Month: April 2019

Heavy rain, wind gusts and rising floodwaters from Hurricane Florence swamped the Carolinas early on Friday as the massive storm crawled toward the coast, threatening millions of people in its path with record rainfall and punishing surf.

Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale on Thursday evening and was moving west at only 6 mph.

The hurricane’s sheer size means it could batter the U.S. East Coast with hurricane-force winds for nearly a full day, according to weather forecasters. Despite its unpredictable path, it was forecast to make landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina, at midday on Friday.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told a news conference that the "historic" hurricane would unleash rains and floods that would inundate almost the entire state in several feet of water.

National Weather Service forecaster Brandon Locklear said in a video briefing North Carolina would see the equivalent of up to eight months of rain in a two- to three-day period.

Early on Friday, the downtown area of the city of New Bern, on the Trent and Neuse rivers near the North Carolina coast, was underwater as emergency crews conducted several rescues, according to reports on social media.

A gauge in the city of 30,000 people showed the Neuse River was recording 9.6 feet of inundation, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Georgia joined four other coastal states in issuing an emergency declaration as forecasts showed Florence dumping historic amounts of torrential rain on the southern state.

As Florence closed in, President Donald Trump and state and local officials urged residents in the path of the storm to flee before it was too late.

Appeals to stay safe came from as far away as space as German astronaut Alexander Gerst tweeted pictures of the monster storm taken from the International Space Station along with the warning: "Watch out, America!"

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Florence’s maximum sustained winds had eased to 90 miles per hour by Thursday night and it had been downgraded to a Category 1 storm from on the five-level Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

It was the third such drop in the space of hours, but the Miami-based NHC stressed it remained "a life-threatening situation" due to the risks of storm surge around coastal areas.

Its weakening speed and expanding cloud cover have prompted led forecasters to warn it could linger longer, dumping heavy rain for days.

Storm tracker: Follow path of Hurricane Florence

Up to 1.7 million people are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders, and coastal residents were frantically boarding up homes and businesses and hitting the road on Wednesday as the storm approached.

"Get out of its way, don’t play games with it, it’s a big one, maybe as big as they’ve seen," Trump said. "We’ll handle it. We’re ready, we’re able.

"Protection of life is the absolute highest priority," he added.

Hurricane Florence: Panic buying and empty shelves as US residents prepare – in pictures

Florence is forecast to dump up to 40 inches (one metre) of rain in some areas after it makes landfall in North and South Carolina.

"This rainfall would produce catastrophic flash flooding and significant river flooding," the NHC said.

‘A Mike Tyson punch to the Carolina coast’

In all, one model – the European climate model  – is predicting 2 trillion to 11 trillion gallons of rain will fall on North Carolina over the next week, according to meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com. That’s enough water to fill the Empire State Building nearly 40,000 times.

Life-threatening storm surges of up to 13 feet were also forecast in some areas along with the possibility of tornadoes in North Carolina.

"This is going to be a Mike Tyson punch to the Carolina coast," said Jeff Byard, associate administrator for response and recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Hurricane Florence wind speed forecast map

"This is not going to be a glancing blow," Mr Byard said, warning of power outages, road closures, infrastructure damage and potential loss of life.

Duke Energy, a power company in the Carolinas, estimated that one million to three million customers could lose electricity because of the storm and that it could take weeks to restore.

The storm was heading for the coast of the two states, but heavy rain was also expected in Virginia to the north and Georgia to the south.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency "in light of the storm’s forecasted southward track after making landfall".

"The state is mobilising all available resources to ensure public safety," Mr Deal said. "I encourage Georgians to be prepared for the inland effects of the storm as well as the ensuing storm surge in coastal areas."

A state of emergency has also been declared in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington.

People fleeing coastal North and South Carolina clogged highways as Florence bore down for a direct hit in the low-lying region dense with beachfront holiday homes.

The eastbound lanes of several major highways have been shut to allow traffic to flow inland, but the exodus was slow along roads jammed with outward-bound vehicles.

Donald Trump accuses opponents of inflating Puerto Rico hurricane death toll

‘You can’t stop Mother Nature’

In Wilmington, Solange Iliou Thompson closed down her restaurant, Indochine, because all of her employees had left the city.

"All my staff are gone," Ms Thompson said. "There’s nobody left to work. "But I’m staying," she said. "The building’s solid and Buddha will protect us."

"What can you do?" she asked. "You can’t stop Mother Nature."

In a trailer park outside Wilmington, Alondra Espinoza was preparing to leave with her two young children.

"Everything is packed," Ms Espinoza said. "I want to get them as far away as possible.

