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Trump campaign says it is victim of foreign hack after leak of Vance report

6 Mins Read

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said on Saturday that it has been the victim of a foreign hack, after the campaign received questions from news organizations about a lengthy vetting document on vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) sent to the outlets.

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

Cheung pointed to a report released Friday by Microsoft in which the company said it had discovered evidence that Iranian hackers had tried to break into the email account of a “high-ranking official” on a U.S. presidential campaign in June.

The company did not publicly identify the campaign or confirm whether it believed the hack had been successful. A person familiar with Microsoft’s work confirmed that the report’s reference was to the Trump campaign.

Cheung did not disclose whether the campaign has been in contact with Microsoft and did not offer evidence for its assertion that the documents were hacked by Iran. But he said in a statement that the timing of the episode described by Microsoft coincides with Trump’s selection of Vance as his running mate.

People familiar with the matter said the campaign separately concluded earlier this summer its email system had been breached but did not disclose it publicly or to law enforcement. The people said some officials were told to take more protective measures on their email accounts. At the time, campaign officials communicated to others that they weren’t sure who hacked the emails. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the internal matter.

Politico was first to report the statement from Trump’s campaign Saturday. The news outlet reported that it had received messages starting July 22 from an anonymous sender offering proprietary information about the Trump campaign, including a copy of a vetting document related to Vance.

On Thursday, The Washington Post was also sent a 271-page document about Vance from a sender who called himself Robert and used an AOL email account. Dated Feb. 23 and labeled “privileged & confidential,” the document highlighted potential political vulnerabilities for the first-term senator. Two people familiar with the document confirmed it was authentic and was commissioned by the campaign from Brand Woodward, a law firm that represents a number of prominent Trump advisers in investigations by state and federal authorities.

The document drew from publicly available information, including past news reports and interviews with the senator. The campaign commissioned several reports of other candidates, too, the advisers said.

The sender would not speak on the telephone with a Post reporter but indicated they had access to additional information, including internal campaign emails and documents related to Trump’s court cases.

“Consider me as an anonymous resource who has access to djtfp24 campaign. There are [sic] other stuff too, that I can send you, if this content is in your field of interest,” the sender wrote in an email to the reporter.

“I hope you understand my limitations and my vulnerable position in the campaign,” the sender added.

On Friday, Microsoft said a group run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had compromised the email account of a former adviser to a U.S. presidential campaign and used that address in June to contact a senior official who was still engaged in the campaign. That email contained a link to a site that could have allowed Iran to intercept the target’s other emails, Microsoft said. A spokesman for the company said it would not reveal whether the attack had succeeded and declined to comment Saturday.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said the Biden administration “strongly condemns any foreign government or entity who attempts to interfere in our electoral process or seeks to undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.”

In a statement, the FBI said the agency was aware of the media reports and had no comment. A spokesperson for Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. intelligence officials said in July that Iran is working to stoke societal discord in the United States and undermine Trump’s bid to regain the White House, a repeat of Iranian efforts in 2020.

Prosecutors in New York last month also charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on American soil. The alleged Iranian-backed plot, however, had raised concerns about Trump’s safety in the weeks before the attempted assassination in July, according to U.S. officials familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

In his statement, Cheung referenced reports of that alleged plot: “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House. Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”

A spokesman for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cheung’s statement is a marked change in tone from the 2016 campaign, when Trump repeatedly touted internal Democratic emails and other documents released by WikiLeaks that U.S. officials suspected had been stolen by Russia.

“I love WikiLeaks,” Trump said while campaigning against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in October 2016, after the organization had posted online tens of thousands of emails hacked from the account of Clinton’s campaign chairman.

“This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable,” he said two days later, as the site posted daily troves of internal Clinton campaign emails. “It tells you the inner heart; you gotta read it.”

Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University, called hacks and leaks — similar to what happened in 2016 and to what the Trump campaign has alleged took place with the Vance report — the “white whale” of foreign influence operations. “Close observers in the intelligence community and beyond have long been waiting for another sighting of that elusive beast: potentially highly impactful, deceptive, perhaps with forgeries slipped into genuine leaked material, with real news value, hard to counter,” he said, but added this did not appear to be it.

