this years independence is Jamaica 58 Resilient and Strong and South Florida Caribbean News asked several individuals in the community, What Makes You Proud to be Jamaican?

Oliver Mair Consul General

I am proud of being born and raised in my God-fearing island home of the black, gold and green.

Attending Vaz Prep, Campion and Wolmers High and the University of the West Indies has provided me with a world-class and balanced education,preparing me for the international arena. My country has also taught me how to love, appreciate and respect persons of all races, color and creed.

Likkle but wi Tallawah speaks to our winning and indomitable spirit. Our warmth, strength and courage as a people is evidenced in our heroes like Marcus Garvey. My passion lies, however, with our arts and culture. Miss Lou, Bob Marley, Oliver Samuels, reggae and folk music, Jamaican movies, plays and literature are perhaps whats stands out most for me.

What a blessed One Love nation we are!

Sister Carol

It means everything culturally, spiritually and emotionally. Because when I first came to America in the 70s I had to fight hard to maintain my Jamaican culture admist the stereotype of being from the Caribbean and the peer pressure of being in a foreign land. Being a Jamaican reminds us to be resilient and find solutions when there seems to be none. Going through windows when doors are closed. Turning our hands to make fashion while holding on to our original brought-upsy.

Willie Stewart

It is a fact that Jamaica is one of the most influential countries around the world is what makes me so proud to be a Jamaican. For such a small island, we have made an enormous impact on a global scale. Jamaica is the birthplace of Mento, Ska, Rock Steady and Dancehall music; in the sports industry we compete on a global level and dominate the Olympics in track. We produce great leaders and creative inventors. People all over the world want to come to our country to be a part of our rich and inviting culture, exotic cuisine and our breath-taking natural resources.

To invest more in after-school programs. Extracurricularactivities such asmusic, sports, art, IT, vocationaltraining,cooking and tutoring. Youth would be linked with peer mentors from high school for a five-year period. These peer mentors would assist youth with independent living skills such as the importance of health and hygiene,budgeting and money management, self-advocacy and networking. By promoting education for our youth and increasing employment opportunities there would be increased economic viability. I believe that if youth have alternative options available, there will be areduction inyouth engaging in criminal activity and violence.This program would serve youth islandwide, equipping them with everything they need to besuccessful.

Trudi Tolani, Author

For an island to be so small, yet known globally gives me a sense of pride. Our music, food and beaches rival the best around the world. The people of Jamaica are, however, what makes me proudest to be a Jamaican. Our warmth and strength shines whereverwe go. Our athletes, musicians, actors and scholars are justsome of ourpeople who have stood on some of the biggest stages around the world and have made us proud.

Being a Jamaican is very essential to who I am, especially living abroad for so long. It helps to build my character not only in my personal life but professional as well. It means the world to me. Wouldnt have it any other way. I keep my Jamaican-ness by constantly engaging with the culture and most of my family and friends. And also through the music and food.

Ronnie Tomlinson

Being a Jamaican comes with a sense of pride knowing we are a people who will put the best foot forward NO MATTER the obstacles set before us. Fondest memories, without aging myself (LoL), the coconut brush we use to use to clean the verandah and seeing the (ice) cream man ride past the house a shout cream, cream, nutty buddy! and knowing I saved up just enough and could buy my cream today. Another memory was going with Grandpa to pick mango, and having to share the mango and couldnt wait until I was old enough to get the seed.

The preference of American things over Jamaican things. Although this may be a broad statement I would change the attachment to colonial ways and embrace brand Jamaica and have more appreciation for our culture.

To our Jamaicans in South Florida and worldwide, Happy Independence Day and feel free to share with us, What Makes You Proud to be Jamaican?

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What Makes You Proud To Be Jamaican? - South Florida Caribbean News

Health must come before the economy, insists top UN official for Latin America and the Caribbean – UN News

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In an extensive interview with the UN communications chief, Melissa Fleming, Ms. Brcena expressed concern at the disproportionate impact that the pandemic is having on indigenous people in the region, in terms of both the health risks they face; shared her fear that the wisdom and knowledge held by these communities is disappearing; and her dismay at rising inequality and poverty, following a period in which progress has been made on both fronts.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

(Alicia Brcena) This is a bad time for this region: we are the epicentre of the pandemic, and extreme poverty rates are going up. Poverty is expected to affect almost 230 million people in this region, and almost 95 million of those are going to be in extreme poverty. When you look at who these people are, we're talking mainly about indigenous peoples, and more than half are women, who are also very affected by the crisis.

We are also confronting a lack of leadership in the world, to focus on this public bad: we need leadership, we don't need each country focusing on its own problems. We need cooperation, we need collective action.

(Melissa Fleming) You are from Mexico, and you grew up there. Where does your particular concern for indigenous people come from?

(Alicia Brcena) I am a biologist by training, a botanist, and I started my career working with an indigenous peoples community in the Maya region. I learned from them the names of the plants, and what they were using the plants for. They have a perception of the world that is totally different from ours, by which I mean that of the Western world. They have a very clear vision that we are part of nature, and not here to conquer nature.

Antonia Benito

A group of Mayan Poqomam women in Guatemala.

I'm afraid that by not protecting indigenous peoples, we are going to lose their knowledge, their wisdom, their vision of the biodiversity of the world, of the future, and their respect for the past of the ancestors.

And I worry about the communities of the Amazon region, where we are losing so many hectares of forest, and where the communities are at risk. They do not have access to health care or clean water, and they have been marginalized from the best land.

(Melissa Fleming) In your region, you had been celebrating a tremendous amount of progress in poverty reduction, and then COVID-19 hit, reversing these gains. How does that make you feel?

(Alicia Brcena) Frankly, very frustrated. This region started to see a reduction in inequality, for the first time, in 2002.

This was partly because there was progressive leadership, with governments that really looked into the process of reducing poverty. And we made a lot of progress. The region was able to pull some 60 million people out of poverty.

The current problems didnt begin with the pandemic. We saw the trend in poverty reduction begin to reverse, in 2014. We had very mediocre growth, with fiscal austerity programmes to stop this region getting further into debt.

And now, with the pandemic, we are faced with a very delicate situation and, I think, a crisis that is even worse than the one we confronted in the 1980s: we're going to see many more falling into poverty than ever before, probably around 230 million people.

FAO/Ubirajara Machado

Children eat a meal at their school which is taking part in a school feeding programme in Latin America and the Caribbean.

(Melissa Fleming) In many countries in your region, the science around the pandemic is being distorted, including by political leaders. As somebody who trained as a scientist, I'm curious, how do you react to this?

(Alicia Brcena) There are many things about this pandemic that we don't know, and, in a way, this pandemic has brought back the importance of scientific evidence and knowledge. I try to read as much as I can about this virus, and how the pandemic is behaving.

Science has to be the basis of our decision-making when, for example, we want to reopen our economies. There is no health/economy dilemma: health concerns have to come first. That's why we need to support peoples basic incomes, because this is not going to be a short-term crisis.

(Melissa Fleming) Are there any sort of silver linings? Is there anything that gives you some hope?

(Alicia Brcena) I hope that it will possible to build a new social contract, a different conversation between the state, the private sector and civil society. I really believe that we need people to stand up and speak.

I have a lot of faith in local communities, how they are showing solidarity. I think that there's a lot of hope that we can come together to engage in more cooperative and collective action. Because that's the only way we're going to get out of this.

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UK to be hotter than Caribbean as heatwave moves in – expressandstar.com

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An official heatwave could hit the UK from Thursday with temperatures expected to soar to 37C (98.6F) by the end of the week.

Parts of the country will be hotter than top holiday destinations in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Jamaica and Barbados.

The sweltering temperatures are expected to continue until Sunday and are the result of hot air moving in from southern Europe.

It means Britain could pass the threshold for a heatwave, which requires three days of temperatures over 25C (77F) across most of the nation and 28C (82.4F) in London.

Temperatures in London and the south east on Friday may even surpass the 37.8C (100.04F) recorded in Heathrow on July 31 the hottest day of the year so far, and the UKs third warmest ever.

Met Office forecaster Oli Claydon said: Theres a strong likelihood London and the south east could see a heatwave this week, with four or even five consecutive days of incredibly warm temperatures reaching a high of 37C on Friday.

It is the result of southerly winds moving from Europe and parts of northern Africa, which will push the temperatures up.

Thursday is expected to begin overcast for most of the country, but will be a dry day for all, with the sun appearing through the clouds by the afternoon and temperatures pushing to 30C (86F) in the capital.

However, rain is expected in the north west of Scotland and Northern Ireland on Friday, with highs of 22C (71.6F).

