Four killed after Storm Debby hits Florida coast

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Miami Search and Rescue Fire Department personnel search for people in flooded houses as Hurricane Debby affects the gulf coast in Suwannee, Florida, US, August 5, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 August 2024
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Four killed after Storm Debby hits Florida coast

MIAMI: At least four people were killed as Tropical Storm Debby drenched Florida on Monday, threatening southeastern US states with heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding.

A 13-year-old boy died when a tree was blown onto a mobile home in Levy County, the sheriff’s office there said, after Debby made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast earlier Monday as a Category One hurricane.

Authorities said a truck driver was killed after his 18-wheeler plunged into a canal in Hillsborough County, while a 38-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy died in a car crash in Dixie County.

The storm is expected to move into Georgia overnight, before moving offshore and approaching the South Carolina coast on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

“This is a level four out of four risk for excessive rainfall,” Michael Brennan, director of the NHC, told reporters.

“This is going to result in a prolonged extreme rainfall event with potential for catastrophic flooding across coastal portions of Georgia, South Carolina, even extending up into North Carolina,” he added.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that some 250,000 residents in his state were without power.

“Please, be very cautious when you’re going out,” he said, adding that Debby’s winds had not been as damaging as previous hurricanes that have hit Florida.

President Joe Biden on Sunday approved an emergency declaration for Florida, allowing federal aid to be expedited.

DeSantis has activated the state’s National Guard, with more than 3,000 service members mobilized to help with storm response.

By late afternoon, the NHC said the storm was registering maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) as it swept over Florida.

Storm surge warnings — signalling a life-threatening inundation from rising water — are in effect in parts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Debby was expected to bring “potentially historic rainfall” of up to 30 inches as it moved north, the NHC said.

But it said Debby was weakening after making landfall earlier with sustained speeds of 80 mph (130 kph) as a Category One hurricane — the lowest on a scale of five.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered for part of Citrus County, Florida, with eight other counties under voluntary evacuation orders, local media reported.

Police in the city of Sarasota said that some 500 residents were evacuated from their flooded homes.

The governors of Georgia and South Carolina have declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm’s arrival.

Meanwhile, the US Border Patrol announced that Debby had washed up 25 packages of cocaine to the coast of the Florida Keys, where they were seized.

The intended shipment had a street value of more than $1 million, acting chief patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II said on X.

In July, at least 18 people were killed when the powerful Hurricane Beryl tore through the Caribbean before hitting the southern US states of Texas and Louisiana.

Scientists say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of storms such as Beryl because there is more energy in a warmer ocean for them to feed on.


World leaders head to France for UN summit on ocean threats

Updated 15 sec ago
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World leaders head to France for UN summit on ocean threats

  • The UN Ocean Conference must try to turn a corner as nations feud over deep-sea mining, plastic litter and exploitative fishing, against a backdrop of wider geopolitical tensions

NICE, France: World leaders descend on the French Riviera on Sunday ahead of a high-level summit to tackle a deepening crisis in the oceans driven by overfishing, climate change and pollution.
The United Nations says oceans face an “emergency” and leaders gathering in Nice will be under pressure to commit much-needed money and stronger protections for the ailing seas and the people that depend on them.
The UN Ocean Conference must try to turn a corner as nations feud over deep-sea mining, plastic litter and exploitative fishing, against a backdrop of wider geopolitical tensions.
Some 50 heads of state and government are expected to attend, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to sail to Nice from Monaco, where he is attending a related event aimed at raising private capital for ocean conservation.
He will be joined on the shimmering Mediterranean Sea by other vessels in a colorful maritime parade, before touring an exhibition center on land transformed into the cavernous belly of a whale.
That evening, Macron will host leaders for a dinner of Mediterranean fish ahead of the summit’s formal opening on Monday.
Peaceful demonstrations are expected over the five-day event and France has deployed 5,000 police to the heritage-listed city where scientists, business leaders and environmental activists are also attending in big numbers.
A strong turnout is also expected from Pacific Island nations, whose delegations will demand greater financial assistance to fight the rising seas, marine trash and plunder of fisheries that threatens their very survival.
The United States under President Donald Trump — whose recent push to fast-track seabed mining in international waters sparked global outrage — is not expected to send a delegation.

