Tornadoes pummel US Midwest, killing at least 5 in Iowa

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Residents and first responders go through the damage after a tornado tore through town yesterday afternoon on May 22, 2024 in Greenfield, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Updated 23 May 2024
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Tornadoes pummel US Midwest, killing at least 5 in Iowa

  • The storms also knocked out power to tens of thousands of people in Illinois and Wisconsin, officials said
  • The tornadoes came at a time when climate change is heightening the severity of storms around the world

GREENFIELD, Iowa: Five people died and at least 35 were hurt as powerful tornadoes ripped through Iowa, with one carving a path of destruction through the small city of Greenfield, officials said Wednesday.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety said Tuesday’s tornadoes killed four people in the Greenfield area, and local officials said a fifth person — a woman whose car was swept away in the wind — was killed by a twister about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away. Officials did not release the names of the victims because they were still notifying relatives.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety said Wednesday it’s believed that the number of people injured is likely higher.
The Greenfield tornado left a wide swath of obliterated homes, splintered trees and crumpled cars in the town of 2,000 about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) southwest of Des Moines. The twister also ripped apart and crumpled massive power-producing wind turbines several miles outside the city.




A wind turbine lies toppled in the aftermath of tornadoes which ripped through the area yesterday on May 22, 2024 near Prescott, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)

Greenfield resident Kimberly Ergish, 33, and her husband dug through the debris field Wednesday that used to be their home, looking for family photos and other salvageable items. There wasn’t much left, she acknowledged.
“Most of it we can’t save,” she said. “But we’re going to get what we can.”
The reality of having her house destroyed in seconds hasn’t really set in, she said.
“If it weren’t for all the bumps and bruises and the achy bones, I would think that it didn’t happen,” she said.
Tuesday’s storms also pummeled parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers in the two states. The severe weather turned south on Wednesday, and the National Weather Service was issuing tornado and flash flood warnings in Texas as parts of the state — including Dallas — were under a tornado watch.
The National Weather Service said initial surveys indicated at least an EF-3 tornado in Greenfield, but additional damage assessment could lead to a more powerful ranking.
The tornado appeared to have been on the ground for more than 40 miles (64 kilometers), AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said. A satellite photo taken by a BlackSky Technology shows where the twister gouged a nearly straight path of destruction through the town, just south of Greenfield’s center square.
The deadly twister was spawned during a historically bad season for tornadoes in the US, at a time when climate change is heightening the severity of storms around the world. April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.
Through Tuesday, there have been 859 confirmed tornadoes this year, 27 percent more than the US sees on average, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. So far, Iowa’s had the most, with 81 confirmed twisters.
On Tuesday alone, the National Weather Service said it received 23 tornado reports, with most in Iowa and one each in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The tornado that decimated parts of Greenfield brought to life the worst case scenario in Iowa that weather forecasters had feared, Porter said.
“Debris was lifted thousands of feet in the air and ended up falling to the ground several counties away from Greenfield. That’s evidence of just how intense and deadly this tornado was,” Porter said.
People as far as 100 miles (160 kilometers) away from Greenfield posted photos on Facebook of ripped family photos, yearbook pages and other items that were lifted into the sky by the tornado.




Residents go through the damage after a tornado tore through town yesterday afternoon on May 22, 2024 in Greenfield, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)

About 90 miles away, in Ames, Iowa, Nicole Banner found a yellowed page declaring “This Book is the Property of the Greenfield Community School District” stuck to her garage door like a Post-It note after the storm passed.
“We just couldn’t believe it had traveled that far,” she said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said FEMA’s administrator would head to Iowa on Thursday and that the White House was in touch with state and local officials. She said they were “praying for those who tragically lost their lives” and wished those injured a “speedy recovery.”
Greenfield’s 25-bed hospital was among the buildings damaged, and at least a dozen people who were hurt had to be taken to facilities elsewhere. Hospital officials said in a Facebook post Wednesday that the hospital will remain closed until it can be further assessed and that full repairs could take weeks or months. The hospital, with the help of other providers, set up an urgent care clinic at an elementary school with primary care services to start there Thursday, the post said.
Residential streets that on Monday were lined with old-growth trees and neatly-appointed ranch-style homes were a chaotic jumble of splintered and smashed remnants by Wednesday. Many of the homes’ basements where residents sheltered lay exposed and front yards were littered with belongings from furniture to children’s toys and Christmas decorations.
Dwight Lahey, a 70-year-old retired truck driver, drove from suburban Des Moines to Greenfield to help his 98-year-old mother. She had taken refuge from the twister in her basement, then walked out through her destroyed garage to a nearby convenience store, Lahey said.
“I don’t know how she got through that mess,” he said. His mom was staying in a hotel, uncertain about where she’ll end up with her home gone, he said.
Roseann Freeland, 67, waited until the last minute to rush with her husband to a concrete room in her basement. Seconds later, her husband opened the door “and you could just see daylight,” Freeland said. “I just lost it. I just totally lost it.”
Tuesday’s destructive weather also saw flooding and power outages in Nebraska, damage from tornadoes in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and dust storms in Illinois that forced two interstates to be closed.
The devastation in Iowa followed days of extreme weather that ravaged much of the middle section of the country, including Oklahoma and Kansas. Last week, deadly storms hit the Houston area, killing at least eight and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands.
 