Wales and the north and south-west of England will be sunny, with temperatures reaching around 25C (77F).

Mr Claydon added: Saturday will likely be another hot day for southern and central parts of the UK, with heatwave conditions potentially continuing in parts of southern and south-east England.

Sunday should be the last of the heatwave conditions, before cold air moves in overnight leading to some thundery showers on Monday.

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UK to be hotter than Caribbean as heatwave moves in - expressandstar.com

St. Vincent Broadcaster Dies While Hosting Show – Caribbean News – caribbeannationalweekly.com

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KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) Tuesday said it was shocked and sad at the death of veteran social activist and broadcaster, Jerry S. George, while hosting his early morning Internet show Early in the Morning with Jerry S. George.

George was a founding member of the regional umbrella media organisation and ACM said that he had remained a strong supporter of the organisation. George was also a founding member of the SearchLight Newspaper here.

George, who was in his late 60s, was a former public relations manager with the telecommunication company, Digicel, died of an apparent heart attack soon after introducing his first guest on the show on Tuesday, which he had dubbed Thoughtful Tuesday.

His guest, the Jamaican-born, Grenada based journalist, Beverley Sinclair, who is also the Chief Operations Officer of Georges Island Media Marketing & Communications company, had been invited to co-host programme as George had indicated he was going to step out of frame.

But after speaking for nearly half an hour with no response from George, she told viewers she had no idea where my host is, he has abandoned me.

And I need him to come back at this point so we can share some of your comments, hear what you had to say and how you deal with people that you come across in your daily life what kinds of experiences have you had

But a Facebook post on Valerie Tucker-Georges account after the scheduled close of the programme, announced, I am still in shock, came home at about 7:20 am (local time) and met my husband, Jerry George on the floor dead.

George was a vocal social and political commentator on issues not only in his homeland, but throughout the Caribbean and further afield. Among his last postings were the ongoing political situation in Guyana and the decision by some Caribbean governments to introduce competition in the aviation sector at the expense of the cash-strapped regional airline, LIAT.

His Facebook page has been flooded with condolence messages with some people saying there were still in shock at the news of his death.

He is survived by his wife and two children.

CMC

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Sandals Is Reopening More Resorts in the Caribbean – Caribbean Journal

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Sandals Resorts International, which was among the first hotel companies to relaunch as the regions tourism industry reopened, is planning to reopen more resorts in the region.

Sandals has already reopened five of its resorts in the Caribbean, including one in Antigua; three in Jamaica and one in Saint Lucia.

Beginning next month, Sandals will begin another wave of reopenings, kicking off with the relaunch of the Sandals Regency La Toc in Saint Lucia on Aug. 31 (that will join the already-relaunched Sandals Grande St Lucian).

On Sept. 3, Sandals will reopen a fourth resort in Jamaica, the Sandals Ochi, followed by a pair of resorts in Barbados on Sept. 9: the Sandals Royal Barbados and Sandals Barbados resorts.

On Oct. 1, Sandals will reopen its Sandals Grenada resort and its Sandals South Coast resort in Jamaica.

On Oct. 8, the Sandals Royal Plantation, also in Jamaica, will be reopening.

That will be followed by the relaunch of the Sandals Halcyon Beach resort in Saint Lucia on Nov. 1.

The all-inclusive company also announced it was planning to open both of its resorts in The Bahamas, the Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau and the Sandals Emerald Bay in Exuma on Nov. 1, 2020.

And while the pandemic has significantly affected the wider tourism industry, it hasnt slowed SRI, which just announced an expansion into the island of St Vincent.

For more, visit Sandals.

CJ

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Sandals Is Reopening More Resorts in the Caribbean - Caribbean Journal

Q&A: How Ascension mobilized nearly 10000 nurses for Covid-19in less than 2 weeks – The Daily Briefing

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Amy Wilson serves as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations for Ascension, a system with over 150 hospitals in 20 states. In this role, Wilson oversees Ascension's nursing enterprise and care delivery models. She recently connected with Steven Berkow, Advisory Board's VP of Provider Research, to discuss how her system mobilized nearly 10,000 nurses to deliver Covid-19 care in different care settingsand other lessons learned for transforming care delivery.

What nurse leaders can do today to prepare their frontline for Covid-19

Question: Thanks for speaking with me today, Amy. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, system executives have increasingly shared with me how Covid-19 has been driving or accelerating systemness. How has Ascension, which is such a large system, leveraged its size to address the pandemic?

Amy Wilson: As you know, we started coming together as One Ascension about six years ago. Before we were a holding company. But we've now been working together for years to standardize processes and protocols at the enterprise level whenever it makes good sense, while still making room for local flavor. This journey, combined with our adoption of Agile learning, put us in a far better position to respond quickly to Covid-19.

Question: Let's narrow our focus to nursing. You oversee more than 60,000 nurses. How did you leverage Ascension's expansive nursing resources and capabilities to respond to Covid-19?

Wilson: In the beginning, we were most concerned about staffing during a system-wide surge. We worried about all our markets being hit hard at roughly the same time. So, we leaned on the reach of our system to speed up learning and evolution of a team-based Covid-19 staffing model. For example, we already had some team-based model pilots running in our Jacksonville market. We also incorporated insights about tiered staffing models shared by nurse executives in the first Covid-19 hot spot, Seattle.

Question: So what did this model look like in practice?

Wilson: We ultimately took that tier-based approach and went a step further to develop two different RN roles within the team: Deputized RNs and Functional RNs. The deputized role is for RNs who already have needed specialized skills and can be quickly cross-trained for a more acute Covid-19 unit. For example, PACU nurses are strong candidates to serve as Deputized RNs in the ICU.

In contrast, Functional RNs don't have all the clinical competencies required to independently deliver care in the more acute setting but do have much needed universal nursing skillsfor example, med-surg nurses redeployed to that ICU. By delineating these two roles in the early days of the epidemic, we built confidence among our nurses that they wouldn't be asked to deliver care above their competency level.

It was so successful we quickly incorporated respiratory therapists and CNAs into the model as well. Within a week and a half, we had cross-trained almost 10,000 nurses, respiratory therapists, and CNAsall across the countryto flex in a surge.

Question: Let me slow down a bit here, because 10,000 employees trained in less than two weeks is quite an achievement. With such a limited amount of time, where did you focus your training efforts?

Wilson: We were most concerned about ICU staffing at first, so we focused on ventilator skills, proning, and other critical care skills. We also trained staff on team-based behaviors key to a high-performing ICU and weaved in self-care, such as trauma recovery, to prepare them mentally and spiritually for the journey ahead.

But very quickly we realized that med-surg was also going to see a surge. So we adopted a similar program for the med-surg area, identifying OR circulators, Ascension Medical Group nurses, and nurse practitioners who typically work in the outpatient setting for Deputized or Functional roles and training up as many as feasible.

Question: So it sounds like you created something of a conga line to leverage your workforce here, pulling in your PACU providers to help in the ICU, and then tapping some of your outpatient nurses to pitch-in on med-surg units. But given social distancing requirements, what training modality did you use?

Wilson: We shifted all classroom-based trainings to virtual. We used the Google Classrooms platform to create an interactive virtual experience. And then we would conduct very small simulation check-offswith just 10 people or fewer present.

And the nurses loved it! In fact, one of our lessons-learned going forward is that we should be doing more virtual trainings. Nurses love the flexibility. They don't have to drive into work to participate; they can do it from anywhere.

Question: Once they're trained, how do you deploy these staff? Do they flex within just their hospital, their region, or broader?

Wilson: Originally, we were thinking about it at a regional levela radius that people could drive to. Then Detroit, a big area for us, got hit significantly. Even with heightened RN flexibility and surge staffing plans in place, we didn't have enough nurses to cover the volumes. At the same time, we had facilities in northern Michigan that were not hit.

So that's when we stood up the Ascension travel program. We voluntarily mobilized nurses who lived two, three, four hours from Detroit, paid them a travel rate, and hoteled them nearby. That went so well we started doing it across state lines. We've been able to do some of that through the Nurse Licensure Compact, but I also have to thank our advocacy teams in Michigan and Illinois, which were two non-compact license states where we needed the most help initially. The advocacy teams worked with the governors to create reciprocity on an expedited basis.

We're continuing the Ascension travel program across state lines today. In fact, soon after Texas was hit hard, I got a call that Austin needed additional nurses. Michigan nurses were so thankful for how Texas, Kansas, and several other ministries came to help them when Michigan was surging that many welcomed the chance to help their sister hospitals in Texas.

