Hurricane Debby takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, expected to slog up East Coast

Hurricane Debby takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, expected to slog up East Coast
A bread aisle is almost bare in a Walmart store as people stock up before the arrival of Hurricane Debby on Aug. 04, 2024 in Cedar Key, Florida. (Getty Images North America/AFP)
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Updated 05 August 2024
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Hurricane Debby takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, expected to slog up East Coast

Hurricane Debby takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, expected to slog up East Coast
  • Storm bears some of the hallmarks of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Corpus Christi, Texas, in August 2017
  • Harvey is rated as one of the wettest storms in US history, causing more than 100 deaths and $125 billion in damage

Hurricane Debby is expected to slam into the Big Bend region of Florida’s Gulf Coast by midday on Monday before slowly crossing the state, causing potentially dangerous storm surges and catastrophic flooding, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT) on Sunday, the hurricane had sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), growing from a slow moving tropical storm that gained strength from warm Gulf waters. It will likely just get stronger.

The hurricane center forecast life-threatening conditions, including storm surges up to 10 feet (3 meters) in some areas.

As it slowly moved north, the storm could bring “potentially historic rainfall” of between 10 and 20 inches (25 and 50 cm) and catastrophic flooding to Georgia and South Carolina, it said. Local areas could receive 30 inches of rain by Friday morning.

“This is going to be the story of this storm,” said Jamie Rhome, the deputy director of the hurricane center. “Its slow motion is going to dump historic amounts of rainfall — potentially over 20 inches. You’re talking about catastrophic flooding.”

The storm bears some of the hallmarks of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Corpus Christi, Texas, in August 2017. While downgraded into a tropical storm as it moved inland, it lingered over the state, dumping about 50 inches of rain on Houston.

Harvey is rated as one of the wettest storms in US history, causing more than 100 deaths and $125 billion in damage, primarily from flooding in the Houston metropolitan area.

Rhome said Debby was fueled by exceptionally warm Gulf waters.

Climate scientists believe man-made global warming from burning fossil fuels has raised the temperature of the oceans, making storms bigger and more devastating.

Preparing for Debby, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called up 3,000 National Guard troops and placed most of the state’s cities and counties under emergency orders, while mandatory evacuations were ordered in parts of the Gulf Coast counties of Citrus, Dixie, Franklin, Levy and Wakulla.

DeSantis said there were more than 17,000 linemen and other electric workers ready to restore power.

The governors of Georgia and South Carolina also declared states of emergency ahead of the storm.

HEAVY RAIN

Debby became a tropical storm late on Saturday after pushing off north Cuba. As of 11 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was about 100 miles west of Tampa and moving toward the Gulf Coast at 12 mph (19 kph), with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), the NHC said.

The eye of Debby would move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico and reach the Florida Big Bend coast by midday on Monday, the hurricane center added. Debby was then expected to move slowly across northern Florida and southern Georgia on Monday and Tuesday, it said.

The storm is expected to lose some strength after landfall but bring heavy rain as it crosses central Florida out to the Atlantic coast, before crawling up to Savannah, Georgia, and then onward to Charleston, South Carolina, this week, lingering while dumping catastrophic amounts of rain.

Storm surges forecast for Bonita Beach northward to Tampa Bay could send sea waves further inland than normal, damaging structures and endangering anyone in their path.

The last hurricane to make a direct hit on the Big Bend region was Hurricane Idalia, which briefly gained Category 4 strength before making landfall as a Category 3 in August 2023, with winds of more than 125 mph. The National Centers for Environmental Information estimates there were $3.5 billion in damages.

Forecasters expect a large number of Atlantic hurricanes in the 2024 season, which began on June 1, with four to seven seen as major. That exceeds the record-breaking 2005 season that spawned the devastating Katrina and Rita hurricanes.

Only one hurricane, Beryl, has yet formed in the Atlantic this year. The earliest Category 5 storm on record, it struck the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula before rolling up the Gulf Coast of Texas as a Category 1 storm, with sustained winds up to 95 mph.


New details in Air India crash probe shift focus to senior pilot, WSJ reports

New details in Air India crash probe shift focus to senior pilot, WSJ reports
Updated 17 July 2025
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New details in Air India crash probe shift focus to senior pilot, WSJ reports

New details in Air India crash probe shift focus to senior pilot, WSJ reports

A black-box recording of dialogue between the Air India flight’s two pilots indicates it was the captain who turned off switches that controlled fuel flowing to the plane’s two engines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with US officials’ early assessment of evidence uncovered in the crash investigation.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. 


Pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested at Tour de France

Pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested at Tour de France
Updated 16 July 2025
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested at Tour de France

Pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested at Tour de France
  • The protester, who was holding a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, got past security barriers and ran toward the finish line

TOULOUSE: A protester wearing a t-shirt reading “Israel out of the Tour” was arrested on Wednesday after running onto the final straight of the Tour de France 11th stage.

The protester, who was also holding a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, got past security barriers and ran toward the finish line in Toulouse as Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen won a sprint finale.

The man was intercepted by a race staff member and arrested, the local prefecture said.

Several police officers have been assigned to protecting the Israel-Premier Tech team during the Tour. The team was set up by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, but there are no Israeli riders in this year’s race.