Devlin Barrett, Joseph Menn, Aaron Schaffer, Chris Dehghanpoor, Sam Oakford and Toluse Olorunnipa contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on washingtonpost.com

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In Politics

Harris goes on offense over the border in attempt to undercut Trump

5 Mins Read

LAS VEGAS — Speaking to supporters at a campaign rally here Saturday night, Kamala Harris told attendees that she knows the issues with the immigration system and how to fix them, touting her work as California attorney general.

“I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers who came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” Harris said to cheers.

“We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it. Comprehensive reform that includes, yes, strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.”

Then she turned her focus on her rival: “Donald Trump [doesn’t] want to fix this problem. He talks a big game — about a lot of things — but he talks a big game about border security. But he does not walk the walk.”

In the nascent weeks of her presidential campaign, Harris has tried to flip the script on the Republican attacks on her immigration record. During her first campaign swing through the Southwest as the Democratic nominee, she continued to portray herself as tough on the border and went on the offensive to attack former president Donald Trump, who has centered much of his campaign on border issues.

Republicans for years have attacked Harris as a failed “border czar” responsible for dealing with the surge of migrants at the border, and those attacks have only grown since she became the nominee. As vice president, she was directed by President Joe Biden to tackle the enduring root causes of migration, like poverty and violence, in Central America. She was never put in charge of the border nor labeled a “czar.”

At the rally, Harris also unveiled a proposal to “raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.” Trump proposed eliminating taxes on tips in June during a rally in Las Vegas.

Trump responded to Harris’s support for the idea on Truth Social, saying she “just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy. The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes! This was a TRUMP idea – She has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”

Supporters waited in extreme heat to attend the event, huddling near large misters pointed at the line. According to a campaign official, more than 12,000 people attended the event held at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’s Thomas & Mack Center before doors were closed due to the temperatures.

“Local law enforcement made the decision to close the doors to the event due to people becoming ill while waiting outside to go through security in the 109-degree heat. Approximately 4,000 people were in line when the entrances were shut down,” said the official.

In Atlanta last month, she described her border focus while working in California, telling attendees, “I was the attorney general of a border state. In that job, I walked underground tunnels between the United States and Mexico on that border with law enforcement officers.”

Harris has also taken aim at Trump for his immigration policies, blaming him for blocking a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year and arguing that he doesn’t want to resolve the issue.

“Earlier this year, we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades. But Donald Trump tanked the bill because he thought it would help him win an election,” she said in Las Vegas. “Well, when I am president, I will sign that bill into law.”

Asked about Harris’s claims, a Trump campaign spokesperson directed The Post to a video shared by Trump on Truth Social on Saturday.

The video says Harris would provide health care for undocumented immigrants, using footage of a Democratic primary debate in 2020, when Harris raised her hand when candidates were asked to do so if their health plan would cover undocumented immigrants. The text on screen concludes: “Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal.”

A Harris campaign ad released Friday highlighted the same components of Harris’s biography that she has raised on the trail when discussing immigration.

“As president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking,” the ad’s narrator says, concluding: “Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris.”

Last week, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted both Arizona and Nevada from “lean Republican” to “toss up,” reversing a move it made in early July before Biden’s decision to leave the presidential race and endorse Harris.

Dan Kanninen, the Harris campaign’s battleground states director, said in a memo Friday that the campaign in Nevada has “the largest in-state operation of any coordinated campaign ever with 13 offices and nearly 100 staff on the ground.” In Arizona, he said, “the campaign has 12 coordinated offices with six more to come — the most of any Arizona coordinated campaign in history,” with more than 120 full-time staffers.

Clark Willits — a supporter from California who drove nine hours to attend the event and then waited outside in the heat for five hours to get inside — dismissed the attacks from the right on Harris’s immigration record.

“I think she can’t skirt it under the rug, so to speak, but I don’t think she has much to worry about when it comes to immigration,” he said. “I believe in her, and I know that she will pass immigration reform, because she takes those matters very seriously as a multiracial individual herself.”

