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  • Husband of Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola dies in plane crash | CNN Politics

    Husband of Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola dies in plane crash | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., the husband of Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, has died in a plane crash in Alaska, according to a statement from the congresswoman’s office.

    “He was one of those people that was obnoxiously good at everything. He had a delightful sense of humor that lightened the darkest moments. He was definitely the cook in the family. And family was most important to him. He was completely devoted to his parents, kids, siblings, extended family, and friends – and he simply adored Mary. We are heartbroken for the family’s loss,” the statement, which was shared to Peltola’s X account Wednesday morning, said.

    The statement asked for privacy for the Peltola family and said the congresswoman will be heading home to Alaska.

    This story is breaking and will be updated.

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  • China unveils ‘blueprint’ for Taiwan integration while sending warships around the self-ruled island | CNN

    China unveils ‘blueprint’ for Taiwan integration while sending warships around the self-ruled island | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    China on Tuesday unveiled a plan to deepen integration between the coastal province of Fujian and self-governing Taiwan, touting the benefits of closer cross-strait cooperation while sending warships around the island in a show of military might.

    The directive, issued jointly by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, vows to make Fujian a “demonstration zone” for integrated development with Taiwan, and the “first home” for Taiwanese residents and businesses to settle in China.

    The document, hailed as a “blueprint” of Taiwan’s future development by Chinese experts cited in state media, comes at a delicate moment in cross-strait relations as Taiwan gears up for its presidential election in January.

    It also comes as China continues to ramp up military pressure on Taiwan, a vibrant democracy of 24 million people that Beijing’s ruling Communist Party claims as its territory — despite never having controlled it.

    Ahead of Beijing’s release of its integration plan, a Chinese aircraft carrier and around two dozen Chinese warships were spotted gathering in waters near Taiwan this week, according to Taiwanese authorities.

    China has long taken a carrot and stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military invasion while offering opportunities for business and cultural exchanges to those it believes are more amenable to Beijing’s point of view.

    Given the extent to which cross-strait ties have frayed in recent years, it remains unclear how receptive those in Taiwan will be to China’s sweeping proposal.

    On Wednesday, Wang Ting-yu, a Taiwanese lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said the integration plan was “ridiculous.”

    “China should think about how it can take care of its bad debts, but not how it can conduct united front work against Taiwan,” Wang said in a video message, referring to government-affiliated efforts to advance Beijing’s goals overseas.

    The concept of turning Fujian into a zone for integrated development with Taiwan first appeared in China’s official document in 2021, but it did not provide any details at the time.

    In June, when a senior Chinese leader raised the integration plan at a forum, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council called the proposal “meaningless” and “futile,” saying it was not in line with Taiwan’s public expectations and “belittles” Taiwan.

    CNN has reached out to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council for comment.

    In the directive, Beijing vows to improve the environment for Taiwanese firms to do businesses in Fujian, deepen industrial and capital cooperation, and encourage Taiwanese companies to list on Chinese stock exchanges.

    In a first, Taiwanese companies will be allowed to invest in and set up radio and television production companies in Fujian in a pilot program.

    The directive also seeks to attract Taiwanese workers and families to settle in Fujian. It vows to enhance social welfare programs to make it easier for Taiwanese people to live and work in the province – including buying property, and promises equal treatment for Taiwan’s students to enroll in public schools.

    Chinese observers noted “the document is equivalent to outlining the future development blueprint of Taiwan island, which is expected to gain a broader driving force and development prospect by integrating with Fujian,” the state-run Global Times said.

    Fujian, a province of 40 million people on the western side of the Taiwan Strait, is the closest to Taiwan both geographically and culturally.

    Many Taiwanese are descendants of Fujian immigrants who arrived in waves over the centuries, bringing with them the dialect, customs and religion that formed the backbone of the traditional culture among Taiwan’s majority Han population.

    China’s ruling Communist Party has long attempted to use the geographic, historic and cultural proximity between Fujian and Taiwan as an argument for closer economic and social integration – and eventual unification – with the island.

    A particular focus of Beijing’s integration efforts falls on Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which are located much closer to Fujian than Taiwan and have shared the strongest ties with the mainland historically.

    In Tuesday’s directive, Beijing pledges to further speed up integration between the city of Xiamen and Kinmen – which are only a few miles apart.

    It vows to explore cooperation on infrastructure projects between the two cities, which will allow electricity and gas to be transported from Xiamen to Kinmen, and to connect the two cities with a bridge. Kinmen residents will also be able to enjoy the same treatment as local residents in Xiamen, according to the plan.

    Similar integration measures are also laid out for the city of Fuzhou and Matsu.

    To some residents of Kinmen, the plans to promote greater connectivity may be appealing. This year, a cross-party alliance of eight local councilors in Kinmen proposed to build a bridge to Xiamen to boost economic ties, as part of a wider proposal to turn Kinmen into a demilitarized zone, or so-called “peace island.”

    Sitting on the front line between Taiwan and China, Kinmen had faced numerous amphibious assaults and shelling by the Chinese military in the years following the Chinese civil war.

    The councilors’ proposal envisages removing all of Taiwan’s troops and military installations from the islands and turning Kinmen into a setting for Beijing-Taipei talks aimed at “de-escalating tensions.”

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  • No identifiable relationship between deaths of 12 horses at Kentucky racetrack, investigation says | CNN

    No identifiable relationship between deaths of 12 horses at Kentucky racetrack, investigation says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An investigation into 12 horse fatalities at the famed horse racing track Churchill Downs found no causal relationship between the horse deaths and the track, but the report cited concerns about increased risk for some horses due to the frequency and cadence of their exercise schedules.

    The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) launched the investigation in the spring of 2023 to find the causes of the breakdowns, prevent further injury, and determine whether conditions at the famed track in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to the death of the 12 horses, the report said.

    HISA describes the deaths at Churchill Downs, famous as the site of the Kentucky Derby, as “a sober reminder of the complexity and difficulty of the mission, and ultimately a moment of reckoning for the sport and HISA’s role within it.”

    After the 12 deaths in the spring, HISA advised moving the remaining spring races to Ellis Park in Evansville, Indiana, so additional investigation could be conducted at Churchill Downs before competition resumed. At the time, the authority said it was “deeply concerned by the unusually high number” of horse deaths and called for an “emergency veterinary summit.”

    HISA hired racetrack expert Dennis Moore to determine the conditions of the track. He examined the main dirt racetrack for several days and analyzed factors including the cushion depth, moisture content, surface grades, and material composition.

    Moore found the relevant metrics remained consistent with prior years.

    “The metrics did not indicate a correlation between the track surface and the equine catastrophic injuries sustained during the race meet,” according to Moore’s findings.

    The report also reviewed the location of the injuries on the racetrack to discover any patterns, but the study did not yield “any insightful information,” and no discernible pattern.

    Dr. Alina Vale also examined the results of the necropsies, a term often used for autopsies of animals, and determined there was no identifiable pattern in the reports that pointed toward a single causal factor of the fatalities. No prohibited substances were found in any of the 12 horses, Vale said in the report.

    Another veterinary expert, Susan Stover of the University of California at Davis, found that all 12 horses had run more races in their career than the average racehorse.

    Although the investigation found no causal relationship between the racetrack surface and the fatalities, “analysis of training histories did indicate an increased risk profile for some of the horses due to the frequency and cadence of their exercise and racing schedules.”

    The investigation listed the causes of the death for the 12 horses. Four horses suffered fractures sustained in racing on the dirt track, two fractures sustained in racing on the turf track, two soft tissue injuries sustained in racing on the dirt track, two cases of exercise-associated sudden death, one traumatic paddock injury, and one fracture sustained in training on the dirt track.

    The findings of this report were shared with Churchill Downs before the resumption of the racetrack this month, according to the investigation.

    “HISA has shared recommendations on track surface testing and maintenance with Churchill Downs and offers additional procedural improvements for the tracking and reporting of injuries to better inform the development of additional rules.”

