WASHINGTON — A North Carolina man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoff Thursday that prompted a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings in the area.

Police did not immediately know if there were explosives in the vehicle, but authorities were searching the truck in an effort to understand what led the suspect, identified as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry, to drive onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress, make bomb threats to officers and profess a litany of antigovernment grievances as part of a bizarre episode that he live-streamed for a Facebook audience.

The standoff was resolved peacefully after roughly five hours of negotiations, ending when Roseberry crawled out of the truck and was taken into police custody. But even in a city with a long history of dramatic law enforcement encounters outside federal landmarks, this episode was notable for its timing — Washington remains on edge eight months after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — and for the way the suspect harnessed social media to draw attention in real time to his actions.

Authorities who spent hours negotiating with Roseberry — first using a dry erase board and then bringing him a telephone that he refused to use — were digging into his background Thursday afternoon. They did not reveal any details about a motive, and no charges were immediately announced.

Investigators had been speaking with members of Roseberry’s family and learned that his mother had recently died, Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “There were other issues he was dealing with,” the chief said, without providing specific details.

But social media appeared to offer its own clues.

As police continued negotiations, video surfaced of Roseberry on Facebook Live inside the truck, which was stuffed with coins and boxes. He threatened explosions, expressed hostility toward President Joe Biden, profanely warned of a “revolution” and laid bare a series of grievances related to U.S. positions on Afghanistan, health care and the military.

Roseberry’s ex-wife, Crystal Roseberry, said she had seen images of the man in the standoff at the Capitol and confirmed to The Associated Press that it was her ex-husband. She said had never known him to have explosives, but he was an avid collector of firearms.

Videos posted to Facebook before the page was taken down appear to show Roseberry at the Nov. 14 Washington rally attended by thousands of Trump supporters to protest what they claimed was a stolen election. One video appears to be filmed by Roseberry as he’s marching with a crowd of hundreds of people carrying American flags and Trump flags and shouting “stop the steal.”

Thursday’s incident began around 9:15 a.m. when a truck drove up the sidewalk outside the library. The driver told the responding officer he had a bomb, and he was holding what the officer believed to be a detonator. The truck had no license plates.

Kelsey Campbell, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison visiting Washington as part of a class trip, said she and another student encountered Roseberry around 9:20 a.m. outside the nearby Supreme Court building. Campbell said he was with his truck, which was parked next to the sidewalk, and was holding a large stack of dollar bills.

“He said, ‘Hey, call the police, tell them to evacuate this street, and I’ll give you all this money,'” Campbell recounted to The AP. “I said, ‘No!’ and he threw the money at us and we started running.”

Campbell said she and the other student saw some police officers standing nearby. They told the officers what happened, and the officers then went to confront Roseberry.

The standoff brought the area surrounding the Capitol to a virtual standstill as police emptied buildings and cordoned off streets as a precaution. Congress is in recess this week, but staffers were seen calmly walking out of the area at the direction of authorities.

Police were still searching the vehicle Thursday afternoon and had identified some “concerning” items, like propane containers in the bed of the truck, Manger said. But it wasn’t clear whether Roseberry had any explosives in the vehicle.

“We don’t know if there are any explosives in the vehicle, it’s still an active scene,” Manger said.

The nation’s capital has been tense since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

A day before thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington. No one has been arrested yet for placing the bombs.

The RNC, not far from where the truck was parked Thursday, was also evacuated over the threat. A spokesman for the DNC said its headquarters, which is located farther away from the truck’s location, was put under lockdown, but that lockdown has been lifted.

Thursday’s incident marked the third time in as many weeks that federal and military law enforcement authorities had to respond to attacks or possible threats. Officials are also jittery over a planned rally in September.

___

Long reported from New Buffalo, Michigan. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Nathan Ellgren, Ashraf Khalil and Alex Brandon in Washington contributed to this report.

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A parolee is accused of gunning down a man who was riding in a van with his girlfriend and daughter when he was shot in Humboldt Park.

Angel Figueroa, 38, was in the passenger seat of the van when Justin Cortes opened fire in the 3400 block of West Division Street on Aug. 6, Cook County prosecutors said.