US envoy Witkoff says he expects Trump and Putin to speak this week

US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. (File/AFP)
Updated 57 min ago
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US envoy Witkoff says he expects Trump and Putin to speak this week

  • Witkoff, speaking after what he called positive talks with Putin in Moscow, told CNN that he was hopeful of real progress to end the conflict

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expects the US president to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine.
Witkoff, speaking after what he called positive talks with Putin in Moscow, told CNN that he was hopeful of real progress to end the conflict.
“I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” he said, adding that he thought the talk between Trump and Putin would be “really good and positive.”
Witkoff said that although the situation on the ground was highly complicated, “We’re bridging the gap between two sides.”


Indonesian NGOs to build new women’s and children’s hospital in Gaza City 

Updated 16 March 2025
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Indonesian NGOs to build new women’s and children’s hospital in Gaza City 

  • New healthcare facility will be the second in the Gaza Strip to carry Indonesia’s name, after the Indonesian hospital in the enclave’s north
  • Hospital will be on a 5,000 square-meter plot of land donated by the Palestinian Ministry of Health

Jakarta: Construction on a new women’s and children’s hospital in Gaza City, funded by the Indonesian people and NGOs, will begin next month as part of a national campaign to support Palestine. 

The 402 billion rupiah ($24.5 million) project is organized by Jakarta-based Aqsa Working Group and Maemuna Center Indonesia with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The hospital — which will be called the Indonesian Mother and Child Hospital, or RSIA Indonesia — will be built on a 5,000 square-meter plot of land near Al-Rantisi Hospital in the city’s Nasser neighborhood, which was donated by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 

“As we all know, the majority of victims of Zionist Israel’s genocide in Gaza are children and women … We hope this hospital will help provide healthcare for children and women in Gaza,” AWG chairman Muhammad Anshorullah told Arab News on Sunday. 

The new healthcare facility will be the second to bear Indonesia’s name, after the Indonesia Hospital in north Gaza, which was funded by the Indonesian NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, or MER-C, and has been open since late 2015. 

Since Israel began its assault on Gaza in October 2023, the Indonesia Hospital has been one of the last functioning health facilities in the north. 

“We hope that RSIA will only strengthen the strong reputation that MER-C has built through the Indonesia Hospital in northern Gaza. The Indonesia Hospital is a symbol of the friendship and brotherhood of Indonesia and Palestine, God willing, RSIA will only strengthen that bond,” Anshorullah said. 

A staunch supporter of Palestine, the Indonesian government and people see Palestinian statehood as being mandated by their own constitution, which calls for the abolition of colonialism.

Last month, the foreign affairs ministry, the Indonesian Ulema Council and Indonesia’s National Alms Agency launched a solidarity campaign to raise $200 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinians and support the rebuilding of Gaza. 

Several Indonesian NGOs have pledged contributions for RSIA fundraising, while donations have also been made by the Indonesian people.  

“One of the big projects for Gaza that have been proposed and will be handled by Indonesian charity and humanitarian organizations is the development of the Indonesian Mother and Child Hospital in Gaza City,” Ahrul Tsani, Middle East director at the foreign affairs ministry, said in a statement. 

“This is an important part in Indonesia’s humanitarian diplomacy in Palestine, and a real product of Indonesia’s support as a nation.” 

Israeli forces have killed more than 48,000 people and injured more than 111,000, although the real death toll is feared to be much higher. According to the UN Human Rights Office, women and children make up nearly 70 percent of the fatalities it has verified since October 2023. 

Maemuna Center and AWG will dispatch a team to survey the location in the next few weeks, with plans for construction to begin by the end of April at the latest. 

“The construction of RSIA is not just a matter of building a health infrastructure, but it is a real form of solidarity from Indonesia to Palestine,” said Onny Firyanti Hamidi, head of Maemuna Center Indonesia. 