    In a statement provided to CNN, Churchill Downs said they’ve implemented several of the recommendations from the HISA report.

    “We appreciate the diligent investigation and analysis from the team at HISA,” Darren Rogers, senior director of communications at Churchill Downs, said. “We have already implemented several of the recommendations listed in the report as well as additional internal key safety enhancements in time for the opening of our September Meet. Churchill Downs will continue to explore and invest in initiatives that support equine safety as our highest priority,”

    The track plans to resume racing on September 14.

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  • The MGM Resorts back online after cybersecurity issue | CNN Business

    The MGM Resorts back online after cybersecurity issue | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    MGM Resorts has shut down some of its systems as a result of a “cybersecurity issue,” according to a company social media post on Monday.

    Late Tuesday, the company posted an update, saying that its resorts’ dining, entertainment, and gaming “are currently operational.” The statement also thanked guests for their patience, saying “our guests remain able to access their hotel rooms.”

    However, the statement did not specify the status of its systems, whether these operations were being handled manually, or whether some properties are still accepting cash only.

    As of Tuesday morning, the MGM Resorts website was still offline, with an apology message and a list of phone numbers for guests to reach their specific hotel concierge desk.

    Justin Heath, a guest at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, told CNN on Monday that visitors were unable to charge purchases to their rooms, that digital hotel room keys were not working and that restaurants were taking only cash.

    In MGM’s initial Sunday statement, the company explained that after detecting the cybersecurity issue, “we quickly began an investigation with assistance from leading external cybersecurity experts,” the company said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    MGM Resorts (MGM) says it’s working with law enforcement and “took prompt action to protect our systems and data, including shutting down certain systems.”

    An FBI spokesperson told CNN they are aware of the incident but declined further comment on the matter.

    CNN has reached out to MGM Resorts for more information. MGM Resorts International manages several properties across the U.S., including Aria, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand Las Vegas, and New York-New York in Las Vegas. Other domestic properties are located in Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, and New York. The company also has resort locations in China.

    It is unclear whether the cybersecurity incident was conducted by threat actors seeking to exfiltrate sensitive information or to cause damage and disruption to MGM systems. For investigators, the nature of the attack is often key to helping identify whether it originated from criminals seeking to steal information for financial gain, or nation-state actors gathering information for intelligence purposes.

    Casinos have been prime targets for both traditional cybercriminal enterprises as well as foreign governments.

    In 2017, researchers announced a North American casino had been the target of data exfiltration by cybercriminals who compromised a fish tank connected to company’s internet connection.

    In 2014, the Sands Las Vegas Corporation fell victim to a damaging cyberattack by the Iranian government, according to the US Director of National Intelligence.

    CNN’s Danielle Sills contributed to this report

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  • Hurricane Lee’s size continues to increase in the Atlantic ahead of pivotal turn | CNN

    Hurricane Lee’s size continues to increase in the Atlantic ahead of pivotal turn | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hurricane Lee increased in size late Monday in the Atlantic and still is expected to grow significantly this week, forecasters say – growth that will help determine the extent of its impact on the US Northeast, Bermuda and Canada.

    Lee, a Category 3 hurricane on Tuesday morning, was centered about 575 miles south of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

    Though it could strengthen slightly Tuesday, it is then expected to weaken, grow in size and speed up after it makes its northward turn in the coming days.

    Even if it’s weaker, a larger storm could impact a more widespread area. A larger Hurricane Lee, then, is more likely to affect the Eastern Seaboard – even if not through a direct landfall.

    Tuesday morning, Lee’s hurricane-force winds extended 80 miles from its center – up 5 miles from evening. Tropical storm-force winds extended 185 miles from its core.

    Those tropical storm-force winds could extend over 300 miles from Lee’s center later this week, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said in a Monday storm briefing.

    “It is still expected to significantly increase in size, and hazards will extend well away from the storm center by the end of the forecast period,” the hurricane center said Monday night.

    Lee’s core is expected to turn north by midweek and pass near, but west, of Bermuda late Thursday and Friday, and could deliver strong winds, rain and high surf to the island territory, forecasters said.

    It’s too soon to know the extent of the impacts Lee might have along the Northeast US and Atlantic Canada late this week and this weekend, the hurricane center said.

    “However, because wind and rainfall hazards will likely extend well away from the center as Lee grows in size,” people in those areas should monitor the forecast for the next several days, the hurricane center said.

    Regardless of its final track, the storm will send big waves to a growing area of the East Coast throughout the week as it tracks northward. This will cause coastal erosion, dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents at beaches.

    Dangerous surf was already happening along the Florida coast and on many of the far eastern Caribbean islands as well as the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispanola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and Bermuda.

    Rip currents have already killed 71 people in the US this year, preliminary National Weather Service data shows. Three people in New Jersey died in rip currents kicked up in the wake of Hurricane Franklin last week.

    Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed into rare Category 5 status as it moved west across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.

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  • A man walked into an FBI office and admitted to killing a woman more than 4 decades ago in Boston, officials say | CNN

    A man walked into an FBI office and admitted to killing a woman more than 4 decades ago in Boston, officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Authorities say they were able to solve a Boston cold case from 44 years ago after an Oregon man walked into an FBI office and confessed to killing and raping a woman in 1979.

    John Michael Irmer, 68, was arraigned in a Boston courtroom Monday and charged with murdering 24-year-old Susan Marcia Rose on October 30, 1979, according to a news release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

    In August, Irmer walked into a Portland FBI field office where he revealed to agents he met a woman with red hair at a Boston skating rink around the time of Halloween in 1979 and killed her, the DA’s office said.

    Irmer said they walked into 285 Beacon Street, a building under renovation at the time, grabbed a hammer and hit the woman on the head, killing her. He told FBI agents he raped her after she had died, the news release said.

    After the admission, authorities were able to confirm Rose, who had red hair, was found murdered on Beacon Street, a historic thoroughfare near the heart of the city, the DA’s office said. Her cause of death was ruled to be multiple blunt injuries to the head with fractures of the skull and lacerations of the brain.

    The DA’s office said investigators were able to match a DNA sample from Irmer with samples collected from the murder scene.

    Another man was tried and found not guilty of Rose’s murder in 1981, the press release stated. No information was immediately available about the prior case.

    During Monday’s arraignment, Assistant District Attorney John Verner said that while Irmer was confessing to Rose’s murder, he also admitted to committing another murder in a southern state. Verner said authorities were looking into the admission.

    Additionally, Verner said Irmer told police he had served “about 30 years” in prison for another killing in California.

    Attorney Steven J. Sack, who represented Irmer in court Monday, said he doesn’t contest bail. He said Irmer came to court “without a fight to face these charges.”

    Irmer is in custody and is currently being held without bail.

    “Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a young age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally have some answers,” District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “This was a brutal, ice-blooded murder made worse by the fact that a person was charged and tried—and fortunately, found not guilty—while the real murderer remained silent until now. No matter how cold cases get resolved, it’s always the answers that are important for those who have lived with grief and loss and so many agonizing questions.”

    The Suffolk County’s Attorney Office told CNN they are not commenting on Irmer’s case at this time.

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  • ‘Catastrophic’ flooding hits Libya as heavy rains cause dam collapse, say officials | CNN

    ‘Catastrophic’ flooding hits Libya as heavy rains cause dam collapse, say officials | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Thousands of people are feared dead in Libya after Storm Daniel brought severe rain and floods to the eastern part of the country, sweeping entire neighborhoods into the sea, according to eastern Libyan officials.

    Ahmed Mismari, spokesperson of the eastern based Libyan National Army (LNA), told a Monday press conference that in badly affected city of Derna alone more than 2,000 have died and between 5,000 to 6,000 people are still missing.

    CNN has not been able to independently verify the number of deaths, and Mismari did not give a source for the number of dead and missing.

    The Red Crescent in Benghazi earlier estimated 150 to 250 people are dead in Derna, according to Reuters.

