DruasiaAsia

China launches war games around Taiwan, drawing ire from Taipei, Washington

TAIPEI — China’s military launched a new round of war games near Taiwan on Monday, saying it was a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces,” drawing condemnation from the Taipei and U.S. governments.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, had been on alert for more war games since last week’s National Day speech by President Lai Ching-te, an address Beijing condemned after Lai said China had no right to represent Taiwan even as he offered to cooperate with Beijing.

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command said the “Joint Sword-2024B” drills were taking place in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan.

“The drill also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces. It is a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity,” it said in a statement carried both in Chinese and English.

The command did not state when the drills would end.

It published a map showing nine areas around Taiwan where the drills were taking place – two on the island’s east coast, three on the west coast, one to the north and three around Taiwan-controlled islands next to the Chinese coast.

Chinese ships and aircraft are approaching Taiwan in “close proximity from different directions,” focusing on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, blockading key ports and areas, assaulting maritime and ground targets and “joint seizure of comprehensive superiority,” the command said.

However, it did not announce any live-fire exercises or any no-fly areas. In 2022, shortly after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China fired missiles over the island.

In rare operations, China’s coast guard circled Taiwan and staged “law enforcement” patrols close to Taiwan’s offshore islands, according to Chinese state media.

Taiwan’s China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council said that China’s latest war games and refusal to renounce the use of force were “blatant provocations” that seriously undermined regional peace and stability.

In the face of the further political, military and economic threats posed by China to Taiwan in recent days, Taiwan would not back down, Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.

“President Lai has already expressed his goodwill in his national day speech and is willing to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait together with the Chinese communists,” it added.

Lai’s National Day speech highlighted the current state of cross-strait relations and the will to safeguard peace and stability and advocated future cooperation in coping with challenges like climate change, the ministry added.

“The Chinese communists’ claim of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ is a complete departure from the truth,” it added.

Joseph Wu, the secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, said Taiwan would “stay alert” but would remain “moderate and responsible, maintain status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”

“Leaders around the world talk more than ever about the need for peace and stability across Taiwan Strait,” Wu said during a forum on Chinese politics in Taipei.

“Taiwan will continue to seek possibilities for talks with China.”

Taiwan’s defense ministry and coast guard said both agencies had dispatched their own forces.

In Washington, an official from the administration of President Joe Biden said they were monitoring the drills and there was no justification for them after Lai’s “routine” speech.

The official said they urged China “to avoid any further action that may jeopardize peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region.”

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, said they believed China was practicing blockading Taiwanese ports to the north and south of the island and international shipping lanes as well as repelling the arrival of foreign forces.

Taiwan on Sunday had reported a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing to the island’s south through the strategic Bashi Channel which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and connects the South China Sea to the Pacific.

Chinese state media has since Thursday run a series of stories and commentaries denouncing Lai’s speech, and on Sunday the Eastern Theatre Command released a video saying it was “prepared for battle.”

The PLA’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper wrote on Monday that “those who play with fire get burned!”

“As long as the ‘Taiwan independence’ provocations continue, the PLA’s actions to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not stop,” the paper said.

China held the “Joint Sword-2024A” drills for two days around Taiwan in May shortly after Lai took office, saying they were “punishment” for separatist content in his inauguration speech.

Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
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DruchinaChina

China starts new round of war games near Taiwan, offers no end date

TAIPEI — China’s military started a new round of war games near Taiwan on Monday, saying it was a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces,” and offered no date for when they may conclude. 

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, had been on alert for more war games since last week’s national day speech by President Lai Ching-te, an address Beijing condemned after Lai said China had no right to represent Taiwan even as he offered to cooperate with Beijing. 

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command in a 5 a.m. statement said the “Joint Sword-2024B” drills were taking place in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan. 

“The drill also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces. It is a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity,” it said in a statement carried both in Chinese and English. 

Taiwan’s defense ministry expressed its strong condemnation of China’s “irrational and provocative act,” adding it had dispatched its own forces. 

Lai’s national day speech highlighted the current state of cross-strait relations, and the firm will to safeguard peace and stability and advocated future cooperation in coping with challenges like climate change, the ministry added. 

“The Chinese communist’s claim of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ is a complete departure from the truth,” it added. 

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, said they believed China was practicing blockading Taiwanese ports and international shipping lanes as well as repelling the arrival of foreign forces. 

China’s held the “Joint Sword-2024A” drills for two days around Taiwan in May shortly after Lai took office, saying they were “punishment” for separatist content in his inauguration speech. 

Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. 
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DruafAfrica

World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006

WASHINGTON — The world’s 26 poorest countries, home to 40% of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.

The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory.

Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank’s efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).

The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72% is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.

Two-thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.

“At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. “Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered.”

IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021, and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with over $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.

Natural disasters also have taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2% of GDP, five times the average among lower-middle-income countries, pointing up the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.

The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending.
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DruafAfrica

Nigeria resettling people back to homes they fled to escape Boko Haram

DAMASAK, Nigeria — When Boko Haram launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2010, Abdulhameed Salisu packed his bag and fled from his hometown of Damasak in the country’s battered Borno state. 

The 45-year-old father of seven came back with his family early last year. They are among thousands of Nigerians taken back from displacement camps to their villages, hometowns or newly built settlements known as “host communities” under a resettlement program that analysts say is being rushed to suggest the conflict with the Islamic militants is nearly over. 

Across Borno, dozens of displacement camps have been shut down, with authorities claiming they are no longer needed and that most places from where the displaced fled are now safe. 

But many of the displaced say it’s not safe to go back. 

Boko Haram — Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis — took up arms in 2009 to fight against Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law, or Sharia. The conflict, now Africa’s longest struggle with militancy, has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbors. 

Some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million have been displaced in the northeastern region, according to U.N. numbers. The 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in the village of Chibok in Borno state — the epicenter of the conflict — shocked the world. 