Before the deadly shooting, Figueroa’s girlfriend, who was driving the van, noticed a Hyundai Santa Fe following them at Spaulding Avenue, prosecutors said. Eventually, the Sante Fe pulled up alongside the van and its driver, who had on a reflective green vest, allegedly fired one shot, striking Figueroa in the face.

A television crew filming nearby heard the gunshot and then a woman’s screams. They also saw the van drive off after the shooting, prosecutors said. Figueroa’s girlfriend drove him to Humboldt Park Health Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Detectives used private and city surveillance cameras to track the Sante Fe to the Smoke’n’Snack, at 3333 W North Ave. Surveillance videos at the Smoke’n’Snack show the car — which is registered to Cortes’ mother — at the business just minutes before the shooting, prosecutors said.

The video also shows 25-year-old Cortes, who has tattoos over each eye, making a purchase inside the store, prosecutors said. His cellphone also allegedly pinged to a cellphone tower near the scene of the crime and at the time gunfire erupted.

There is also a police body-camera recording of Cortes following a car crash involving the Santa Fe on Aug. 8, prosecutors said.

He was arrested Wednesday, Chicago police said.

Cortes was on parole for a 2016 home invasion conviction at the time of the murder. He was charged with illegal gun possession by a felon in June but never appeared for a bond hearing, prosecutors said.

Cortes was ordered held without bail Thursday for Figueroa’s murder.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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Black men in mainstream television and movies are often relegated to two types of roles — athletes and criminals — with minimal nuance.

A TV series produced by former Bear Thomas Q. Jones aims to change the pace.

“Johnson,” which airs 7 p.m. Sundays on Bounce TV, details the lives of four lifelong friends — Black men with the same last name who aren’t related — who are dealing with fatherhood, careers, the stigma regarding mental health, divorce, relationships, entrepreneurship, microaggressions, barbershop appointments and massaging hair care products into their lover’s scalp, among many other topics.

“This is an original show, an original idea, and an original concept,” said Jones. “The whole show is seen through our perspective. No veering left or right at all. We keep our narrative consistent. It reinforces everything that we put together — all the money, time, sweat, and tears.”

Jones, a running back who played in 12 NFL seasons — three with the Bears — followed up his NFL days by building an acting resume. In pop culture he’s more known for his “Straight Outta Compton,” “Luke Cage,” “Being Mary Jane,” “P-Valley” and “Bosch” roles, among many other acting credits, than his time on the gridiron.

“I think I went into [acting] with the mindset — to be honest — wanting to reinvent myself and get away from football,” said Jones, who plays Omar on the series. “I’m not the guy who just played for the Jets and Bears. I wasn’t a football player — I played football.”

“Johnson” debuted earlier this month to 2 million viewers, becoming the most-watched half-hour series in network history, officials said. Bounce TV

Why name the series “Johnson”?

Series creator Deji Laray (“Bosch,” “Greenleaf”) wanted to bring to light that Johnson is a common surname among Black folks.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that Black men and Black women historically haven’t been accurately represented in the media,” said Laray. “There has been some representation here and there I think we can be proud of. Ultimately, it’s all about balance.

“Johnson is the most common African American last name in the United States. We all know a Johnson; we’re all related to Johnson. We all have the same experiences as Black men, but you know when you go to our first names — Greg, Omar, Jarvis and Keith — you peel back those layers and you see how different we are once you get past the last name.”

The series — which has Cedric the Entertainer as an executive producer, and fellow “Kings of Comedy” star D.L Hughley as a recurring character — seems to indicate that viewers want more than what they’ve been offered historically, as “Johnson” debuted earlier this month to 2 million viewers. That’s the most-watched half-hour series in the history of Bounce, which is available on Roku, on many cable and satellite systems, and on Chicago’s Channel 38.2.

“We’re happy that people respect how grounded the show is,” said Laray. “We’re happy that men and women feel like the show is balanced.”

In the aftermath of the series’ initial success, Jones recalls the feedback he received from industry gatekeepers when shopping the pilot.