“This is a concrete step to ensure that the women and children of Gaza will have access to proper healthcare.”

 


Elderly UK couple held by Taliban ‘moved to high security jail’: media

Peter and Barbie Reynolds. (Sarah Entwistle)
Updated 16 March 2025
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Elderly UK couple held by Taliban ‘moved to high security jail’: media

  • Daughter expressed concern for the health of her father who will turn 80 in April
  • She said that according to information provided by a “reliable source” he had been “beaten and shackled”

LONDON: An elderly British couple arrested by Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have been separated and moved to a high-security prison, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who are in their 70s, were detained last month with an American friend, Faye Hall, as they traveled to their home in central Bamyan province.
Their daughter Sarah Entwistle described her parents’ alleged transfer to a heavily guarded prison in an undisclosed location as a “shocking escalation,” the Sunday Times reported.
In particular she expressed concern for the health of her father who will turn 80 in April.
She said that according to information provided by a “reliable source” he had been “beaten and shackled.”
He was in “immense pain” and her mother, 75, had been told she could no longer see him.
“We hear he now has a chest infection, a double eye infection and serious digestive issues due to poor nutrition. Without immediate access to necessary medication, his life is in serious danger,” she told the Sunday Times.
“Our desperate appeal to the Taliban is that they release them to their home, where they have the medication he needs to survive,” she added.
The Reynolds, who married in Kabul in 1970, have run school training programs in the south Asian country for 18 years.
They remained in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021 when the British embassy withdrew its staff.
Following their arrest on February 1, the couple’s home had been ransacked and staff questioned over whether there was a missionary component to the training, the report said.
The suggestion is strongly denied by the staff and family.
The Taliban’s interior ministry has confirmed the detention of two Britons, a Chinese-American and their Afghan translator arrested “based on certain considerations.”
“Efforts are underway to resolve this issue,” a spokesperson said in late February, without identifying the detainees.
Taliban leaders swept back to power in 2021 ousting the US-backed government and implementing a strict interpretation of Islamic law, despite promises not to return to the brutality displayed when they ruled in the 1990s.
They have since imposed broad restrictions on women and girls, barring them from education beyond the age of 12 and squeezing them out of jobs and public life with rules the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid.”


China’s Xi declines EU invitation to anniversary summit, FT reports

Updated 16 March 2025
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China’s Xi declines EU invitation to anniversary summit, FT reports

  • Beijing told EU officials that Premier Li Qiang would meet the presidents of the European Council and Commission instead of Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping has declined an invitation to visit Brussels for a summit to mark the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic ties, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Beijing told EU officials that Premier Li Qiang would meet the presidents of the European Council and Commission instead of Xi, the FT said, citing two people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify.
The Chinese premier usually attends the summit when it is held in Brussels, while the president hosts it in Beijing, but the EU wants Xi to attend to commemorate half a century of relations between Beijing and the bloc, the newspaper said.
Tensions between Brussels and Beijing have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the EU accusing China of backing the Kremlin, the FT said. Last year, the European Union also imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports.
China’s Foreign Ministry and the EU did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
“Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit this year and the level of representation,” an EU official told the newspaper, while the Chinese ministry was quoted as saying it did not have any information to provide on the matter.
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and the EU, its third-largest, spent most of 2024 exchanging barbs over allegations of overcapacity, illegal subsidies and dumping in each other’s markets.
In October, the EU imposed double-digit tariffs on China-made electric vehicles after an anti-subsidy investigation, in addition to its standard car import duty of 10 percent. The move drew loud protests from Beijing, which in return, raised market entry barriers for certain EU products such as brandy.


Tornadoes strike US South, killing 33 people amid rising risk

Updated 16 March 2025
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Tornadoes strike US South, killing 33 people amid rising risk

  • Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday

ATLANTA: Tornadoes killed at least 33 people across several states in the US Midwest and Southeast on Saturday night, CNN reported.
Missouri reported 12 fatalities spanning five counties, the state’s highway patrol posted on X.
Robbie Myers, the director of emergency management in Missouri’s Butler County, told reporters that more than 500 homes, a church and grocery store in the county were destroyed. A mobile home park had been “totally destroyed,” he said. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves posted on X that six deaths had been reported in the state – one in Covington County, two in Jeff Davis County and three in Walthall County.
According to preliminary assessments, 29 people were injured statewide and 21 counties sustained storm damage, Reeves said.
In Arkansas, three deaths occurred, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said, adding that there were 32 injuries.
Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday as a low-pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.