Borno state alone has nearly 900,000 internally displaced people in displacement camps, with many others absorbed in local communities. So far this year, at least 1,600 civilians have been killed in militant attacks in Borno state, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit. 

And in a state where at least 70% of the population depends on agriculture, dozens of farmers have also been killed by the extremists or abducted from their farmland in the last year. 

In May, hundreds of hostages, mostly women and children who were held captive for months or years by Boko Haram were rescued from a forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the army said. 

In September, at least 100 villagers were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants who opened fire on a market, on worshippers and in people’s homes in the Tarmuwa council area of the neighboring Yobe state, west of Borno. 

Analysts say that a forced resettlement could endanger the local population as there is still inadequate security across the hard-hit region. 

Salisu says he wastes away his days in a resettlement camp in Damasak, a garrison town in Borno state of about 200,000 residents, close to the border with Niger. 

Food is getting increasingly difficult to come by and Salisu depends on handouts from the World Food Program and other aid organizations. He longs to find work. 

“We are begging the government to at least find us a means of livelihood instead of staying idle and waiting for whenever food comes,” he said. 

On a visit last week to Damasak, Cindy McCain, the WFP chief, pledged the world would not abandon the Nigerian people as she called for more funding to support her agency’s aid operations. 

“We are going to stay here and do the very best we can to end hunger,” McCain told The Associated Press as she acknowledged the funding shortages. “How do I take food from the hungry and give it to the starving,” she said. 

Resettlement usually involves the displaced being taken in military trucks back to their villages or “host communities.” The Borno state government has promised to provide returnees with essentials to help them integrate into these areas, supported by aid groups. 

The government says the displacement camps are no longer sustainable. 

“What we need now is … durable solutions,” Borno governor Babagana Zulum told McCain during her visit. 

As the resettlement got underway, one in five displaced persons stayed back in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, and nearby towns but were left without any support for local integration, the Global Protection Cluster, a network of non-government organizations and U.N. agencies, said last December. 

Many others have crossed the border to the north, to settle as refugees in neighboring Niger, Chad or Cameroon. The three countries have registered at least 52,000 Nigerian refugees since January 2023, according to the U.N. refugee agency — nearly twice the number registered in the 22 months before that. 

A rushed closure of displacement camps and forced resettlement puts the displaced people at risk again from militants still active in their home areas — or forces them to “cut deals” with jihadis to be able to farm or fish, the International Crisis Group warned in a report earlier this year. 

That could make the extremists consolidate their presence in those areas, the group warned. Boko Haram, which in 2016 split into two main factions, continues to ambush security convoys and raid villages. 

Abubakar Kawu Monguno, head of the Center for Disaster Risk Management at the University of Maiduguri, said the best option is for government forces to intensify their campaign to eliminate the militants or “push them to surrender.” 

After not being able to access their farms because of rampant attacks by militants, some farmers in Damasak and other parts of Mobbar district returned to work their land last year, armed with seedlings provided by the government. 

Salisu was one of them. 

Then a major flood struck in September, collapsing a key dam and submerging about 40% of Maiduguri’s territory. Thirty people were killed and more than a million others were affected, authorities said. 

Farms that feed the state were ruined, including Salisu’s. His hopes for a good rice harvest were washed away. Now he lines up to get food at a Damasak food hub. 

“Since Boko Haram started, everything else stopped here,” he said. “There is nothing on the ground and there are no jobs.” 

Maryam Abdullahi also lined up at a WFP hub in Damasak with other women, waiting for bags of rice and other food items she desperately needs for her family of eight. Her youngest is 6 years old. 

The donations barely last halfway through the month, she said, but she still waited in the scorching heat. 

What little money she has she uses to buy yams to fry and sell to sustain her family, but it’s nowhere enough. Her only wish is to be able to get a “proper job” so she and her children would feel safe, she said. 

“We either eat in the morning for strength for the rest of the day or … we eat only at night,” Abdullahi said. 
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DruamAmericas

More relief for hurricane victims under way as campaigns spar over misinformation

On Sunday, President Joe Biden visited areas affected by Hurricane Milton in Florida and announced a half-billion dollars in new funding to improve electric grid resilience. But even as relief and recovery efforts continue, officials warn that misinformation is spreading rapidly as Election Day draws near. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details, with reporting from Patrick Bresnan in North Carolina.
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DruasiaAsia

Pakistani police fired tear gas, charge protesters in Karachi

Karachi, Pakistan — Pakistani police fired tear gas and swung batons at thousands of protesters Sunday in Karachi after the demonstrators tried to break through a security barricade.

Around 2,000 supporters of a far-right Islamist party tried to reach the city’s press club to oppose another demonstration staged by civil society groups about the killing of a blasphemy suspect while he was in custody.

Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party hurled rocks at officers and torched a patrol car when police stopped them from reaching the press club.

The party said one of its members died in the violence. Police arrested around 20 people from both demonstrations.

Provincial Interior Minister Zia Ul Hassan said authorities feared clashes because both the political party and the civil society groups had issued calls for protests on the same day.

Ul Hassan condemned the violence, especially given an upcoming security summit in Islamabad and last week’s deadly attack on a convoy of Chinese nationals outside the city’s airport.

The TLP supports Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, which call for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.
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DruchinaChina

Sri Lanka busts Chinese cybercrime racket

Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s police have arrested 198 Chinese men on suspicion of operating a cybercrime ring from the South Asian nation, a police spokesperson said Sunday. 

Deputy Inspector-General Nihal Thalduwa said the men were taken into custody at four locations during raids carried out since October 6, with 129 arrested in one location Saturday. 

Thalduwa said that a large number of mobile phones and laptop computers were also seized. 

“We suspect that they were operating online scams from these locations,” Thalduwa told reporters in the capital, Colombo. 

“Their victims include people in Sri Lanka as well as those overseas.” 

He said investigations were moving slowly due to language issues in questioning the suspects, but the authorities have sought help of officials from the Chinese Embassy in Colombo. 