    Severe pressure from the heavy rains in Derna caused dams to collapse, destroying homes and roads, say authorities.

    Mismari told a news conference that the flooding was caused by two dams collapsing in the city’s south. “As a consequence, three bridges were destroyed. The flowing water carried away entire neighborhoods, eventually depositing them into the sea,” he said.

    The spokesman said that the “unprecedented floods occurred in the cities of Al-Bayda, Derna, Al-Marj, Tobruk, Takenis, Al-Bayada, and Battah, and all the cities and villages of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar and the eastern coast, all the way to Benghazi.”

    The head of Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government, Osama Hamad, described the situation as “catastrophic and unprecedented in Libya,” according to a report from state news organization Libyan News Agency (LANA).

    Footage shared on social media showed submerged cars, collapsed buildings and torrents of water rushing through streets.

    Phone lines were down in Derna and pictures shared by the Red Crescent showed severely flooded streets.

    The head of Libya’s Emergency and Ambulance authority, Osama Aly, told CNN that after the dam collapse “all of the water headed to an area near Derna, which is a mountainous coastal area.”

    Homes in valleys that were in the line of the flood were washed away with strong muddy water currents carrying vehicles and debris, Aly said.

    Aly did not confirm the number of deaths previously announced by one of Libya’s governments, but said the number is not to be dismissed based on the estimates of the population in the area.

    The official said they are not able to reach their own teams inside Derna after phone lines were destroyed. Other emergency teams are not able to enter the Derna due to the heavy destruction, Aly said.

    Aly suggested there was negligence by authorities in preparing for the potential damage from the storm.

    “The weather conditions were not studied well, the seawater levels and rainfall [were not studied], the wind speeds, there was no evacuation of families that could be in the path of the storm and in valleys,” Aly said.

    “Libya was not prepared for a catastrophe like that. It has not witnessed that level of catastrophe before. We are admitting there were shortcomings even though this is the first time we face that level of catastrophe,” Aly told Al Hurra channel earlier.

    Hospitals in the eastern city of Bayda were evacuated after severe flooding from rainfall caused by a heavy storm, videos shared by the Medical Center of Bayda on Facebook showed.

    This rain is the result of the remnants of a very strong low-pressure system, which was officially named Storm Daniel by the national meteorological services in southeastern Europe.

    The storm brought catastrophic flooding to Greece last week before moving into the Mediterranean and developed into a tropical-like cyclone known as a medicane. These systems can bring dangerous conditions to the Mediterranean Sea and coastal countries, similar to tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific.

    Aerial view of flood water as a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Shahhat city, Libya, September 11, 2023.

    The remains of the storm are affecting northern Libya and will slowly head east toward northern Egypt. Rainfall for the next two days could reach 50mm – this region averages less than 10mm across the whole of September.

    “The United Nations in Libya is closely following the emergency caused by severe weather conditions in the eastern region of the country,” said the United Nations Support Mission in Libya in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

    Foreign countries have offered to send aid to the country, with Turkey’s disaster agency saying Monday that it will mobilize 150 search and rescue personnel, along with tents, rescue vehicles and other supplies such as generator.

    The US Embassy in Libya said on X, formally known as Twitter, that it was in “close contact with the United Nations and with authorities in Libya to determine how quickly we can bring assistance to bear where it is most needed.”

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  • Kim Jong Un to visit Russia at Vladimir Putin’s invitation | CNN

    Kim Jong Un to visit Russia at Vladimir Putin’s invitation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Pyongyang and Moscow said on Monday, amid warnings from the United States that the two leaders could strike an arms deal.

    The US government said last week that such a meeting could take place as part of Russia’s efforts to find new suppliers for weapons to use in its war against Ukraine.

    Neither country specified when or where the visit would take place, nor what would be on the agenda of any potential face-to-face. The Kremlin said in a statement Monday that Kim would pay an official visit to Russia “in the coming days,” while North Korean state media said they would “meet and have a talk.”

    However, it appears likely that the two leaders will see each other in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, where they met for the first time in April 2019. Putin reportedly arrived in Vladivostok on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to state TV Russia 24. Kim, meanwhile, appears to be on a train heading to Russia, a South Korean government official told CNN.

    The visit will be Kim’s first foreign trip since the Covid-19 pandemic. With its borders sealed because of that for much of the past three years, North Korea has only recently begun to relax travel restrictions.

    It will also be only Kim’s 10th trip since assuming power in 2011. All of those came in 2018 and 2019, as the North Korean leader engaged in negotiations over his nuclear weapons and missile programs in three meetings with then-US President Donald Trump – one in Singapore, one in Hanoi and one in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea.

    Kim also made four trips to China over those two years to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The remaining trip was to the DMZ in 2018 to meet with then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

    Vladivostok lies 130 km (80 miles) from the border with North Korea.

    The North Korea leader is said to prefer traveling in an upscale armored train – as did his father before him – but rail travel accounts for less than half of his foreign trips. Three of this nine trips have been made in planes and two, both to the DMZ, by car.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also visited Pyongyang in July in an attempt to convince it to sell artillery ammunition.

    Last Tuesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned that North Korea it will “pay a price” if it strikes an arms deal with Russia, though he did not elaborate on these potential repercussions.

    North Korea is already under United Nations and US sanctions imposed over Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction program.

    The potential Putin-Kim meeting could lead to Pyongyang getting its hands on the sort of weapons those sanctions have barred it from accessing for two decades, especially for its nuclear-capable ballistic missile program.

    It also comes after more than a year and a half of war in Ukraine has left the Russian military battered, depleted and in need of supplies.

    Following Monday’s announcement from both countries, the White House urged North Korea to “not provide or sell arms to Russia.

    “As we have warned publicly, arms discussions between Russia and the DPRK are expected to continue during Kim Jong-Un’s trip to Russia,” said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson in response to Russia and North Korea’s announcement.

    The statement also urged the country to “abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia.”

    After reports emerged of North Korean arms sales to Russia in September 2022, a North Korean Defense Ministry official said at the time that Pyongyang had “never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them.”

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  • Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker suspended without pay amid investigation into reported accusation of sexual harassment | CNN

    Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker suspended without pay amid investigation into reported accusation of sexual harassment | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Michigan State University announced Sunday it has suspended head football coach Mel Tucker without pay, less than a day after USA Today reported he has been under investigation about alleged sexual harassment.

    Vice president and director of athletics Alan Haller said at a news conference Tucker is the subject of an ongoing investigation that began in December. An investigative report was submitted in July and a formal hearing will take place the week of October 5, Haller said.

    According to the USA Today report, published Saturday night, Tucker is alleged to have made sexual comments and masturbated while on a phone call with Brenda Tracy, an advocate and rape survivor.

    Tracy reported the call to the university’s Title IX office, USA Today reported. “The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” Tracy told USA Today. “It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”

    In a letter to investigators, Tucker characterized his and Tracy’s relationship as “mutually consensual and intimate,” according to USA Today.

    “I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition,” he wrote, according to USA Today.

    CNN has not independently verified the details of the report.

    An attorney for Tracy, Karen Truszkowski, said no police report was filed. She declined to share any documents or comment further.

    “As you can imagine, this is a delicate issue and I have to balance the public interest with protecting my client,” Truszkowski said.

    CNN also reached out to Tucker’s agent following the announcement of his suspension but has not heard back.

    Tracy started the nonprofit Set The Expectation, where she speaks to athletes about ending sexual violence, according to her website. Tracy was raped in 1998 by four college football players, leading to her advocacy.

    She served as an honorary captain for Michigan State’s spring football game in 2022, and the football team posted a photo on Instagram of Tucker and Tracy together.

    “We are excited to welcome (Tracy) back to campus as our honorary captain for Saturday’s spring game!” the team wrote.