“She gets it,” he added. “Trump, on the other hand, he wants to build a wall. You know, there’s no comparison. So I think it’s a weak argument.”

This post appeared first on washingtonpost.com

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In Stocks

TLT Turns the Corner and Starts to Lead

3 Mins Read

The 20+ Yr Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) is turning the corner as a long-term trend indicator turns bullish and price extends on a breakout. TLT is also starting to outperform the S&P 500 EW ETF (RSP), for the first time in a long time.

The first chart shows TLT with the 5-day SMA (green), the 200-day SMA (red) and the Percent above MA (5,200,1) in the lower window. This indicator shows the percentage difference between the 5 and 200 day SMAs. Note that I placed signal thresholds at +3% and -3%. This means I want the 5-day SMA to be at least 3% above/below the 200-day SMA for a signal.

We cannot totally eliminate whipsaws, but we can reduce them with smoothing and signal thresholds. In the window above, we can see the indicator turning green and red as the 5-day crosses above/below the 200-day. There were at 21 crosses over the last four years. There were only three crosses using the 3% signal thresholds. Note that a 3% signal triggers with a move above 3% and remains valid until a move below -3%. Percent above MA(5,200,1) exceeded +3% this week to signal the start of a long-term uptrend. Note that Percent above MA is one of 11 indicators in the TIP Indicator Edge Plugin (here).

As featured at TrendInvestorPro, the next chart shows TLT with some classic technical analysis at work, and a breakout to boot. First, TLT surged some 22% from late October to December. It then declined with a falling channel that retraced around 2/3 of this advance. TLT managed to hold well above the October low and break out of the channel. This higher low shows buying pressure stepping in at higher prices (above the October low). The breakout signals a continuation of the 22% advance and targets a move to the next resistance zone (109). Support is set at 90.

We are also seeing TLT outperform the S&P 500 EW ETF (RSP) for the first time in over a year. The indicator window shows the TLT/RSP ratio flattening out in spring-summer and breaking above its June high (red line). It also broke the 200-day SMA. Admittedly, the relative breakout is still a work in progress. The breakout on the price chart, however, looks solid.

We featured the breakout in TLT over a week ago and will continue to monitor it at TrendInvestorPro. This week we covered the significance of a surging VIX and widening yield spreads. We also covered deteriorating breadth and put forth a target zone for SPY going forward. Click here for immediate access.

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In Stocks

How the PROS Time Entry Points

1 Min Read

In this edition of StockCharts TV‘s The Final Bar, Dave presents a special all-mailbag episode, answering viewer questions on optimizing entry points for long ideas, best practices for point & figure charts, and the relationship between gold and interest rates.

See Dave’s chart showing Zweig Breadth Thrust signals for 25 years here.

This video originally premiered on August 9, 2024. Watch on our dedicated Final Bar page on StockCharts TV!

New episodes of The Final Bar premiere every weekday afternoon. You can view all previously recorded episodes at this link.

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In Stocks

S&P 500 Teetering On 100-Day Moving Average Support

6 Mins Read

A sigh of relief? The US stock market started the week on a pessimistic note, but changed course toward the end of the week, ending in a more positive tone.

Last week’s weaker-than-expected jobs report scared investors into thinking that perhaps the Federal Reserve was too late in cutting interest rates. However, last week’s ISM Services report and Thursday’s jobless claims eased those concerns.

Stock Market Indexes Are Better, Technically

While the charts of the S&P 500 ($SPX), Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU), and the Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ) are showing signs of strength, it’s too early to declare that it’s beginning to rally to the upside. Let’s analyze the charts of all three indexes in more detail and see where they stand.

The Mega-Cap S&P 500 Index

The S&P 500 held the support of its 100-day simple moving average (SMA) and its 50% Fibonacci retracement (from the April low to July high). While the S&P 500 looks like it’s trying to move higher (see chart below), the next resistance level isn’t too far off. The 38.2% Fib retracement at 5400 was a support level for some previous lows. If the S&P 500 reaches that level, the August 2 gap will be filled.

Until the index breaks above the 5400 level, you can’t call this week’s price action a bullish rally. All the more reason to watch the price action in the S&P 500.

