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At least 274 inmates have escaped from a prison in Nigeria’s Borno state following heavy flooding, the Nigerian Correctional Service said Sunday.

“The flood brought down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the medium security custodial center Maiduguri (MSCC) as well as the staff quarters in the city,” the service spokesman Abubakar Umar said in a statement.

According to Umar, at least 281 inmates managed to escape while they were being transferred to “a safe and secure facility” and seven of them were recaptured later.

Umar said that the service is aware of escapees’ identities, including their biometrics and made this information “available to the public.”

The search for the inmates is ongoing, he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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An environmental activist who protested mining and hydro-electric projects in northern Honduras in an effort to preserve tropical forests and rivers has been killed, police said on Sunday.

Juan Lopez was shot dead on Saturday night by several men as he headed home in his car from church, an official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lopez belonged to the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods, an environmental organization in the city of Tocoa on the country’s Atlantic coast.

Three other members of the group were killed last year in what the organization saw as retaliation, in a country that is one of the world’s most dangerous for activists.

The group had suffered threats and harassment for years amid efforts to preserve the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, and the Carlos Escaleras nature reserve, amid the growing presence of mining and hydro-electric companies.

“We demand clear and conclusive answers, this government must answer for the killing of our colleague Juan Lopez,” the group said in a post on social media.

Last October, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures in favor of 30 members of the group and their legal representatives, including Lopez. It urged the Honduras government to strengthen its protection mechanisms.

According to the commission, Lopez reported numerous threats, including from a gang member, a local businessperson, and a mining company representative. Since June, two men on motorcycles began appearing around his home, the commission said.

The United Nations resident coordinator in Honduras, Alice Shackelford, said Lopez had been threatened for his activism, and she praised his efforts to stand up to powerful interests.

“We condemn the terrible murder of Juan Lopez, a human rights defender threatened for his work,” she said in a post on social media.

Latin America accounted for 85% of the world’s environmentalists who were killed last year, according to UK advocacy group Global Witness, with 18 deaths registered in Honduras.

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Shanghai was brought to a standstill on Monday morning by what authorities say was the strongest typhoon to directly hit the Chinese financial hub in more than seven decades, with flights, trains and highways suspended during a national holiday.

Typhoon Bebinca made landfall in an industrial suburb southeast of the metropolis of 25 million people around 7:30 a.m. local time. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) said it packed top wind speeds of 130 kilometers per hour (80 mph), the equivalent of a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane.

The storm is the strongest to make landfall in Shanghai since 1949, according to Chinese state media.

The China Meteorological Administration on Monday issued a red typhoon warning, its most severe alert, warning of gale force winds and heavy rainfall in large swathes of eastern China.

The powerful storm has disrupted travel plans for holidaymakers during the Mid-Autumn festival, or Moon Festival, a three-day national holiday that started on Sunday.

All flights at Shanghai’s two international airports have been canceled since 8 p.m. Sunday. Most train and ferry services were suspended, while some highways and bridges in the city were closed.

Many tourist destinations in the city, including Shanghai Disney Resort, were also shut on Monday.

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Germany has begun new controls at all of its land borders as part of a crackdown on migration, placing restrictions on a wide area of free movement known as the Schengen Zone and stirring anger among its European neighbors.

From Monday, as well as existing border controls with Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland, Germany will now also have internal border controls with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Berlin will have the power to reject people at all land borders, a statement from the Interior Ministry said. The new rules will last for six months initially.

The move marks how far Germany has shifted in recent years on the flashpoint issue of migration.

The German government under Angela Merkel welcomed more than one million new arrivals during the migrant crisis of 2015-2016 but is now following other European countries in toughening up rules as it faces a surging far-right opposition.

It comes after Germany on Friday struck a controlled migration deal with Kenya, which will see Berlin open its doors to skilled and semi-skilled Kenyan workers.

Announcing the changes, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that Germany was “strengthening internal security through concrete action” and continuing its “tough stance against irregular migration.”

She signaled the move was aimed at protecting German citizens from the dangers posed by Islamist terrorism as well as serious cross-border crime.

The move has put the unity of the European bloc to the test and attracted criticism from Germany’s neighbors.

Germany is part of the Schengen border-free area. Under European Union rules, member states have the ability to temporarily reintroduce border control at internal borders in the event of a serious threat to public policy or internal security. However, this must be applied as a last resort.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the introduction of tighter controls at land borders was unacceptable for Poland, adding that Warsaw would request urgent talks with all countries affected. Both Greece and Austria have warned that they would not accept migrants rejected by Germany.