“They just didn’t think that people would actually tune in for 10 episodes of Black men having a voice in something not being street drama or a straight comedy,” said Jones. “One person we pitched the show to has brothers and uncles, so when she saw the pilot, she understood completely — It took one person.”

Thomas Q. Jones (pictured in 2005) played three seasons for the Bears.Getty Images

The series also normalizes a niche — often met with amazement and ridicule — rarely seen in movies and TV: Black hockey fandom.

“I think what we do there is that we make the audience aware that there is this mindset that [hockey] isn’t 100 percent accepted in the Black community,” said Laray. “You know there is that stereotype about this sport, but we also normalize it. … It’s really up to the audience to figure out who they’re gonna side with on their opinion on this.

“Greg [the character played by Laray] and Jarvis [Derrex Brady] make a pretty good case that this is a sport like any other sport and there’s nothing wrong with people loving hockey, people playing hockey, and finding it a great sport to watch.”

And the takeaway from the show?

“To show Black men in all of our glory and in all of our flaws as well — we’re chasing greatness,” Laray says. “We’re brothers, we have goals, we have dreams, and we have good intentions.”

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Don’t boo Mitch Trubisky when he returns to Soldier Field. That’d be petty, misguided and embarrassing.

All the exasperation of the Bears drafting should be directed at Ryan Pace. Boo him instead — if you can find him, that is.

Trubisky has been taking heat for Pace’s mistake of trading up to take him No. 2 overall in 2017 — turning down Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson — ever since he got booed at a Bulls playoff game the day after the draft. But, to both his credit and his detriment, he did everything right as he tried to live up to what the Bears thought they saw in him.

That’s why no one actually hates Trubisky, neither at Halas Hall nor beyond.

He never lost support from people in the building, including the locker room, because he worked constantly. This isn’t a guy who squandered his chance through recklessness and entitlement. His shortfalls in mastering the playbook and reading defenses weren’t from a lack of trying. He was gritty. And he never dodged blame.

“You earn trust by the way you handle yourself in practice and in meetings and on the game day,” coach Matt Nagy said. “Mitch is an extremely tough individual. Really, last year, it could have been easy for him to just say, “You know what, I’m not playing anymore, I got injured and I’m done.’ And he didn’t do that. He fought back.”

Unfortunately for Trubisky, talent matters most. Jay Cutler — the gold standard for modern Bears quarterbacks, sadly — was good enough on the field that no one cared much how he acted away from it.

And now that the Bears have moved on with a more impressive talent in rookie Justin Fields, there’s no point in wallowing in Trubisky’s disappointing four-year run.

“That’s still my guy, still my brother,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “I want the best for him and his family… He can put all this stuff behind him and prove people wrong.”

If Trubisky got the opportunity Nick Foles did a few years ago and jumped in for the Bills during the playoffs, Chicago would root for him. Obviously the Bears don’t think he’ll go on to be great, but they hope it happens for him.

And on that note, there was nothing profound about Trubisky saying last month that he sensed the organization “continuously believing in me less and less.”

That couldn’t have been more obvious. That’s exactly what’s happening when a team declines a fifth-year option, trades for a veteran at your position and benches you three games into the season. Of course the Bears lost faith. Clinging to it would’ve been delusional.

“I’m excited for him to go back to Chicago,” Bills running back Matt Breida said, “and show them they made a mistake.”

Let’s chill on that, Breida. It’s a preseason game.

Also, it will never be a mistake. Bailing on Trubisky was the smartest thing the Bears did in the entire ordeal. Regardless of whether he thrives with a new team, it wasn’t going to work out here.

Nearly everything about that boondoggle falls on Pace and Nagy.

“It would not be fair to put everything on him,” Nagy said of Trubisky. “There’s a lot of things that went into that. And I know that he’s a resilient guy and he’s going to do everything he can to have a successful career.”

Trubisky didn’t draft himself No. 2 overall, nor did he unnecessarily trade a package of picks.

Trubisky didn’t give himself a higher pre-draft grade than a future Hall of Famer in Mahomes.

Trubisky didn’t catch the Bears’ interest with his athleticism and then insist that he “win from the pocket” instead of relying on his mobility.