To date, we've had over 400 nurses, respiratory therapists, and nursing assistants travel from low-volume areas to high-volume areasand we haven't had to hire any nurses. These are all Ascension staff members meeting patient demand where it's at.

Question: And with some non-surging areas struggling to get non-Covid patients to come back in for care, I'm guessing some of them probably need the hours?

Wilson: Correct. And there are other benefits. Going back to your question about systemness, it propels the idea of One Ascension. We get to share learnings across the organization at the grassroots level, very differently than we do through our affinity group process.

In fact, this has gone so well that we're standing up a permanent travel program within Ascension. We will have clinicians who will be dedicated to the travel program in the future. But we're still going to allow our full-time associates who don't travel to have some type of sabbatical or exchange program where they can exchange jobs with another associate.

Question: The training program, the internal travel agencyyou have led a ton of needed change in a very small amount of time. It makes me reflect on how many systems still don't have a system-level chief nurse executive. Do you think that hampers their ability to replicate some of the things you've done?

Wilson: Absolutely. The system-level nurse executive brings a critical perspective to the C-suite in several ways. Most obviously, more than 60% of a health system's workforce is nursing or nursing support. So just from a workforce planning perspective, there's ample work for a system-level CNO.

But perhaps more important, health care is now very much a team sport. We need our physicians and nurses working in lockstep to deliver high value care, but right or wrong, physicians and nurses have different motivations and start points for addressing challenges. If you're not set up to bake in the nursing perspective from the outset and how best to secure nurse buy-in, your organization is going to struggle to advance most strategic initiatives. Again, over 60% of your workforce is nursing or nursing support.

Question: I want to switch gears for a few minutes to talk about another challenge facing system executives: convincing patients that it's safe to come back to the system and get care. How have you been tackling this?

Wilson: It's important to remember all the channels and people you already have in place to help here. That's where we turned first. More specifically, we've been repurposing our patient surveys and focus groups to better understand what patients need to feel safe. We're now taking that data and working with our Marketing and Communication team along with a mix of clinical leaders to develop care and communication protocols to meet these needs. And we're tapping our national Patient Family Advisory Council to pressure test these plans and provide feedback.

Convincing all our patients it's safe to come back is going to require a multi-prong effort. But what we're finding is most important is those one-on-one conversations and phone calls with patients.

Question: For a system of Ascension's size, standardizing one-to-one conversations is a tall order. How do you ensure your frontline providers are on message?

Wilson: We do it by cascading information. Once protocols are developed, they go out to all executives in the organization. After that, it's communicated to the specific people whose work is impacted, all the way to the front line. We also provide standard flyers and messaging across the system, so no matter which facility you walk into across the country, you're going to hear and see the same message on social distancing. You're going to hear and see the same message about universal masking.

Question: I want to give you free reign over our last few moments. Is there anything else you want to share with your health system peers?

Wilson: I want to address staff burnout. Many have focused on the trauma and emotional exhaustion experienced by clinicians caught up in extreme surges. This is exceedingly well deserved. But I want to encourage my peers to remember that Covid-19 has impacted everyone. We have nurses who are feeling guilty because they happen to live in a market that didn't surge. Others are struggling to adjust to working virtually. And others are struggling with Covid-19 challenges outside of work.

I also want to remind my peers that safeguarding time for self-care and well-being has not been a strength of health care professionals. We're really good at telling others how to take care of themselves, and we're really bad at caring for ourselves. But ultimately, we will not have the capacity to provide care for others if we're not caring for ourselves, particularly amid a historic pandemic.

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Q&A: How Ascension mobilized nearly 10000 nurses for Covid-19in less than 2 weeks - The Daily Briefing

Song Sung: This Ascension Is Ours review Winning twins – The Irish Times

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Album:This Ascension is Ours

Artist:Song Sung

Label:Night Time Stories

Genre:Alternative

Georgina and Una McGeough may have grown up in Monaghan with a father who played in showbands, but their debut album is as sonically and geographically far removed from those beginnings as you could imagine. The identical twins, now based in New York, were galvanised into action after crossing paths with David Holmes several years back, contributing a cover of 10ccs Im Not in Love to his Late Night Tales compilation in 2016.

Holmes produced and cowrote these songs, and his influence is audible on the sultry electronic strut of Come to the Water, the woozy off-kilter thud of Orbiting Slow and the general gauzy sheen of sound that crackles and shimmers throughout. At the same time, the McGeoughs gossamer voices weave a hypnotic spell and are integral to the record.

Telling Tales glistens and throbs like a mystical pop song, while The Minds Eye manages to embody both shades of Enya and a poppier version of Stereolab within five minutes. Elsewhere, the rhythmic patter, textured static and dreamy layers of vocals on the epic Testimony of Tears recalls Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil.

Some may find the repetitive nature of these songs a little frustrating, yet theres both a comfort in the familiarity of this album and a foreboding sense of disquiet throughout.

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Song Sung: This Ascension Is Ours review Winning twins - The Irish Times

Judge knocks one Donaldsonville council candidate out of fall election, keeps another on ballot – The Advocate

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GONZALESOne candidate for Donaldsonville City Council was disqualified Wednesday and another was allowed to stay in his race.

Interim Judge Emile St. Pierre ruled that Trevis Fernandez, 46, met state and city candidacy requirements while Donaldsonville businesswoman Shentelle "Lou" Daigle did not.

The ruling against Daigle means four-term incumbent Councilman Reginald Francis has won a fifth term to his District 3 seat. No one else was challenging him for reelection Nov. 3.

But a fellow incumbent councilman, the Rev. Charles Brown, faces two challengers this fall. David Joseph Jr., of Donaldsonville, is also running for Brown's District 4 seat in addition to Fernandez. All are Democrats.

Daigle is one of the organizers of the Donaldsonville Community Care Committee. The group had a march and rally last month in which committee members and other speakers called for change in the city's economic conditions and questioned the city leadership's past efforts to spur that kind of change.

DONALDSONVILLE Organizers, current and former state legislators, and others called for improved economic and housing opportunities and great

Donaldsonville, a majority African American city on the west bank of Ascension, hasn't benefited from the same kind of population and commercial growth as eastern Ascension over the past two and a half decades. The poverty rate in the city of nearly 8,500 is close to 40%, census estimates say.

The Community Care Committee has endorsed a slate of candidates challenging Mayor Leroy Sullivan and four of the five council incumbents including Fernandez in his race against Councilman Brown and Daigle in her race against Francis.

Councilmen Francis and Brown had filed separate challengesin 23rd Judicial District Court against their respective opponents over the same issue: residency.

Their opponents' voter registrations listed them as living outside the council districts in which they were running. And the challengers had continued to vote at Donaldsonville-area polling precincts that weren't in those districts, according to testimony Wednesday.

But, in separate hearings, the defendants' attorneys, Seth Dornier and Jonathan Holloway, introduced driver's licenses, utility bills, bills of property sales, homestead exemptions, motor vehicle titles and other documents showing the defendants' current home addresses for the past several years matched up with the addresses on their candidacy forms.

Both candidates had also sought to change their voter registrations to their newer addresses after qualifying last month, parish registrar officials testified.

Donaldsonville's home rule charter requires candidates live in their council district for at least six months prior to voting and be eligible to vote in the city.

Judge St. Pierre found that Fernandez and Daigle were living and domiciled in the council districts for which they were seeking office. But he ruled against Daigle because her current voter registration was for an old address outside the city limits.

Fernandez, even though he wasn't registered to vote in the correct council district, was registered to vote in the city limits. So he met the city rules, the judge found.

Saying the law leans toward keeping candidates on the ballot, St. Pierre opined that more should be done to encourage people to seek public office.

"We want people to run for office. In my opinion, not enough people run for office," he said.

The testimony leading up to St. Pierre's rulings revealed contradictions in the voter registration verification process.

Under questioning from City Attorney Chuck Long, Parish Registrar of Voters Robert Poche' testified that Fernandez has voted 18 times since 2008 in a precinct in Council District 1, most recently on Nov. 16, 2019.

Poche' said repeated state canvassing attempts designed to check if Fernandez's address had changed actually verified it had remained the same, inside District 1 and outside the district in which Fernandez now is running.

But Fernandez later testified that he has lived in District 4 on Evangeline Drive with his wife and two daughters since Hurricane Gustav hit the state in 2008 and destroyed his old mobile home on West 6th Street in District 1. The mobile home was demolished and the District 1 property on West 6th has been vacant for years, he said.

It wasn't clear from testimony where repeated voter canvassing forms that the state had mailed to Fernandez's old, demolished home wound up over the past 12 years.