Closer to home, Germany’s Council for Migration warned that the plan risks violating EU law.

“The current policy goal of turning back (migrants) seeking protection at Germany’s borders represents a dangerous form of populism in the migration policy debate,” a statement said, which called for an “evidence-based debate on migration policy in Europe.”

Germany’s government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has been spurred into action to tackle uncontrolled immigration after receiving criticism for not doing enough to tackle the issue.

The country’s approach to migration has toughened in recent years, in light of a surge in arrivals – particularly from the Middle East and Ukraine – as well as terror attacks motivated by Islamic terror.

The coalition government seeking to counter the country’s burgeoning far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is known for its explicitly anti-immigrant and anti-Islam agenda.

The new security package came in the wake of a fatal attack in the western city of Solingen, in which three people were stabbed to death on August 23.

The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS, who had previously been due for deportation.

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Leonard Leo, who operates a vast network of conservative nonprofits, called on his groups to start ‘weaponizing’ their ideas, something he said the left has been championing over the years. 

A letter sent to groups supported by Leo’s 85 Fund on Wednesday said it would be undergoing a ‘comprehensive review’ of entities it supports, and ‘will be adjusting the extent to which it funds ideas and policy development.’ The goal, according to Leo’s letter, is to ensure their philanthropic efforts are not overly focused on ‘ideation,’ or as Leo describes it, ‘the development of and education about conservative ideas and policies.’ Rather, Leo wants his groups to adopt more aggressive tactics that ‘weaponize’ their ideas and produce more tangible results, something he suggested liberals have championed effectively for their causes.  

‘The Left built powerful networks of activists, academics, journalists, and philanthropists, along with professionals from other disciplines, who could collaborate to influence public attitudes and generate political pressure on public officials,’ Leo said. ‘They invested in talent pipelines to populate the power centers inside government, where policy would be implemented. They incubated litigation as a means of leveraging the law to produce change. And, beyond politics and law, left-wing philanthropy built or took over enormous infrastructure to control various cultural chokepoints.’

‘In contrast,’ Leo continued, ‘vastly insufficient funds are going toward operationalizing and weaponizing [conservative] ideas and policies to crush liberal dominance.’

 

Leo, the co-chairman and former executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a group focusing on advancing the principles of a limited, constitutional government, controls a $1.6 billion war chest.  The money was given to him by industrialist Barre Seid to fund his network of conservative groups.

Leo’s letter cited the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation and the Hansjörg Wyss-backed Arabella Advisors as examples of groups that ‘incubate action-oriented campaigns.’ He pointed to their support of nationwide NGOs like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). SJP has been at the forefront of drumming up anti-Israel sentiment at college campuses across the country since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack that killed over a thousand innocent Israelis and took hundreds hostage. Meanwhile, WPATH has been at the forefront of the transgender movement, publishing standards of care that doctors and public officials alike have used to justify ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors.

‘With donors like Hansjörg Wyss and the Arabella Advisors network having billions at their disposal, the left is able to significantly outspend the conservative movement to shift American society,’ Leo told Fox News Digital. ‘Consequently, we need to do more with less, focusing on leveraging the conservative movement’s talent to have impact, if we want to be successful.’

Leo has been credited with transforming the Federalist Society into the powerhouse lawfare organization it is today with more than 70,000 members. Meanwhile, Leo has also been considered one of the foremost influences on former President Trump’s Supreme Court nominations. Prior to Trump’s selection of Federalist Society-backed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Leo drew up a list of potential judges that Trump released during his 2016 campaign.  

 

After Trump was elected, Leo stepped away from his daily duties with the Federalist Society, but remained its co-chair. Meanwhile, in 2022, Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust received a $1.6 billion gift from American businessman and GOP donor Barre Seid. Leo still has roughly $1 billion left to spend, the Financial Times reported this week after analyzing public financial disclosures. A representative for Leo declined to share how many total NGOs receive financial support from the 85 Fund. 

‘[W]e need to do more with less, focusing on leveraging the conservative movement’s talent to have impact, if we want to be successful.’

‘Expect us to increase support for organizations that call out companies and financial institutions that bend to the woke mind virus spread by regulators and NGOs, so that they have to pay a price for putting extreme left-wing ideology ahead of consumers,’ Leo said during a rare interview he granted to the Financial Times. 