"I’ve been through hurricanes before but never with kids," she said. "If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have minded staying here."

South Carolina ordered the mandatory evacuation of one million coastal residents while North Carolina ordered an evacuation of the Outer Banks, barrier islands that are a popular tourist destination.

In Virginia, 245,000 coastal residents were ordered to evacuate.

Florence is being trailed in the Atlantic by two other storms – Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Isaac.

Helene was weakening, however, and posed no danger to land, the NHC said, while Isaac could bring heavy rain to Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe.

Donald Trump has accused China of interfering with the upcoming 2018 US elections, claiming the country "do not want me to win".

Chairing a security council meeting at the United Nations General Assembly, he said: "I laid out my administration’s commitment to building a more just and peaceful future.

"Regrettably we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election. They do not want me or us to win, because I am the first president to challenge China in trade.

"And we are winning on trade. We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our election."

US intelligence officials have previously said other nations could opt to try and copy Russia’s playbook of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, but Mr Trump’s comments Wednesday seem to allege that China is actively interfering now.

China, represented by the Foreign Minister Wang Yi, hit back when it was his turn to talk, saying: "China has all along supported the policy of non-interference in others affairs.

"We did not and will not interfere in any country’s internal affairs and we refuse to accept any allegation of interference."

The US President, delivering a speech after declaring the security council meeting open, also doubled down on the hard line he took on Iran yesterday.

Mr Trump said he would pursue tougher sanctions on Tehran to make sure the country is never able to acquire a nuclear bomb. 

Before the meeting, Mr Trump has said he will meet with Kim Jong-un "in the very near future" ahead of a day of talks on denuclearisation at the United Nations General Assembly. 

At the same meeting of world leaders last year, the US President branded his North Korean counterpart a "depraved rocket man", but in New York this year there was nothing but respect. 

Referring to him as Chairman Kim, he said on Tuesday that "highly productive" talks had led to relative peace. 

“The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction. Nuclear testing has stopped. Some military facilities are already being dismantled,” Mr Trump said.

Tehran was singled out by Mr Trump in New York on Tuesday. Mr Trump last year at this podium said the Iran nuclear deal was an embarrassment, adding: "The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy. 

"It has turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos.  The longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are, in fact, its own people."

This year, it was more of the same – calling Iran the world’s largest supporter of terrorism, and demanding that other nations back the US in its economic warfare.

Trump’s China meddling bombshell

Well, we didn’t see that coming, writes Harriet Alexander.

Donald Trump gavelled in the meeting, and began with his expected denouncement of Iran.

He described the nuclear agreement as "this horrible, one-sided deal".

"A regime with this track record must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon," he said. 

"For this reason I announced in May that we were withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal."

Yesterday the parties that still remain in the deal – Britain, France, the EU, Russia, China, Iran – agreed to work together to keep the deal in place, and prevent sanctions from strangling the country.

Trump was defiant, saying that the US will, after the next set of sanctions kick in in November, then "pursue sanctions tougher than ever before".

He asked the assembled world leaders to support the US position, saying: "I ask all members of the Security Council to work with the US to ensure the Iranian regime changes its behaviour and never acquires a nuclear bomb."

He then moved to discuss North Korea, and suddenly accused China of meddling in the midterms – something which has shocked everyone here.

"Regrettably we have found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election," he said. 

"They do not want me or us to win, because I am the first president to challenge China in trade. And we are winning on trade.

"We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our election."

Lefist Bolivian leader turns on Trump

The firebrand Leftist leader of Bolivia – an ally of Venezuela and Cuba – has used his seat at the Security Council to launch a stinging attack on the United States.

With Donald Trump chairing the meeting, listening on in silence, Evo Morales accused the US of staging a coup d’etat in Iran, putting the country "under siege" and financing anti-democratic uprisings around the world.

"The United States couldn’t care less about human rights," he told Trump.

"Over the last few months the United States has once again demonstrated its contempt for the rule of law.

"Each time the US invades nations or sponsors regime change it does so with the propaganda campaign that it is doing so in the interests of upholding democracy."

Recap: Day one of the UN General Assembly

America woke up this morning to breathless breakfast television commentators in shock at the fact that Mr Trump was laughed at when he gave his speech yesterday, writes Harriet Alexander. 

Not laughed with, but at, when he boasted that “in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

The New York Times reporter wrote: “On the planet’s biggest stage, with more than 100 world leaders gathered with their ministers, ambassadors and dignitaries of every stripe, while news cameras from as many countries broadcast the speech in as many languages, they laughed.”