If anyone deserves booing, it’s not him. He did what he could. He simply wasn’t good enough. Pace is the one who should’ve known better.

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NEW YORK — A key accuser at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial returned to the witness stand on Thursday, weeping when a prosecutor asked her to read out loud from a journal entry describing how he allegedly beat and choked her the last time they were together in 2010.

Jerhonda Pace, who had remained stoic during nearly two days on the witness stand, read how Kelly cursed at her and slapped her three times, telling her, “It’s not going to be an open fist next time.” She wrote that he choked her and sexually assaulted her before she “became fed up with him” and left.

The witness, who is pregnant and only a few days from her due date, asked for a break so she could compose herself.

Pace resumed her testimony in Brooklyn federal court a day after telling jurors she was a 16-year-old virgin and a member of Kelly’s fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010. While there, she said, she was told to follow “Rob’s rules” — edicts restricting how she could dress, who she could speak with and when she could use the bathroom.

She said Kelly — born Robert Sylvester Kelly — sometimes demanded she wear pigtails and “dress like a Girl Scout” during sexual encounters that Kelly often videotaped.

On cross examination, defense attorney Deveraux Cannick sought to show Pace hid her true motivations regarding Kelly and deceived him by lying about her age.

“You were in fact stalking him, right?” Cannick asked.

“That is not right,” she responded.

Pace had testified earlier the she told Kelly she was 19 when they met but had informed him she was only 16 by the time he sexually abused her.

Cannick confronted her with a lawsuit settlement she signed indicating she agreed she never revealed to Kelly that she was a minor. She said it was in exchange for hush money.

The questioning fit a theme that defense lawyers have repeatedly pushed early in the trial: Kelly was victimized by groupies who hounded him at shows and afterward, only to turn against him years later when public sentiment shifted against him, they allege.

To bolster their claims against Kelly, prosecutors showed jurors screenshots from Pace’s phone showing several communications with Kelly in January 2010, including a text from him reading, “Please call.” There was also a photo of her with “Rob” tattooed to her chest. She said she’s since “covered it up with a black heart.”

Pace, the trial’s first witness, was among multiple female accusers — mostly referred to in court as “Jane Does” — expected to testify at a trial scheduled to last several weeks. Other likely witnesses include cooperating former associates who have never spoken publicly before about their experiences with Kelly.

The Associated Press doesn’t name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have shared their identities publicly. Pace has appeared in a documentary and participated in media interviews.

Kelly, 54, has denied accusations that he preyed on Pace and other victims during a 30-year career highlighted by his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly,” a 1996 song that became an inspirational anthem played at school graduations, weddings, advertisements and elsewhere.

The testimony comes more than a decade after Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago. The reprieve allowed his music career to continue until the #MeToo era caught up with him, emboldening alleged victims to come forward.

The women’s stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” The series explored how an entourage of supporters protected Kelly and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing the federal racketeering conspiracy case that landed Kelly in jail in 2019.

The trial is occurring before an anonymous jury of seven men and five women. Following several delays due mostly to the pandemic, the trial unfolds under coronavirus precautions restricting the press and the public to overflow courtrooms with video feeds.

The New York case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

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A man who was wounded in a shooting Sunday in Little Village on the Southwest Side has died.

Eric Jara, 40, was pronounced dead at 2:44 a.m. Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

On Sunday, he was in a vehicle with a 19-year-old man about 1:25 a.m. in the 2700 block of South Drake Avenue when someone unleashed gunfire, Chicago police said.

Jara was struck multiple times, while the other man suffered a gunshot wound to his leg, officials said. Both men were hospitalized in critical condition at the time.

No arrests have been reported, Area Four detectives are investigating.

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Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be partly sunny with a chance of thunderstorms and a high near 86 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear with isolated showers and thunderstorms and a low around 70. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high near 87.

Top story

Chicago Park District’s deputy inspector general says he was suspended illegally to ‘whitewash’ lifeguard abuse investigation

The Chicago Park District’s deputy inspector general said today he was placed on “indefinite, unpaid emergency” suspension last week in what he called an illegal attempt to whitewash an investigation into rampant sexual assault, sexual harassment and physical abuse among the district’s lifeguards.

