Hurricane Fiona rips through powerless Puerto Rico
Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico’s southwest coast on Sunday as it unleashed landslides, knocked the power grid out and ripped up asphalt from roads and flung the pieces around, Associated Press reported.
Hundreds of people were evacuated or rescued across the island as floodwaters rose swiftly. Rushing rivers of brown water enveloped cars, first floors and even an airport runway in the island’s southern region.
Forecasters said the storm threatened to dump “historic” levels of rain on Sunday and Monday, with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) possible in eastern and southern Puerto Rico.
“The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic,” said Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
The storm washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. Large landslides also were reported, with water rushing down big slabs of broken asphalt and into gullies.
Fiona was centered 50 miles (85 kilometers) southeast of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) on Sunday night, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was moving to the northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Fiona struck on the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which hit Puerto Rico 33 years ago as a Category 3 storm, according to Associated Press.
The storm’s clouds covered the entire island and tropical storm-force winds extended as far as 140 miles (220 kilometers) from Fiona’s center.
U.S. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in the U.S. territory as the eye of the storm approached the island’s southwest corner.
Luma, the company that operates power transmission and distribution, said bad weather, including winds of 80 mph, had disrupted transmission lines, leading to “a blackout on all the island.”
“Current weather conditions are extremely dangerous and are hindering out capacity to evaluate the complete situation,” it said, adding that it could take several days to fully restore power.
Health centers were running on generators — and some of those had failed. Health Secretary Carlos Mellado said crews rushed to repair generators at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where several patients had to be evacuated.
Fiona hit just two days before the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a devastating Category 4 storm that struck on Sept. 20, 2017, destroying the island’s power grid and causing nearly 3,000 deaths.
More than 3,000 homes still have only a blue tarp as a roof, and infrastructure remains weak, including the power grid. Outages remain common, and reconstruction started only recently, Associated Press reported.
“I think all of us Puerto Ricans who lived through Maria have that post-traumatic stress of, ‘What is going to happen, how long is it going to last and what needs might we face?’” said Danny Hernández, who works in the capital of San Juan but planned to weather the storm with his parents and family in the western town of Mayaguez.
He said the atmosphere was gloomy at the supermarket as he and others stocked up before the storm hit.
“After Maria, we all experienced scarcity to some extent,” he said.
The storm was forecast to pummel cities and towns along Puerto Rico’s southern coast that have not yet fully recovered from a string of strong earthquakes starting in late 2019.
More than 1,000 people with some 80 pets had sought shelter across the island by Sunday night, the majority of them in the southern coast, according to Associated Press.
Perseverance: Nasa Mars rover collects 'amazing' rock samples
The US space agency's Perseverance rover is close to completing its first set of objectives on Mars, BBC reported.
The Nasa robot has collected a diverse set of rock samples that it will soon deposit on the surface, awaiting carriage to Earth by later missions.
It's 17 months since the vehicle arrived in an area called Jezero Crater, slung below a rocket crane.
Everything "Percy" has seen since confirms to scientists the rover is in the perfect place to hunt for life.
It's not looking for any organisms that are alive today; the harsh environment on Mars makes their presence highly improbable. Rather, the robot is searching for the traces of a biology that could have existed billions of years ago when Jezero was filled with a lake.
This ancient history, scientists hope, is now recorded in the "amazing" rock samples that will be laid down in "a depot" in the next couple of months.
Nasa and the European Space Agency are working up a plan to retrieve the rock cache. It's an audacious plan that will involve another landing system, some helicopters, a Martian rocket and an interplanetary freighter, according to BBC.
The goal is to have the samples back on Earth in 2033.
The delivery will include some examples of igneous, or volcanic, rocks that Perseverance drilled out on the crater floor. These will tell the story, mostly, of Jezero before it was filled with lake water.
Critically, the samples are of a rock type that can be definitively dated. At present, ages on Mars can only be inferred indirectly.
The other part of the cache will include sedimentary type rocks that Perseverance has been collecting in recent months from the delta deposits in the western sector of the 45km-wide crater.
It's the kind of geological feature that might just have trapped traces of past microbial life.
One of the sedimentary samples, from a rock nicknamed "Wildcat Ridge", was formed when muds settled in the Jezero lake as it was evaporating. It's full of salts. But the rover's instrumentation shows that Wildcat Ridge also contains abundant organic, or carbon-rich, compounds.
This is a tantalising observation but comes with important caveats.
"All life as we know it is made up of organics. But, importantly, organic matter can also be made up by processes that are chemical and not related to life; for instance, through water rock interactions. And organics are also found in interstellar dust," said Sunanda Sharma, a mission instrument scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), BBC reported.
For the last four months, Perseverance has been working on the 40m-high scarp that represents the edge of the delta.
"We're looking at the potential of putting down 10 to 11 sample tubes here on the surface," said JPL project systems engineer Rick Welch.
"It would then take about two months to probably put those samples down and actually carefully document where they are, so that a future mission can actually find them."
Real Madrid beat Atletico to continue 100% start
Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid in a lively derby to make it six wins from six at the start of their La Liga title defence, BBC reported.