Conservationists have warned the summit — which will not produce a legally binding agreement — risks being a talk fest unless leaders come armed with concrete proposals for restoring marine health.
Chief among these is securing the missing finance to get anywhere near protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030, a globally agreed target.
“We’ve created this sort of myth that governments don’t have money for ocean conservation,” Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, told reporters.
“There is money. There is not political will,” he said.
So far, only around eight percent of oceans are designated marine conservation zones and even less are considered truly protected.
Greenpeace says at this rate, it could take another 82 years to reach the 30 percent goal.
In a boost this week, Samoa declared 30 percent of its national waters under protection with the creation of nine new marine parks.
Conservationists hope others at Nice follow suit.
“All eyes should be on the many Pacific leaders attending... Their ambition and dedication to ocean protection can serve as inspiration to all countries,” said Kevin Chand from the nonprofit group Pristine Seas.
There has also been a concerted push for nations, including France, to ban bottom trawling — a destructive fishing method that indiscriminately scrapes the ocean floor.
On Saturday, Macron told the Ouest-France newspaper that bottom trawling would be restricted in some national marine protected areas.
Inching closer toward the numbers required to ratify a global treaty on harmful fishing subsidies, and another on high seas protection, will also be a summit priority.
France is spearheading a separate push in Nice to build support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of a closely-watched meeting of the International Seabed Authority in July.
On Sunday, an expert scientific panel will hand Macron a list of recommendations for leaders at the summit, including pausing seabed exploration when so little is known about the deep oceans.

 


US believes Russia response to Ukraine drone attack not over yet, expects multi-pronged strike

ire and smoke rise in the aftermath of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 6, 2025.
Updated 08 June 2025
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US believes Russia response to Ukraine drone attack not over yet, expects multi-pronged strike

  • Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday and Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strike on military and military-related targets was in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia

WASHINGTON: The United States believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its drone attack last weekend has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, US officials told Reuters.
The timing of the full Russian response was unclear, with one source saying it was expected within days. A second US official said the retaliation was likely to include different kinds of air capabilities, including missiles and drones.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity. They did not detail Russia’s expected targets nor elaborate on intelligence matters. The first official said Moscow’s attack would be “asymmetrical,” meaning that its approach and targeting would not mirror Ukraine’s strike last weekend against Russian warplanes.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Putin's retaliation for Ukraine drone strike has yet to fully unfold, US officials say

• Strikes expected to including missiles, drones, US officials say

• Moscow's retaliation expected to be 'asymmetrical,' official says

Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday and Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strike on military and military-related targets was in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia. But the US officials believe the complete Russian response is yet to come.
A Western diplomatic source said that while Russia’s response may have started, it would likely intensify with strikes against symbolic Ukrainian targets like government buildings, in an effort to send a clear message to Kyiv.
Another, senior, Western diplomat anticipated a further devastating assault by Moscow. “It will be huge, vicious and unrelenting,” the diplomat said. “But the Ukrainians are brave people.”
The Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Washington and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said he expected Moscow might seek to punish Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, for its role in last weekend’s assault. To send a message, Russia could employ intermediate-range ballistic missiles for the attack, he said.
“Most likely, they will attempt to retaliate against (SBU) headquarters, or other regional intelligence administration buildings,” Kofman said, adding Russia could also target Ukrainian defense manufacturing centers.
Still, Kofman suggested Russia’s options for retaliation may be limited as it is already throwing a lot of its military might at Ukraine.
“In general, Russia’s ability to substantially escalate strikes from what they are already doing — and attempting to do over the past month — is quite constrained,” he said.

OPERATION ‘SPIDER’S WEB’
Kyiv says Sunday’s audacious attack employed 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched deep from within Russian territory in an operation code-named “Spider’s Web.”
The United States assesses that up to 20 warplanes were hit — around half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — and around 10 were destroyed.
The Russian government on Thursday denied that any planes were destroyed and said the damage would be repaired, but Russian military bloggers have spoken of loss or serious damage to about a dozen planes, including those capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
The strikes, prepared over 18 months and conducted by drones smuggled close to the bases in trucks, dealt a powerful symbolic blow to Russia, which throughout the Ukraine war has frequently reminded the world of its nuclear might.
Putin told President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to attack, Trump said in a social media post.
Trump later told reporters that “it’s probably not going to be pretty.”
“I don’t like it. I said: ‘Don’t do it. You shouldn’t do it. You should stop it,’” Trump said of his conversation with Putin. “But, again, there’s a lot of hatred.”

 


Germany has three years to overhaul military: official

Updated 08 June 2025
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Germany has three years to overhaul military: official

  • Germany’s chief of defense, General Carsten Breuer, recently warned that Russia could be in a position to “launch a large-scale attack against NATO territory” as early as 2029