Leo told the outlet that his Marble Freedom Trust has been increasingly focused on going after ‘woke’ banks and China-friendly entities across a range of sectors, such as food production and artificial intelligence. Leo also indicated he plans to invest in local media in the U.S. over the next year.  

The call from Leo for his groups to ‘operationalize’ and ‘weaponize’ their ideas has been met with anger from liberal critics. 

‘Leonard Leo’s brazen call to ‘weaponize’ the conservative movement further exposes his strategy of using his dark money network to force his right-wing agenda on everyday Americans and stack the deck in favor of the powerful few,’ said Carolina Ciccone, president of NGO watchdog Accountable.US. ‘Let’s be very clear: This isn’t just about shaping conservative thought — it’s about weaponizing the very institutions that are set up to protect the rights of everyday Americans to serve the interests of right-wing special interests.’

Jay Willis, former GQ writer and current editor-in-chief of progressive commentary website Balls & Strikes, accused Leo of trying to rebrand ‘as an Elon Musk-style culture warrior who rants about the ‘woke mind virus.’’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Due to weakness in the White House, we are experiencing chaos in the Middle East, strikes on our servicemembers, the bloodiest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and Americans still held hostage by Iran-backed Hamas.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Four years ago, we were celebrating the signing of the Abraham Accords, a historic advancement to peace in the Middle East ushered in under the Trump administration. On September 15, 2020, President Trump forged these agreements, facilitating the greatest deal between Israel and Arab countries in modern history. Americans, Israelis, and Arabs were brought together under a common vision. Cultural, economic, and defense ties were deepened, and the world watched as Iran’s biggest fear came true: a more unified and prosperous Middle East. This was peace through strength in action.

As a combat veteran who served in the Middle East, I co-founded the Abraham Accords Caucus, so Congress could build upon the Accords’ strong foundation. Through this work, I’ve created laws to strengthen and expand these agreements by establishing integrated defense systems with our allies and partners to protect from Iran-backed attacks on land and at sea.

Unfortunately, after three-and-a-half years of Biden and Harris in the White House, Iran-backed terrorists have put these efforts to the ultimate test. In April, the U.S., Israel, and our Arab partners worked together to shoot down a barrage of 300 Iranian projectiles, a feat made possible by my DEFEND Act. Additionally, my MARITIME Act paved the way for us to work with our partners to counter Iran-backed Houthis’ near daily threats in the Red Sea that disrupt innocent civilians and commerce.

The world is on fire and it has cost American lives.

It’s clear that Iran wants chaos; and, under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ lack of leadership, their wishes have come true.

The Biden-Harris White House has refused to enforce sanctions on Tehran, allowing the regime to fuel and fund its proxy terrorism and hostage diplomacy. Emboldened by this administration’s decisions, Iran-backed Hamas worked to undo the progress made by the Abraham Accords when these terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

And yet, 11 months since this invasion, Israel and Arab states have demonstrated that they remain committed to the Trump-led agreement despite ongoing tensions in the region. While this is proof that the unifying strength behind the Abraham Accords is alive, we must be vigilant to ensure progress does not unravel because of the Biden-Harris administration’s appeasement. 

During my fourth trip to the Middle East since the October 7th attack, regional leaders told me they are ready to give up on American leadership. Make no mistake, this is a result of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ decision to abandon our allies and embolden our adversaries – it started with the Afghanistan withdrawal and has continued to this day.

The world is on fire, and it has cost American lives.

Now more than ever, we must build upon the Trump-era Abraham Accords, which is why I’m furthering my work to ensure Israel, and our allies, have a comprehensive strategy of cooperation to counter Iran’s efforts.

My STARS Act would extend defense coordination to protect from hostile space activities. This will improve satellite security coordination to enhance the United States’ situational awareness, defend against threats from adversaries, and deepen space cooperation with Israel and other allies in the Middle East.

To further integrate regional defense operations, my LINK Act would strengthen people-to-people ties between military leaders of Abraham Accords countries, and my AI Accords Act would direct the Pentagon to increase partner-sharing network capabilities to improve cyber cooperation. 

The power of the Accords is not dead. In fact, their continued existence is exactly what Iran fears. A united Middle East helps put an end to the regime’s wave of terror across the region that seeks to destabilize our partners, kill American servicemembers, and destroy the United States, Israel, and our allies. Four years into the Abraham Accords, too much is at stake: we cannot afford to fail. 

