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Body of missing girl Brittanee Drexel found after 13 years

The body of Brittanee Drexel, who disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C., has been located after 13 years, authorities announced Monday.

During a press conference held by the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Carter Weaver shared the news that Drexel’s remains had been located. Drexel, of Rochester, N.Y., was 17 years old at the time of her disappearance.

Raymond Douglas Moody of Georgetown, S.C., has been charged with murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct in the first degree for the death of Drexel, who was reported missing on April 25, 2009.

Moody has an “extensive sex offender criminal history,” Weaver noted.

Human remains were discovered on May 11 and positively identified by the Georgetown County coroner as Drexel’s through dental records. The findings were later corroborated through DNA testing.

“To the Drexel family, we mourn with you and pray for you as you cope with the tragedies of 13 years ago,” Weaver said. “No one deserves to go through this, and our hearts go out to you. Our only hope is that this finding allows your family to grieve properly for Brittanee.”

Brittannee’s mother Dawn Drexel, who told CNN at the time she had forbidden her daughter to go to Myrtle Beach, called the discovery of her remains “a mother’s nightmare.”

“I am mourning my beautiful daughter Brittanee as I have been for 13 years. But today it’s bittersweet. We are much closer to the closure and the peace that we have been desperately hoping for,” Dawn Drexel said at the press conference.

She added, “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter. The search for Brittanee is now a pursuit of Brittanee’s justice.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Population stabilization, not growth, is the key to America’s future

While the Supreme Court, Congress and the White House are embroiled over the constitutional right of women to abortion, a larger, more consequential demographic issue impacting all of America’s men, women and children is population growth.

The same year Roe v. Wade arrived on the desks of the Supreme Court, the U.S. Commission on Population Growth and the America Future issued its final report. The commission’s major conclusion, submitted to then-President Richard Nixon and Congress, was unequivocal and clear:

“In the long run, no substantial benefits will result from the further growth of America’s population. The gradual stabilization of the U.S. population through voluntary means would contribute significantly to America’s ability to solve its problems.”

A half-century ago when the commission presented its recommendation, America’s population was 210 million, or about 5 percent of the world’s population of 4 billion. Today, America’s population has grown to 333 million, or about 4 percent of the world’s population of nearly 8 billion.

In recent years, scientists, environmentalists and others concerned about the climate change emergency and environmental degradation have called for population stabilization for America and the rest of the world. 

But despite the commission’s unambiguous recommendation and repeated warnings about global warming and the increasingly disastrous social, economic and environmental consequences of climate change, America and many other countries of the world persist in pro-growth demographic policies. 

Federal and state governments, political parties, businesses, the media and social commentators typically laud population growth and lament population slowdown. America’s traditional demographic dogma advocates maintaining robust growth and an expanding U.S. population. 

Population growth is promoted by many in America, especially industry and wealthy business owners, which gain the most financially from growing numbers of workers and consumers and suffer the least from the consequences of sustained demographic growth. In addition, the ideologies of some religious groups are pronatalist, with prohibitions on the use of contraception and abortion and an emphasis on the traditional role of women and the biblical phrase, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Considerable efforts and resources are expended to equate sustained U.S. population growth with the nation’s overall economic prosperity and well-being. The sustainability of that population growth is typically dismissed or questions are simply left unanswered. Legitimate concerns about climate change, the environment,  povertygender inequities, socioeconomic inequalities and an unfair tax system that favors the wealthy are ignored.

Rather than choosing to deal with those concerns, America’s population growth advocates loudly ring warning bells about demographic slowdowns that might lead to population stabilization. Anything other than robust growth, they insist, will result in financial disaster and a bleak future for citizens. Demographic slowdowns, they misleadingly contend, will hamper productivity gains, contract the domestic market base, lessen public finances and increase social costs.

Population slowdowns or declines are also frequently entangled in political, social, religious and ethnic concerns and rivalries. Demographic downturns are typically depicted as losses of power, finance, influence and standing. Moreover, as America increasingly deals with ethnic, language, religious and cultural cleavages, population numbers and the relative sizes of ethnic groups have become highly politicized. The fear among some, especially nativist and far-right groups, is becoming a minority in their perceived homeland, which is reflected in the great replacement theory and the slogan “you will not replace us,” — ideas that have spread among right-wing and white nationalist groups in America as well as abroad.

Increasing numbers of Americans and social organizations are recognizing the serious consequences of population growth and rejecting pro-growth demographic dogma. For example, thousands of scientists recently declared that the planet is facing a climate emergency and population stabilization ranks among six urgently needed actions to address the issue. 