In a later interview, Councilman Brown wished Fernandez luck in his run for office. He said he no hard feelings about the ruling but was advised to file a challenge, so a court could rule on the registration questions.

Fernandez said he was blessed for the court victory and ready to run.

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Judge knocks one Donaldsonville council candidate out of fall election, keeps another on ballot - The Advocate

In Review: Song Sung This Ascension is Ours – GigList

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After a peculiar song-writing journey situated between New York and Monaghan, Ireland, Song Sung (comprised of Irish-born, America-based twins Georgina and Uni McGeough) have finally released their debut LP This Ascension is Ours.

With producer David Holmes producing and arranging tracks, then sending the audio files to the duo to write lyrics and record vocals over, its quite possible that these tracks have travelled more miles than many people. The resulting album is an atmospheric (which, whilst probably the most overused word in indie music reviews, truly does apply here), spooky, and eclectic collection of songs that do a better job of forming a whole than acting as individuals.

Opening with a Lovecraftian invitation to "Come to the water", slow, pounding drums, bass drops, and a menagerie of sound effects and samples range from occult to pop-esque. Its a memorable entrance to the album and effectively sets a tone for the horror-tinged, world-building record to come.

Most tracks stay within the same constructed soundscape but add variety through tone and structure. Telling Tales takes a more traditional song structure than its preceding opening track or following six-minute mini-epic Somewhere. With a weirdly anthemic chorus that's as catchy as it is ethereal, Telling Tales is perhaps one of the more accessible tracks on the record. Lead single Take Some Time and The Minds Eye also make good cases for this title also but arent executed quite as well.

Whilst the duo form typically structured, accessible songs with ease, they undoubtedly shine brightest when allowed to truly veer off into their art-inspired fantasies. Album standout Testimony of Tears combines all elements of the album well, with a post-rock-inspired structure lending itself incredibly well to reverb-laden, breathy vocals, a simple but prominent running bass line and slowly-uplifting instrumentation, all of which combust in a crescendo of atmosphere and sound before fading into nothing.

One caveat with this album is that despite its modest ten-track listing, it feels a little bloated - with running time reaching an hour, the average song length is between 5-6 minutes long. For a group that are still crafting a unique, unrefined sound, this feels like overexposure.

However, This Ascension Is Ours paints a distinctive atmosphere in a genre where many try but fail to craft a sound specific to themselves, accomplishing an interesting and astonishingly unusual composition. This must be applauded, but the goal now for the group is to build something more on the foundation this album has created for them.

This Ascension Is Ours is out this Friday (31st July) viaNight Time Stories Ltd.

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In Review: Song Sung This Ascension is Ours - GigList

Hurley, Behnken heading home on final leg of Crew Dragon test flight – Spaceflight Now

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Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken undocked from the International Space Station Saturday aboard their Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, heading for a parachute-assisted splashdown Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico to wrap up a 64-day test flight of SpaceXs commercial human-rated spaceship.

With favorable wind and sea conditions expected in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, mission control gave the go-ahead for Hurley and Behnken to board their Crew Dragon spacecraft and close hatches between the capsule and the space station.

After a series of leak checks, an undocking command at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) Saturday commenced a series of automated steps to depart the station. Power umbilicals detached inside the docking mechanism, then 12 hooks opened before the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft fired thrusters in a pair of short pulses to boost itself away from the research complex at 7:35 p.m. EDT (2335 GMT).

Wearing custom-made SpaceX-built pressure suits, Hurley and Behnken monitored the departure on touchscreen displays inside their Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, commander of the stations Expedition 63 crew, rang the ships bell on the research complex and ceremoniously announced the Dragons undocking.

Cassidy and his two Russian crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will remain aboard the space station until October, when they will return to a landing in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Three fresh crew members will launch to the space station Oct. 14 on a new Soyuz spaceship.

During their two-month stay, Hurley and Behnken assisted Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner with space station duties, performing experiments and maintenance. Behnken joined Cassidy on four spacewalks in June and July to replace batteries on the space stations solar power modules.

Chris, we just cant thank you enough, Hurley said in a radio exchange with Cassidy shortly after undocking. Its been an honor and a privilege to be part of Expedition 63 with you, Anatoly and Ivan. Its been a great two months and we appreciate all youve done as a crew to help us prove out Dragon on its maiden flight.

Hurley also thanked NASA mission controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and SpaceX teams in Hawthorne, California, for their support.

We look forward to splashdown tomorrow, Hurley said. Also like to wish you great success on the rest of your expedition and a safe flight home in the fall. Take care, friend.

Bob and Doug, wholeheartedly agree with those sentiments, Cassidy replied. Its been a real pleasure. Its been an honor to serve with you. Safe travels and have a successful landing. Endeavours a great ship. Godspeed.

A series of rocket burns maneuvered the crew capsule a safe distance away from the space station, and the astronauts planned to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 11:40 p.m. EDT (0340 GMT).

During their sleep period, the Crew Dragon is programmed to complete an automated six-minute phasing burn to line up with the splashdown target in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurley and Behnken will close out their 64-day test flight designated Demo-2, or DM-2 Sunday with a braking burn to drop out of orbit and enter the atmosphere, targeting a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola, Florida.

Our mission isnt over, Hurley said Saturday before undocking. The DM-2 test flight is, in some ways, just two-thirds complete. We did the ascent, rendezvous and the docking. We completed our docked objectives, and now is the entry, descent and splashdown phase.

The hardest part was getting us launched, but the most important part is bringing us home, Behnken said.

The astronauts are scheduled to wake up at 7:40 a.m. EDT (1140 GMT) Sunday to begin preparations for their return to Earth.

Hurley and Behnken will pack bags and ready the spaceships cabin for entry. They will also drink fluids in a process known as fluid loading aimed at easing their adaptation to Earths gravity after two months in orbit.

Assuming a final assessment of weather and sea conditions look favorable in the recovery zone near Pensacola, the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft flying on autopilot will jettison its unpressurized trunk section at 1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT). The trunk is attached to the rear of the Dragons crew module, and contains the ships power-generating solar panels and radiators used to shed the spacecrafts internal heat into space.

The trunk will remain in a relatively low orbit and will naturally fall back into the atmosphere and burn up.

Meanwhile, the Dragon crew module will maneuver into the proper orientation for a deorbit burn using the spacecrafts Draco thrusters. The braking maneuver will begin at 1:56 p.m. EDT (1756 GMT) and last more than 11 minutes, slowing the ships velocity by nearly 168 mph, or 75 meters per second.

That change in velocity will allow Earths gravity to pull the spacecraft back into the atmosphere, which will do most of the rest of the work to slow Dragons speed for splashdown.

The spacecraft will close its forward nose cone at 2:11 p.m. EDT (1811 GMT) before it plunges into the discernible atmosphere at 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT), moving at some 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour).

Hurley and Behnken will be wearing their SpaceX-made flame-resistant pressure suits during entry, the same garments they wore during their launch May 30 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Flying with its blunt end facing the brunt of the airflow, the spacecrafts heat shield will encounter temperatures up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius) as it dives into the atmosphere.

The build-up of super-heated around the capsule is expected to interrupt communications with the crew for about six minutes during entry. Engineers expect to restore communications with the astronauts once Dragon Endeavour comes out of the hottest part of entry at around 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 GMT).

Drogue parachutes will release from the top of the capsule at 2:44 p.m. EDT (1844 GMT), followed by the deployment of four orange and white main parachutes about a minute later.

The drogue chutes will deploy when Dragon Endeavour is descending through about 18,000 feet, or 5,500 meters, when the capsule is moving at approximately 350 mph, or more than 550 kilometers per hour. The four main chutes come out at an altitude of about 6,000 feet, or 1,800 meters, and at a velocity of around 119 mph, or 191 kilometers per hour.

The parachutes will slow the capsules speed for a gentle splashdown at 2:48 p.m. EDT (1848 GMT) in the Gulf of Mexico, targeting a location just south of the Alabama-Florida border.

Going into Sundays entry and splashdown, mission control identified a backup recovery site in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, Florida. SpaceX and NASA have seven Crew Dragon splashdown sites available in total four in the Gulf and three in the Atlantic but Tropical Storm Isaias is forecast to move near the missions recovery zones off Floridas East Coast on Sunday.

If weather conditions deteriorate in the Gulf of Mexico, mission control could wave-off Sundays return opportunities. NASA officials said the astronauts have food, water and other supplies for at least three days on the Crew Dragon after the undocking Saturday night from the space station.

A SpaceX recovery vessel named Go Navigator will be on station in the Gulf of Mexico to retrieve the Crew Dragon spaceship after it splashes down.