CHART 1. DAILY CHART OF THE S&P 500. The index ended the week closing above its 100-day moving average and its 50% Fibonacci retracement level, but it’s too early to call this a bullish move.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Tech-Heavy Nasdaq Composite

The Nasdaq Composite is also improving, but hasn’t reached the ranks of the S&P 500. From a technical standpoint, the Nasdaq Composite is approaching its 100-day SMA and 50% Fibonacci retracement level (from April lows to July high), which could act as a resistance level (see chart below). Looking back, you can see that level was a resistance and support level in the past.

CHART 2. DAILY CHART OF NASDAQ COMPOSITE. Watch the resistance level that’s close by. Will the index break through this level, or will it be a resistance level that it’ll have a tough time pushing through?Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average differs slightly from the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, but also looks better technically (see chart below). It peaked on July 18, declined a few days later, and tried to reach the previous peak.

The price action is almost like a double top pattern. What’s interesting is that the index almost reached its measured move lower. The measured move from the July 18 high to July 24 trough was 3.4%. From the chart below, you can see that a 3.4% decline from the July 24 low would bring the index to 38,438. The Dow went as low as 38,499 before moving higher.

Overall, it seems that equities are trying to recover. But will the recovery be sustained?

Recession worries may be in the rearview mirror for a while, but investors continue to walk a fine line. On Monday, the CBOE Volatility Index ($VIX) went as high as 65.73. The last time we saw those levels was in March 2020, when COVID was a concern.

Volatility has come down significantly, but is still above 20. It’s too early to say the market is done with fear; we’ve only started to see a change. Remember, it was just a few days ago when the stock market saw an excessive selloff. Next week, there are important reports on consumer and producer inflation, retail sales, and consumer sentiment.

Inflation Data: What To Know

With rate cut expectations on the radar, you’ll want to stay on top of next week’s inflation data. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland estimates a year-over-year percent change of 3.01% for headline CPI and 3.33% for Core CPI. If the data shows that inflation is coming down as it has been in the last few months, investors could sigh a huge relief. Conversely, if the data comes in hotter than expected, it could throw things off. But that’s unlikely since a rate cut in September is very probable. That’s not to say it’s not possible, though.

Watch the price action in bonds ahead of the US inflation data. Bond prices showed signs of leaving the start line but have retreated. The daily chart of the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT below shows the ETF bounced off a support level.

Which direction will TLT move? If the inflation data supports a September rate cut, then TLT will move higher, possibly before the report is released.

Another note is that the CME FedWatch Tool shows the probability of a 50 basis point rate cut in September at 49.5. That’s a significant drop from the end of last week, when the probability was close to 90%.

Closing Position

Proceed with caution. We’ve seen how quickly the market can change direction. Any piece of negative data could send volatility through the roof again. The stock market is hanging on, and the best you can do is note the important support levels in the broader indexes, sectors, and individual equities. If equities can hang on next week, they’ll be on more solid footing. Right now, you need to have a safety net close by.

End-of-Week Wrap-Up

  • S&P 500 closed down 0.04% for the week, at 5344.16, Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.60% for the week at 39,497.54; Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.18% for the week at 16745.30
  • $VIX down 12.91% for the week closing at 20.37
  • Best performing sector for the week: Industrials
  • Worst performing sector for the week: Materials
  • Top 5 Large Cap SCTR stocks: Insmed Inc. (INSM); Carvana Co. (CVNA); FTAI Aviation Ltd. (FTAI); Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM); SharkNinja, Inc. (SN)

On the Radar Next Week

  • July Producer Price Index (PPI)
  • July Consumer Price Index (CPI)
  • July Retail Sales
  • August Michigan Consumer Sentiment
  • July Housing Starts
  • Fed speeches from Bostic, Harker, Musalem, Goolsbee, 
  • Earnings from Walmart (WMT), Cisco Systems (CSC), Home Depot (HD), among others.

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

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In Stocks

Three Market Sentiment Indicators Confirm Bearish Phase

4 Mins Read

While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq experienced a decent upside bounce this week, they still remain down 3.2% and 4.4% respectively for the month of August. A quick review of market sentiment indicators tells me that further downside is much more likely before a sustainable recovery becomes a real possibility.