    Tucker, a longtime coach in college and the NFL over the past two decades, became Michigan State’s head coach in 2020. In his second season, the team went a sterling 11-2, and he signed a massive 10-year, $95 million contract that made him one of the highest paid coaches in all of college football. Last year, though, the team finished a disappointing 5-7, including blowout losses to rivals Michigan and Ohio State.

    During Tucker’s suspension, secondary coach Harlon Barnett will fill in as acting head coach, Haller announced, and former MSU head coach Mark Dantonio will become an associate head coach. The Spartans play the Washington Huskies at home this Saturday.

    The long shadow of Larry Nassar

    The investigation comes as the university has continued to face scrutiny over its past handling of sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor who abused hundreds of young girls and women.

    At Nassar’s sentencing in Michigan in 2018, dozens of women came forward with stories of his abuse and the ways Michigan State University ignored their claims and enabled his actions. The university agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits brought by 332 victims.

    Nassar was sentenced in Michigan to up to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct. A total of 156 women gave victim impact statements in court.

    An attorney for a group of Nassar’s victims sued Michigan State University in July, alleging the school’s board of trustees held “illegal secret votes” to prevent the release of thousands of documents in the case, according to the court filing. A spokesperson for the university declined to comment at the time.

    The university pushed back on comparisons between the two cases.

    “This morning’s news might sound like the MSU of old; it was not,” interim president Teresa K. Woodruff said Sunday afternoon. “It is not because an independent, unbiased investigation is and continues to be conducted.”

    Woodruff made note of counseling resources available for anyone who may be affected by this news and mentioned the Center for Survivors and Office for Civil Rights on campus.

    “If you have heard or experienced or know of behavior that does not seem appropriate, please know that you have the support and resources here at MSU,” Woodruff said.

    Kenny Jacoby, the USA Today reporter who broke the story, told CNN’s Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly on “CNN This Morning” on Monday how the Nassar case has left a long shadow on campus.

    “There is deep mistrust on the MSU campus from students, from employees, from alumni and in the East Lansing community after the betrayal that was the Larry Nassar scandal,” Jacoby said. “They repeatedly missed opportunities to stop one of the most prolific sexual abusers in American history.

    “So when MSU takes this long to suspend the coach without pay – people tend to think of that as they’re covering this up, and that doesn’t sit well with most of these people.”

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  • Explosion at Illinois processing plant leaves at least 8 injured, officials say | CNN

    Explosion at Illinois processing plant leaves at least 8 injured, officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least eight people in central Illinois were injured Sunday in an explosion at a processing plant, officials said.

    The explosion happened at an Archer Daniels Midland Company plant in Decatur just after 7 p.m., a spokesperson for the company said. It’s unclear what led to the blast.

    The extent of the injuries was unknown, Deputy Fire Chief Dan Kline told CNN in a phone call.

    A fire at the facility was under control early Monday and a crew was on standby to help with any remaining hotspots, fire officials said.

    The blast happened at the east plant within the company’s processing complex, the ADM spokesperson said.

    “ADM immediately contacted the Decatur Fire Department, which remains on the scene. Several employees were injured and transported to the local hospital for treatment,” the spokesperson said. “Our thoughts are with our colleagues. We do not have a confirmed cause at this time.”

    The location in Decatur, which is about 40 miles east of Springfield, is the company’s North American headquarters, according to its website. More than 4,000 employees work at the location.

    “ADM has been a member of the Decatur, Illinois, community since 1939, when we began construction on what was then the world’s largest solvent extraction plant,” the company’s website says. “Today, Decatur is home to ADM’s North American Headquarters and is the single largest location and employee base across ADM’s global footprint. More than 4,000 colleagues work here in Decatur every day to unlock the power of nature to enrich the quality of life for billions around the world.”

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  • How booming Vietnam offers the US an alternative to China | CNN Business

    How booming Vietnam offers the US an alternative to China | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden is in Vietnam for a visit intended to deepen economic ties between Washington and Hanoi as part of efforts to reduce America’s reliance on China.

    The former foes have formally upgraded diplomatic ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” a symbolic yet highly important move that experts say will solidify trust between the nations as America seeks an ally in Asia to counteract political tensions with China and advance its ambitions for key technologies, such as chipmaking.

    Companies from Apple (AAPL) to Intel (INTC) have already pushed deeper into the country to diversify their supply chains, maxing out many Vietnamese factories and helping fuel an economic expansion that continues to defy a global slowdown.

    On Monday, the White House announced a “landmark deal” between Boeing and Vietnam Airlines worth $7.8 billion, which is expected to support more than 30,000 jobs in the United States. Reuters has reported that the carrier will buy 50 Boeing 737 Max jets.

    Biden’s visit, which followed the G20 summit in India, is the first by a US president to Vietnam since Donald Trump’s 2019 trip. He has met with Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other leaders to “promote the growth of a technology-focused” Vietnamese economy, as well as discuss ways to improve stability in the region, according to the White House.

    In recent years, their trade has already soared under an existing partnership agreed in 2013, so the elevation in relations is “just catching up with the reality that already exists,” Ted Osius, president of the US-ASEAN Business Council and a former US ambassador to Vietnam, told CNN.

    The United States imported nearly $127.5 billion in goods from Vietnam in 2022, compared with $101.9 billion in 2021 and $79.6 billion in 2020, according to US government data.

    Last year, Vietnam became America’s eighth largest trading partner, rising from 10th place two years earlier.

    The two sides have been moving closer as US officials, particularly Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have repeatedly pointed to the importance of “friend-shoring.”

    The practice refers to the movement of supply chains toward allies in part to shield businesses from political friction.

    “Rather than being highly reliant on countries where we have geopolitical tensions and can’t count on ongoing, reliable supplies, we need to really diversify our group of suppliers,” she said in a speech last year at the Atlantic Council think tank.

    Those tensions add to a litany of pressures, including rising labor costs and an uncertain operating environment that have already made corporations think twice about how much business they do in China, which is still considered the factory of the world.

    But increasingly, it has competition. During the US-China trade war, which started in 2018, businesses of all sizes began moving manufacturing to emerging markets such as Vietnam and India over tariffs.

    After the pandemic broke out, corporations were increasingly forced to consider strategies known as “China plus one,” which meant spreading out production hubs as a way to reduce reliance on a sole manufacturing base.

    The latest exodus could cost China dearly: In a 2022 report, Rabobank estimated that as many as 28 million Chinese jobs directly relied on exports to the West and could leave the country as a result of “friend-shoring.”

    Some 300,000 of those jobs, focused on low-tech manufacturing, are expected to move to Vietnam from China, analysts wrote.

    From an industrial perspective, the country has been booming for years, said Michael Every, a Rabobank global strategist who authored the report. Relatively lower wages and a youthful population have provided Vietnam with a solid workforce and consumer base, bolstering the case to invest in the nation of 97 million people.

    A fruit vendor walking past an Apple store in Hanoi

    But companies hoping to make the switch may already be too late, as some factories are so stretched, customers must wait, he said.

    Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist at Natixis, pointed to what she called “overheating,” saying demand for manufacturing in Vietnam has outstripped supply in some cases.

    “Too many companies [are] going to Vietnam,” she told CNN.

    Vietnam enjoyed an advantage, as it was first in the region to build up supply chain capabilities “for many, many sectors” years ago, she explained.

    Shortly after Biden landed in Vietnam on Sunday, the White House announced a new semiconductor partnership.

    “The United States recognizes Vietnam’s potential to play a critical role in building resilient semiconductor supply chains, particularly to expand capacity in reliable partners where it cannot be re-shored to the United State,” it said in a statement.

    The semiconductor industry has emerged as a key source of tension in US-China relations. Beijing and Washington are both racing to boost their prowess in the sector, and each side has recently enacted export controls aimed at limiting the other’s capacity.

    The United States needs a trusted partner for its supply of chips, and Vietnam can do just that, Osius said.

    Intel sees it that way. The California-based chipmaker has committed $1.5 billion to a sprawling campus located just outside Ho Chi Minh City, which it says will be its largest single assembly and test facility in the world.