Two fast boats will deploy from Go Navigator and approach the capsule, which measures around 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter and 16 feet (5 meters). After ensuring the spacecraft is safe, the larger recovery boat will take position near the Dragon and hoist the capsule out of the water using a lifting frame.

Once in the Dragon is on the deck of Go Navigator, Hurley and Behnken willdisembark the capsule and undergo medical checks.

Benji Reed, SpaceXs director of crew mission management, said the recovery ship will have around 44 people on-board, including SpaceX and NASA officials, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel. Spacecraft technicians will also be aboard to recover and secure the Dragon capsule.

After an initial health assessment, Hurley and Behnken will ride a helicopter to Naval Air Station Pensacola, where they will board a NASA aircraft for the flight back to their home base in Houston.

The astronauts are coming back to Earth with around 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of cargo, including frozen experiment specimens, personal gear, and a U.S. flag left on the space station by the final space shuttle crew in 2011.

Hurley was the pilot on the final space shuttle flight.

The flag also flew on STS-1, the first shuttle mission, in 1981. The final shuttle crew left it on the space station to be returned by the next astronauts to fly to the research lab on a U.S. spacecraft.

In the end, SpaceX won the capture the flag competition on the high frontier.

NASA awarded multibillion-dollar contracts to develop and fly new U.S.-built commercial crew capsules to SpaceX and Boeing in 2014, following several years of preliminary design work.

SpaceX launched a successful unpiloted Crew Dragon demonstration flight to the space station in March 2019, then overcame a setback during ground testing of the Crew Dragons launch abort system last year. After redesigning part of the abort system, and verifying new modifications to the capsules parachutes, SpaceX launched the first Crew Dragon mission with astronauts May 30.

Boeings CST-100 Starliner crew capsule launched into orbit for its first unpiloted test flight last December, but it ran into software problems that prevented the spacecraft from reaching the space station. Boeing recovered the spacecraft with a successful landing in New Mexico, but officials plan to re-fly the uncrewed demonstration mission later this year before clearing the Starliner to carry astronauts for the first time in 2021.

With the Crew Dragon on the cusp of completing its first round-trip space mission with astronauts, SpaceX and NASA will analyze data from the Demo-2 test flight before formally certifying the commercial capsule for operational crew rotation launches.

The first such regular crew rotation flight, named Crew-1, is scheduled for launch this fall on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. Four astronauts are assigned to the Crew-1 flight, and NASA last week announced the crew assignments for the Crew-2 mission in the spring of 2021, the second operational Crew Dragon mission to the space station.

Subsequent Crew Dragon missions to the space station will also launch with up to four passengers, and the spaceship once certified after Demo-2s return will be capable of missions lasting up to 210 days.

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Hurley, Behnken heading home on final leg of Crew Dragon test flight - Spaceflight Now

Seattles BlackSky and other satellite imaging ventures bear witness to devastation in Beirut – GeekWire

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An image captured by the BlackSky Global-4 satellite shows the site of the Beirut chemical explosion at 8:22 a.m. local time Aug. 5. Image resolution is about 1 meter (3 feet) per pixel. (BlackSky Global Monitoring Photo)

The aftermath of this weeks Beirut chemical explosion has been covered in triplicate by U.S. satellite imaging systems with other nations satellites, drones and on-the-scene videos adding perspective.

All that imagery helped outside observers quickly verify that the killing blast was caused not by a terrorist bombing, but by the blow-up of a years-old stockpile of ammonium nitrate. The chemical is typically used as fertilizer but can be turned into dangerous explosives.

The Aug. 4 explosion killed at least 100 people, injured thousands more, sent out a shock wave that damaged buildings up to 6 miles away, and generated a seismic shock that was felt as far away as Cyprus.

Among the spacecraft in position to document the aftermath was BlackSkys Global-4 satellite, which was built in Seattle for BlackSky and launched last August. BlackSky is a subsidiary of Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, and has offices in Seattle as well as Virginia.

BlackSky is due to have two more Global satellites launched as soon as this week, as rideshare payloads on a SpaceX Falcon 9 under an arrangement with Seattles Spaceflight Inc. Theyre among the first satellites built for BlackSky by Tukwila, Wash.-based LeoStella, a joint venture between Spaceflight Industries and Europes Thales Alenia Space. The deployment timetable calls for 16 BlackSky satellites to be on duty in low Earth orbit by early next year.

Two of BlackSkys competitors, Planet and Maxar Technologies, also shared before-and-after views of the Beirut blast scene today:

BlackSky, Maxar Technologies and Planet have all won study contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office, under a program aimed at assessing the companies ability to provide imagery for the defense and intelligence communities.

NRO says it will start a new round of commercial imagery procurements in late 2020, with an eye toward satisfying government requirements into the 2023 time frame. So the efforts to capture over Beirut isnt merely meant to satisfy curiosity; they serve to demonstrate what the companies can do for national defense.

In addition to the satellite pictures from those three U.S. companies, theres a surfeit of sobering imagery from other satellites and drones. Heres a sampling:

To contribute online to Beirut relief efforts, check out the Lebanese Red Cross and Impact Lebanon on Just Giving. This report was first published on Cosmic Log.

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Seattles BlackSky and other satellite imaging ventures bear witness to devastation in Beirut - GeekWire

All Aboard! Target Has Ghostly Pirate Ship Cat Scratchers and, Yep, There’s a Poop Deck – POPSUGAR

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As if we needed an excuse to dress our cats up in pantaloons and little captain's hats this Halloween, Target has rolled out a new pirate-themed cat scratcher that might just give our fluffy friends the holiday chills. The store's new Hyde & EEK! Boutique Pirate Ship Cat Scratcher Toy, available exclusively at Target for $35, comes with tattered sails, paintings of a skeleton crew members, and two scratch pads for your feline to scratch their claws after sailing the high seas (aka, taking a cat nap).

Made to fit a cat-size crew, the fur-raising ship stands in at 44 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 31 inches tall, which means there's plenty of room for carrying treats treasure. Check out the ghoulish cat scratcher for yourself ahead, and take a peek at a few feline friends who've already gotten their paws on a boat to call their own.

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All Aboard! Target Has Ghostly Pirate Ship Cat Scratchers and, Yep, There's a Poop Deck - POPSUGAR

Windbound Preview – The Most Relaxing Survival Game You’ll Play This Year – Twinfinite

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Ever since I laid eyes on Windbound in its announcement trailer, I was intrigued. Its open world elements and the freedom it gives players to explore its high seas and the uncharted islands that nestle themselves in it evoked that same sense of mystifying wonder that some of my personal favorites of recent years like Breath of the Wild, and What Remains of Edith Finch perfected in their open world design and narrative respectively. Theres a lot to love about Windbound, even if it is a rather simple survival game.

I was recently given the opportunity to go hands-on with Windbounds opening section, and a short segment of gameplay from later on in the game, and came away feeling pretty darn positive about the whole thing.

Players find themselves in control of Kara, a young warrior who finds herself shipwrecked and completely on her own on the Forbidden Islands. With nothing to her name, she must find a way to survive by hunting and scavenging the various islands she stumbles upon as she explores the high seas.

The first segment we played took place at the very beginning of Karas adventure. I explored typical uninhabited islands, with flora and fauna bringing bursts of color to the beige sands and blue waters that enveloped them. Windbounds art style is the first thing youll notice, clearly taking cues from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

It doesnt just look pretty, but feels like a perfect match for the constant sense of discovery and adventure that Windbound dripfeeds you. Theres detail and beauty in its environments, without going down the photorealism route. Windbounds visuals are timelessly beautiful.

As I reached the first island, I found a large pillar. Interacting with this pillar triggered some sort of beacon, and one of three icons on my screen was illuminated upon doing so. Youre never told what you should or shouldnt be doing in Windbound, so assuming I was on the right path, I hopped onto my small boat and took to the seas to try and find the remaining two.

Sailing actually feels pretty good, too, with players required to row or sail their ship from island to island. Wind direction is a significant factor you have to taken into account when traveling, tightening or loosening your sails depending on whether youre sailing into, across, or with the wind.

From our time in stages one and four of Windbound, sailing certainly feels to provide an ample gameplay challenge as the game progresses with choppier waters and harsher winds in the latter stage compared to the relatively tranquil seas in the first. It gets you thinking more about how youll reach your destination and what ship upgrades may benefit you most on your quest.

