Tropical Storm Debby swirls over Atlantic, still dumping rain on the Carolinas before moving north
By: Russ Bynum, Jeffrey Collins And John Minchillo
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Tropical Storm Debby was swirling over coastal Georgia and Carolinas on Wednesday, its wide bands of rain swelling inland waterways before it slowly marches north.
Debby was expected to restrengthen a little and turn north toward the South Carolina coastline before its centre makes a second landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, weather officials said. The meandering storm — moving forward at just 4 mph (6 kph) Wednesday morning — has already drenched coastal cities in Georgia and South Carolina with more than a foot (30 centimetres) of rain in places, stirring up tornadoes and submerging streets with waist-high floodwaters.
But its core was surrounded by drier air and the worst rainfall was falling hundreds of miles to the north, into eastern North Carolina before spreading into southeast Virginia. Both declared a state of emergency. Forecasters warned 5 inches (13 centimetres) of rain could fall from South Carolina to Vermont through this weekend.
The area of most concern Wednesday was in southeastern North Carolina, where Hurricane Matthew caused a historic billion-dollar flood in 2016. Two years later, many of those records were broken during Hurricane Florence. Both storms killed dozens.
The National Weather Service warned up to 9 inches (23 centimetres) of rain could fall west of Wilmington, North Carolina, in areas that already saw heavy rains overnight.
Putin accuses Ukraine of a ‘large-scale provocation’ with its raid in southwestern Russia
By: Samya Kullab
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described a Ukrainian incursion into the country’s southwestern Kursk region as a “large-scale provocation” as his officials asserted that they were fighting off cross-border raids for a second day. Ukrainian officials remained silent about the scope of the operation.
Putin met with his top defence and security officials to discuss what he called the “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons.” He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region. The fighting is about 500 kilometres (320 miles) from Moscow.
Army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin at the meeting via video link that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battle and more than 200 wounded, Russian news agencies reported.
The Ukrainian shelling, meanwhile, killed at least two people — a paramedic and an ambulance driver — and injured 24, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Bangladesh’s interim government will take oath on Thursday, says the military chief
By: Julhas Alam
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s military chief said Wednesday that an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus would be sworn in on Thursday night as he returns from Paris to take over the administration and try to restore stability in the country, after an uprising forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and flee to neighbouring India.
Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address late Wednesday afternoon that those responsible for the violence since Hasina’s resignation would be brought to justice.
The military chief, flanked by the chiefs of navy and air force, said that he spoke to Yunus and would receive him at the airport on Thursday.
Zaman said he was hopeful that Yunus would take the situation to a “beautiful democratic” process.
U.K. police deploying 6,000 specially trained officers this week as more far-right disorder expected
By: Danica Kirka
LONDON (AP) — British police are gearing up for another night of violence amid concerns that far-right groups plan to target as many as 30 locations around the United Kingdom on Wednesday following a week of rioting and disorder.
Authorities are mobilizing about 6,000 specially trained officers this week to respond to disorder throughout the U.K., and London’s Metropolitan Police Service said it would do “everything in our power” to protect the capital.
U.K. cities and towns across have been wracked by violence for the past week as angry mobs egged on by far-right extremists have clashed with police and counter-demonstrators sparked by the spread of misinformation about the identity of the suspect in a stabbing rampage that killed three young girls in the seaside community of Southport. The suspect was falsely identified as an immigrant and a Muslim.
Rioters spouting anti-immigrant slogans have attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum-seekers, with reports emerging of violent counterattacks in some communities.
Yemen official says 30 people have been killed and hundreds displaced in flooding
By: Ahmed Al-haj
SANAA, YEMEN (AP) — A Yemeni official said Wednesday that 30 people have been killed and hundreds displaced in flooding in the southern city of Hodeidah following several days of heavy rains.
Hodeidah Gov. Mugammad Qahim told Houthi rebel-controlled Masirah TV that the floods displaced people from 500 homes. Five people were missing, he said.
Hodeidah, the southwestern city of Taiz, and the northwestern city of Hajjah were all hit hard by floods this week during Yemen’s ongoing seasonal rainfall that caused flooding that swept away poorly built homes.
Authorities have not announced a confirmed overall death toll, or given the overall number of people injured or missing.
The UN’s humanitarian office in Yemen said Wednesday afternoon that Friday floods in the Maqbnah district in Taiz city killed 15 people, cleared agricultural lands and damaged homes and infrastructure.
Turkey formally asks to join the genocide case against Israel at the UN court
By: Suzan Fraser
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Wednesday filed a request with a UN court to join South Africa’s lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, the foreign minister said.
Turkey’s ambassador to the Netherlands, accompanied by a group of Turkish legislators, submitted a declaration of intervention to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
With the development, Turkey, one of the fiercest critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza, becomes the latest nation seeking to participate in the case. Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and Libya have also asked to join the case, as have Palestinian officials. The court’s decision on their requests is still pending.
Great Barrier Reef waters were hottest in 400 years over the past decade, study finds
By: Suman Naishadham
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ocean temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef hit their highest level in 400 years over the past decade, according to researchers who warned that the reef likely won’t survive if planetary warming isn’t stopped.
During that time, between 2016 and 2024, the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem and one of the most biodiverse, suffered mass coral bleaching events. That’s when water temperatures get too hot and coral expel the algae that provide them with colour and food, and sometimes die. Earlier this year, aerial surveys of over 300 reefs in the system off Australia’s northeast coast found bleaching in shallow water areas spanning two-thirds of the reef, according to NASA.
Researchers from Melbourne University and other universities in Australia, in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, were able to compare recent ocean temperatures to historical ones by using coral skeleton samples from the Coral Sea to reconstruct sea surface temperature data from 1618 to 1995. They coupled that with sea surface temperature data from 1900 to 2024.
Family of explorer who died in the Titan sub implosion seeks $50M-plus in wrongful death lawsuit
By: Patrick Whittle
(AP) – The family of a French explorer who died in a submersible implosion have filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $50 million that accuses the sub’s operator of gross negligence.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet was among five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded during a voyage to the famed Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023. No one survived the trip aboard the experimental submersible owned by OceanGate, a company in Washington state that has since suspended operations.
Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet had visited the Titanic site many times before and was regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous wreck. Attorneys for his estate said in an emailed statement that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history,” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability.
“The lawsuit further alleges that even though Nargeolet had been designated by OceanGate to be a member of the crew of the vessel, many of the particulars about the vessel’s flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed,” the attorneys, the Buzbee Law Firm of Houston, Texas, said in their statement.