VIX Signals Extreme Volatility

The VIX hit 65 on an intraday basis this week, representing the third highest reading since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. In fact, the indicator has only pushed above 40 a handful of times in the last ten years, usually during a significant corrective period.

While there is plenty of debate about how 0DTE options have impacted this classic sentiment gauge, it’s worth noting that any spike in the VIX has almost always coincided with weaker price action, at least in the short-term. So as long as the VIX remains above 20, investors should brace for a noisy tape and, most likely, further deterioration for equity indexes.

AAII Survey Shows Bulls Still Outnumber Bears

Our second indicator uses the weekly survey results from members of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). I tend to look for two main signals here, the first being a bullish reading of over 50%. The chart shows how this occurred in early July.

Now a high bullish reading on its own just represents extreme optimism, but it also tells me to look for signs of a bearish rotation. In the last three weeks, we’ve seen the bullish percent come down to around 41%, while the bearish reading has increased to above 38%. As the bottom panel shows, the last time that bears outnumbered bulls in the survey was at the April market low. You may also notice that more protracted market declines also started with a rotation from bullish to bearish sentiment. This chart tells me to consider the market “guilty until proven innocent”, especially if the survey results show a higher bearish reading in the coming weeks.

NAAIM Exposure Index Confirms Defensive Rotation

What about the “smart money” as represented by money managers? The NAAIM Exposure Index shows the results of a weekly survey of the National Association of Active Investment Managers, with the number representing an average allocation to equities in their client portfolios. When the indicator is above 100%, as it was in late June, it suggests a euphoric reading and a higher likelihood of corrective market action.

It’s worth noting here that the NAAIM Exposure Index was pushing lower in early July, while the AAII survey was still reading a very high level of bullishness. This suggests that the “smart money” was already lightening up equity exposure before the market decline really began to accelerate. Now, we see the indicator has come down to around 75%, confirming that money managers in this survey are finding elsewhere to park their capital to weather this period of market turbulence.

I consider an analysis of price action as the most important piece of a well-defined technical analysis process. But I also feel that market sentiment indicators can provide an excellent window into the mindset of other investors, helping to clarify when extreme optimism or pessimism may be taking hold. This analysis of three comment sentiment indicators shows remarkable similarities to previous bear phases, and tells me to brace for a potential further decline for stocks.

RR#6,

Dave

P.S. Ready to upgrade your investment process? Check out my free behavioral investing course!

David Keller, CMT

Chief Market Strategist

StockCharts.com

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

The author does not have a position in mentioned securities at the time of publication. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.

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In Stocks

Top 5 Stocks in “Go” Trends | Fri Aug 9, 2024

3 Mins Read

Top 5 Stocks in “Go” Trends

Trend Continuation on Rising Momentum

GoNoGo Charts® highlight low-risk opportunities for trend participation with intuitive icons directly in the price action. The resurgence of momentum in the direction of the underlying price trend is an excellent entry opportunity, or the chance to scale up positions.

GoNoGo Icons® illuminate these events on the chart with green solid circles (or red circle to highlight continuation of NoGo trends). When GoNoGo Trend® is painting blue or aqua bars, a green solid circle will appear below price each time GoNoGo Oscillator® finds support at zero.

Below are the top 5 stocks/ETFs in “Go” trends with surging momentum by volume in the S&P 500 as of the daily closing price action:

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM)

§ GoNoGo Icons signaled a trend continuation on Friday (08/09/24).

§ After a multi-month NoGo trend beginning in February, price action based at $88 and reversed to a Go trend in July.

§ After a retest during this week’s volatility, AKAM finished the week on strong “Go” conditions after gapping higher on a blue bar.

§ GoNoGo Oscillator broke out from below the zero line ending at positive 2 on Friday.

§ AKAM has traded on heavy relative volume all week.

Raytheon Technologies Corp. (RTX)

§ GoNoGo Trend held weak form “Go” conditions this week on pale aqua bars.

§ GoNoGo Icons signaled a trend continuation on Friday (08/09/24).