Until he was walked out of Park District headquarters last week, Nathan Kipp led the internal investigation of lifeguards at Chicago’s pools and lakefront beaches that has implicated Park District Supt. Mike Kelly in an alleged cover-up.

One of only two investigators assigned to the probe, Kipp had spent a year as acting inspector general. He was a candidate for the job that went to Elaine Little, ex-wife of State Rep. Curtis Tarver (D-Chicago).

Kipp said he was given no reason for his suspension. He called it “shocking,” “meritless” and “illegal,” since it was not ordered by Little and, he added, only the inspector general has the “authority to recommend discipline” for her staff.

Nevertheless, Kipp said he has no doubt about the motivation behind his suspension.

“This meritless action is a clear attempt by Park District officials to impede and obstruct a devastating investigation into widespread sexual assault, sexual harassment and physical abuse throughout the District’s Beaches & Pools Unit,” Kipp was quoted as saying in a four-page statement.

The investigation by the park district’s inspector general “is not independent, as Mr. Kelly falsely assures. Instead, the Park District and its Board of Commissioners have repeatedly and unsuccessfully exerted improper influence over the OIG [office of the inspector general] with the apparent goal of ending the investigation prematurely and as quietly as possible.”

Fran Spielman and Lauren FitzPatrick have more on the disfunction with the city’s Park District here.

More news you need

Thousands of mourners gathered today for the funeral of Chicago police officer Ella French, who was killed during an Aug. 7 traffic stop. In a speech during the service, French’s mother, Elizabeth, said she was there with only “half a heart” since one of her children is gone.

Four police officers and a teen standing outside the church where Officer French’s funeral was being held suffered possible heatstroke. They were all taken to hospitals, a fire official said.

A former Melrose Park cop today became the latest gambling defendant in Chicago’s federal court to avoid prison time when a judge ordered him to serve six months in home detention. Amabile pleaded guilty in April to running an illegal gambling business with a bookie with purported mob ties.
A key accuser at R. Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial returned to the witness stand today in Brooklyn. She testified that she was told to follow “Rob’s rules” — restrictions on how she could dress, who she could speak with and when she could use the bathroom.

Opioid-related deaths are still high in Chicago as the West Side remains the epicenter of the crisis, Block Club Chicago reports. Reporter Francesca Mathewes caught up with a local task force of residents who work to prevent and respond to overdoses.

A bright one

10 to see at Ruido Fest, scaled back but still packing plenty of star power

After losing its 2020 edition due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ruido Fest returns this weekend for its annual three-day run in Chicago.

“Ruido” means “noise” in English, and there will be plenty of musical exuberance tomorrow through Sunday at Union Park, once again the site for this alternative Latin music festival, with appearances by powerhouses such as Cafe Tacuba, Caifanes, Ivy Queen and Panteon Rococo.

The three locally-based promoters of Ruido Fest — Metronome Chicago, Riot Fest Presents and Star Events — have scaled down the event this year due to COVID-19. Instead of the usual 50-plus acts on three stages, there will be 31 acts on two stages. Attendees will need to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test (within 72 hours prior) for admittance.

If you decide to go, here are some must-see artists to add to your list:

Cafe Tacuba

Ruben Albarran of Cafe Tacuba performs during the Grito Latino Fest at Parque Viva in Alajuela, Costa Rica, on March 31, 2019. Ezequiel Bercerra/Getty Images

Over its 32-year run, the Mexican quartet Cafe Tacuba has thrown virtually every traditional Mexican style — son, norteno, ranchera, bolero, cumbia — into its alt-Latin mix, layered over a foundation of guitar rock.

Ambar Lucid

Ambar Lucid performs at SXSW in Austin on March 13, 2019.Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for SXSW

Born in New Jersey, the singer-songwriter has arrived like a comet, with Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and the New York Times singing her praises. At 20 years old, she plays with the skill of a seasoned performer on her EP “Get Lost in the Music.”