It’s time to end the pro-growth demographic charade and acknowledge the disastrous climatic, environmental and social consequences of sustained population growth for America, as well as the planet. Slower U.S. population growth will not only reduce pressures on the climate and the environment, it will also gain us valuable time to develop solutions for social, economic and political challenges facing the country.

U.S. government officials, the private sector, social organizations and the American public must abandon their ideological addiction to demographic growth and prepare for the gradual stabilization of America’s population through voluntary means. America gradually stabilizing its population would provide a model for other countries to follow, which in turn would lead to a stabilized world population.

We must admit the relentless pursuit of population growth is simply not sustainable. By contributing to climate and environmental disintegration, the continued growth of the U.S. population constitutes a serious threat to the security and wellbeing not only of the 333 million people residing in the country today but also to future generations.

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and the author of numerous publications on population issues, including his book, “Births, Deaths, Migrations and Other Important Population Matters.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Russian 'TV Rain' given Peabody Award

Independent Russian television station “TV Rain” has been given a Peabody Award for its coverage of the country’s invasion of Ukraine before being shuttered by the government earlier this year.

The station was recognized with the Peabody Journalistic Integrity Award, which honors the sustained achievement of the highest professional standards of journalism, as well as personal integrity in reporting the news in challenging times, the awards said on Tuesday.

TV Rain was the country’s last remaining independent television station before it was shut down by the Kremlin in March over critical coverage of President Vladimir Putin and the country’s war in Ukraine.

Russian officials have gone to great lengths to promote propaganda in state-sponsored media and suppress criticism of the invasion and public protests against it.

In TV Rain’s dramatic final broadcast the station’s entire staff walked off the set as the anchors said “no war,” the Peabody Awards noted in praising the defunct news outfit.

Source: TEST FEED1

CDC adds Caribbean, African travel destinations to COVID warning list

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added four countries Monday to its list of high-risk travel destinations for COVID-19.

The countries included Taiwan, Caribbean island Antigua and Barbuda and Southern African countries Lesotho and South Africa.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center released figures Tuesday announcing 65,833 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, 65,794 of which had been spread domestically.

Two omicron sub-variants have propelled infections in South Africa, moving case numbers there from 300 per day early last month to 8,000 per day last week. However, symptoms are mild and severe cases and deaths have not increased, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Lesotho, a country located inside the larger country of South Africa, has experienced a similar wave.

The CDC maintains a list of countries sorted into four levels of COVID-19 severity: Low, Moderate, High and “Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel.” It also includes a designation for “COVID-19 Unknown,” which it currently applies to 52 countries.

The COVID-19 High category, which the four new countries were added to this week, is the largest of the groups, containing 110 countries altogether.

There are currently no countries on the “Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel” list.

The announcement of the additions to the list of High risk countries came the same day the CDC reported that the U.S. has reached 1 million deaths from the virus.

The COVID-19 death count continues to rise in the U.S., which has seen more deaths per capita than neighboring Canada or countries in Western Europe, although the rate of fatalities has fallen significantly as vaccines, a new treatment pill from Pfizer known as Paxlovid and recent variants have reduced the risks of the virus.

Since 2021, deaths resulting from COVID-19 have occurred disproportionately among those who have not gotten initial vaccine doses or booster shots.

Source: TEST FEED1

WATCH: New UFO footage declassified by the military

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The Pentagon released a declassified video of a UFO encounter during a House Intelligence subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

The short clip appears to show a flying spherical object traveling at extremely high speeds in the sky.

The roughly eight-second video clip with a 2021 timestamp shows a pilot operating an aircraft in a U.S. Navy training yard when a strange object flies near the cockpit of the plane at a high speed. While the UFO is traveling so fast in the video that it can be hard to spot, the object appears to be a grey, spherical shape.

Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said this was an example of an encounter that has mystified the Pentagon.

“I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is,” Bray said.

In addition to the sensor recording, the pilot also witnessed the UFO.

The Department of Defense has a new task force that will work to identify and analyze more unexplained occurrences like the UFO.

Source: TEST FEED1

Sharpton calls for national strategy on dealing with hate

The Rev. Al Sharpton on Tuesday called for a national strategy to combat hate and racism, claiming that the alleged shooter in Buffalo, N.Y., was “radicalized” by extremist language and discourse online.