Despite the hand-wringing from critics, Trump’s team painted the speech as a success – his wife Melania said she thought it was “fantastic” and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said that world leaders actually admire Trump because he tells it like it is.

His message, although unpalatable to the gathered world leaders, was pure Trump; isolationist, with disdain for global institutions, and emphasis on “America First”.

“We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism,” he told the stony-faced delegates.

He also set the stage for what promises to be a fascinating encounter this morning, when he chairs a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss non-proliferation – essentially, Iran and North Korea.

It’s only the third time there’s ever been a “summit level” (ie: political leader of the country) meeting on non-proliferation; the first was held in 1992, by John Major, and the second in 2009 by Barack Obama.

Theresa May will be there, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, plus Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.

Trump ‘dream’ to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he wanted a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the clearest expression yet of his administration’s support for such an outcome.

The Trump administration has in the past said it would support a two-state solution if both sides agreed to it.

Mr Trump, in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations, also said he wanted to unveil a peace plan in the next two to three months.

"It is a dream of mine to get that done prior to the end of my first term," Trump said. 

All Harvard undergraduates are this year taking part in a pioneering course on sleep before they arrive on campus in a bid to combat the growing macho culture of studying through caffeine-fuelled "all-nighters."

Charles Czeisler, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School and a specialist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, designed the course, which he believes is the first of its kind in the US.

Despite being academically gifted, he found students at the world’s number one university are often clueless when it comes to the very basics about how to look after themselves. 

Prof Czeisler was inspired to start the course after giving a talk on the impact sleep deprivation had on learning….

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, was greeted with protests and controversy in Germany on Friday as a state visit that was supposed to repair relations between the two Nato allies appeared only to highlight their stark divisions.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Berlin under a banner of “Erdogan not welcome”, while a Kurdish activist burnt himself to death in an apparent suicide protest.

Angela Merkel appeared to throw Mr Erdogan a lifeline by offering him a full state visit at a time when Turkey is struggling under the weight of US economic sanctions.

But there was little sign of common ground after the two held face-to-face talks.

“It is important to continue the dialogue with Turkey, because we can only work out our differences by talking,” Mrs Merkel told a joint press conference.

"There is much that unites us: Nato membership, the migrant issue, and the fight against terror."

But she added: “There are still profound differences between us over press freedom and the rule of law.”

As if to underline the point, Mr Erdogan used the press conference to demand the extradition of a prominent Turkish journalist living in self-imposed exile in Germany.

And Mrs Merkel’s words were undercut when another journalist was thrown out of the press conference for wearing a T-shirt that called for “Freedom for journalists in Turkey”.

Ties between the allies have been strained by the crackdown on opponents of the regime in Turkey, and Mrs Merkel urged Mr Erdogan to free five German citizens who are being held in Turkey on what Germany maintains are “political charges”.

But Mr Erdogan rebuffed the request and responded by demanding Germany do more to help Turkey in its crackdown on opponents of his regime.

"I can not interfere in the German justice system or criticise them, nor can you interfere with the Turkish judiciary or criticize them,” he said.

“Germany must be more determined in the fight against terror.”

He claimed supporters of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Fethullah Gülen, the cleric Turkey alleges was behind a failed coup in 2016, are living in Germany. The Turkish foreign ministry reportedly handed over a list of 69 people it wants Germany to extradite as he arrived.

Profile | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Earlier, there were frosty scenes as Mr Erdogan was received with full military honours.

The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, appeared at pains to show he was only welcoming his Turkish counterpart on sufferance, and remained stony-faced throughout.

More than 200 guests refused invitations to a state banquet in Mr Erdogan’s honour, among them prominent figures from across the German political spectrum.

An estimated 4,000 protestors marched through central Berlin to the Bellevue palace where the official banquet was held.

The march was led by a homemade cardboard tank. One man held aloft a banner that read "No deals with the devil".

But the protestors’ numbers were smaller than expected, and the march was peaceful under a heavy police presence.

Nevertheless, the visit was fraught from the start. The German press published pictures of Mr Erdogan appearing to give the four-fingered salute of the Muslim Brotherhood as he arrived on Thursday.

Bild, Germany’s biggest-selling newspaper, described it as a “provocation against Western values and democracy”. The charred body of a 26-year-old Kurdish activist was found in Bavaria after he set himself alight.

In a video message left behind, Umit Acar reportedly said his death was a protest against Turkish military operations against Kurds in Turkey and Syria.

“I chose today especially, because Erdogan is coming here,” he said. “In all the massacres that the Turks have committed against the Kurds, the Germans delivered them weapons.”