Ivy Queen

Ivy Queen performs onstage during Univision’s 33rd Edition of Premio Lo Nuestro a la Musica Latina at American Airlines Arena on February 18, 2021 in Miami.Rodrigo Varela/Getty Images

Hailed as “The Queen of Reggaeton” ever since she emerged on the scene in the late ’90s, the New York-reared diva stands tall (even without her trademark stilettos) in a male-dominated genre.

See Laura Emerick’s full list of can’t-miss artists performing at Ruido here.

From the press box

Bears fans can calm down. Quarterback Justin Fields returned to practice Thursday and the team expects him to play in Saturday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills. Coach Matt Nagy held him out of Wednesday’s practice because of a groin injury.
Marist, which is No. 6 in the Sun-Times’ high school football preseason rankings, doesn’t return many starters from the spring season, but the RedHawks have two of the top talents in the area in quarterback Dontrell Jackson Jr. and offensive lineman Deuce McGuire.
After suffering an ankle injury Tuesday against the Wings, Sky’s Candace Parker is “day to day,” said coach and general manager James Wade. It is her second injury to her left ankle this season.

Your daily question ?

What’s one touristy activity that you, as a Chicagoan, have never done?

Reply to this email (please include your first name and where you live) and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What is the best TV show set in Chicago? Tell us why. Here’s what some of you said…

“‘Chicago P.D.’ — so many recognizable places. Love the real snow and cold weather where you genuinely see their breath as they talk. It’s so good to watch a show that is actually filmed where it portrays.” — Linda Kuhel Jones

“I’m torn between ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ and ‘Good Times.’ Both are iconic Chicago series with wonderful title sequences of the city.” — Meg Rhem

“‘Kolchak the Night Stalker.’ Carl missed a World Series game between Cubs and Red Sox to chase a UFO! Darren McGavin was one of the greats.” — Joe Burns

“‘Early Edition.’ Not only did it feature the Sun-Times every episode but it was a feel good show that my whole family enjoyed watching and it showed many areas of Chicago — not to mention the cute cat.” — Becky Weber

“‘The Chi’ or ‘Southside’ for sure. Shame on Shameless for moving away and phoning it in.” — Anthony Gino Manderino

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban violently dispersed scattered protests for a second day Thursday amid warnings that Afghanistan’s already weakened economy could crumble further without the massive international aid that sustained the toppled Western-backed government.

The Taliban have sought to project moderation and say they want good relations with the international community, but they will face a difficult balancing act in making concessions to the West, satisfying their own hard-line followers and suppressing dissent.

A U.N. official warned of dire food shortages, and experts said the country was severely in need of cash, while noting that the Taliban are unlikely to enjoy the generous international aid that made up most of the ousted government’s budget.

The Taliban have pledged to forgive those who fought them and to restore security and normal life to the country after decades of war. But many Afghans fear a return to the Taliban’s harsh rule in the late 1990s, when the group largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, chopped off the hands of suspected thieves and held public executions.

On Thursday, a procession of cars and people near Kabul’s airport carried long black, red and green banners in honor of the Afghan flag — a banner that is becoming a symbol of defiance. Video from another protest in Nangarhar province showed a bleeding demonstrator with a gunshot wound. Onlookers tried to carry him away.

In Khost province, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew Thursday after violently breaking up another protest, according to information obtained by journalists monitoring from abroad. The authorities did not immediately acknowledge the demonstration or the curfew.

Protesters also took to the streets in Kunar province, according to witnesses and social media videos that lined up with reporting by The Associated Press.

The demonstrations — which came as people celebrated Afghan Independence Day and some commemorated the Shiite Ashoura festival — were a remarkable show of defiance after Taliban fighters violently dispersed a protest Wednesday. At least one person was killed at that rally, in the eastern city of Jalalabad, after demonstrators lowered the Taliban’s flag and replaced it with the tricolor.

Meanwhile, opposition figures gathering in the last area of the country not under Taliban rule talked of launching an armed resistance under the banner of the Northern Alliance, which joined with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion.

It was not clear how serious a threat they posed given that Taliban fighters overran nearly the entire country in a matter of days with little resistance from Afghan forces.