    Osius expects more investments in the field to follow as Washington shores up ties with Hanoi.

    “The significance of Vietnam in that supply chain will increase,” he predicted. “We’re going to see an acceleration when it comes to collaboration in tech.”

    The International Monetary Fund projects Vietnam’s growth will slow to 5.8% from 8% last year as it copes with less overseas demand for its exports.

    But that compares favorably with a global growth forecast of 3%, and is noticeably faster many of the world’s major economies, such as the United States, China and the eurozone.

    “As the rest of Asia underwhelms, Vietnam will still be one of the fastest growing economies,” Natixis said in a recent research note.

    That’s compelling for corporations looking for bright spots in an otherwise gloomy environment.

    Such interest was noted in March, when the US-ASEAN Business Council led its biggest-ever business mission to Vietnam. The delegation consisted of 52 American firms, including corporate heavyweights such as Netflix (NFLX) and Boeing (BA).

    Of course, companies still have reservations over factors such as Vietnamese tech regulations, which they fear could include limits on the “transfer of data across borders, or too many rules requiring data localization,” according to Osius.

    In some cases, businesses are also concerned by how the country’s infrastructure still pales in comparison to a longtime trade powerhouse like China’s.

    For example, “there isn’t a sufficient port capacity for some of the goods to be exported as quickly as companies want them to be moved,” Osius said.

    Politically, Vietnam shares many similarities to China in that it is an authoritarian one-party state that tolerates little dissent.

    But overall, businesses simply want an easy way to hedge their bets.

    Vietnam is an obvious choice, because it’s a cheap alternative to manufacturing in China, said García-Herrero.

    For various sectors, transitioning isn’t difficult, because many Chinese suppliers also moved there because of US tariffs, she explained. “It’s the most similar because you have the same providers as in China.”

    The Biden administration, too, will likely be keen to secure that alternative.

    “It’s quite clear that they’re trying to set up a series of foreign policy victories ahead of 2024 [by] signing a strategic comprehensive partnership with Vietnam,” said Every, the Rabobank analyst.

    — CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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  • British PM raised ‘strong concerns’ over Chinese interference after parliament employee arrested | CNN

    British PM raised ‘strong concerns’ over Chinese interference after parliament employee arrested | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he raised his “very strong concerns” to China’s premier regarding potential Chinese interference in British democracy after a parliament employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

    Speaking to journalists at the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sunday, Sunak said he used a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to raise several concerns including over “any interference in our parliamentary democracy.”

    This comes after two men were arrested under the UK’s Official Secrets Act amid reports that a parliamentary researcher with alleged links to senior Conservative Party politicians including security minister Tom Tugendhat was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

    UK newspaper, The Sunday Times broke the story on Sunday, reporting that the researcher was arrested alongside another man on March 13.

    According to a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police, police arrested a man in his 30s in Oxfordshire, southern England, and a man in his 20s in Edinburgh, Scotland.

    “The investigation is being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which has responsibility for investigations relating to allegations of Official Secrets Act and espionage-related offences,” the statement said.

    After being brought to a police station in south London, the two men were released on police bail until a date in early October, according to the statement.

    China’s embassy in London denied the spying accusations.

    “The claim that China is suspected of ‘stealing British intelligence’ is completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

    “We firmly oppose it and urge relevant parties in the UK to stop their anti-China political manipulation and stop putting on such self-staged political farce,” the statement added.

    According to the Sunday Times reporting, the arrested parliamentary researcher was also linked to the chairperson of the British government’s foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns.

    Posting on Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Kearns declined to comment on the alleged ties, remarking: “While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.”

    A cross party group focused on relations with China, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said in a statement on Saturday on X that it was “appalled at reports of the infiltration of the UK Parliament by someone allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.”

    “It is for authorities to reveal the name of the person accused, and IPAC is united in hoping that justice is done expeditiously,” the alliance continued.

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  • True to life but without the price tag: The decoy weapons Ukraine wants Russia to destroy | CNN

    True to life but without the price tag: The decoy weapons Ukraine wants Russia to destroy | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    They are created with one single aim in mind: to be destroyed as quickly as possible. And in that, the steelworks company behind them boasts, these decoy weapons are remarkably successful: hundreds have been targeted by Russian forces almost as soon as they were deployed.

    Ukrainian D-20 gun-howitzers, American-made M777 howitzers, mortar tubes, air defense radars… the list goes on. If it is deployed and operational in Ukraine, chances are that Metinvest has either copied it, or is in the process of doing so, inside the small hangar that sits, tucked away, on the edge of a vast industrial site in central Ukraine. There you will find an impressive array of replicas of the latest American and European killing technology.

    Before the war, the company was Ukraine’s largest metallurgy group but had no involvement in arms manufacture, according to a representative of the company who asked to remain anonymous. In fact, it still doesn’t, as its only foray into the world of weaponry is this side line in decoys, remarkably true to life but equipped with neither the firing range, nor the hefty price tag.

    The aim, says the spokesman, is twofold: to save Ukrainian lives and to trick Russians into squandering their own, very expensive, kamikaze drones, shells and missiles.

    The idea is that, from the sky, the decoys should look worthy of attack, without spending too much. And that has meant striking a balance in the choice of materials, complementing cheap plywood – which doesn’t give off the right heat signature to trick Russian heat-seeking radars and drones – with enough metal that they should be fooled

    “War is expensive and we need the Russians to spend money using drones and missiles to destroy our decoys”, explains Metinvest’s spokesman. “After all, drones and missiles are expensive. Our models are much, much cheaper.”

    Take, for instance, the M777 155mm howitzer. The real thing costs several million dollars. Metinvest’s version costs under $1000 to make and involves nothing fancier than old sewer pipes. But – and this is the point – it costs Russian forces just as much to destroy with a drone strike as the real thing.

    “After each hit, the military gives us trophy wreckage,” explains the company’s spokesman, “We collect them. If our decoy was destroyed, then we did not work in vain.”

    Initially the decoys were fairly crude, he says. When the war began the company’s workers scrambled to make replicas to be rushed to the front lines, in order to make Ukraine seem better armed than it really was. But as the war has worn on and the weaponry arriving in the country has grown ever more sophisticated, so too have Metinvest’s decoys.

    The real test now – the measure of each decoy’s success – is how long they stay in the field. If one design survives too long, the company’s decoy designers go back to the drawing board. As a result, the company’s catalogue of fake weaponry is getting impressively long and varied.

    If one design survives too long in the field, the company's decoy designers go back to the drawing board, resulting in a long and varied catalogue of fake weaponry.

    “We do not count the number of decoys produced, but the number of those destroyed, and this is the main thing for us,” says the spokesman. “The sooner our decoys are destroyed, the better for us”.

    So far, he says, many hundreds have been destroyed and the company is struggling to keep up with the army’s demand. He shows us photographs of the decoys out in the field, in various stages of their short life, until finally coming upon a picture of which he is particularly proud.

    It shows, hanging from a tree somewhere in Ukraine, a life-size effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is also the work of his men, he says with satisfaction, and like the weapons, he hopes, soon a thing of the past.

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  • ‘Good Morning America’ anchor Robin Roberts marries Amber Laign in ‘intimate’ backyard ceremony | CNN

    ‘Good Morning America’ anchor Robin Roberts marries Amber Laign in ‘intimate’ backyard ceremony | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Robin Roberts and Amber Laign are officially married.

    “An intimate, magical wedding ceremony in our backyard followed by a joyous reception…ohhhh the dancing!!” Roberts wrote on Instagram on Sunday, next to a photo of herself and Laign holding hands in their wedding gowns.

    “We are immensely grateful to all for making it a day and a night to remember. Honeymoon here we come!”, Roberts added.

    The pair, who’ve been together since 2005, wed on Friday.

    The “Good Morning America” veteran anchor also shared footage of her siblings walking out to make a toast while dancing to Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It,” a moment from the reception that Roberts described as “one of many highlights.”