Sharpton, a civil rights activist, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that leaders need to address the root causes of the mass shooting in Buffalo, including the proliferation of hate and violent messages on social media.

“We need a White House summon. We need to set a national strategy on how we deal with hate and how we hold those accountable [who] in any way advance what happened in Buffalo,” Sharpton said. “It didn’t just drop out the sky. It happened because it was methodically organized.”

Payton Gendron, 18, is suspected of opening fire at a grocery store in the upstate New York city on Saturday, injuring 13 people and killing 10. Eleven of the victims were Black.

Gendron published a manifesto on social media forum 4Chan in which he ranted about the a white nationalist “great replacement theory,” which posits that white Americans are being replaced by growing numbers of minorities for political gain.

The tragedy, which follows other mass shootings in recent years in El Paso, Texas, at several nail salons in Georgia and at a Pittsburgh synagogue, led to renewed cries to address hate and racism in the country.

“What truly needs to be replaced in this country is ignorance and hate, which is driving division, perpetuating lies, and killing our neighbors,” Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), said in a statement earlier this week.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — both vocal critics of former President Trump — said that Republican leadership in Congress is not doing enough to combat bigotry.

“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse,” Cheney said in a Twitter post. “@GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”

Luis Hernandez, the executive director of Youth Over Guns, told The Hill that President Biden should establish a committee to fight white supremacy.

“The community needs commitment, real commitment, about what he’s going to do, plans that he will implement, and things that he will work with the state and local government to make happen,” Hernandez said.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Congress should pass a bill that “supports the prosecution of hate crimes against Black people.”

“What happened on Saturday was an act of domestic terrorism,” Crump said in remarks he published on Twitter, “perpetrated by a young white supremacist. There is no question about his intention.”

Sharpton told “Morning Joe” that he expected this was not the last time a shooting like this would happen, pushing politicians to act.

“What we cannot do is go from Buffalo to the next,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Greek leader warns Congress against weapons sales to Turkey

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday warned a joint session of Congress against supporting the Biden administration’s proposed military sales to Turkey, saying such a move could create additional instability in the region.

“The last thing that NATO needs, at a time when our focus is on helping Ukraine defeat Russia’s aggression, is another source of instability on NATO’s south eastern flank,” Mitsotakis said without referring to Turkey by name.

“And I ask you to take this into account when you make defense procurement decisions concerning the eastern Mediterranean.”

The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve the sale of advanced weapons and other military equipment to NATO-ally Turkey. The package is largely to allow Ankara to upgrade its fleet of F-16 fighter jets, but is being viewed as laying the groundwork of a possible sale for dozens more F-16s. 

The move has garnered pushback from advocacy organizations that are invested in U.S. relations in the region. 

Mitsotakis also said that “overflights over Greek islands,” which Greece has accused Turkey of carrying out, “must stop immediately.” 

“I want to be absolutely clear, we will not accept open acts of aggression,” the Greek leader said. Greece is also a NATO ally.

Turkey has reportedly rejected the accusations, accusing Greece of provocative moves in the region. 

Mitsotakis reiterated his position that Greece would never accept a two-state solution in Cyprus  – the independent island is divided between the ruling Greek-Cypriots and the Turkish-occupied region in the north – and pressed Congress to support the position of Athens.

“I ask you esteemed members of Congress not to forget an open wound that has caused Hellenism unending pain over the past 48 years. I’m referring to the invasion and subsequent division of Cyprus,” Mitsotakis said. 

“This issue has to be resolved in accordance with international law and in line with the relevant decisions of the United Nations Security Council. As I told President Biden yesterday, nobody can, nobody ever will accept a two state solution in Cyprus,” the prime minister continued, receiving a standing ovation from the House and Senate lawmakers. 

The Greek prime minister is in Washington marking 200 years since the Greek revolution, when it gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, the precursor to modern-day Turkey. 

Mitsotakis used his speech to Congress to draw parallels between Russia’s war in Ukraine and the threats facing Greece, while reinforcing the strong bonds between the U.S. and Greece and their shared commitment to democracy. Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova attended the speech in the House chamber. 

Mitsotakis said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not succeed” with his invasion of Ukraine.

“He must not succeed, not only for the sake of Ukraine, but also in order to send a message, in order to send the message to all other authoritarian leaders that historical revisionism and open acts of aggression that violate international law will not be tolerated by the global community of democratic states,” he said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden: White supremacy a ‘poison’ in America

President Biden on Tuesday called white supremacy a “poison” in America and called on Americans to reject the racist white “replacement theory” that is believed to have inspired the gunman behind the tragic Buffalo shooting.