Forensic experts were analyzing the electronic devices that were seized, he said. 

In June, police arrested another 200 suspects, mainly Indians, who were also accused of operating online financial scams. 

Thalduwa said the suspects had entered the island as tourists and, in most cases, were overstaying their visas. 
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DruchinaChina

Chinese carmaker GAC considers making EVs in Europe as tariffs loom

Paris — Chinese state-owned carmaker GAC is exploring the manufacture of EVs in Europe to avoid EU tariffs, the general manager of its international business told Reuters on Sunday, joining a growing list of Chinese companies planning local production. 

The company is among China’s largest automakers and is targeting 500,000 overseas sales by 2030. It does not yet sell EVs in Europe but will launch an electric SUV tailored to the European market at the Paris Auto Show, which kicks off Monday. 

GAC still viewed Europe as an important market that was “relatively open” despite moves by the European Commission to impose tariffs on EVs made in China, Wei Heigang said, speaking in Paris ahead of the show. 

“The tariffs issue definitely has an impact on us. However, all this can be overcome in the long term … I am positive there is going to be a way to get it all resolved,” he said. 

“Local production would be one of the ways to resolve this,” he added. “We are very actively exploring this possibility.” 

Discussions were at a very early stage and the company was still considering whether to build a new plant or share — or take over — an existing one, according to Wei. 

The compact SUV on display in Paris, a 520-kilometer (323-mile) range vehicle called “Aion V,” should launch in some European markets in mid-2025, priced at less than 40,000 euros ($43,748), though the final price has not yet been set, GAC said. 

After that launch, the next GAC vehicle due for sale in Europe will be a small electric hatchback, to be released in late 2025. 
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DruamAmericas

Iran condemns ‘illegal, unjustified’ US sanctions on oil industry

Tehran, Iran — Iran condemned Sunday what it called an “illegal and unjustified” expansion of U.S. sanctions targeting its oil industry following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month.  

In a statement, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei defended Iran’s attack on Israel and “strongly condemned” the sanctions, saying they were “illegal and unjustified.”  

The United States on Friday slapped Iran with a spate of new sanctions on the country’s oil and petrochemical industry in response to Tehran’s October 1 attack against Israel.

Baghaei defended Iran’s attack on Israel as being legal and insisted on Iran’s right to respond to the new sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it targeted Iran’s so-called shadow fleet of ships involved in selling Iranian oil in circumvention of existing sanctions.

It said it had designated at least 10 companies and 17 vessels as “blocked property” over their involvement in shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.  

The State Department also announced it was placing sanctions on six further firms and six ships for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran”.

Baghaei said “the policy of threats and maximum pressure” had no impact on “Iran’s will to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests and citizens against any violation and foreign aggressions.”

He said the sanctions would enable Israel “to continue killing innocents and pose a threat to the peace and unity of the region and the world”.

The new wave of sanctions comes as the world awaits Israel’s promised response to Tehran’s missile attack, with oil prices hitting their highest levels since August.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden advised Israel against targeting oil infrastructure in Iran, one of the world’s 10 largest producers.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi last Tuesday warned that “any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response.”
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DruasiaAsia

North Korea: Front-line units could strike South Korea if more drones appear

Seoul, South Korea — North Korea said Sunday its front-line army units are ready to launch strikes on South Korea, ramping up pressure on its rival that it said flew drones and dropped leaflets over its capital Pyongyang. 

South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned it would sternly punish North Korea if the safety of its citizens is threatened. 

North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of launching drones to drop propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again. 

In a statement carried by state media Sunday, the North’s Defense Ministry said that the military had issued a preliminary operation order to artillery and other army units near the border with South Korea to “get fully ready to open fire.” 

An unidentified ministry spokesperson said the North Korea’s military ordered relevant units to fully prepare for situations like launching immediate strikes on unspecified enemy targets when South Korea infiltrates drones across the border again, possibly triggering fighting on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement. 

The spokesperson said that “grave touch-and-go military tensions are prevailing on the Korean Peninsula” because of the South Korean drone launches. In a separate statement later Sunday, the spokesperson said that the entire South Korean territory “might turn into piles of ashes” following the North’s powerful attack. 

Also Sunday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described as “suicidal” the South Korean Defense Ministry’s reported warning that North Korea would face the end of its regime if it harms South Korean nationals. She warned Saturday that the discovery of a new South Korean drone will “certainly lead to a horrible disaster.” 

North Korea often issues such fiery, blistering rhetoric in times of elevated animosities with South Korea and the United States. 

Ties between the two Koreas remain tense since a U.S.-led diplomacy on ending North Korea’s nuclear program fell apart in 2019. North Korea has since pushed hard to expand its nuclear arsenal and repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea and the U.S. with its nuclear weapons. But experts say it’s unlikely for North Korea to launch a full-blown attack because its military is outpaced by the combined U.S. and South Korean forces. 

Observers predicted North Korea would escalate tensions ahead of next month’s U.S. presidential election to boost its leverage in future diplomacy with the Americans. 

Since May, North Korea has floated thousands of balloons carrying rubbish toward South Korea in retaliation for South Korean activists flying their own balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets. South Korea’s military responded to the North’s balloon campaign by restarting border loudspeakers to blare broadcast propaganda and K-pop songs to North Korea. 

North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian government of Kim Jong Un and his family’s dynastic rule. 
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DruamAmericas

US will send air defense battery and American troops to Israel to bolster defenses against Iran 

Washington — The United States will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and troops to Israel, the Pentagon said Sunday, even as Iran warned Washington to keep American military forces out of Israel. 

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the deployment of the THAAD battery at the direction of President Joe Biden. 

Ryder said the system will help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s missile attacks on Israel in April and October. 

“This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” Ryder said. 

The Iranian warning came in a post on the social platform X long associated with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who noted the reports that the U.S. was considering the deployment. 

Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack when it fired roughly 180 missiles into Israel. 

It was not immediately clear where the THAAD battery was coming from. The U.S. deployed one of the batteries to the Middle East along with additional Patriot battalions to bolster protections for U.S. forces in the region late last year after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas militants. Ryder also said that the U.S. sent a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 for training. 

According to an April report by the Congressional Research Service, the Army has seven THAAD batteries. Generally each consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment and required 95 soldiers to operate. 

The THAAD is considered a complementary system to the Patriot, but it can defend a wider area. It can hit targets at ranges of 150 to 200 kilometers. 
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DruafAfrica

Train crash in Egypt kills 1, injures 21 people 

Cairo — A locomotive crashed into the tail of the Cairo-bound passenger train Sunday in southern Egypt, killing at least one person and injuring multiple others, authorities said. It is the second train crash in a month in the North African country. 

The collision occurred in the province of Minya, 270 kilometers (about 168 miles) south of Cairo, the railway authority said in a statement, and two railway carriages fell into an adjacent watercourse. The cause of the crash was being investigated, the statement added. 

Footage aired by local media showed the two carriages partially submerged in the watercourse. 

Along with the fatality, the Health Ministry said in a separate statement at least 21 people were taken to hospitals, of which 19 were later discharged after receiving treatment. 

Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. In September, two passenger trains collided in a Nile Delta city, killing at least three people. 

In recent years, the government announced initiatives to improve its railways. Egyptian  

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in 2018 some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the neglected rail network. 
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DruamAmericas

Biden will view Hurricane Milton damage in Florida; Harris plans to go to church in North Carolina 

Washington — President Joe Biden on Sunday will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he urges Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to attend a Black church and hold a campaign rally.

Biden’s visit to the St. Petersburg area offers him another chance to press House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for congressional approval of more aid money before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after then.

“I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses,” Biden told reporters as he and Harris met with aides on Friday to discuss the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the matter directly.

In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to victims of Helene in the western part of the state.

She was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak during a church service as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before Election Day. She was also scheduled to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and highlight Thursday’s start of early voting in the state, her campaign said.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Harris campaign official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details not yet made public and spoke on condition of anonymity.

With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.

Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”

The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.

But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.

Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla. As Helene barreled toward Florida, the two traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.

Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and he grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic nominee.

Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted.

“He’s been very cooperative,” Biden said about DeSantis. He added, “We got on very, very well.”

DeSantis said Saturday that he had no details about the president’s visit.

Biden was scheduled to survey damage during an aerial tour between Tampa and St. Pete Beach, where he will be briefed on the storm by federal, state and local officials. He also will residents and first responders.

Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.

Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.
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DruchinaChina

China’s Premier Li talks trade in Vietnam despite differences over South China Sea 

BANGKOK — China agreed Sunday to assist Vietnam on cross-border railway development and take steps to expand agricultural imports from its smaller neighbor, Vietnam’s official media said.

Premier Li Qiang, on an official visit to Vietnam, pledged that China would further open its market to high-quality fruits, seafood and other Vietnamese products, a state media report said.

China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and second-largest export market after the U.S. Trade between the two countries reached $172 billion in 2023. Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, signaled the importance of the relationship when he made China his first overseas visit after assuming his post last year.

Li came to Vietnam from neighboring Laos, where he had pushed back against calls at a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders to respect international law in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told Li that both sides should respect each other’s legitimate rights and interests, resolve disputes through peaceful means and properly address issues related to fishers and their vessels, the state media report said.

Vietnam condemned China two weeks ago for what it described as an assault by Chinese law enforcement personnel that injured several Vietnamese fishers near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

The islands have been under the de facto control of China since 1974, when Beijing seized them from Vietnam in a brief but violent naval conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Southeast Asian leaders gathered in Laos last week that the U.S. is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

In their talks on Sunday, Chinh and Li agreed to deepen exchange and cooperation in diplomacy, national defense and public security, the state media report said.

They also witnessed the exchange of 10 cooperation agreements, including the establishment of a working group to develop cross-border economic cooperation zones and the implementation of QR-code, cross-border payment services.

The railway agreements covered a technical plan and feasibility studies to improve train connectivity between Vietnam and China.

On trade, Chinh asked for greater access for a range of products including tropical fruits, meat products, farm-raised spiny lobster and plant-based traditional medicines.

Li said that China stands ready to resolve trade issues and work with Vietnam on quarantine and customs procedures, according to the Vietnamese report.
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DruafAfrica

Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market 

Port Sudan, Sudan — A Sudanese network of volunteer rescuers said on Sunday the military carried out an air strike a day earlier on a marketplace in Khartoum, leaving 23 people dead.  

The market is near one of the main camps in the Sudanese capital, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting the military as part of a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people.  

“Twenty-three people were confirmed dead and more than 40 others wounded” and taken to hospital after “military air strikes on Saturday afternoon on the main market” in southern Khartoum, the youth-led Emergency Response Rooms said in a post on Facebook.  

Fierce fighting has raged since Friday around Khartoum, much of which is controlled by the RSF, with the military pounding the center and south of the city from the air.  

The military is advancing towards Khartoum from nearby Omdurman, where clashes erupted on Saturday, eyewitnesses said.  

World’s largest displacement crisis  

Since April 2023, when war broke out between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the paramilitaries had largely pushed the army out of Khartoum.  

The World Health Organization says at least 20,000 people have been killed in the civil war, but some estimates put the toll much higher at up to 150,000.  

The war has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, the U.N. says.  

More than 10 million people, around a fifth of Sudan’s population, have been forced from their homes, according to U.N. figures.  

A U.N.-backed assessment in August declared a famine in the Zamzam refugee camp in Darfur near the city of El-Fasher.  

The government loyal to the army is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, where the army has retained control.   