President Trump brought our partners together and extinguished Iran’s dream of destruction in the region. Four more years of Kamala Harris will breed further chaos, put the nail in the coffin of American leadership, and stifle the Accords. 

This moment demands a new commander-in-chief, not another abandoner-in-chief.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Toward the end of his presidency, Ronald Reagan was doing the standard round of exit interviews, one with Tom Brokaw of NBC. During the taping, Brokaw asked Reagan a rather brilliant question, namely, was there anything from Reagan’s Hollywood days that helped him become a better president? 

The Gipper thought for a moment and finally replied, ‘I don’t know how you can do this job and not be an actor.’ There was great wisdom in what Reagan had to say.

Shakespeare was right. ‘All the world is a stage.’ The great leaders of the world all knew about presentation. Think about it. 

Julius Caesar in his finest armor. Napoleon insisted on his own uniform, and that of his men be presentable. George Washington understood that what one looks like is a part of leadership. He never went before his men without being dressed in his finest, his horse brushed, and the leather well-tended. He said little publicly, which only added to his aura. When he went before the Constitutional Convention, he was always dressed in his finest uniform. Same with Robert E. Lee. When he went to surrender to Gen. U.S. Grant, the Confederate leader put on his best uniform. 

Sun Tzu once said that ‘victorious warriors win first then go to war.’ By that, he meant winners gain a psychological advantage before engaging the enemy. And presentation is a large part of that advantage.

Dressing in character is also a part of leadership. Abraham Lincoln was no slave to fashion, but the old log splitter understood his ruffled style worked for him. It was what citizens wanted. It was a part of his authenticity.

The internet is replete with stories about leadership and presentation, something lost on the intelligentsia today. Donald Trump has his own style, and that is key. His rallies are a lot of entertaining and informative. He commands attention. He obviously has fun on stage.

In that manner, Trump may be the most exciting president in modern history. From his hair style to his ubiquitous red hat to his rallies, everything is unique. None of it is accidental; Trump has always understood the importance of not just being a leader but also being seen as a leader. Donald Trump in a Speedo would not work for him. JFK in a bathing suit worked for him. In fact, JFK was one of those lucky men who clothing always looked ‘leaderly’ on. Manly. In control.

Arguably, no moment revealed Trump’s leadership more profoundly than when, just moments after his assassination attempt, he stood up before the audience, put his fists in the air, and shouted with defiance, ‘Fight!’

Juxtapose this with his current ultra leftist challenger. There is nothing iconic or memorable about the Kamala Harris campaign. Her campaign sign is arguably one of the most bland ever conceived of, static white letters on a plain blue field. 

Harris has tried her best to coin phrases like ‘coconut army’ and ‘brat.’ They’ve even gone so far as to try and appropriate the patina of rural Americans by slapping the Harris campaign logo on a camouflage hat and calling it a day. Just the other day, she tried out a southern accent, Of course, it backfired. Her presentation seems so forced, so insincere. Fakery.

The American people crave authenticity, and they see right through phonies. California coastal elite Kamala Harris in a camouflage hat isn’t authentic. It didn’t work when then-presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren attempted to do a livestream with a beer. It didn’t work when Barack Obama had the White House release photos of him at a gun range. And it most definitely didn’t work when Michael Dukakis rode in a tank in 1988. 

The socialist Tim Walz is even worse. He screams fraud! The cognitive dissonance between the trappings of mainstream America and the ideology of a far-left ivory tower elite is making him inauthentic to millions of Americans. He’s not even good enough to be a cliché. He is something worse.

Even Democrats concede that no president in modern history has created more iconic looks than Ronald Reagan. From his California ranch to his cowboy boots to his legendary Stetson hat, Reagan looked and felt exactly like what a conservative should be. Bold, classic, individualistic and quintessentially American.

For this and a thousand other reasons, Reagan is now regarded as one of our four greatest presidents. And Biden? People have already forgotten him and his presidency. To coin a phrase, he will be consigned to the dustbin of history where all miserable presidents belong. His presentation and lack of leadership have banished him to the list of failed presidents.

And Shakespeare was right: ‘The play’s the thing!’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

A bipartisan pair of senators is introducing a new bill on the fourth anniversary of the Abraham Accords to deepen cooperation between U.S. and Middle East partners. 

The LINK Act, brought forth by Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., co-chairs of the Abraham Accords Caucus, would establish a ‘military subject matter exchange program’ to deepen cultural ties and strategic cooperation between American troops and allies in the Middle East. 