The joint press conference with Mrs Merkel almost didn’t take place after Mr Erdogan threatened to boycott it if Can Dündar , a prominent former Turkish newspaper editor living in Germany, was allowed to attend.

He later used the press conference to demand Mr Dündar’s extradition to Turkey. “This is our natural right,” he said, claiming Mr Dündar was a “spy” who had published “state secrets” over a report which alleged Turkish intelligence armed Islamist factions in Syria.

There was no question of Germany agreeing to extradite Mr Dundar, Heiko Maas, the foreign minister, said. "I look forward to seeing more of Mr Dündar in Germany in future," he added.

The only real progress appeared to be when Mrs Merkel announced a joint summit over Syria next month with Mr Erdogan, France’s Emmanel Macron and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Mr Erdogan has been pushing for such a meeting, but one name conspicuous by its absence was that of Donald Trump.

The US president has taken a different approach to freeing prisoners held in Turkey, imposing economic sanctions over Mr Erdogan’s refusal to release an American pastor.

Mrs Merkel made clear in the run-up to yesterday’s talks that her priority was to preserve relations between Turkey and the West amid fears the US sanctions are pushing Mr Erdogan into Russia’s embrace.

The video seemed like a nightmarish parody of the Islamic State: filmed on a smartphone, five boys, one only 11, pledge allegiance to the terror group.  

“We promise fear and death in the hearts of unbelievers. Victory or jihad!” the boys vow, as the youngest brandishes a knife and an iPhone displaying Isil’s black flag.

But soon after it was filmed last month, the boys in it would be killed in an assault on police in Russia’s Chechnya republic, where a string of attacks involving teenagers has left the authorities struggling to battle “child terrorism”.

The August 20 incident involving four underage cousins and their 18-year-old neighbour was  the youngest attack yet.

A relative of the family,…

One of ballet’s biggest stars has warned that the development of young ballerinas is being jeopardised by viral videos of hyper-elastic dancers performing incredible tricks.

Russian prima ballerina Diana Vishneva told AFP that the popular clips on Instagram and YouTube set false expectations that could hinder and even harm young dancers.

"Often I see young dancers more interested in their phones than what is going on in rehearsals," said the star of the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, the birthplace of Tchaikovsky’s "The Nutcracker" and "The Sleeping Beauty".

"Some are not yet professional or mature enough to understand what they are watching on YouTube," said the 42-year-old after dancing at the Paris Opera four months after having her first child.

"They see the surface, the great bodies, but they don’t realise the work behind that," said the former star pupil of the legendary Vaganova Academy, the school that produced Nijinsky, Nureyev, Anna Pavlova and Natalia Makarova.

Vishneva fears that young dancers are being set unrealistic standards by posed photos and videos, particularly on Instagram.

"When I was young we simply didn’t have time for anything other than ballet. Now kids spend hours on social media. And you see that immediately on stage," she told AFP.

"They don’t know about timing or have a sense of movement. It has to happen right away. They want everything now," said the ballerina who has divided her time between the American Ballet Theater and dancing in Russia for the past 13 years.

Her comments come as unease has been growing about the influence of unrealistic role models for young dancers on social media.

The influential US publication Dance Magazine warned earlier this year that "what seems like harmless visual candy is setting new standards for young dancers as they seek to emulate their Insta-heros.

"These tricks, in and of themselves, are not bad things. However, devoid of a codified technical progression… they can be disastrous," it warned.

"Even the advocates of technique and artistry get wooed by the sirens song of an S-shaped supporting leg, or the gravity-defying pyrotechnical jump," said Theresa Ruth Howard, a former star of the Dance Theatre of Harlem who now teaches ballet internationally.

"Teachers who admonish the flexible girl for stretching all the time instead of working on strength" can easily be seduced by the tricks that draw Instagram fame and followers.

"It’s a guilty pleasure that dance folk of a certain generation would be slow to admit to," she added.

Vishneva, who was trained by living legend Ludmila Kovaleva and got the highest marks ever at the Vaganova, said it is a "permanent struggle" to stay at the top.

As one of the first post-Soviet ballerinas to carve out a solo career in the West, Vishneva came up through the notoriously tough Russian system.

But she said change was inevitable in ballet especially as voices have now begun to be raised in what was a hermetic world to denounce harassment and abuse.

She said that she was "never pressured or humiliated" at the Vaganova.

"Perhaps I got lucky with my teachers or it’s because my character was strong… (but) there has to be a difference between requiring discipline and humiliation. There should be red lines which ballet masters can’t go beyond," she added.