With the Gaza war causing international controversy, last year the team said it had asked its riders not to wear jerseys with any reference to Israel while out training as a precaution.


French town withdraws pop festival funding over Kneecap appearance

French town withdraws pop festival funding over Kneecap appearance
Updated 16 July 2025
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French town withdraws pop festival funding over Kneecap appearance

French town withdraws pop festival funding over Kneecap appearance
  • Saint Cloud said its council had now voted to withdraw the subsidy
  • The group have said they are committed to the Palestinian cause

NANTERRE, France: A town that hosts one of France’s biggest pop festivals announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing its subsidy to the event because controversial Irish rappers Kneecap had been booked to play.

British police are investigating Kneecap’s lead singer under a terror offense after he was accused of displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert last year. The Lebanese militant group is banned in Britain.

Police said they are also investigating videos allegedly showing calls for the death of British lawmakers.

The Paris suburb of Saint Cloud approved a 40,000 euro ($46,500) subsidy this year for the Rock En Seine festival that last year attracted 180,000 people over four days.

The town council said the money had been agreed before the lineup was announced. Kneecap are to appear at the event on August 24. Saint Cloud said its council had now voted to withdraw the subsidy.

A statement said the town “finances, within its means, a cultural and artistic project. On the other hand it does not finance political action, nor demands, and even less calls to violence, such as calls to kill lawmakers, whatever their nationality.”

The town said it respects the festival’s “freedom” to decide its lineup and had not sought “any kind of negotiation with the aim of influencing the program.”

Kneecap have been taken off the bill for festivals in Scotland and Germany this year because of the controversy.

The group have said they are committed to the Palestinian cause but have denied any terrorism connection. Singer Liam O’Hanna, who appears under the name Mo Chara, has condemned the charges against him as political. O’Hanna is to appear in court again four days before the Rock En Seine show.


South Korean teacher, mother arrested for stealing exam

South Korean teacher, mother arrested for stealing exam
Updated 16 July 2025
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South Korean teacher, mother arrested for stealing exam

South Korean teacher, mother arrested for stealing exam

SEOUL: A teacher and a parent of a high school student in South Korea have been arrested for breaking into a school to steal exam papers, police told AFP on Wednesday.

The country is known for placing extreme emphasis on academic achievement — with its annual college entrance exam forcing airplanes to be grounded during English listening tests.

The pair are accused of breaking into a high school in Andong, about 270 kilometers south of the capital Seoul, at around 1:00 a.m. on July 4 to steal exam papers, triggering an alarm and leading to their arrest.

“A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime,” said a detective at the Andong Police Station, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The teacher was a private tutor for the student while working at the school, where she was employed until February last year, authorities said.

Police suspect the pair may have committed similar thefts in the past, helping the student ace academically, and that money was exchanged between the teacher and the mother.

“They tried to steal exam papers across many subjects, not confined to Korean, which the suspect was teaching,” the detective told AFP.

A school maintenance worker was also arrested for aiding the late-night breach, investigators said.

The student, who had maintained top grades since enrolling in 2023, has been expelled and her grades nullified, according to the Yonhap news agency.


Trump says supporters questioning Jeffrey Epstein case are ‘weaklings’

Trump says supporters questioning Jeffrey Epstein case are ‘weaklings’
Updated 16 July 2025
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Trump says supporters questioning Jeffrey Epstein case are ‘weaklings’

Trump says supporters questioning Jeffrey Epstein case are ‘weaklings’
  • Trump says Republicans are not sticking together
  • Some supporters want more details on sex offender’s case

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday attacked fellow Republicans critical of his administration’s handling of the case of dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

On social media and in the Oval Office, Trump lashed out at allies he said were falling for a “hoax” pushed by Democrats, who “unlike Republicans ... stick together like glue.”

Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died by suicide in jail in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed after his death.

Some of Trump’s most loyal followers were enraged when the Trump administration last week reversed course on its pledge to release documents it had suggested contained major revelations about Epstein and his alleged clientele.

“It’s all been a big hoax,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans, and foolish Republicans fall into the net and so they try and do the Democrats’ work.”

On Truth Social earlier in the day, Trump said of Republicans raising concerns about the case: “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” The backlash over the Epstein case has laid bare tensions inside Trump’s coalition and is testing one of Trump’s most enduring political strengths: his ability to command loyalty and control the narrative across the right.

A former Trump adviser, Mike Flynn, on Wednesday said on X that the matter was not a hoax. “With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this,” he said.

The Justice Department last week concluded there was “no incriminating client list” or any evidence that Epstein may have blackmailed prominent people. The review also confirmed prior findings by the FBI that Epstein killed himself in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and that his death was not the result of a criminal act such as murder.

Some House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have continued to call for the Justice Department to release more Epstein documents. But Republicans have blocked efforts by Democratic lawmakers to push measures that would force the agency to make those documents public.

Trump, who knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s, on Wednesday again defended Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the matter and said she could release any credible documents related to the case.

“Whatever’s credible, she can release,” he told reporters. “If a document’s there that’s credible, she can release. I think it’s good.”

But he was also eager to move past the issue.

“I’d rather talk about the success we have with the economy,” he said.