The RSF meanwhile has taken control of nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur, rampaged through the agricultural heartland of central Sudan and pushed into the army-controlled southeast. 
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DruasiaAsia

Indian politician known for close ties with Bollywood is killed in Mumbai

NEW DELHI — A senior politician in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, who was also known for his close ties with Bollywood has been shot dead weeks before a key state election.

Baba Siddique, 66, was shot multiple times outside his son’s office in Mumbai on Saturday night, police said in a statement. He later succumbed to his wounds at the city’s Lilavati Hospital.

Siddique was associated with the Indian National Congress party for decades but had recently joined a regional party that rules Maharashtra state. He was also close to several Bollywood superstars and was known for throwing lavish parties.

Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who is from the same political party as Siddique, said he was shocked by the killing.

“The incident will be thoroughly investigated, and strict action will be taken against the attackers. The mastermind behind the attack will also be traced,” Pawar said in a statement.

News agency Press Trust of India reported that two suspected attackers had been arrested, and police were searching for another.

Broadcaster NDTV said the two suspects claimed they were part of a crime gang that has carried out multiple killings in the past.

Elections in Maharashtra state are expected to be held in November.
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DruasiaAsia

Pakistan separatist militants BLA deny involvement in attack on mines

KARACHI, Pakistan — The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant separatist group in Pakistan, denied involvement in an attack that killed at least 21 mine workers, condemning the violence.

Dozens of attackers stormed a cluster of small private coal mines in Pakistan’s restive southwest on Friday with guns, rockets and hand grenades, killing some miners in their sleep and shooting others after lining them up.

“Baloch Liberation Army condemns the massacre of 21 Pashtun workers in Dukki, making it clear that our organization has no involvement in this tragic incident,” the BLA said in an email late on Saturday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the mines of the Junaid Coal Co. in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan that borders Afghanistan and Iran.

It was the worst such attack in weeks and comes days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Eurasian group Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

A decadeslong insurgency in Balochistan by separatist militant groups has led to frequent attacks against the government, army and Chinese interests in the region, pressing demands for a share in mineral-rich resources.

Besides the separatists, the region is also home to Islamist militants, who have resurged since 2022 after revoking a cease-fire with the government.

The BLA seeks independence for Balochistan. It is the biggest of several ethnic insurgent groups that have battled the South Asian nation’s government for decades, saying it unfairly exploits Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.

The province is home to key mining projects, including Reko Diq, run by giant Barrick Gold ABX.TO and believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines. China also operates a gold and copper mine in the province.

At the time of the attack, a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which says it is set to buy a stake in the Reko Diq mine, was in Islamabad exploring deals as Pakistan seeks to recover from an economic crisis.
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DruchinaChina

Taiwan spots Chinese carrier; China military video says ‘prepared for battle’

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan reported a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing to the island’s south on Sunday, as China’s military put out a video saying it was “prepared for battle” amid concerns in Taipei about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, detests its president Lai Ching-te as a “separatist,” and the Chinese military routinely operates around the island.

Last week at his keynote national day speech, Lai said the People’s Republic of China had no right to represent Taiwan, but that the island was willing to work with Beijing to combat challenges such as climate change, striking both a firm and conciliatory tone, but drawing anger from China.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier the Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific.

Taiwan’s armed forces are keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an appropriate vigilance and response,” the ministry added, without elaborating.

Security sources in Taiwan had said before Lai’s address that his speech could prompt new Chinese war games, last held by the country in May in what Beijing said was “punishment” for Lai’s inauguration speech that month.

Earlier on Sunday, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, which has responsibility for an area that includes Taiwan, put out a propaganda video on its social media accounts entitled “fully prepared and biding ones time before battle.”

It showed fighter jets and warships operating together, mobile missile launchers being moving into place and amphibious assault vehicles, with a small map of Taiwan included in one of the Chinese characters that make up the video’s title.

China has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.

China’s defense ministry did not answer calls outside of office hours on Sunday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Taiwan security official, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters they were continuing to watch the situation around the island, as well as Chinese media comments about Lai’s national day speech.

Chinese media has carried several commentaries and stories since Lai’s Thursday speech denouncing the contents as “confrontational” and harmful.

Some comments on Chinese social media about the military’s “battle preparation” video called for “Taiwan to return to the motherland” and “national reunification.”

A second security source in Taiwan, familiar with intelligence assessments, said while it was still possible China, wary of creating a crisis over Taiwan so soon ahead of next month’s U.S. election, might keep its reaction to angry words, there remained the possibility of more war games.

China is in the middle of its annual drills season, and its military could just “hang a name” on those exercises and turn them into war games specifically targeting Taiwan, the official, also speaking anonymously, told Reuters.

China’s commerce ministry on Saturday threatened Taiwan with more trade sanctions, in what the government views as Chinese economic coercion.

Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future. Lai has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed. 
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DruafAfrica

Congo violence forces people to use often-risky boats to travel

goma, congo — The overcrowded boat that capsized in eastern Congo last week killed eight members of Serge Nzonga’s family along with 70 others. Days later, he was back on the same route that claimed their lives in yet another boat lacking safety measures. 

Nzonga and hundreds of other passengers, including Associated Press journalists, lined up at the seaport in Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, getting ready to board a locally made boat bound for Bukavu city on the other side of Lake Kivu, a perilous journey they would rather undertake than travel Congo’s treacherous roads. 

On Wednesday, as authorities continued to investigate the accident, families of those killed last week protested at the port of Kituku, accusing officials of negligence in failing to address the insecurity in eastern Congo and of delaying rescue operations. 

The capsizing of overloaded boats is becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are abandoning the few available roads for wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods. 

The roads are often caught up in the deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels that sometimes block major access routes. Hundreds have already been killed or declared missing in such accidents so far this year. 

“This is the only way we can reach our brothers and sisters in the other province of South Kivu,” said Nzonga as his turn to board a locally made boat drew nearer. 

“If we don’t take this journey, there is no other route,” he said. “The road is blocked because of the war and … the roads are not paved in eastern Congo.” 