§ GoNoGo Oscillator ended the week in positive territory after retesting the zero line and finding support.

Healthpeak Properties, Inc. (DOC)

§ GoNoGo Trend sustained “Go” conditions throughout the trading week.

§ GoNoGo Icons signaled a trend continuation on Tuesday and Friday (08/09/24) as momentum found support at neutral

§ GoNoGo Oscillator ended the week in positive territory after testing the zero line on heavy relative volume.

United Dominion Realty Trust (UDR)

§ GoNoGo Trend returned to strong blue “Go” conditions after painting a pink NoGo bar during Monday’s selloff.

§ This recovery follows weakening trend conditions and corrective price action in late July.

§ GoNoGo Icons signaled a trend continuation on Friday (08/09/24).

§ GoNoGo Oscillator recently dipped into negative territory, but recovered positive momentum conditions on Friday.

Progressive Corp. (PGR)

§ GoNoGo Trend ended the trading week on strong blue “Go” conditions.

§ GoNoGo Icons signaled a trend continuation on Friday (08/09/24).

§ GoNoGo Oscillator has built three max squeeze conditions as price action became range bound through the summer months.

§ Momentum delivered a false breakdown on Monday before breaking back into positive territory again on Friday.  |

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In World news

She was told she wouldn’t live past her 8th birthday. Now, her life’s mission is to fight for patients with this deadly disease

7 Mins Read

Three of the four siblings in Lea Kilenga’s family were born with sickle cell, including Lea. Her eldest sister passed away from the disease when she was just 4 years old. Kilenga herself was told that she would not live beyond her 8th birthday.

Sickle cell is an inherited and debilitating blood disorder that causes normal round red blood cells – which carry oxygen through the body – to become crescent-shaped and rigid. These misshapen cells can block blood flow to vital organs and lead to serious complications, including stroke, blood clots, anemia, and bouts of extreme pain.

“You’re frequently in pain. And they say by the time you’re 40 you have at least one organ that is extensively damaged,” said Kilenga, who grew up in Taveta, Kenya. “(The disease) is something that I would not wish for anyone.”

Of the 120 million people worldwide living with sickle cell, more than 66% are in Africa. Despite the prevalence, treatment to relieve pain and prevent complications is difficult to secure, and stigma against the disease is widespread, even associated with witchcraft in rural areas.

“Sickle cell affects more lower resource communities where there’s a large financial burden to access medicine and health care,” Kilenga said.

Kilenga has fought her whole life to overcome the challenges of living with the disease, and she is on a mission to help thousands of other sickle cell patients get the medical care they need to lead fulfilling lives. Through her nonprofit, Africa Sickle Cell Organization, she is breaking down stigmas and bringing treatment that was once only available in wealthy Western countries to sub-Saharan Africa.

Growing up with sickle cell

As a child, Kilenga was ostracized for having sickle cell. She first encountered the stigma around the disease in grade school when other children treated her differently, not wanting to sit next to her or touch her because they thought she was contagious.

CNN Hero Lea Kilenga —

CNN

“My parents protected us from stressors, educated themselves, and allowed us to grow and to thrive,” Kilenga said. “The challenges we faced in a home of people living with sickle cell was the merry-go-round of pain and hospitals and medicine. It was how we grew up.”

After graduating from university, Kilenga decided to travel the country taking photographs of people with sickle cell and interviewing them and their families about their struggles with it. Initially, she planned to photograph and interview 10,000 people. But after the horrors she encountered on the project, she stopped at 400.

She found sick children locked in rooms, crying incessantly for help yet ignored by family members who had no idea what to do. Kilenga said so many families had no understanding of how to care for their sick children and thought it would be better to let them die. The people she met throughout Kenya didn’t have access to any medical care or pain management. There were 4-year-old children who looked 1 year old because of poor growth development from a lack of treatment.

“When I went on the ground, the reality was worse than I could have imagined,” Kilenga said. “I could no longer do it because it was just so sad. I decided I had to share this pain with someone who could do something about it.”

Creating a new normal

Kilenga contacted the Director of Noncommunicable Diseases at Kenya’s Ministry of Health.