‘In the face of emboldened Iranian aggression, I’m deepening the historic partnerships created through the Abraham Accords four years ago today,’ said Ernst.

‘More cooperation among our Middle East partners is what Tehran fears. The LINK Act accomplishes this by coordinating military planning and creating a permanent and effective defense alliance. By working hand-in-hand with our partners, the strength and security of our nations grows.’

The pair of senators had three of their previous Middle East-related bills signed into law. 

The Gulf States of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain signed a normalization deal with Israel in 2020, brokered by the U.S., known as the Abraham Accords.

As part of the agreements, UAE and Bahrain recognized Israel’s sovereignty and established full diplomatic relations. It was the first time Israel had established peace with an Arab country since 1994 with the Israel-Jordan peace treaty. 

In the months that followed, Sudan and Morocco signed deals to normalize relations with Israel. 

The bill comes at a time of sky-high tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Israel and Saudi Arabia had been nearing a deal that included the U.S. and would have normalized relations when Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. 

The U.S. has been bolstering its relations with nations in the Middle East to counter the growing threat of a potential nuclear Iran – even ones with mixed human rights records like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. 

The Biden administration recently lifted a hold on $320 million in military aid to Egypt that it had frozen in response to human rights concerns, bringing the total amount up to $1.3 billion transferred from Washington to Cairo this year. 

Egypt is playing a central role in the talks between Hamas and Israel about a cease-fire agreement.

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The Apache tribe in Arizona is taking a fight with the federal government and copper producers to the Supreme Court, which they hope will protect what they say is their religious rights to sacred ground. 

Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group representing the tribe’s interests, is fighting to preserve Oak Flat — what the Apaches say is their ‘direct corridor to the Creator and the locus of sacred ceremonies that cannot take place elsewhere.’

According to the petition filed at the high court, the government ‘has long protected Apache rituals there.’

‘But because copper was discovered beneath Oak Flat, the government decided to transfer the site to Respondent Resolution Copper for a mine that will undisputedly destroy Oak Flat — swallowing it in a massive crater and ending sacred Apache rituals forever.’ 

Apache Stronghold argues that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the Free Exercise Clause forbids the government to do so and are asking it to reverse a lower court decision.

‘In a fractured en banc ruling cobbled together from two separate 6-5 majorities, the Ninth Circuit rejected both claims. Although the court acknowledged that destroying Oak Flat would ‘literally prevent’ the Apaches from engaging in religious exercise, it nevertheless concluded that doing so would not ‘substantially burden’ their religious exercise under RFRA, relying on this Court’s pre-RFRA decision in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association,‘ the petition states. 

‘And while the majority acknowledged that singling out Oak Flat for destruction is ‘plainly not ‘generally applicable,’ it rejected the free-exercise claim ‘for the same reasons’ — no substantial burden,’ it continues. 

Oak Flat is a 6.7-square-mile sacred site east of Superior, Arizona. The site includes old-growth oak groves, sacred springs, burial locations and a singular concentration of archaeological sites testifying to its persistent use for the past 1,500 years, the Apache’s argue. 

Wendsler Nosie of the Apache Stronghold described it as the Mount Sinai of their faith. 

‘That’s where our ceremonial ways have been born, the identity of who we are, and the continuing of who we are as people, to how we’re created and how we’re placed onto this earth.’ Nosie said in an interview with Fox News Digital. ‘The meaning behind it is made so much more when it comes to the spirituality of an individual tied to mother earth and to the Creator.’  

‘One example is the Sunrise Ceremony, a multi-day celebration marking an Apache girl’s entry into womanhood,’ the legal filing states. 

‘To prepare, the girl gathers plants from Oak Flat that contain ‘the spirit of Chi’chil Biłdagoteel.’  As she gathers, she speaks to the spirit of Oak Flat, expressing gratitude for its resources. Ibid. Her godmother dresses her in ‘the essential tools of . . . becoming a woman,’ and tribal members surround her with singing, dancing, and prayer.’ 

According to the filing, in 1995, a large copper deposit was discovered 4,500 to 7,000 feet beneath Oak Flat. Hoping to obtain the deposit, two large multinational mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP, formed a joint venture called Resolution Copper. From 2005 to 2013, congressional supporters of Resolution Copper introduced at least twelve standalone bills to transfer Oak Flat to the company, but each one failed. 

In 2014, Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake attached the land-transfer bill to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), authorizing the transfer of a 2,422-acre parcel including Oak Flat to Resolution Copper in exchange for about 5,344 acres scattered elsewhere.