    Roberts and Laign both wore custom Badgley Mischka wedding gowns and were married by Roberts’ childhood pastor, according to “GMA” on Sunday.

    In January, Roberts revealed that she planned to marry Laign this year during conversation with author and motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein.

    “It was something we had talked about, but we had put it off. She became ill,” Roberts told Bernstein.

    Laign and Roberts have both overcome serious health obstacles throughout the course of their relationship.

    Roberts shared that Laign was diagnosed with breast cancer in a video posted to her verified Twitter account in February 2022. She updated her followers in July of that year that Laign had completed a portion of her treatment.

    In 2007, Roberts announced that she was battling breast cancer. She also revealed in 2012 that she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and underwent a lifesaving bone marrow transplant.

    With those health obstacles behind them, the newlyweds appear to have found the perfect time to celebrate their love.

    “Many people go into marriage hoping for and looking for what Amber and I already know we have, and so ours is a celebration,” Roberts said on “GMA” in August. “We’ve been living our happily ever after through all the ups and downs, so it’s a celebration.”

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  • Convicted killer who escaped Pennsylvania prison was spotted overnight and changed his appearance, police say | CNN

    Convicted killer who escaped Pennsylvania prison was spotted overnight and changed his appearance, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted killer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison, was seen overnight Saturday, according to state police, who said the fugitive had “changed his appearance” as the manhunt enters its 11th day.

    “He is now clean-shaven and wearing a yellow or green hooded sweatshirt, black baseball cap, green prison pants, and white shoes,” Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement early Sunday, adding he was spotted near in northern Chester County near Phoenixville.

    Cavalcante, 34, is also said to be driving a 2020 white Ford Transit van with Pennsylvania plates and a refrigeration unit on top, according to police. The van had been reported stolen by a local dairy farm, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office said.

    Nearly 400 officers have joined the round-the-clock search operation for Cavalcante, who fled Chester County Prison on August 31 by “crab walking” between two walls, scaling a fence and traversing razor wire.

    The sighting Saturday is just the latest: Police Lt. Col. George Bivens, who is leading the search, told reporters Friday there had been “probably eight or nine” other credible sightings since Cavalcante’s escape. Two sightings on Friday were confirmed within the general perimeter where tactical teams, K-9 dogs and a helicopter are scouring for any sign of the fugitive, according to Pennsylvania State Police Trooper James Grothey.

    Cavalcante’s escape came about two weeks after he was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2021 killing of his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandão, 33, in Chester County. Authorities said Cavalcante stabbed Brandão 38 times in front of her two children, who are now in the care of her sister.

    Cavalcante is also wanted in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, his native country, a US Marshals Service official has said.

    The inmate’s escape from the prison about 30 miles west of Philadelphia has instilled fear within his victim’s family and distressed nearby residents like Ryan Drummond, who told CNN he saw Cavalcante in his Pocopson Township home the night of September 1.

    Describing it as an “acute moment of terror,” Drummond said he heard noise in his house and noticed an old French door off the side of their deck was slightly ajar.

    “That’s when my stomach dropped,” he told CNN’s Michael Smerconish.

    Drummond told his wife to call 911, he said, and saw Cavalcante “walking methodically” out of the kitchen into his living room before leaving the house via the French door.

    Cavalcante was seen in or around Chester County’s Longwood Gardens – about 3 miles from the prison – several times last week. On September 2, the fugitive was seen on surveillance video about 1.5 miles from the prison, authorities said. On Monday, a security camera recorded the fugitive at Longwood Gardens, authorities said.

    An area resident then reported seeing Cavalcante on Tuesday in a creek bed on the resident’s property. On Wednesday, a trail camera image showed Cavalcante in or around Longwood Gardens, but officials learned about this sighting Thursday evening, according to Bivens.

    Guests were asked to leave the botanical gardens Thursday as the entire venue closed for the manhunt. Police swarmed the botanical gardens, but did not catch the killer.

    Despite Cavalcante’s elusive streak, Bivens said he is confident the fugitive will be caught.

    “We’ve got a large perimeter secured,” he said Friday. “That is a pretty secure perimeter that we can push hard against with the tactical team.”

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  • Hurricane Lee is forecast to restrengthen as East Coast faces hazardous beach conditions this week | CNN

    Hurricane Lee is forecast to restrengthen as East Coast faces hazardous beach conditions this week | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As Hurricane Lee fluctuates in intensity over open Atlantic waters, its effects may soon be felt at beaches up and down the East Coast in the form of life-threatening rip currents and dangerous shoreline conditions.

    Lee is forecast to continue moving well north of Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, but it will have an impact there and at other Caribbean islands. It remains too early to determine its long-term track for later this week and how significant the impacts could be for northeastern US states, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.

    The East Coast, however, is expected to face large swells and rip currents in an increasing manner through this week – much as the Caribbean is being affected now.

    “Swells generated by Lee are affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles,” the National Hurricane Center warned Friday night. The British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda also face swells this weekend that can bring life-threatening surf and rip conditions.

    Waves breaking at 6 to 10 feet were forecast for Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Larger waves were expected this week along east- and north-facing beaches.

    “Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible,” the office posted on social media.

    Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed into Category 5 status as it moved west across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.

    Vertical wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle – a process that occurs with the majority of long-lived major hurricanes – has since led to the weakening of Lee, the hurricane center said.

    Now a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, forecasters expect Lee to regain strength “during the next couple of days, followed by gradual weakening,” the hurricane center said early Sunday. Lee is centered around 280 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands as of 5 a.m. ET Sunday and moving in a west-northwest direction at 9 mph.

    Computer model trends for Lee have shown the hurricane taking a turn to the north early this week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the US.

    Several steering factors at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere will determine how close Lee will get to the East Coast.

    An area of high pressure over the Atlantic, known as the Bermuda High, will have a major influence on how quickly Lee turns. A strong Bermuda High would keep Lee on its current west-northwestward track and slow it down a bit.

    As the high pressure weakens this week, it will allow Lee to start moving northward. Once that turn to the north occurs, the position of the jet stream – strong upper-level winds that can change the direction of a hurricane’s path – will influence how closely Lee is steered to the US.

    Scenario: Out to Sea

    Track Scenario: An area of high pressure (yellow circle) to the east of Lee and the jet stream (silver arrows) to the west of Lee, can force the storm to track between the two, away from the US coast.

    Lee could make a quick turn to the north early this week if high pressure weakens significantly.

    If the jet stream sets up along the East Coast, it will act as a barrier that prevents Lee from approaching the coast. This scenario would keep Lee farther away from the US coast but could bring the storm closer to Bermuda.

    Scenario: Close to East Coast

    Track Scenario: An area of high pressure (yellow circle) to the east of Lee and the jet stream (silver arrows) to the west of Lee, can force the storm to track between the two, closer to the US coast.

    Lee could make a slower turn to the north because the high pressure remains robust, and the jet stream sets up farther inland over the Eastern US. This scenario would leave portions of the East Coast, mainly north of the Carolinas, vulnerable to a much closer approach from Lee.

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  • Biden heads to Vietnam in latest attempt to draw one of China’s neighbors closer to the US | CNN Politics

    Biden heads to Vietnam in latest attempt to draw one of China’s neighbors closer to the US | CNN Politics

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    Hanoi, Vietnam
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden will arrive at Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s doorstep on Sunday with a deal in hand to draw yet another one of China’s neighbors closer to the United States.

    In just the last five months, Biden has hosted the Philippines’ president at the White House for the first time in over a decade; he has fêted the Indian prime minister with a lavish state dinner; and he has hosted his Japanese and South Korean counterparts for a summit ripe with symbolism at the storied Camp David presidential retreat.

    At each turn, Biden’s courtship and his team’s steadfast diplomacy have secured stronger diplomatic, military and economic ties with a network of allies and partners joined if not by an outright sense of alarm at China’s increasingly aggressive military and economic posture, then at least by a growing sense of caution and concern.