Youll spend a lot of time sailing the turbulent seas of Windbound and as became clear when we were skipped forward to the games fourth stage, the means in which you island hop can be customized to your own specifications. Do you want multiple sails, or no sails at all? Do you want to add bamboo decking and build a bag rack to help bolster your carry capacity, or would you rather place a campfire on it so you can quickly cook meat or make leather from animal hides? The choice is entirely yours, and ultimately feeds into how your Windbound experience unfolds.

Thats the beauty of Windbound. Even in the two sections of the game this preview is focused on, I never felt like I had to do anything in any particular way, or that I was being pressured to push on to the next section. I was free to venture off the beaten path and have Kara explore the farthest corners of the stages map the fog of war only being cleared as I sailed over it as long as I could survive.

Windbound is a survival game, and so you will need to manage Karas health and stamina gauges by foraging, hunting and preparing food. Berries can be found on some islands, giving you a small boost to health and stamina, or you can take down one of the native creatures and cook its meat to restore a larger amount. Ive never been the biggest fan of hunger and thirst meters in games theyre never really fun, lets be honest and I felt no different in Windbound.

Fortunately, it never felt overwhelming enough to detract from the standout sections of Windbound. Uncovering a new island seldom gets boring. Thanks to procedurally-generated islands, each time you uncover one you never know quite what youre going to get.

Our time in Chapter 4 only reinforced this, with swampy islands popping up to offer some variation on our adventure. With these came new creatures to battle and strip for resources, flora and fauna to create new tools and ship upgrades, and more story tidbits to uncover.

It was only during my stint in Chapter 4 that one of Windbounds most significant downsides became clear. Those three beacons we were seeking out in the games first chapter appear to be the recurring main objective. This would have been fine had they perhaps got trickier to scale and interact with, but they dont.

While we dont know exactly how the rest of the game will pan out, the similarities from what we could gather between Chapters 1 and 4 in their main objectives were a little disappointing. Sure, you may have to beat a few different enemy types along the way, but it still all feels a little too simple. Climb some conveniently-placed pillars, interact with the beacon, move on.

Speaking of enemy types, Windbounds combat feels a little barebones. Youll have an arsenal of spears, slings and even bows and arrows to use, but youll be able to stab and fire your ranged weapon, and perform a basic dodge. Thats it. Theres nothing more to it. While there are a few different types of projectile, my battles with enemies often resulted in repeated stabbing attacks with my spear and the occasional slinging of a rock.

From what Ive played of Windbound, it may be one of the most tranquil, relaxing and mysterious games Ive played this year. I can imagine myself kicking back after a long day and getting lost on its towering waves and tucked-away islands, desperately trying to piece together the secrets these forbidden waters hide. Its main objectives may get a little samey, and the combat a little too linear, but I still want to keep exploring all the same.

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Windbound Preview - The Most Relaxing Survival Game You'll Play This Year - Twinfinite

Mahlon Reye Boats on Deadliest Catch: What Boat Was Mahlon Reye On? – The Cinemaholic

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Deadliest Catch has been one of Discovery Channels mainstay shows since it burst onto the scene in 2005 and remains a fan favorite for various reasons. Fans, however, will be aggrieved to know that Mahlon Reyes, a longstanding deckhand in Deadliest Catch, has passed away.

The 38-year-old deckhand and Deadliest Catch veteran suffered a cardiac arrest and died an untimely yet peaceful death on July 27, 2020, in his hometown of Whitefish, Montana. Following his passing, Reyes family put up a tribute post on his Facebook page, saying, On Sunday night, our family together made the hardest choice weve ever made, and that was to remove him from life support. Mahlons body was tired and had put up an amazing fight. He was the strongest guy we knew. He was surrounded by so much love.

Reyes time with Deadliest Catch was certainly an eventful one, and he featured in several heart-pounding and adrenaline-filled episodes. Throughout his stint with Deadliest Catch, Reyes served as the deckhand on two vessels. He was loved by both his superiors and his colleagues. In this article, we take a look at the two boats that had the honor of having Reyes on board.

One of the two boats on which Reyes had served, the Seabrooke, is a veteran of the waters. It was built in 1979. The Seabrooke is a steel crabber that can reach a speed of 10 knots on the open sea and comes with a 29,000-gallon fuel capacity. Being a crabbing vessel, it sports all the required deck gear for crabbing, including a crab block, a tendering set-up, and a deck crane. Over its four decades of service, the Seabrooke has been upgraded several times and remains a beast on the sea.

In Deadliest Catch, the Seabrooke is under the command of Captain Scott Campbell for four seasons, and Captain Campbell remains one of the most loved captains to feature on the show. Campbell is a veteran crabber and had spent many years on the sea before Discovery Channel discovered him and offered him a spot on Deadliest Catch. In 2018, however, Campbell was forced to step back from his rough life on the high seas due to a back injury and now owns his own company, Cordova Coolers, which sells a line of foam-injected roto-molded coolers designed by him. Campbells retirement from being a crabber has also had an effect on the fate of the Seabrooke, which, as of 2019, was on sale.

The second vessel on which Reyes served is known as the Cape Caution. After being built in 1983, the Cape Caution has spent almost four decades roaming the high seas in search of the deadliest (and yummiest) catch. The fishing vessel remains in active service to this day.

In Deadliest Catch, the Cape Caution features from Seasons 9 through 12 under the command of seafaring veteran, Captain Wild Bill Wichrowski. Having served four years in the US Navy, the monetary allure of king-crab fishing lured Bill to the Bering sea. A couple of seasons into Bills stint with Deadliest Catch, Bill brought his son Zack in to serve as greenhorn aboard the Cape Caution.[Cover Picture Courtesy: Mahlon Reyes/Facebook]

Read More: Best Ship Movies

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Mahlon Reye Boats on Deadliest Catch: What Boat Was Mahlon Reye On? - The Cinemaholic

Giants’ Judge says sacrifice needed for NFL to have season – Press of Atlantic City

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New York Giants coach Joe Judge believes the NFL players and coaches will have to sacrifice if the league is going to have a season in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to the media Friday for the first time since players started reporting to training camp, Judge refused to discuss either individual players or second-year cornerback DeAndre Bakers legal problems. He said the release of 2018 Pro Bowl placekicker Aldrick Rosas following a hit-and-run accident was in the best interest of the team.

Judge again voiced his support for left tackle Nate Solders decision to opt out of the season because of health concerns during the pandemic.

Heading into his first season as a head coach, the former New England Patriots special teams coordinator said the unusual nature of this season will not be an excuse for his team. The Giants will adapt and be prepared for any eventuality, including either players or coaches testing positive for COVID-19.

Judge hopes that never happens, of course, but he insists the Giants and every team and player in the league have to work to prevent any outbreaks. He strongly believes following the agreed protocols adopted by the league and players union are essential.

The thing I have said to my team is we have to make responsible decisions, always, Judge said. For me personally, its not just where I go around my house, but Ive got to be conscious of where my wife, children, you know, who are they around?

There are some sacrifices we have to make, Judge continued. Everybodys made sacrifices to get to this level. If the biggest thing we have to do for half the year is wear masks around each other, distance a little bit, and when we go home, be home I think thats a pretty fair trade-off to be able to be part of the National Football League.

Players are currently quarantined in hotels while awaiting the results of repeated COVID-19 testing. They wont be allowed into the team facility until passing those tests.

Obviously a problem for the NFL would be a spike in cases, what baseball is going through, particularly with the Miami Marlins. They have missed a week of play in a 60-game season. An outbreak could endanger any season in any sport. The NFL has rules that require players to stay away from large crowds and to wear face masks.

Since being hired to succeed the fired Pat Shurmur in January, Judge has not had the chance to physically stand in front of his team and address it. He has spoken to some players and held virtual team meetings with the entire group to tell them what he expects. It certainly isnt another 4-12 season for a franchise that has been to the playoffs once since winning the Super Bowl in February 2012.

Under the labor agreement between the players union and the NFL, the first practices for this season wont take place until mid-August. There will be 14 overall, with 10 in pads.

A lot of things have to be done in a short period of time, he said. We have to make good evaluations as coaches, Ive got to set up practices and make sure we can evaluate guys at multiple positions, and we gotta make sure that we do a good job of seeing what every player does when he understands what to do when the play is fastest. Thats our job as coaches to teach them.

Rosas, who kicked for the Giants the past three years and was coming off a poor season, was released this week. Former Jets kicker Chandler Catanzaro was signed.

Baker, one of three first-round draft picks in 2019 and an anticipated starter at cornerback, was placed on the commissioners exempt list this week. He was arrested on armed robbery and aggravated assault charges in Florida in the offseason. He pleaded innocent.

Hes not on our 90-man roster, currently hes on the exempt list. Ill let the league deal with that issue, Judge said.