In the absence of good roads in this country of more than 100 million, the rivers in Congo have been the only means of transport many here have known — especially in remote areas where passengers usually come from. 

Among the frequent passengers on the boats and ferries are traders unable to transport their goods along the dangerous roads, some of them spending days or weeks along the rivers. 

However, several others also board them for various other reasons: It is faster than traveling by road, the roads are in bad shape, and families like Nzonga’s can travel at more affordable rates. 

That leaves boats and ferries frequently overcrowded, and safety measures are hardly implemented, analysts say. 

The boat that capsized on Congo’s Lake Kivu last week was trying to dock just meters away from the port of Kituku when it began to sink, witnesses said. 

The boat was visibly overcrowded, “full of passengers (as) it started to lose its balance,” said Francine Munyi, an eyewitness. 

Authorities often threaten harsh punishments to curb overloading, enforce safety measures and punish corrupt officials, but measures promised to stop the accidents are rarely carried out, analysts say. 

“The private sector dominates Lake Kivu … but the boats cannot leave the port without the authorization of the lake commissioner,” said Emile Murhula, an independent analyst, adding that authorities are also supposed to enforce the use of life jackets and remove boats that do not meet the required standards. 

As the Bukavu-bound boat — named Emmanuel 4 — navigated the waters, the passengers cast worried glances at the lake, many of them without life jackets. 

Canoes crisscrossed the lake in search of the bodies of victims still missing after the latest accident. At the seaport, dozens of relatives waited patiently for answers. 

Nzonga, the passenger who lost eight relatives, admits it is dangerous to travel without a life jacket. But even those jackets are not provided by the government. 

“We’re scared, but it’s the only way we have to get to the other province,” he said. “I still have to travel, even though we’re used to it (the accidents).” 
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DruamAmericas

Hot days and methamphetamine are now a deadlier mix in US

PHOENIX — On just one sweltering day during the hottest June on record in Phoenix, a 38-year-old man collapsed under a freeway bridge and a 41-year-old woman was found slumped outside a business. Both had used methamphetamine before dying from an increasingly dangerous mix of soaring temperatures and stimulants.

Meth is showing up more often as a factor in the deaths of people who died from heat-related causes in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death certificates show about one in five heat-related deaths in recent years involved methamphetamine. In Arizona, Texas, Nevada and California, officials found the drug in nearly a third of heat deaths in 2023.

Meth is more common in heat-related deaths than the deadly opioid fentanyl. As a stimulant, it increases body temperature, impairs the brain’s ability to regulate body heat and makes it harder for the heart to compensate for extreme heat.

If hot weather has already raised someone’s body temperature, consuming alcohol or opioids can exacerbate the physical effects, “but meth would be the one that you would be most concerned about,” said Bob Anderson, chief of statistical analysis at the National Center for Health Statistics.

The trend has emerged as a synthetic drug manufactured south of the border by Mexican drug cartels has largely replaced the domestic version of meth fictionalized in the TV series Breaking Bad. Typically smoked in a glass pipe, a single dose can cost as little as a few dollars.

At the same time, human-caused climate change has made it much easier to die from heat-related causes in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and California’s southeastern desert. This has been Earth’s hottest summer on record.

Phoenix baked in temperatures topping 37.7 Celsius for 113 straight days and hit 47.2 Celsius in late September — uncharacteristic even for a city synonymous with heat. The searing temperatures have carried into October. 

“Putting on a jacket can increase body temperature in a cold room. If it’s hot outside, we can take off the jacket,” explained Rae Matsumoto, dean of the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. But people using the stimulant in the outdoor heat “can’t take off the meth jacket.”

These fatalities are particularly prevalent in the Southwest, where meth overdoses overall have risen since the mid-2000s.

In Maricopa County, America’s hottest major metropolitan area, substances including street drugs, alcohol and certain prescription medicines for psychiatric conditions and blood pressure control were involved in about two-thirds, or 419 of the 645 heat-related deaths documented last year. Meth was detected in about three-quarters of these drug cases and was often the primary cause of death, public health data show. Fentanyl was found in just under half of them.

In Pima County, home to Tucson, Arizona’s second most populous city, methamphetamine was a factor in one-quarter of the 84 heat-related deaths reported so far this year, the medical examiner’s office said.

In metro Las Vegas, heat was a factor in 294 deaths investigated last year by the Clark County coroner’s office, and 39% involved illicit and prescription drugs and alcohol. Of those, meth was detected in three-fourths.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration notes in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment that 31% of all drug-related deaths in the U.S. are now caused by stimulants that speed up the nervous system, primarily meth. More than 17,000 people in the U.S. died from fatal overdoses and poisonings related to stimulants in the first half of 2023, according to preliminary CDC data.

Although overdoses have been more associated with opiates like fentanyl, medical professionals say overdosing on meth is possible if a large amount is ingested. Higher blood pressure and a quickened heart rate can then provoke a heart attack or stroke.

“All of your normal physiological ways of coping with heat are compromised with the use of methamphetamines,” said Dr. Aneesh Narang, an emergency medicine physician at Banner University Medical Center in downtown Phoenix.

Narang, who sits on a board that reviews overdose fatalities, said the “vast majority” of the heat stroke patients seen in his hospital’s emergency department this summer had used street drugs, most commonly methamphetamine.

Because of its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, Phoenix is considered a “source city” where large amounts of newly smuggled meth are stored and packaged into relatively tiny doses for distribution, said Det. Matt Shay, a narcotics investigator with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s an amazing amount that comes in constantly every day,” Shay said. “It’s also very cheap.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized about 74,000 kilograms of meth at the U.S.-Mexico border this last fiscal year ending September 30, up from the 63,500 kilograms captured in the previous 12 months.

And sellers often target homeless people, Shay said.

“It’s a customer base that is easy to find and exploit,” Shay said. “If you’re an enterprising young drug dealer, all you need is some type of transportation and you just cruise around and they swarm your car.”