    The latest page in the US’s Indo-Pacific playbook will come via the establishment of a “comprehensive strategic partnership” that will put the US on par with Vietnam’s highest tier of partners, including China, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

    “It marks a new period of fundamental reorientation between the United States and Vietnam,” a senior administration official said ahead of Biden’s arrival in Hanoi, saying it would expand a range of issues between the two countries.

    “It’s not going to be easy for Vietnam, because they’re under enormous pressure from China,” the official went on. “We realize the stakes and the President is going to be very careful how he engages with Vietnamese friends.”

    The US’ increasingly tight-knit web of partnerships in the region is just one side of the US’s diplomatic strategy vis-à-vis China. On a separate track, the Biden administration has also pursued more stable ties and improved communication with Beijing over the last year, with a series of top Cabinet secretaries making the trip to the Chinese capital in just the last few months.

    The latter part of that playbook has delivered fewer results thus far than Biden’s entreaties to China’s wary neighbors, a dichotomy that was on stark display as Biden attended the G20 in New Delhi, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not.

    The president did not appear overly concerned when questioned Saturday about his Chinese counterpart’s absence at the summit.

    “It would be nice to have him here,” Biden said, with Modi and a handful of other world leaders by his side. “But, no, the summit is going well.”

    As Biden and Xi jockey for influence in Asia and beyond, merely showing up can be seen as a power play and Biden sought to make the most of Xi’s absence, seizing the opening to pitch the United States’ sustained commitment both to the region and to developing nations around the world.

    In Vietnam, it’s not only China whose influence Biden is competing with. As he arrived, reports suggested Hanoi was preparing a secret purchase of weapons from Russia, its longtime arms supplier.

    On Monday, Biden plans to announce steps to help Vietnam diversify away from an over-reliance on Russian arms, a senior administration official said.

    As China’s economy slows down and its leader ratchets up military aggressions, Biden hopes to make the United States appear a more attractive and reliable partner. In New Delhi, he did so by wielding proposals to boost global infrastructure and development programs as a counterweight to China.

    Beijing and Moscow have both condemned a so-called “Cold War mentality” that divides the world into blocks. The White House insists it is seeking only competition, not conflict.

    Still, the desire to pull nations into the fold has been evident.

    Traffic whizzes through Hanoi's old quarter

    On Saturday, Biden held a photo op with the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa – three members of the BRICS grouping that Xi has sought to elevate as a rival to US-dominated summits like the G20.

    If there is a risk in that approach, it is leaving nations feeling squeezed by rival giants. For Biden, however, there is an imperative in at least offering poorer nations an alternative to China when it comes to investments and development.

    But increasingly, China’s neighbors – like Vietnam – are seeking a counterweight to Beijing’s muscular and often unforgiving presence in the region, even if they are not prepared to entirely abandon China’s sphere of influence in favor of the US’.

    “We’re not asking or expecting the Vietnamese to make a choice,” the senior administration official said. “We understand and know clearly that they need and want a strategic partnership with China. That’s just the nature of the beast.”

    Days before Biden’s visit and the expected strategic partnership announcement, China sent a senior Communist Party official to Vietnam to enhance “political mutual trust” between the two communist neighbors, the official Chinese Xinhua news agency reported.

    Asked about Biden’s upcoming visit to Vietnam, China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday warned the US against using its relations with individual Asian countries to target a “third party.”

    “The United States should abandon Cold War zero-sum game mentality, abide by the basic norms of international relations, not target a third party, and not undermine regional peace, stability, development and prosperity,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a daily briefing.

    Vietnam has also sought to maintain good ties with China. Its Communist Party chief was the first foreign leader to call on Xi in Beijing after the Chinese leader secured an unprecedented third term last October. In June, Vietnam’s prime minister met Xi during a state visit to China.

    Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Chairman of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung at the Department of State.

    But even as it seeks to avoid China’s wrath, Vietnam is increasingly pulled toward the US out of economic self-interest – its trade with the US has ballooned in recent years and it is eager to benefit from American efforts to diversify supply chains outside of China – as well as concern over China’s military build-up in the South China Sea.

    Experts say those tightened partnerships are as much a credit to the Biden administration’s comprehensive China strategy as it is a consequence of the way China has increasingly aggressively wielded its military and economic might in the region.

    “China has long complained about the US alliance network in its backyard. It has said that these are vestiges of the Cold War, that the US needs to stop encircling China, but it’s really China’s own behavior and its choices that have driven these countries together,” said Patricia Kim, a China expert at the Brookings Institution.

    “So in many ways, China’s foreign policy has backfired.”

    The upgrading of the US-Vietnam relationship carries huge significance given Washington’s complicated history with Hanoi.

    The two countries have gone from mortal enemies that fought a devastating war to increasingly close partners, even with Vietnam still run by the same Communist forces that ultimately prevailed and sent the US military packing.

    While the upgrading of that relationship has been a decade in the making, US officials say a concerted drive to take the relationship to new heights carried that years-long momentum over the line.

    A late June visit to Washington by Vietnam’s top diplomat, Chairman Le Hoai Trung, crystallized that possibility. During a meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the two first discussed the possibility of upgrading the relationship, according to a Biden administration official.

    As he walked back to his office, Sullivan wondered whether the US could be more ambitious than a one-step upgrade in the relationship – to “strategic partner” – and directed his team to travel to the region and deliver a letter to Trung proposing a two-step upgrade that would take the relations to their highest-possible level, putting the US on par with Vietnam’s other “comprehensive strategic partners”: China, Russia, India and South Korea.

    Sullivan would speak again with Trung on July 13 while traveling with Biden to a NATO summit in Helsinki.

    The conversation pushed the possibility of a two-step upgrade in a positive direction, but it wasn’t until a mid-August visit to the White House by Vietnam’s ambassador to Washington that an agreement was in hand. Inside Sullivan’s West Wing office, the two finalized plans to take the US-Vietnam relationship to new heights and for Biden and Vietnam’s leader, General Secreatary Nguyen Phu Trong, to shake hands in Hanoi.

    The trip was still being finalized when Biden revealed during an off-camera fundraiser that he was planning to visit. The remark sent the planning into overdrive.

    Still, US officials are careful not to characterize the rapprochement with Vietnam – or with the Philippines, India, Japan and Korea, or its AUKUS security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom – as part of a comprehensive strategy to counter China’s military and economic heft in the Indo-Pacific.

    “I think that’s a deliberate design by the Biden administration,” said Yun Sun, the China program director at the Stimson Center. “You don’t want countries in the region or African countries to feel that the US cares about them only because of China because that shows a lack of commitment. That shows that, ‘Well, we care about you only because we don’t want you to go to the Chinese.’”

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  • Miami Hurricanes safety Kamren Kinchens injured and carted off field during game against Texas A&M | CNN

    Miami Hurricanes safety Kamren Kinchens injured and carted off field during game against Texas A&M | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Miami Hurricanes football safety Kamren Kinchens was carted off the field after a tackle attempt during the team’s 48-33 upset victory against No. 23 Texas A&M on Saturday.

    The injury happened late in the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium, when Kinchens took a blow to the chest as he attempted to tackle Aggies receiver Ainias Smith. The safety laid motionless after making the tackle.

    Players from both teams gathered around the 20-year-old as he was looked at by medical staff. The All-American player was carted off the field following a lengthy delay.

    According to ABC’s broadcast of the game, Kinchens was awake and communicating with medical staff as he left the field. He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami.

    Miami Hurricanes football head coach Mario Cristobal said in the team’s postgame news conference that tests on Kinchens seemed to be “relatively normal.”

    “We’re going to head over there right after I get done with this press conference to see how he’s doing but it seems like we’re going to be fine,” Cristobal said.

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  • Powerful Hurricane Lee will create hazardous conditions along the East Coast, regardless of its uncertain final track | CNN

    Powerful Hurricane Lee will create hazardous conditions along the East Coast, regardless of its uncertain final track | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Category 3 Hurricane Lee remains hundreds of miles east of the Caribbean on Saturday morning, yet forecasters say the storm’s effects may have an impact on the US Atlantic seaboard as early as this weekend.