The Taliban so far have offered no specifics on how they will lead, other than to say they will be guided by Shariah, or Islamic, law. They are in talks with senior officials of previous Afghan governments. But they face an increasingly precarious situation.

“A humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions is unfolding before our eyes,” warned Mary Ellen McGroarty, the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program in Afghanistan.

Beyond the difficulties of bringing food into the landlocked nation dependent on imports, she said that over 40% of the country’s crop has been lost to drought. Many who fled the Taliban advance now live in parks and open spaces in Kabul.

“This is really Afghanistan’s hour of greatest need, and we urge the international community to stand by the Afghan people at this time,” she said.

Hafiz Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Kabul, said some food has flowed into the capital, but prices have gone up. He hesitated to pass those costs onto his customers but said he had to.

“It is better to have it,” he said. “If there were nothing, then that would be even worse.”

Two of Afghanistan’s key border crossings with Pakistan are now open for trade. However, traders still fear insecurity on the roads and confusion over customs duties that could push them to price their goods higher.

Amid all the uncertainty and fears of Taliban rule, thousands of Afghans are fleeing the country.

At Kabul’s international airport, military evacuation flights continued, but access to the airport remained difficult. On Thursday, Taliban fighters fired into the air to try to control the crowds gathered at the airport’s blast walls.

After a chaotic start in which people rushed the runway and some clung to a plane taking off, the U.S. military is ramping up evacuations and now has enough aircraft to get 5,000 to 9,000 people out a day, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said Thursday.

President Joe Biden said he was committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.

In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden said he thought the Taliban were going through an “existential crisis” about whether they wanted to be internationally recognized as a legitimate government. “I’m not sure they do,” he said.

The Taliban have urged people to return to work, but most government officials remain in hiding or are themselves attempting to flee. The U.S. has apparently frozen Afghanistan’s foreign reserves and shipments of dollars that help sustain the local currency, the afghani. The International Monetary Fund has cut off access to loans or other resources for now.

“The afghani has been defended by literally planeloads of U.S. dollars landing in Kabul on a very regular basis, sometimes weekly,” said Graeme Smith, a consultant researcher with the Overseas Development Institute. “If the Taliban don’t get cash infusions soon to defend the afghani, I think there’s a real risk of a currency devaluation that makes it hard to buy bread on the streets of Kabul for ordinary people.”

Smith, who has written a book on Afghanistan, said the Taliban are unlikely to ask for the same billions in international aid sought by the country’s fallen civilian government — large portions of which were siphoned off by corruption.

The Taliban have long profited off the drug trade in Afghanistan, which is the world’s top cultivator of the poppy from which opium and heroin are produced. The militants now have access to customs duties from the border crossings, which were the main source of domestic income for the previous government.

But 75% of the previous government’s budget was covered by donor countries.

“It costs a lot less to run an insurgency than it does to run a government,” said Laurel Miller, director of the Asia program at the Crisis Group, an international think tank. “The opium trade and the border crossings (are) not enough money to run a government, at least as it has been run in recent years.”

The Taliban will struggle to make accommodations to the West while satisfying the ultraconservative Muslim fighters that brought them to power after a 20-year insurgency, with the latter likely being the priority, Miller said. Even a significant shift toward moderation might not be enough for Western countries to keep the aid flowing.

“How ready is Congress going to be to vote for development assistance for a Taliban government?” she said.

___

Akhgar reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Guelph, Canada, and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Istanbul, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

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I was watching ESPN’s trade-deadline show when the Cubs sent closer Craig Kimbrel to the White Sox on July 30. After picking up my jaw from the floor, I changed the channel to see how the Cubs’ and Sox’ stations were covering the big news.

They weren’t.

It took Marquee Sports Network a little over a half-hour to take the replay of the Reds-Cubs game from the previous afternoon off the air and put on studio host Cole Wright and analyst Ryan Sweeney to discuss the trade and those that followed. But at least the network provided programming.

NBC Sports Chicago stuck with a repeat of a triathlon.

(In fairness, Chuck Garfien and Ryan McGuffey jumped on their “White Sox Talk Podcast” and put it on Facebook Live a little over an hour after the deal. It was nice, but they belonged on TV.)