Jason Elliott, a 51-year-old unemployed machinist, said he’s heard of several heat-related deaths involving meth during his three years on the streets in Phoenix.

“It’s pretty typical,” said Elliot, noting that stimulants enable people to stay awake and alert to prevent being robbed in shelters or outdoors. “What else can you do? You have stuff; you go to sleep, you wake up and your stuff is gone.”

Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said brochures were printed this summer and distributed in cooling centers to spread the word about the risk of using stimulants and certain prescription medicines in extreme heat.

But it’s unclear how many are being reached. People who use drugs may not be welcomed at some cooling centers. A better solution, according to Stacey Cope, capacity building and education director for the harm reduction nonprofit Sonoran Prevention Works, is to lower barriers to entry so that people most at risk “are not expected to be absent from drugs, or they’re not expected to leave during the hottest part of the day.”
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DruamAmericas

Online hate against South Asian Americans rises steadily, report says

WASHINGTON — Online hate against Americans of South Asian ancestry has risen steadily in 2023 and 2024 with the rise of politicians from that community to prominence, according to a report released Wednesday by nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate.

Why it’s important

Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris is of Indian descent, as are former Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is also Indian American.

Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. elections.

There has been a steady rise in anti-Asian hate in extremist online spaces from January 2023 to August 2024, the report said.

The nonprofit group blamed the rise on a “toxic political climate in which a growing number of leaders and far-right extremist voices continue to spew bigoted political rhetoric and disinformation.”

Key quotes

“Online threats of violence towards Asian communities reached their highest levels in August 2024, after Usha Vance appeared at the Republican National Convention and Kamala Harris was declared a presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention,” Stop AAPI Hate said.

“The growing prevalence of anti-South Asian online hate … in 2023 and 2024 tracks with the rise in South Asian political representation this election cycle,” it added.

By the numbers

Among Asian American subgroups, South Asian communities were targeted with the highest volume of anti-Asian online hostility, with 60% of slurs directed at them in that period, according to the report.

Anti-South Asian slurs in extremist online spaces doubled last year, from about 23,000 to more than 46,000, and peaked in August 2024.

There are nearly 5.4 million people of South Asian descent living in the United States, comprising of individuals with ancestry from nations including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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DruamAmericas

Volunteers bring solar power to Hurricane Helene’s disaster zone

BAKERSVILLE, North Carolina — Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene downed power lines and washed out roads all over North Carolina’s mountains, the constant din of a gas-powered generator is getting to be too much for Bobby Renfro.

It’s difficult to hear the nurses, neighbors and volunteers flowing through the community resource hub he has set up in a former church for his neighbors in Tipton Hill, a crossroads in the Pisgah National Forest north of Asheville. Much worse is the cost: he spent $1,200 to buy it and thousands more on fuel that volunteers drive in from Tennessee.

Turning off their only power source isn’t an option. This generator runs a refrigerator holding insulin for neighbors with diabetes and powers the oxygen machines and nebulizers some of them need to breathe.

The retired railroad worker worries that outsiders don’t understand how desperate they are, marooned without power on hilltops and down in “hollers.”

“We have no resources for nothing,” Renfro said. “It’s going to be a long ordeal.”

More than 43,000 of the 1.5 million customers who lost power in western North Carolina still lacked electricity on Friday, according to Poweroutage.us. Without it, they can’t keep medicines cold or power medical equipment or pump well water. They can’t recharge their phones or apply for federal disaster aid.

Crews from all over the country and even Canada are helping Duke Energy and local electric cooperatives with repairs, but it’s slow going in the dense mountain forests, where some roads and bridges are completely washed away.

“The crews aren’t doing what they typically do, which is a repair effort. They’re rebuilding from the ground up,” said Kristie Aldridge, vice president of communications at North Carolina Electric Cooperatives.

Residents who can get their hands on gas and diesel-powered generators are depending on them, but that is not easy. Fuel is expensive and can be a long drive away. Generator fumes pollute and can be deadly. Small home generators are designed to run for hours or days, not weeks and months.

Now, more help is arriving. Renfro received a new power source this week, one that will be cleaner, quieter and free to operate. Volunteers with the nonprofit Footprint Project and a local solar installation company delivered a solar generator with six 245-watt solar panels, a 24-volt battery and an AC power inverter. The panels now rest on a grassy hill outside the community building.

Renfro hopes his community can draw some comfort and security, “seeing and knowing that they have a little electricity.”

The Footprint Project is scaling up its response to this disaster with sustainable mobile infrastructure. It has deployed dozens of larger solar microgrids, solar generators and machines that can pull water from the air to 33 sites so far, along with dozens of smaller portable batteries.

With donations from solar equipment and installation companies as well as equipment purchased through donated funds, the nonprofit is sourcing hundreds more small batteries and dozens of other larger systems and even industrial-scale solar generators known as “Dragon Wings.”

Will Heegaard and Jamie Swezey are the husband-and-wife team behind Project Footprint. Heegaard founded it in 2018 in New Orleans with a mission of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of emergency responses. Helene’s destruction is so catastrophic, however, that Swezey said this work is more about supplementing generators than replacing them.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Swezey said as she stared at a whiteboard with scribbled lists of requests, volunteers and equipment. “It’s all hands on deck with whatever you can use to power whatever you need to power.”

Down near the interstate in Mars Hill, a warehouse owner let Swezey and Heegaard set up operations and sleep inside. They rise each morning triaging emails and texts from all over the region. Requests for equipment range from individuals needing to power a home oxygen machine to makeshift clinics and community hubs distributing supplies.

Local volunteers help. Hayden Wilson and Henry Kovacs, glassblowers from Asheville, arrived in a pickup truck and trailer to make deliveries this week. Two installers from the Asheville-based solar company Sundance Power Systems followed in a van.