NOTES: Judge agreed it will be harder adding players to the roster this season because of the rule that mandates new players must isolate for a week before joining a new team. ... While some teams have discussed quarantining either their starting or backup quarterbacks to keep them virus free, Judge said he wont do that.

New Jersey remains in the forecast cone. Options from a graze up the coast to an inland track near the Delaware River are possible. Tropical storm warnings extend from Boston, down the I-95 corridor to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

As of 3 p.m., the National Weather Service Hazards for the Northeast. Tropical storm warnings are in dark red.

It is important to note that the heaviest rain will be to the west of Isaias' center. Meanwhile, the strongest winds will be to the east.

"Isaas" is the Spanish and Portuguese word for the biblical Isaiah. It is pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs.

Isaias joins Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall just south of Long Beach Island on July 10, as the two storms put the region in the forecast cone.

The cone represents a two-thirds probability of where the center of the low pressure center is.

The storm will slip through a weakness in a large high pressure system, which expands from the Gulf of Mexico into much of the Atlantic Ocean.

This map shows the steering patterns of the atmosphere between the 300 to 850 millibar level, between about 30,000 and 5,000 feet high. Isaias will slip through the weakness in the clockwise spinning high pressure system off the coast of Florida.

One it reaches Georgia, the steering patterns sharply moves west to east. While the storm won't curve immediately out to sea, there will be a turn to the northeast as it moves north, hence why New Jersey is in the forecast cone.

Forecast model guidance continues to narrow. A landfall will be possible, or can a pass two to three hundred miles out to sea.

The model track guidance for Tropical Storm Iasias, as of 8 a.m. Friday.

There are three options at play. However, it will not be until Saturday when they can be narrowed down. If the storm makes landfall before reaching New Jersey, that will weaken the storm, and vice versa. The first two scenarios are favored, with the third one looking less and less likely.

Option 1:

The European model from Wednesday night is a good representation of what scenario 1 would look like. The center of the storm is well out to sea.

Isaias stays 200 to 300 miles out to sea, passing between late Monday and Tuesday.

Spotty, but heavy, rain bands will pass. Winds would be gusty, but likely would not be enough to bring damage.

The real concerns would be out on the water. Given the full moon Monday and the onshore winds. Multiple rounds of minor or moderate coastal flooding would be likely. High seas would be present, with dangerous rip currents, too. During Tropical Storm Fay, a teenage lost his life in Ventnor while swimming with two friends the evening of the storm. In Ocean City, two 18-year-old girls were brought to shore by city police the following morning.

A heat wave that drives you to the shore, warm water temperature that draws you to the surf

Option 2:

The storm hugs the Jersey Shore. While the western side of the storm is usually the safer side, since the winds around the counter-clockwise spinning system goes against the northerly direction of the storm's movement, worse impacts than option 1 are possible.

Flooding rain, damaging winds at the coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding, dangerous rip currents and high seas will all be likely.

This being said, a track coast to the close would likely mean land interaction with North Carolina. If that happens, the storm would weaken. This could mean the difference between a strong tropical storm and weak, less organized one.

The Global Forecast System, American, model paints this picture. Though, note that the exact track of the storm should not be paid attention to. Rather, note how organized the storm is.

The GFS, American model, paints tropical storm force sustained winds at the shore Tuesday morning. Emergency personnel will not respond to a 9-1-1 call when winds are above tropical storm force.

Option 3:

Isaias makes landfall in Florida or the Southeastern United States and the center of the storm passes to the west of the state. That is illustrated on the western edge of the forecast cone.

The storm would likely be a remnants storm by then, or perhaps a Tropical Depression. However, flooding rains, some coastal flooding, dangerous seas, rip currents and high surf would be likely.

The Canadian weather forecast model from the Thursday night model run. Note the center of the storm is inland and would likely be a remnant storm, or a tropical depression by then.

Saturday.

By then, the storm will be near Florida. In the weakness of the large, Gulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean high pressure system, there will be a better idea on how the steering currents will move the storm.

Tropical Storm watches may go up Saturday night or Sunday morning, 48 hours before tropical storm force (39 mph or greater) winds arrive.

The Press of Atlantic City's Hurricane section of the Weather Center has the information you need to know to protect yourself and learn more about tropical systems in South Jersey.

Ten tropical storms and hurricanes have made landfall in South Jersey since 1900. Here's the list, newly updated with Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall July 10. As long as the storm makes landfall in New Jersey, it will be the first time with two storms making landfall within the same year.

Making landfall on the Delaware Bay side of Cape May County on the morning of August 21, 1971, Doria was responsible for an F-2 tornado, with winds over 100 mph, near Cape May .

According to the Weather Prediction Center, 3 to 7 inches of rain fell in most of the region.

An active 2020 hurricane season was predictedby Colorado State University. With Isaias, 2020 continues its record breaking pace to hurricane season, beating out the historic 2005 year.

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Giants' Judge says sacrifice needed for NFL to have season - Press of Atlantic City

Isaias strengthens into a hurricane, South Jersey in forecasted path – Press of Atlantic City

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Where is Isaias now? Where is the forecasted path?

New Jersey remains in the forecast cone. Options from a graze up the coast to an inland track near the Delaware River are possible. Tropical storm warnings extend from Boston, down the I-95 corridor to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

As of 3 p.m., the National Weather Service Hazards for the Northeast. Tropical storm warnings are in dark red.

It is important to note that the heaviest rain will be to the west of Isaias' center. Meanwhile, the strongest winds will be to the east.

"Isaas" is the Spanish and Portuguese word for the biblical Isaiah. It is pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs.

Isaias joins Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall just south of Long Beach Island on July 10, as the two storms put the region in the forecast cone.

The cone represents a two-thirds probability of where the center of the low pressure center is.

The storm will slip through a weakness in a large high pressure system, which expands from the Gulf of Mexico into much of the Atlantic Ocean.

This map shows the steering patterns of the atmosphere between the 300 to 850 millibar level, between about 30,000 and 5,000 feet high. Isaias will slip through the weakness in the clockwise spinning high pressure system off the coast of Florida.

One it reaches Georgia, the steering patterns sharply moves west to east. While the storm won't curve immediately out to sea, there will be a turn to the northeast as it moves north, hence why New Jersey is in the forecast cone.

Forecast model guidance continues to narrow. A landfall will be possible, or can a pass two to three hundred miles out to sea.

The model track guidance for Tropical Storm Iasias, as of 8 a.m. Friday.

There are three options at play. However, it will not be until Saturday when they can be narrowed down. If the storm makes landfall before reaching New Jersey, that will weaken the storm, and vice versa. The first two scenarios are favored, with the third one looking less and less likely.

Option 1:

The European model from Wednesday night is a good representation of what scenario 1 would look like. The center of the storm is well out to sea.

Isaias stays 200 to 300 miles out to sea, passing between late Monday and Tuesday.

Spotty, but heavy, rain bands will pass. Winds would be gusty, but likely would not be enough to bring damage.

The real concerns would be out on the water. Given the full moon Monday and the onshore winds. Multiple rounds of minor or moderate coastal flooding would be likely. High seas would be present, with dangerous rip currents, too. During Tropical Storm Fay, a teenage lost his life in Ventnor while swimming with two friends the evening of the storm. In Ocean City, two 18-year-old girls were brought to shore by city police the following morning.

A heat wave that drives you to the shore, warm water temperature that draws you to the surf

Option 2:

The storm hugs the Jersey Shore. While the western side of the storm is usually the safer side, since the winds around the counter-clockwise spinning system goes against the northerly direction of the storm's movement, worse impacts than option 1 are possible.

Flooding rain, damaging winds at the coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding, dangerous rip currents and high seas will all be likely.

This being said, a track coast to the close would likely mean land interaction with North Carolina. If that happens, the storm would weaken. This could mean the difference between a strong tropical storm and weak, less organized one.

The Global Forecast System, American, model paints this picture. Though, note that the exact track of the storm should not be paid attention to. Rather, note how organized the storm is.

The GFS, American model, paints tropical storm force sustained winds at the shore Tuesday morning. Emergency personnel will not respond to a 9-1-1 call when winds are above tropical storm force.

Option 3:

Isaias makes landfall in Florida or the Southeastern United States and the center of the storm passes to the west of the state. That is illustrated on the western edge of the forecast cone.

The storm would likely be a remnants storm by then, or perhaps a Tropical Depression. However, flooding rains, some coastal flooding, dangerous seas, rip currents and high surf would be likely.

The Canadian weather forecast model from the Thursday night model run. Note the center of the storm is inland and would likely be a remnant storm, or a tropical depression by then.