Chicago has had two regional sports networks for a year and a half now, and deadline day showed the modus operandi of each. Marquee is complementing its games with original programming, while NBCSCH is leaning on its games to carry the freight.

This is strictly about linear TV. Both networks have digital and social platforms, though NBCSCH has more going on there with coverage of all five major teams in town. But on the air, Marquee is putting more around the Cubs than NBCSCH is around the Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks.

Perhaps that should be expected given that the Cubs are Marquee’s sole tenant. But in its previous iteration as Comcast SportsNet, NBCSCH aired the news and highlight show “SportsNet Central” several times a day. Even after the network was rebranded, it aired “SportsTalk Live” and “Beer Money.”

Marquee partners with VSiN to air a live sports-betting show in the morning and with Chicago-based Stadium to air a news and highlight show in the evening. It has produced documentaries and created shows for former Cub Doug Glanville and Fox sportscaster Chris Myers.

But NBCSCH is in a tough spot. Its parent company, NBC Universal, has reorganized its management teams and consolidated where it can. Kevin Cross used to be solely responsible for NBCSCH as senior vice president and general manager. Now he’s the president and general manager of NBC 5, Telemundo Chicago and NBCSCH.

Here’s the network’s biggest dilemma: Viewers generally turn it on for games. Maybe they’ll catch the end of a pregame show and stick around for the postgame show. But with so many competing platforms, from social media to streaming services, the RSN has had a tough time maintaining TV viewers. So does it create content when people aren’t watching, or does it focus on what they are watching?

The people at NBCSCH would love nothing more than to replace all those informercials, poker games and NBC Sports reruns with original content. They will bring back the popular Bears postgame program, “Football Aftershow,” this season. But it’s hard to justify the expense for much more if it won’t garner ratings. If you’re pining from the lack of content, make sure you have a Nielsen box in your home.

This isn’t meant to paint a dire picture for the network. After enduring multiple rounds of layoffs in the last year, it celebrated the promotion of John Schippman to vice president of content this week. With Cross now at NBC Tower, the highly regarded Schippman becomes Cross’ point man at NBCSCH’s offices in River North. His job is to ensure that the network is creating the best content for all of its platforms.

But losing the Cubs was a blow to the network, and down times for the Bulls and Hawks haven’t helped. If, as some in the industry say, an RSN is only as good as its teams, the Sox’ success couldn’t have come at a better time. And the Bulls and Hawks appear poised to return to relevancy.

It will be interesting to see how the teams themselves view the network. Bulls and Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz are partners, along with NBC Sports Group, and their contract runs through the 2024 MLB season. Granted, that’s three years away, but that’s not a ton of time in the sports-TV business.

Might the three teams venture out on their own, like the Cubs did? It’s possible, but it’s hard enough running a team, let alone a network. More important, it’s a no-risk relationship for the teams. The RSN bears the burden of distribution while paying the teams a rights fee. Though the business model has come under attack because of cord-cutting and streaming, it still can work.

But by then, the question might be whether the teams are satisfied with what else NBCSCH can provide.

REMOTE PATROL

Marquee Sports Network added 12 Cubs minor-league games to its broadcast schedule, with games from each of the organization’s full-season affiliates. Next up are games Friday and Saturday nights between the Cubs’ and White Sox’ Double-A teams, Tennessee and Birmingham. Elise Menaker will serve as the network’s minor-league reporter, contributing to Cubs pregame and in-game broadcasts.
NFL Media promoted Charlie Yook, who grew up in Glenview, to executive producer. The 1992 Glenbrook South graduate had been NFL Network’s vice president of production and led its draft coverage since 2014. Now he’ll oversee all content produced by the NFL Media Group in Los Angeles, including NFL Network and the league’s digital properties.
The City of Chicago recognized the late, great WGN sports editor Jack Rosenberg on Wednesday with an honorary street sign at the southeast corner of East Illinois Street and Cityfront Plaza Drive, which will double as “Jack Rosenberg Way.” “Rosey,” who died at 94 in December, spent 40 years at WGN TV and radio and was a pioneer in sports broadcasting.
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