“I met with him. He was a lovely gentleman. He told me he was inspired by the photographs and the stories and we should plan a time where we can speak more about it,” Kilenga said.

She waited one month, two months, three months, and never heard back. She tried calling his office, emailing, and got no response. So, she began to email him a daily portrait and story of someone living with sickle cell from her project.

That got his attention. Finally, he responded, and together they worked to raise $20,000 to form a set of national guidelines in Kenya for the management and control of sickle cell disease.

Yet with health care in Kenya decentralized and delegated to the county governments, to really affect change for people with sickle cell, she was advised by the Ministry to start in one part of the country that had a budget to implement sickle cell care.

In 2017, Kilenga moved from Nairobi to a small village in the southern part of Taita-Taveta County. The area is plagued by a lack of access to clean water, food, health care, and education. There is also an alarmingly high prevalence of sickle cell in the region.

That year, Kilenga started Africa Sickle Cell Organization and has since helped 500,000 people. She provides access to treatment by offering health insurance, establishing specialized clinics, and educating medical professionals and communities about the disease.

Kilenga says her organization’s efforts over the last five years have helped reduce the stigma around sickle cell.
CNN

Connecting patients with clinics

The organization onboards patients for health insurance based on need and their resources. Then they place them in care and link them with the closest sickle cell facility.

She and her group work in tandem with the government, outside organizations, and funders to sustain and create clinics that specialize in sickle cell maintenance and treatment. They identify providers who can plug in the gaps in care and financing to expand access for patients.

“We’re talking about inpatient and outpatient care, meaning when they are hospitalized everything is covered,” Kilenga said. “Clinics, labs, medicines, and anything else healthcare providers are giving are covered by the package.”

The organization currently supports four clinics in Kenya that serve 2,000 patients, Kilenga said. Patients usually come once a week or twice a month to see clinicians, get diagnostics, and monitor blood levels.

Africa Sickle Cell Organization helps patients access quality, affordable treatment.
CNN

After six months in treatment, patients are enrolled in the organization’s program to support their livelihood, such as raising goats and chickens.

“What I’ve realized is you can give people medicines and access to care, and you can educate them all that you want,” Kilenga said. “But if they don’t have the basics like food, clean water, shelter, then you will not realize the outcomes that you want for them.”

Opening hearts and minds

Kilenga is also focused on creating community awareness to help end the stigma of sickle cell.

“In most communities, when your children have sickle cell, most blame the woman … and the woman is abandoned and left to (take) care of the children. And the community stigmatizes them to a point that they are so poor and destitute that they cannot ask for a job, or ask for help, because they have been shunned by their families,” Kilenga said.

Kilenga travels to villages and speaks with village elders, chiefs, parents, and community members to educate them about sickle cell.

“It’s an interactive session. I think this is one of the biggest tools that we use for elimination of stigma and education around sickle cell in communities,” Kilenga said.

“Those with sickle cell have been neglected, and I think this neglect has made them think that they don’t deserve good things. I need them to know that sickle cell is not just what they are. It’s a fraction of a fraction of their life, and they have so much more to do.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Africa Sickle Cell Organization website and see how to help.

To donate to Africa Sickle Cell Organization via GoFundMe, click here

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These Gazan children have been reunited with their families after months of war. But thousands remain unaccompanied

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On Tuesday morning, as Abdallah stood on a dusty street in northern Gaza amid the debris of bombed buildings, he received a call he had waited nine months for.

After nine months kept apart by war, his children were on their way to him.

“During those nine months, each day lasted nine years,” said Abdallah, whose last name was withheld by UNICEF to protect his identity and those of his family members.

Ten days after the war started, Abdallah’s pregnant wife and three children fled to the south of the Gaza Strip seeking safety. But two months ago, his wife, mother-in-law and one of his sons were killed.

“I have been eagerly awaiting them. Every day I yearned to hug them, see their mother and their brother. But that was God’s will. Their mother was martyred and so was their brother. I pray God will reunite me with the rest of my children safely,” he said.

When Abdallah finally held his youngest son in his arms Tuesday, it was the first time he had ever met him.