Saturday.

By then, the storm will be near Florida. In the weakness of the large, Gulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean high pressure system, there will be a better idea on how the steering currents will move the storm.

Tropical Storm watches may go up Saturday night or Sunday morning, 48 hours before tropical storm force (39 mph or greater) winds arrive.

The Press of Atlantic City's Hurricane section of the Weather Center has the information you need to know to protect yourself and learn more about tropical systems in South Jersey.

Ten tropical storms and hurricanes have made landfall in South Jersey since 1900. Here's the list, newly updated with Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall July 10. As long as the storm makes landfall in New Jersey, it will be the first time with two storms making landfall within the same year.

Making landfall on the Delaware Bay side of Cape May County on the morning of August 21, 1971, Doria was responsible for an F-2 tornado, with winds over 100 mph, near Cape May .

According to the Weather Prediction Center, 3 to 7 inches of rain fell in most of the region.

An active 2020 hurricane season was predictedby Colorado State University. With Isaias, 2020 continues its record breaking pace to hurricane season, beating out the historic 2005 year.

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Isaias strengthens into a hurricane, South Jersey in forecasted path - Press of Atlantic City

Friday brings rain, storms, repeat of last week, also watching Iasias – Press of Atlantic City

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Last Friday brought rain for a few hours in the morning, before afternoon thunderstorms moved in.

This Friday will be quite similar. Showers will be present during much of the morning, with a spotty thunderstorm during the afternoon.

Periods of rain will be present all throughout the morning. There will be dry time, but most outdoor work and plans will need to be moved. Heavy downpours will be around. Rainfall totals will be between 0.30 to 0.60 during the morning. Some spots will have areas of roadway flooding. If you see flooded roads, turn around.

Otherwise, temperatures will start in the low to mid-70s, extending our streak of nights at or above 70 degrees. As long as we stay above 70 degrees by midnight Friday, Atlantic City International Airport will have the longest streak of 70-degree or greater nights at 15. Sen. Frank. S. Farley Marina will reside in the fourth spot, with 25 days (record is 33).

Rain will taper between 9 and 11 a.m. There will still be an isolated shower around but many should be dry until 2 p.m. or so. Then, scattered showers and storms will flare back up. That will continue until around sunset.

A damaging gustS will be possible with these storms, in addition to more flooded roadways. High temperatures will be in the low to mid-80s with the cloudy and rainy day. That would snap our heat wave at five days.

A cold front will sink through the region overnight. Youll notice a clearing sky and less muggy air. Well slide into the 80s and 70s during the evening. Come Saturday morning, well be in the upper 60s on the mainland, with low 70s at the shore.

Saturday will be the better of the two weekend days. With the cold front furthest away from us, we should squeak out the day and stay dry. Well have a mostly- to partly-sunny sky, with the most sunshine in Little Egg Harbor Township and places north of the White Horse Pike.

Well be in the low to mid-80s. Itll be perfect for a trip to the shore, pool or anywhere with water. Outdoor projects will be a go all day thanks to the lower heat. Again, history will repeat itself, as this will be the second Friday-Saturday combination in a row with highs below 90. No air conditioner? Maybe.

Dew points will rise on a dry Saturday night as a warm front lifts north through the region. Expect a few showers to fly around after midnight until around dawn Sunday. Between the showers and sticky air, itll be a mild night. Low to mid-70s will be expected, well above average for this time of the year.

Sunday will heat up quickly. Well get to the low 90s for mainland highs. The south wind will save the shore, with mid-80s there. That cold front will pass late Sunday. Expect showers and storms from the late afternoon, into the night. However, theyll be few and far between, and youll have a mostly dry Sunday.

That will then take us to the beginning of the week, when Iasias becomes our concern. At this time, any impacts would be between Monday night and early Wednesday. Options range from rough seas, rip currents and some coastal flooding. While a landfalling storm is not likely, its just a technicality, a close brush by from a tropical storm can bring the same effects.

New Jersey remains in the forecast cone. Options from a graze up the coast to an inland track near the Delaware River are possible. Tropical storm warnings extend from Boston, down the I-95 corridor to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

As of 3 p.m., the National Weather Service Hazards for the Northeast. Tropical storm warnings are in dark red.

It is important to note that the heaviest rain will be to the west of Isaias' center. Meanwhile, the strongest winds will be to the east.

"Isaas" is the Spanish and Portuguese word for the biblical Isaiah. It is pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs.

Isaias joins Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall just south of Long Beach Island on July 10, as the two storms put the region in the forecast cone.

The cone represents a two-thirds probability of where the center of the low pressure center is.

The storm will slip through a weakness in a large high pressure system, which expands from the Gulf of Mexico into much of the Atlantic Ocean.

This map shows the steering patterns of the atmosphere between the 300 to 850 millibar level, between about 30,000 and 5,000 feet high. Isaias will slip through the weakness in the clockwise spinning high pressure system off the coast of Florida.

One it reaches Georgia, the steering patterns sharply moves west to east. While the storm won't curve immediately out to sea, there will be a turn to the northeast as it moves north, hence why New Jersey is in the forecast cone.

Forecast model guidance continues to narrow. A landfall will be possible, or can a pass two to three hundred miles out to sea.

The model track guidance for Tropical Storm Iasias, as of 8 a.m. Friday.

There are three options at play. However, it will not be until Saturday when they can be narrowed down. If the storm makes landfall before reaching New Jersey, that will weaken the storm, and vice versa. The first two scenarios are favored, with the third one looking less and less likely.

Option 1:

The European model from Wednesday night is a good representation of what scenario 1 would look like. The center of the storm is well out to sea.

Isaias stays 200 to 300 miles out to sea, passing between late Monday and Tuesday.

Spotty, but heavy, rain bands will pass. Winds would be gusty, but likely would not be enough to bring damage.

The real concerns would be out on the water. Given the full moon Monday and the onshore winds. Multiple rounds of minor or moderate coastal flooding would be likely. High seas would be present, with dangerous rip currents, too. During Tropical Storm Fay, a teenage lost his life in Ventnor while swimming with two friends the evening of the storm. In Ocean City, two 18-year-old girls were brought to shore by city police the following morning.

A heat wave that drives you to the shore, warm water temperature that draws you to the surf

Option 2:

The storm hugs the Jersey Shore. While the western side of the storm is usually the safer side, since the winds around the counter-clockwise spinning system goes against the northerly direction of the storm's movement, worse impacts than option 1 are possible.

Flooding rain, damaging winds at the coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding, dangerous rip currents and high seas will all be likely.

This being said, a track coast to the close would likely mean land interaction with North Carolina. If that happens, the storm would weaken. This could mean the difference between a strong tropical storm and weak, less organized one.

The Global Forecast System, American, model paints this picture. Though, note that the exact track of the storm should not be paid attention to. Rather, note how organized the storm is.

The GFS, American model, paints tropical storm force sustained winds at the shore Tuesday morning. Emergency personnel will not respond to a 9-1-1 call when winds are above tropical storm force.

Option 3:

Isaias makes landfall in Florida or the Southeastern United States and the center of the storm passes to the west of the state. That is illustrated on the western edge of the forecast cone.

The storm would likely be a remnants storm by then, or perhaps a Tropical Depression. However, flooding rains, some coastal flooding, dangerous seas, rip currents and high surf would be likely.

The Canadian weather forecast model from the Thursday night model run. Note the center of the storm is inland and would likely be a remnant storm, or a tropical depression by then.

Saturday.

By then, the storm will be near Florida. In the weakness of the large, Gulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean high pressure system, there will be a better idea on how the steering currents will move the storm.

Tropical Storm watches may go up Saturday night or Sunday morning, 48 hours before tropical storm force (39 mph or greater) winds arrive.

The Press of Atlantic City's Hurricane section of the Weather Center has the information you need to know to protect yourself and learn more about tropical systems in South Jersey.

Ten tropical storms and hurricanes have made landfall in South Jersey since 1900. Here's the list, newly updated with Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall July 10. As long as the storm makes landfall in New Jersey, it will be the first time with two storms making landfall within the same year.

Making landfall on the Delaware Bay side of Cape May County on the morning of August 21, 1971, Doria was responsible for an F-2 tornado, with winds over 100 mph, near Cape May .

According to the Weather Prediction Center, 3 to 7 inches of rain fell in most of the region.

An active 2020 hurricane season was predictedby Colorado State University. With Isaias, 2020 continues its record breaking pace to hurricane season, beating out the historic 2005 year.

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Friday brings rain, storms, repeat of last week, also watching Iasias - Press of Atlantic City