Photo Credit © Zhang Bowen/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Feb. 3, 2020 Medical team members from Xi’an International Medical Center Hospital bid farewell to their colleagues before setting off for Wuhan. A medical team comprised of 212 members from Xi’an International Medical Center Hospital set off on Monday to aid the coronavirus control efforts in Wuhan.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
February 3, 2020, Bettendorf, Iowa, USA: Buttigieg supporters are counted in Precinct B12 at the Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf Monday. With 41 pledged delegates up for grabs Iowa residents gathered at nearly 1,700 sites across the state to tally support between candidates.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
© Javier Rojas/Prensa Internacional via ZUMA Press
December 18, 2017 – Los Angeles, California: The retirement of the Los Angeles Lakers player, Kobe Bryant’s #8 and #24 Jerseys was held Monday, California during half time of the game between with the Golden State Warriors. Kobe Bryant with his family (L-R) Gianna Maria-Onore, wife, Vanessa Laine Bryant, Kobe Bryant holding Bianka Bella and Natalia Diamante.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
Read Ayn Issa’s Extraordinary and Heartbreaking story here:
THE “SYRIA FOUR” -by Carol Guzy
Then there were four…
A few photojournalists crossed the border back into Iraq after a month covering the Turkish incursion into Syria. It was America’s Thanksgiving Day and there were four tiny puppies accompanying them on a journey to forever homes.
The conflict is bloody and brutal with airstrikes, drones and mortars causing casualties and no real ceasefire in sight. Car bombs explode on the streets of “safe” towns. A frontline is really everywhere.
‘Ayn Issa’ was named after the town where she was first rescued in NE Syrian by humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers after a day of rescuing humans from fierce fighting. . Ayn Issa means Eyes of Jesus. Turkish and FSA forces advanced. An IDP camp was abandoned and burning and drone strikes continued during the night. The rangers had recently lost one of their own. Their compassion extended to the furry and feathered also. Ayn Issa was found all alone on the nearly deserted streets.
Eubank’s son created a tiny makeshift doghouse for the pup using empty shell casings. But when there was a lull in the fighting and they had to move on, they couldn’t take the puppy with the Noah’s Ark menagerie they had accumulated, including a huge dog given to them in Tel Tamir by a Kurdish family that lost 17 members to the war. Another Kurdish man that initially met the group with rage at America and President Trump, feeling betrayed, but was later disarmed by Dave Eubank and team that later helped him move his belongings as he fled the conflict. He gifted them with his pet bird for safekeeping.
So Ayn Issa joined Shevano, Rojava and Habibi – becoming the “Syria Four”. The other three tiny pups were found abandoned next to the dead body of a sibling on the road from Kobani to Manbij. Following Free Burma Rangers for a story on their work in Syria, we made a fateful stop for the pups taking a circuitous route to avoid the dangerous M4 Highway nearby. Listless and little, it was unlikely they could survive. The smallest one, Shevano (from a song about a female YPG fighter) was so lethargic we had to force-feed baby formula. I held her saying, “Please don’t die little one. Please don’t die.” But braced my heart that night for sadness.
Miraculously, love and liquids brought her back from the downward spiral of dehydration and but the universe had different plans. The Rangers buried the puppy with rocks and when we returned to search for a mama, Shevano laid down on the grave, poignant and touching.
And so we arrived in Iraq with four bundles of light from a dark war zone. Surely their destiny would have been bleak if left behind. Fighting resumed in Ayn Issa and raged in other parts of the ‘not so safe zone’. Habibi now has a home with an NGO member who eventually wants him to be a therapy dog for the IDPs, healing emotional wounds and teaching mercy for all.
They have been sheltered by NOWZAD, an international rescue group that brings beloved pets in Iraq and Afghanistan back for soldiers. Grateful for this aid group and Free Burma Rangers for all they do to help people and animals struggling amid the horrors of war. When vaccinated and old enough, they were meant to travel to America. Now I whisper to still fragile Shavano, “Please survive little one. Please survive. You are on the road home.”
EPILOGUE:
My gentle little angel Shevano never made it home. She passed away at the Baghdad vet on January 2. Devastated and heartbroken, the tears still flow for this sweet soul I loved with every breath. I can’t even look at the photographs now but find solace knowing for a time she knew comfort and love.
Rojava also died very early on from the tragic disease of Parvo.
Habibi has been adopted by an NGO worker in Iraq. She hopes to train him as a therapy dog to heal the deep emotional wounds of refugees and teach compassion for all animals. His name is now Gunner.
Ayn Issa is thriving for now. Her vaccines are done and she is old enough to travel to America and a forever home far from the dirty, dangerous streets where her life began.
https://fundrazr.com/nowzad-AynIssa?ref=ab_b7OGV0_ab_4xNE7MqGUPM4xNE7MqGUPM
State Funeral of United States President George H.W. Bush
December 5, 2018, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America: Lawyer for US President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, center, and Soviet born business man who served as Giuliani’s fixer in Ukraine, Lev Parnas, left, arrive for the funeral of late US President George H.W. Bush at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC on December 5, 2018. Parnas has been arrested for campaign finance violations along with fellow businessman Igor Fruman in Virginia. Both Parnas and Fruman are being held on a million dollars bond and have been served with subpoenas to testify as a part of the impeachment investigation conducted by the US House of Representatives.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
January 1, 2020, Hong Kong, CHINA: Joshua Wong speaking to the citizens on the annual New Year’s Day Parade.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
Please FTP images as usual and let us know licensing@zumapress.com
Thank you!
CrossFit champion Sam Briggs
Please FTP images as usual and let us know licensing@zumapress.com
Thank you!
The problem illustrates the complex task of reducing the homeless population in Sacramento, which has seen rents and housing prices rise dramatically even as it budgets tens of millions of dollars on shelters and support services. The city is scrambling to avoid problems like those in San Francisco, where scenes of squalor have become a symbol of the divide between the rich and the poor.
http://www.zreportage.com/zReportage.html?num=zrep708
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
July 17, 2019 – Buenos Aires, Argentina: Congressman AXEL KICILOFF running for Governor of Buenos Aires Province arrives at a campaign meeting ahead of the upcoming general elections.
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press
ZUMAland.com 