    Lee was just shy of 350 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands as of 11 a.m. ET Saturday, whipping up maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, according to the US National Hurricane Center. The major hurricane, which earlier reached Category 5 status, is expected to maintain its strength Saturday but is forecast to restrengthen over the weekend.

    It’s still too early to determine whether the core of the storm will directly impact the US mainland, but Lee is expected to rip currents and large waves to most of the East Coast of the United States on Sunday and Monday and worsen through the week, the hurricane center said.

    “Lee is moving toward the west-northwest near 12 mph (19 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through early next week with a significant decrease in forward speed beginning later today and Sunday,” the hurricane center said in its 11 a.m. ET advisory. “Hazardous beach conditions expected to develop around the western Atlantic through next week.”

    Caribbean islands will be similarly impacted by the storm as it moves slowly west-northwest through the Atlantic. Lee is expected to pass “well to the north” of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, forecasters said.

    “Swells generated by Lee are affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles,” the hurricane center warned Friday night. The British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda will also face swells this weekend that can bring life-threatening surf and rip conditions.

    The National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said waves breaking at 6 to 10 feet were forecast for Sunday. Larger waves were expected next week along east- and north-facing beaches.

    “Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible,” the office posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    Lee hit a rare strength that few storms have ever achieved. Only 2% of storms in the Atlantic reach Category 5 strength, according to NOAA’s hurricane database. Including Lee, only 40 Category 5 hurricanes have roamed the Atlantic since 1924.

    Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed in warm ocean waters, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.

    The storm’s winds increased by 85 mph in a 24-hour period, which tied it with Hurricane Matthew for the third-fastest rapid intensification in the Atlantic, according to NOAA research meteorologist John Kaplan. The monstrous hurricane struck Haiti in 2016, killing hundreds in the Caribbean nation while also wreaking havoc on parts of the US Southeast.

    Category 5 is the highest level on the hurricane wind speed scale and has no maximum point. Hurricanes hit this level when their sustained winds reach 157 mph or higher. A 165-mph storm like Lee is in the same category as Hurricane Allen, the Atlantic’s strongest hurricane on record, which topped out at 190 mph in 1980.

    Hurricanes need the perfect mixture of warm water, moist air and light upper-level winds to intensify enough to reach Category 5 strength. Lee had all of these, especially warm water amid the warmest summer on record.

    Sea-surface temperatures across the portion of the Atlantic Ocean that Lee is tracking through are a staggering 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal after rising to “far above record levels” this summer, according to David Zierden, Florida’s state climatologist.

    Reaching Category 5 strength has become more common over the last decade. Lee is the 8th Category 5 since 2016, meaning 20% of these exceptionally powerful hurricanes on record in NOAA’s hurricane database have come in the last seven years.

    The Atlantic is not the only ocean to have spawned a monster storm in 2023. All seven ocean basins where tropical cyclones can form have had a storm reach Category 5 strength so far this year, including Hurricane Jova, which reached Category 5 status in the eastern Pacific earlier this week.

    Computer model trends for Lee have shown the hurricane taking a turn to the north early next week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the US.

    Several steering factors at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere will determine how close Lee will get to the East Coast.

    Lee's potential track next week will be determined by multiple atmospheric factors including a strong area of high pressure to its east (yellow circle) and the jet stream (silver arrows) to its west.

    An area of high pressure over the Atlantic, known as the Bermuda High, will have a major influence on how quickly Lee turns. The Bermuda High is expected to remain very strong into the weekend, which will keep Lee on its current west-northwestward track and slow it down a bit.

    As the high pressure weakens next week it will allow Lee to start moving northward.

    Once that turn to the north occurs, the position of the jet stream – strong upper-level winds that can change the direction of a hurricane’s path – will influence how closely Lee is steered to the US.

    Scenario: Out to Sea

    Lee could make a quick turn to the north early next week if high pressure weakens significantly.

    If the jet stream sets up along the East Coast, it will act as a barrier that prevents Lee from approaching the coast. This scenario would keep Lee farther away from the US coast but could bring the storm closer to Bermuda.

    Track Scenario: An area of high pressure (yellow circle) to the east of Lee and the jet stream (silver arrows) to the west of Lee, can force the storm to track between the two, away from the US coast.

    Scenario: Close to East Coast

    Lee could make a slower turn to the north because the high pressure remains robust, and the jet stream sets up farther inland over the Eastern US. This scenario would leave portions of the East Coast, mainly north of the Carolinas, vulnerable to a much closer approach from Lee.

    Track Scenario: An area of high pressure (yellow circle) to the east of Lee and the jet stream (silver arrows) to the west of Lee, can force the storm to track between the two, closer to the US coast.

    All these factors have yet to come into focus, and the hurricane is still at least seven days from being a threat to the East Coast. Any potential US impact will become more clear as the Lee moves west in the coming days.

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  • What we know about the Morocco earthquake | CNN

    What we know about the Morocco earthquake | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    More than 2,000 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck the North African country of Morocco on Friday night. Thousands have been injured.

    The quake is the strongest to hit the nation’s center in more than a century, and its epicenter was not far from popular tourist and economic hub Marrakech.

    Here’s what we know so far.

    When and where did the quake hit?

    The earthquake struck at around 11:11 p.m. local time (6.11 p.m ET). Its epicenter was located in the High Atlas mountain range, about 72 kilometers (44.7 miles) southwest of Marrakech, a city of about 840,000 people.

    But its impact was felt as far north as Casablanca, as this map shows.

    The quake had a magnitude of 6.8, meaning it is classed as “strong.” It also struck at a relatively shallow depth, making it more destructive.

    Earthquakes of this size in the region are uncommon, according to the US Geological Survey, but not unexpected. It noted that nine quakes with a magnitude of 5 or higher have hit the area since 1900, but none of them have had a magnitude higher than 6.

    The earthquake is Morocco’s deadliest since 1960 when a quake killed more than 12,000 people.

    More than 300,000 people have been affected in Marrakech and surrounding areas, according to the WHO. Historic sites have been damaged, but the hardest-hit areas are those nearest to the Atlas Mountains.

    Eyewitnesses in the foothills of the mountains said some towns are completely destroyed, with almost all the homes in an area of the village of Asni damaged.

    Hundreds have died in the province of Al Haouz and nearly 200 perished in the southwestern Moroccan city of Taroudant.

    The precise scale of the quake is still emerging.

    Emergency workers were deployed to affected regions, despite some roads being damaged or blocked by debris. Some remote villages on the foothills of the mountain have been hard to access.

    Mohammed, 50, from the town of Ouirgane, lost four family members in the quake. “I managed to get out safely with my two children but lost the rest. My house is gone.” he said.

    Rescue operations are still ongoing. “We are out in the streets with authorities as they try to pull the dead from the rubble. Many many people were transported to hospital in front of me. We are hoping for miracles from the rubble” he said.

    In Marrakech some residents spent the night in the streets, afraid to return to their homes. Others fled the city altogether. There have been warning of aftershocks.

    Morocco’s government said it had activated all available resources to tackle the quake and urged people to “avoid panic.”

    King Mohammed VI of Morocco ordered that a relief commission be set up to distribute aid to survivors, including orphans and people who lost their homes in the disaster.

    People work next to damage in the historic city of Marrakech following the quake.

    Many world leaders have expressed their commiserations, as well as offered support to Morocco.

    Turkey, which was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands earlier this year, said it was ready to send 265 personnel and 1,000 tents to Morocco to support aid efforts.

    Algeria, which severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 and closed its airspace to all planes registered in Morocco, said it would reopen its airspace for humanitarian aid and medical flights going to and from the Arab nation.

    The United Nations, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron have also said they are ready to provide assistance.

    Many other world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, have sent their condolences.

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