It took them more than an hour on winding roads to reach Bakersville, where the community hub Julie Wiggins runs in her driveway supports about 30 nearby families. It took many of her neighbors days to reach her, cutting their way out through fallen trees. Some were so desperate they stuck their insulin in the creek to keep it cold.

Panels and a battery from Footprint Project now power her small fridge, a water pump and a Starlink communications system she set up. “This is a game changer,” Wiggins said.

The volunteers then drove to Renfro’s hub in Tipton Hill before their last stop at a Bakersville church that has been running two generators. Other places are much harder to reach. Heegaard and Swezey even tried to figure out how many portable batteries a mule could carry up a mountain and have arranged for some to be lowered by helicopters.

They know the stakes are high after Heegaard volunteered in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria’s death toll rose to 3,000 as some mountain communities went without power for 11 months. Duke Energy crews also restored infrastructure in Puerto Rico and are using tactics learned there, like using helicopters to drop in new electric poles, utility spokesman Bill Norton said.

The hardest customers to help could be people whose homes and businesses are too damaged to connect, and they are why the Footprint Project will stay in the area for as long as they are needed, Swezey said.

“We know there are people who will need help long after the power comes back,” she said. 
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DruamAmericas

Widespread fuel shortage hampers Florida’s Hurricane Milton cleanup

CORTEZ, Florida — Floridians recovering from Hurricane Milton, many of whom were journeying home after fleeing hundreds of miles to escape the storm, spent much of Saturday searching for gas as a fuel shortage gripped the state.

In St. Petersburg, scores of people lined up at a station that had no gas, hoping it would arrive soon. Among them was Daniel Thornton and his 9-year-old daughter Magnolia, who arrived at the station at 7 a.m. and were still waiting four hours later.

“They told me they have gas coming but they don’t know when it’s going to be here,” he said. “I have no choice. I have to sit here all day with her until I get gas.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Saturday morning that the state opened three fuel distribution sites and planned to open several more. Residents can get 37.85 liters each, free of charge, he said.

“Obviously as power gets restored … and the Port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option,” DeSantis said.

Officials were replenishing area gas stations with the state’s fuel stockpiles and provided generators to stations that remained without power.

Disaster hits twice

Those who reached home were assessing the damage and beginning the arduous cleaning process. Some, like Bill O’Connell, a board member at Bahia Vista Gulf in Venice, had thought they were done after the condo association hired companies to gut, treat and dry the units following Hurricane Helene. Milton undid that work and caused additional damage, O’Connell said.

“It reflooded everything that was already flooded, brought all the sand back on our property that we removed,” O’Connell said. “And also did some catastrophic wind damage, ripped off many roofs and blew out a lot of windows that caused more damage inside the units.”

The two hurricanes left a ruinous mess in the fishing village of Cortez, a community of 4,100 along the northern edge of Sarasota Bay. Residents of its modest, single-story wood and stucco-fronted cottages were working to remove broken furniture and tree limbs, stacking the debris in the street much like they did after Hurricane Helene.

“Everything is shot,” said Mark Praught, a retired street sweeper for Manatee County, who saw 1.2-meter storm surges during Helene. “We’ll replace the electrical and the plumbing and go from there.”

Praught and his wife, Catherine, have lived for 36 years in a low-lying home that now looks like an empty shell. All the furniture had to be discarded, the walls and the brick and tile floors had to be scrubbed clean of muck, and drywall had to be ripped out.

Catherine Praught said they felt “pure panic” when Hurricane Milton menaced Cortez so soon after Helene, forcing them to pause their cleanup and evacuate. Fortunately, their home wasn’t damaged by the second storm.

“This is where we live,” Catherine Praught said. “We’re just hopeful we get the insurance company to help us.”

In Bradenton Beach, Jen Hilliard scooped up wet sand mixed with rocks and tree roots and dumped the mixture into a wheelbarrow.

“This was all grass,” Hilliard said of the sandy mess beneath her feet. “They’re going to have to make 500 trips of this.”

Hilliard, who moved to Florida six months ago and lives further inland, said she was happy to pitch in and help clean up her friend’s home a block from the shore in Bradenton Beach.

Furniture and household appliances sat outside alongside debris from interior drywall that was removed after Helene sent several feet of storm surge into the house. Inside, walls were gutted up to 1.2 meters, exposing the beams underneath.

“You roll with the punches,” she said. “Community is the best part, though. Everybody helping each other.”

Milton killed at least 10 people after it made landfall as a Category 3 storm, tearing across central Florida, flooding barrier islands and spawning deadly tornadoes. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations.

Overall, more than a thousand people had been rescued in the wake of the storm as of Saturday, DeSantis said.

Property damage and economic costs in the billions

On Sunday, President Joe Biden will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by the hurricane. He said he hopes to connect with DeSantis during the visit.

The trip offers Biden another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to call lawmakers back to Washington to approve more funding during their preelection recess. It’s something Johnson says he won’t do.

Biden is making the case that Congress needs to act now to ensure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which stretches through November in the Atlantic.

DeSantis welcomed the federal government’s approval of a disaster declaration announced Saturday and said he had gotten strong support from Biden.

“He basically said, you know, you guys are doing a great job. We’re here for you,” he said when asked about his conversations with Biden. “We sent a big request and we got approved for what we wanted.”

Moody’s Analytics on Saturday estimated economic costs from the storm will range from $50 billion to $85 billion, including upwards of $70 billion in property damage and an economic output loss of up to $15 billion.

Safety threats remain, including rising rivers

As the recovery continues, DeSantis has warned people to be cautious, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water. Some 1.3 million Floridians were still without power by Saturday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Paul Close said rivers will “keep rising” for the next four or five days resulting in river flooding, mostly around Tampa Bay and northward. Those areas were hit by the most rain, which comes on top of a wet summer that included several earlier hurricanes.

“You can’t do much but wait,” Close said of the rivers cresting. “At least there is no rain in the forecast, no substantial rain. So we have a break here from all our wet weather.” 
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