“I call on all Americans to reject the lie,” Biden said in remarks from Buffalo Tuesday afternoon. ”I condemn those who spread the lie for power, for political gain and for profit.”

“We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America,” Biden said. “None.”

Biden delivered the remarks after he and first lady Jill Biden met privately with families of the victims in Saturday’s mass shooting, which police are investigating as a racially-motivated hate crime.

Biden called the weekend shooting that left 10 dead an act of “domestic terrorism.”

“What happened here is simple and straightforward: Terrorism. Terrorism. Domestic terrorism,” Biden said. “Violence inflicted in the service of hate and the vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group.”

The president broadly called out the media, politics and the internet for radicalizing individuals and spreading the racist “replacement theory” that white people, in particular, are at risk of being replaced by minority groups. But he did not single out any particular individual, even as Fox News hosts and certain Republican lawmakers have come under scrutiny in recent days for their rhetoric about immigrants.

Other Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have taken a different approach. Schumer, who was with Biden on Tuesday in Buffalo, wrote to Fox News executives asking that they stop what he called the “reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory” on the network.

Biden condemned the shooting over the weekend, but Tuesday’s speech represented his most extensive remarks to date about the tragedy.

Ten people were killed and three wounded when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. The shooting has led to renewed calls for gun control legislation at the federal level and demands that the government do more to stamp out the threat of white supremacy.

Biden only briefly called for fresh action on gun control, renewing his call for a ban on assault weapons and urging action to “address the relentless exploitation of the internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism.”

Instead, the speech was largely a condemnation of white supremacy, which Biden decried as “a poison… running through our body politic,” and as a tribute to those who were killed during a typical weekend trip to the supermarket.

Prior to his remarks, the president and first lady Jill Biden met privately with the families of victims and paid their respects at a memorial outside the grocery store. The first lady said a brief thank you to the families of the victims before Biden began his remarks.

At the beginning of the speech, Biden reflected on the victims, naming each one of them and reading off personal details about their lives. He choked up at one point as he told the story of one of the victims who had gone to the market to buy his son a birthday cake. 

“We have to refuse to live in a country where Black people going about a weekly grocery shopping can be gunned down by weapons of war deployed in a racist cause,” Biden said. “We have to refuse to live in a country where fear and lies are packaged for power and for profit. We must all enlist in this great cause of America.”

Updated at 1:06 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Bidens mourn in Buffalo

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–> A midday take on what’s happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* 

*Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha–breaks down crying hysterically.

HAPPENING NOW 

Paying respects in Buffalo

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are in Buffalo, N.Y., meeting with local leaders and families after Saturday’s mass shooting at a local supermarket. 

Updates on the Biden trip, via Buffalo News 

Photo of the Bidens on the trip to Buffalo: Via ABC News 

And a photo of the Bidens arriving at the scene of the shootingVia The New York Times’s Doug Mills

Happening at 1 p.m. EDT: Biden is expected deliver remarks from Buffalo. Livestream

 ‘BUFFALO SUSPECT PLANNED ATTACK FOR MONTHS, ONLINE POSTS REVEAL’
“A cache of online postings suggests months of preparation and planning preceded Saturday’s racist massacre in Buffalo and shows how the suspect evaded a state law that could have prevented him from owning a gun.” More from The New York Times

 ‘HEROIC ACTIONS, SPLIT-SECOND DECISIONS MEANT LIFE OR DEATH FOR SHOPPERS AT BUFFALO GROCERY STORE’:
Via The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher, Jacob Bogage and Silvia Foster-Frau. The full story

IT’S TUESDAY. I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.

🗳 On the campaign trail 

Pennsylvania is getting a lot of attention today:

Pennsylvania is the state primary to watch today as both parties hold their contests Tuesday. 

Why Dems are on edge: “[T]he shock has not yet faded in Democratic circles that the clear front-runner in their Senate primary, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, suffered a stroke on Friday at the age of 52. Fetterman says he is on the road to recovery and that he did not ‘suffer any cognitive damage.’ But the development, so close to the primary, has jangled Democratic nerves.”

Where the GOP race stands: “The top tier of the GOP field is comprised of TV personality Mehmet Oz, conservative commentator Kathy Barnette and businessman David McCormick — all of whom Democrats believe have potentially fatal flaws.”