Abdallah’s children were returned to his care as a part of a reunification program run by UNICEF in Gaza, which helped seven children from four different families find their parents again on Tuesday alone.

The program has been running since March, and its mission is to track down relatives of unaccompanied children who have been orphaned or become lost or separated from their family in the strip, where the burden of Israel’s war against Hamas is weighing particularly heavily on Gaza’s youngest.

Family members are stepping up to provide care where they can despite repeated displacements. One of the children involved in Tuesday’s UNICEF mission was reunited with his grandmother, who will now take care of him after his mother, father and siblings were killed.

Israel’s repeated evacuation orders and the resultant forced displacement of populations are also causing spikes in reports of child abuse, as families are torn apart and support networks break down, according to Liz Allcock, head of protection at Medical Aid for Palestinians, an aid organization based in the United Kingdom.

Site visits to displacement camps in Gaza, led by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in June, documented a “significant number” of unaccompanied and separated children. OCHA’s Inter-Cluster Coordination Group – which oversees groups within OCHA working on matters like food security, protection issues and health – coordinated the visits.

In one camp, community members raised concerns about an “alarming” increase in child exploitation and abuse, as well as gender-based violence, one assessment published online said. Other sites across the strip have also reported incidents of child labor and “rising concerns” about child exploitation.

It’s not known exactly how many children in Gaza are unaccompanied or separated, according to UNICEF. But using analysis of other global conflicts, the organization estimates that this population stands at around 19,000 children.

That number doesn’t consider that Gaza has a high population of children, however. Nor does it consider the large proportion of extended family in Gaza that are stepping up and looking after many children whose parents are killed. UNICEF is unable to verify exact numbers due to a lack of access into Gaza.

‘It’s very common for families to get separated’

Abdallah’s experience of being reunited with his children is not the norm in war-torn Gaza.

Child protection agencies face an uphill struggle to reunite unaccompanied and separated children with their families, according to Jessica Dixon, who coordinates child protection efforts in Gaza and West Bank for UNICEF.

“It’s very common for families to get separated. Crossing the checkpoints – from north to south, across Wadi Gaza – lots of people are being taken into detention. That’s been another cause of family separation.” Wadi Gaza is a strip of wetlands bisecting the enclave.

Agencies like UNICEF are working hard to identify and support children at risk of exploitation, particularly unaccompanied and separated children, she said.

But there are many operational constraints restricting their efforts and more information is needed about unaccompanied and separated children living in displacement camps, she added.

“There is a huge lack of access. There is a lack of security, a lack of communications,” she said. “Phone networks are so difficult, to get hold of different people and for service providers to make contact with different families.”

For now, aid organizations are doing what they can to try to reunite children with their families.

On UNICEF’s recent reunification trip, the organization created identification bracelets to give to children in case they become separated from their parents – hoping to make Abdallah’s experience one shared by many others in the strip.

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Passenger plane carrying 62 people crashes outside São Paulo, Brazil

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A passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed on the outskirts of São Paulo on Friday, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with dramatic footage from the scene showing the plane’s destroyed fuselage in flames on the ground.

Interrupting a speech at a naval event, Lula said it “appears” that everyone on board the flight may have died. It is not clear what caused the twin-engine turboprop plane to crash.

“I would like everyone to stand up so that we can observe a minute of silence because a plane has just crashed in the city of Vinhedo, in São Paulo, with 58 passengers and 4 crew members and it appears they all died,” he said, in a video of his statement shared on X.

Flight 2283 left Cascavel, in the Brazilian state of Parana, and was en route to São Paulo when it lost signal shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET), according to data on Flightradar24.

Social media videos of the crash showed the plane spiraling out of the sky before hitting the ground as people in the neighborhood shouted in fear. Another video showed the wreckage of the plane in flames on the ground.

A plane is seen falling out of the sky into the city of Vinhedo, Brazil, on August 9, 2024.
Obtained by CNN

“There is still no confirmation of how the accident occurred or the current situation of the people on board,” according to a statement by airline Voepass.

She ducked down in terror and started praying, she said, calling it a “moment of panic” for the whole city. The private roads leading toward the crash site are now closed off, and first responders are in the area, she said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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