Rodrygo gave Real the opener with a half-volley from Aurelien Tchouameni's audacious scooped ball over the top.
Mario Hermoso briefly gave Atletico hope with a goal but then all but removed it with a late red card.
The substitute scored with his shoulder with seven minutes to go after Thibaut Courtois had missed a corner from Antoine Griezmann, making his first start of the season for Atletico.
But Hermoso was shown a yellow card for pushing Dani Carvajal and two minutes later picked up a second for shoving Dani Ceballos as they waited for a Griezmann corner.
However, the fixture was marred by what appeared to be racist chants aimed at Real's Brazilian forward Vinicius outside the stadium beforehand, which followed criticism of his dancing goal celebrations and a debate over whether that criticism was racist.
Some fans also reportedly threw objects at Vinicius after a Real goal and aimed further songs at him in the closing stages, according to BBC.
Carlo Ancelotti's Real have won all six games, putting them two points clear of Barcelona at the top. Atletico are seventh.
Real last won their opening six games in 1987-88.
Nwaneri, 15, becomes youngest Premier League player
Fifteen-year-old Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League history in Arsenal's 3-0 win over Brentford, BBC reported.
The English attacking midfielder, who was born in March 2007, replaced Fabio Vieira for the Gunners in stoppage time at Brentford Community Stadium.
Liverpool midfielder Elliott was 16 years and 30 days old when he played for Fulham in 2019.
Nwaneri replaced Vieira, who had scored the third goal, after 91 minutes and two seconds. He was involved for three minutes and 42 seconds before the game ended after 94 minutes and 44 seconds.
He is the first player under the age of 16 to play in the Premier League.
"We have the opportunities to bring young players on," said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta before the game.
"We are pretty short and opportunities come when issues arise."
Nwaneri has made several appearances for Arsenal Under-18s and played for England Under-16s when he was 14, according to BBC.
Arsenal's win over Brentford took them back to the top of the table following victories for Manchester City and Tottenham on Saturday.
Last week Northern Irish schoolboy Christopher Atherton became the youngest senior footballer in the United Kingdom aged 13 years and 329 days when he played for Glenavon.
One in five deaths in Nepal caused by tobacco – new research
Smoking is a bigger killer in Nepal than in any other South Asian country, according to a new research published today by the Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI). The research shows that over 37,000 Nepalis died from smoking in 2019 – that’s nearly one in five (19.4%) of all deaths, twice the rate in 1990 and well ahead of India where just 13.1% of deaths are caused by tobacco. And the rate of death from tobacco has increased more in Nepal in the last 30 years than in any other country in the world. According to the NDRI’s new report Health Impact of Tobacco in Nepal, at current rates around 1.34 million Nepalis will die from smoking in the next 30 years. Publishing the report at today’s second National Health Summit conference in Kathmandu, NDRI General Secretary Dr Jaya Gurung is asking politicians of all parties to recognize the scale of this slow-burn health crisis by pledging to take action to stem the tide of deaths. Dr Gurung said: “This research should be a wake-up call for us. Far too many Nepalis are dying every year because of smoking. We are becoming an outlier in South Asia and around the world, and that should shame us into action. Every death from smoking is an avoidable tragedy. But in Nepal, we could be doing so much more to lower the numbers of dead. That’s why we’re calling on all politicians to show they understand the scale of this problem and pledge to do something about it.” NDRI, together with the Nepal Cancer Relief Society, the National Medical Association, Annuapurna Media Network and Yuwa, are calling for politicians commit to tackling tobacco. The coalition has a four-point plan to stop Nepal’s smoking epidemic in its tracks. It is asking politicians to sign a pledge to: • Match the levels of tobacco taxation in India by 2025
Chief Justice Rana under house arrest, says Oli
CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has claimed that the government has placed suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana under house arrest. Speaking to mediapersons after the Secretariat meeting of the party on Sunday, he commented about the government’s behavior on Rana. “Keeping the suspended Chief Justice under house arrest is a blow to democracy,” Oli said. He said that his party would condemn the role played by the government in the chief justice impeachment case. “The government should work as per the democratic norms and values. It should follow the principle of separation of powers,” he said. Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has urged the government to respect the rights to privacy and personal freedom of Chief Justice Rana. The Commission said that such rights should not be curtailed under any circumstances, read a statement issued by the rights watchdog spokesperson Tikaram Pokharel.
Foreign Secretary Paudel leaving for New York today to take part in 77th Session of UNGA
Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal is leaving for New York today leading the Nepali delegation to the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) being held at the UN Headquarters in New York.
While in New York, Foreign Secretary Paudyal will address the general debate of the 77th UNGA under the theme of “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges,” read a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Foreign Secretary will participate in the high-leve lmeetings on the sidelines of the UNGA and hold bilateral meetings with the high officials of the United Nations.
Nepal records 59 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday
Nepal reported 59 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 753 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 25 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 129 people underwent antigen tests, of which 34 were tested positive. The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 161 infected people recovered from the disease. As of today, there are 1, 830 active cases in the country.