Why Pa. is important in the midterms: “Pennsylvania gives the Democrats a rare chance to pick up a Senate seat at a time when the upper chamber is split 50-50. The seat is currently held by Sen. Pat Toomey (R), who is retiring.”

How today’s primary in Pennsylvania could play out, via The Hill’s Niall Stanage

➤FIVE THINGS TO WATCH IN NORTH CARLINA AND PENNSYLVANIA TODAY
Keep in mind: Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who has recently been involved in several controversies, is on the ballot. The list of what storylines we’re watchingvia The Hill’s Max Greenwood

🍼The baby formula shortage 

Opening back up:

Via The New York Times’s Christina Jewett, “The Food and Drug Administration on Monday reached an agreement with Abbott Laboratories on the steps needed to reopen the company’s shuttered baby formula plant, which could begin to ease the shortage of infant formula that has frightened and exasperated parents nationwide.” 

Timing: “The company said on Monday that production could begin within about two weeks and could translate to more formula on shelves in six to eight weeks. The company said it will continue flying formula in from a plant in Ireland.” Everything we know 

Why the plant had been closed: Four babies, including two who died, contracted a rare bacterial illness. The FDA closed the facility to investigate after it found unsanitary conditions. “Abbott said the FDA has not been able to definitively link its formula to the illnesses. The company said it has been making corrective improvements to address the FDA’s concerns.” More on the closure, via The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel 

WHERE THE FORMULA SHORTAGE STANDS
From The Hill’s Lexi Lonas: https://bit.ly/3wjAUT4 

➤WHY BREASTFEEDING ISN’T A SOLUTION TO THE SHORTAGE
‘The many, many costs of breastfeeding,’ via Vox’s Aubrey Hirsch 

🦠 Latest on COVID 

Kids can level up:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just authorized a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster for kids ages 5 to 11. 

For context in that age group: “Only 28 percent of children 5-11 have received the first two shots, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”  

What about kids under 5?: A vaccine has still not been authorized for children under 5 years old.

 BY THE NUMBERS 

Cases to date: 82.3 million 

Death toll: 997,215 

Current hospitalizations: 9,783 

Shots administered: 581 million 

Fully vaccinated: 66.4 percent of Americans 

CDC data here.

In Congress 

Mitch is trying to speak the loudest:  

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is stamping out former President Trump’s efforts to sow dissension in the Republican Party over whether to send tens of billions of dollars in new assistance to Ukraine.” 

McConnell’s position: “McConnell is framing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a clear threat to U.S. national security interests, espousing the muscular foreign policy worldview that Republicans were known for before Trump took office in 2017.” How McConnell is now going on offense 

 ‘THE 11 SENATE REPUBLICANS WHO OPPOSED ADVANCING AID FOR UKRAINE’
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.). 

The other 81 senators voted in favor of the Ukrainian aid package. The final vote will happen later this week.  

 OP-ED
The Washington Post’s Max Boot writes, “Thanks, Vladimir Putin, for greatly strengthening NATO.”  

Excerpt: “It turns out NATO is neither brain dead nor broken. The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine has given the alliance a new lease on life, making it more politically united and militarily formidable than at any time since the end of the Cold War.” Read his full column

🐥Notable tweets 

Oh.: 

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl tweeted, “[Fox News host] Tucker Carlson derisively refers to [Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas)], who lost his eye while serving our country as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan, as ‘eye-patch McCain.’ ” Video

On tap 

The House and Senate are in. President Biden is in Buffalo, N.Y. Vice President Harris is in Washington, D.C.

  • 8:10 a.m. EDT: Biden and first lady Jill Biden left for Buffalo, N.Y. 
  • 10:25 a.m. EDT: The Bidens paid their respects and met with families in Buffalo following the weekend shooting. 
  • 1 p.m. EDT: First votes in the House. Today’s House schedule 
  • 3:25 p.m. EDT: The Bidens return to the White House. 
  • 4 p.m. EDT: Four roll call votes in the Senate. Today’s Senate schedule 
  • 4:45 ­– 9 p.m. EDT: More House votes.

📺What to watch 

  • 9 a.m. EDT: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One. Livestream 
  • 11 a.m. EDT: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivered a joint address to Congress. Livestream 
  • 1 p.m. EDT: President Biden delivers remarks in Buffalo. Livestream 
  • 4 p.m. EDT: The Bidens host a reception to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also attend. Livestream

🍒 In lighter news 

Today is National Cherry Cobbler Day

And because you read this far, here’s a dog who has customized a pool to his liking.

Source: TEST FEED1