The bill revokes the presidential orders protecting Oak Flat from mining and directs the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed mine.

Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack published the EIS on Jan. 15, 2021, which said the mine would destroy Oak Flat.

Lawyers for Becket, a nonprofit law firm that defends religious liberties and is representing Apache Stronghold, say the government is trampling their clients’ religious freedoms. 

‘They effectively say that there’s a carve-out from RFRA for the government’s management of federal land, that if the government makes it impossible for you to exercise your religion, that’s a substantial burden, but that rule doesn’t apply to federal land,’ Becket counsel Joe Davis explained in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

‘But there’s really no basis in the law that Congress wrote for that kind of argument,’ he said. 

‘RFRA, on its face, says that it applies to all federal law and the implementation of that law, and it says that the use of land for religious purposes is a religious exercise that the law is designed to protect.’ he said. 

The Supreme Court could decide to take up the case as soon as October. 

‘Blasting the birthplace of Apache religion into oblivion would be an egregious violation of our nation’s promise of religious freedom for people of all faiths,’ said Luke Goodrich, vice president of Becket. ‘The Court should uphold its strong record of defending religious freedom by ensuring that the Apaches can continue worshiping at Oak Flat as they have for centuries.’

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Michaela Mabinty DePrince, the ballerina born during a civil war in Sierra Leone who performed in Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ visual album, has died aged 29, according to an announcement posted to her official Instagram page.

“Her life was one defined by grace, purpose, and strength. Her unwavering commitment to her art, her humanitarian efforts, and her courage in overcoming unimaginable challenges will forever inspire us,” the post read.

“She stood as a beacon of hope for many, showing that no matter the obstacles, beauty and greatness can rise from the darkest of places.”

No cause of death has been given. Her sister Mia said she was in a “shock and deep sadness”.

DePrince made history as the youngest principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem and went on to dance with the Dutch National Ballet and the Boston Ballet, where she was a second soloist.

Her talent was brought to a wider audience with a cameo in ‘Lemonade’, the video that accompanied Beyoncé’s album of the same name. DePrince told the WSJ she thought it was a joke when she heard the singer wanted her for the video, who told DePrince in person it was an ‘honor’ to have her star.

Born during Sierra Leone’s brutal war and sent to live in an orphanage after both of her birth parents died – her father was killed by rebels and her mother starved to death – DePrince had an early life marked by the horrors of war.

At the orphanage, she was called “the devil’s child” and was ill-treated by orphanage carers because she had vitiligo – a skin condition that causes blotches of lightening skin. She witnessed one of her teachers be murdered by rebels and was stabbed by a little boy while trying to save her.

Called Mabinty Bangura when she was born, DePrince first saw a ballerina on the cover of a magazine outside the orphanage when she was just three years old.

“I was just so fascinated by this person, by how beautiful she was, how she was wearing such a beautiful costume,” said DePrince. Though she had no idea what ballet was, she kept the magazine cover and dreamt of one day becoming as happy as the dancer in the photo.

Shortly after, DePrince was adopted by a couple from New Jersey and began a new life in the United States. Her family nurtured her love for ballet and enrolled her in classes.

“From the very beginning of our story back in Africa, sleeping on a shared mat in the orphanage, Michaela (Mabinty) and I used to make up our own musical theater plays and act them out. We created our own ballets,” wrote her sister Mia, who was also born in Sierra Leone and adopted by the same family, in a statement.

DePrince went on to earn a full scholarship to the American Ballet Theater’s summer intensive at the age of 13 and earned another scholarship in the youth America Grand Prix, the biggest ballet competition in the world.

It was not a journey without prejudice. As a Black girl in the predominantly white preserve of ballet, she almost quit at the age of 10 when a teacher said she did not want to put effort and money into Black dancers.

“Despite being told the ‘world wasn’t ready for black ballerinas’ or that ‘black ballerinas weren’t worth investing in,’ she remained determined, focused, and began making big strides,” wrote dancer Misty Copeland in a tribute posted to social media. “Michaela had so much more to give,” she added.

In 2014, DePrince co-authored a memoir about her life with her adoptive mother called ‘Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina’ and went on to become an ambassador for War Child Holland, promoting the well-being and mental health of children living in war zones.

“This work meant the world to her,” wrote her family in their statement, asking that people donate to the organization in her memory.

This post appeared first on cnn.com