BERLIN: Germany’s armed forces have three years to acquire the equipment to tackle a possible Russian attack on NATO territory, the head of military procurement said Saturday.
Defense spending has risen up the political agenda since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and more recently with the United States pushing NATO members to increase their commitments.
“Everything necessary to be fully prepared to defend the country must be acquired by 2028,” Annette Lehnigk-Emden, head of the Federal Office for Military Procurement, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Germany’s chief of defense, General Carsten Breuer, recently warned that Russia could be in a position to “launch a large-scale attack against NATO territory” as early as 2029.
He said there was a Russian build-up of ammunition and tanks for a possible attack on NATO’s Baltic members.
Lehnigk-Emden said that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s new government was enabling the upgrade by allocating hundreds of billions of euros for defense.
She said the priority would be for heavy equipment such as Skyranger anti-aircraft tanks.
Merz has made rearmament a priority of his coalition government to make German forces “the most powerful conventional army in Europe.”
Rearmament had already begun under the previous government of Olaf Scholz after Russia launched its war in Ukraine.
And US President Donald Trump has raised the stakes further this year by pushing NATO members to increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP from the current level of two percent.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Thursday that 50,000 to 60,000 new soldiers would be needed in the coming years to meet the increased NATO defense needs.
Last year, the army had more than 180,000 soldiers and set a goal of exceeding 203,000 by 2031.
Germany is meanwhile looking to speed up the establishment of shelters where the population could find refuge in the event of conflict, according to the president of the German Federal Office for Civil Protection, Ralph Tiesler.
At the end of last year, the authorities began to catalogue tunnels, subway stations, underground carparks and cellars of public buildings that could be converted into bunkers.
“We are going to create one million shelter places as quickly as possible,” Tiesler told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, indicating that a plan to this effect would be presented this summer.

 


DR Congo, Burundi thwart Rwanda on regional bloc presidency

Updated 08 June 2025
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DR Congo, Burundi thwart Rwanda on regional bloc presidency

  • Presidency of the 11-nation ECCAS had been due to pass to Kigali
  • Rwanda is accused of helping M23 rebels fighting DR Congo government

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea: Rwanda was blocked Saturday from taking the rotating presidency of the central African economic bloc because of the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The presidency of the 11-nation Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) had been due to pass to Kigali, but at a heads of state and government meeting, DR Congo and Burundi objected.
“The conference postponed to another time the transfer of the rotating acting presidency of the community to the Republic of Rwanda and consequently decided to keep His Excellency Obiang Nguema Mbasogo as acting president of the community for an additional year,” a communique said.
One ECCAS official described the atmosphere between Rwanda and DR Congo’s representatives at the meeting in Equatorial Guinea’s capital Malabo as “tense.”
The Congolese contingent said “if Rwanda took the presidency, they would not be able to travel to Rwanda for community activities or events,” the official added on condition of anonymity.
“Burundi is also on the same path.”
Diplomatic ties between Kinshasa and Kigali are fraught, with the Congolese government accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 armed group that has taken swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC since the start of the year.
Neighbouring Burundi has sent more than 10,000 soldiers since 2023 to help the Congolese army fight the M23 and other armed groups operating in the conflict-wracked region.
On Thursday, Qatari mediators presented the DRC government and the M23 group “a peace proposal” to end the conflict, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP.


Immigration authorities extend activity in Los Angeles area amid street protests

Updated 08 June 2025
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Immigration authorities extend activity in Los Angeles area amid street protests

  • One hand-held sign said, “No Human Being is Illegal.”

LOS ANGELES: US immigration authorities extended activity in Los Angeles area on Saturday in the wake of protests at an federal detention facility and a police response that included tear gas, flash-bangs and the arrest of a union leader.
Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stood guard outside an industrial park in the city of Paramount, deploying tear gas as bystanders and protesters gathered on medians and across the street, some jeering at authorities while recording the events on smartphones.
“ICE out of Paramount. We see you for what you are,” a woman announced through a megaphone. “You are not welcome here.”
One hand-held sign said, “No Human Being is Illegal.”

The boulevard was closed to traffic as US Border Patrol circulated through the area. ICE representatives did not respond immediately to email inquiries about weekend enforcement activities.
Arrests by immigration authorities in Los Angeles come as President Donald Trump and his administration push to fulfill promises to carry out mass deportations across the country.
On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested more than 40 people as they executed search warrants at multiple locations, including outside a clothing warehouse where a tense scene unfolded as a crowd tried to block agents from driving away.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.
In a statement on Saturday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons chided Bass for the city’s response to protests.
“Mayor Bass took the side of chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement,” Lyons said in a statement. “Make no mistake, ICE will continue to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and arrest criminal illegal aliens.”
Protesters gathered Friday evening outside a federal detention center in Los Angeles where lawyers said those arrested had been taken, chanting “set them free, let them stay!”
Other protesters held signs that said “ICE out of LA!” and led chants and shouted from megaphones. Some scrawled graffiti on the building facade.
Federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, including a warehouse in the fashion district of Los Angeles, after a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to representatives for Homeland Security Investigations and the US Attorney’s Office.
Advocates for immigrant rights say people were detained Friday by immigration authorities outside Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop.