International

Hurricane Ian plowed into Florida’s Gulf Coast with catastrophic force yesterday, assaulting the state with howling winds, torrential rain and a treacherous surge of ocean surf that made it one of the most powerful storms on record to hit the United States. Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa, a barrier island and state park about 90 miles south of Tampa and just west of Fort Myers, as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of up to 150mph, the US National hurricane Center (NHC) reported. The storm’s wind speeds put it just shy of a Category 5 designation on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the most severe classification for storms with maximum sustained winds of at least 157mph, though Ian was expected to weaken a notch after coming ashore, according to the NHC.

Residents across Florida scrambled to place sandbags around their homes and stockpile emergency supplies on Monday, emptying store shelves as Hurricane Ian spun toward the state carrying high winds, torrential rains and a powerful storm surge. Ian's path toward Florida forced the US space agency NASA to roll its giant Artemis 1 moon rocket off its Cape Canaveral lauchpad after postponing the much-anticipated mission a third time. Ian was a Category 2 hurricane as of Monday evening, packing winds over 100 miles per hour and expected to intensify before making landfall in Cuba. Forecasters said that once Ian left Cuba, the storm could make landfall north of Tampa Bay early on Friday or turn northwest toward Florida's Panhandle. "This is a really big storm," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference, saying the storm could potentially envelope both coasts of the state. The Biden administration declared a public health emergency for the state on Monday and said it was working with local officials to provide support. Florida has seen wetter, windier and more intense hurricanes in recent years, which experts attribute to climate change. There is also evidence that climate change is causing storms to travel more slowly, meaning they can dump more water in one place. Signs of the impending storm were seen throughout Florida, a state of 21 million people. In Titusville, a city of 43,000 on the Atlantic Coast, crews used chainsaws to trim palm trees. In a grocery store in St. Petersburg, across the state on the Gulf Coast, only empty cardboard boxes remained where the store normally stocks distilled water. Toilet paper, snacks and canned soup could still be found. In the historic Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City, northeast of downtown, Diane Zambito, 64, said she normally doesn't get rattled by hurricanes that hit the state. "But this one's different," she said on Monday afternoon as her husband nailed plywood over their home's windows. "This one scares me. It's too big to not be scared if you have any sense." The couple planned to shovel sand into bags and stack them up in front of the doors to keep water from flowing inside. The Zambitos were among many Florida residents preparing for flooding that could submerge streets and homes. Hurricane-force could damage or destroy homes and businesses and trigger power outages in the coming days, forecasters warn. The governor has mobilized 5,000 National Guard members. An additional 2,000 are coming from Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina and nearby states have troops on standby. Key West Mayor Teri Johnston said her island city could be one of the first places in the United States hit by Hurricane Ian. Johnston said homeowners and vacation rentals had nailed up storm shutters or boards across windows as residents stocked up enough food and water to last a week. The city cut down the coconuts from trees lining some streets, she said, explaining: "A coconut can become a 30-pound projectile in a storm." City vehicles were moved to higher ground and residents living on boats were told to seek shelter on land before storm squalls start lashing the city on Monday night. Forecasters predicted a 1.2 meter storm surge that could push seawater up over the shore into the streets. "If there's an evacuation, I will be the one to order it," Johnston said. "We'll consider it if the storm wobbles east." The intensifying storm was about 160 km southwest of Grand Cayman on Monday morning with sustained winds of 128 km per hour. BP Plc halted oil production at two platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Ian could intensify into a Category 3 storm once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters say, but weaken again while parked off Tampa on Florida's Gulf Coast on Thursday. From there, the storm's path is uncertain. Regardless, between 15 to 30 cm of rain were expected to inundate both Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts on Thursday, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Ian follows Hurricane Fiona, a powerful Category 4 storm that carved a path of destruction last week through Puerto Rico, leaving most of the US territory without power and potable water. Fiona then barreled through the Turks and Caicos Islands, skirted Bermuda and slammed into Canada's Atlantic coast, where critical infrastructure might take months to repair.

The United States warned of “catastrophic consequences” if Moscow were to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, after Russia’s Foreign Minister said regions holding widely-criticised referendums would get full protection if annexed by Moscow. Votes in four eastern Ukrainian regions, aimed at annexing territory Russia has taken by force mostly since its invasion in February, were staged for a third day yesterday. The Russian parliament could move to formalise the annexation within days. By incorporating the four areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia, Moscow could portray attacks to retake them as an attack on Russia itself, a warning to Kyiv and its Western allies. The Russian annexations raise the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and the Nato military alliance as Western arms are being used by Ukrainian troops. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday the United States would respond decisively to any Russian use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine and that it had spelled out to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face. “If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia. The United States will respond decisively,” Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press programme. The latest US warning followed a thinly veiled nuclear threat made last Wednesday by President Vladimir Putin, who said Russia would use any weapons to defend its territory. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the point more directly at a news conference on Saturday after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York. Asked if Russia would have grounds for using nuclear weapons to defend the annexed regions, he said Russian territory, including territory “further enshrined” in Russia’s constitution in the future, “is under the full protection of the state”. In his speech, Lavrov sought to justify Russia’s seven-month war in Ukraine, repeating Moscow’s false claims that the elected government in Kyiv was illegitimately installed and filled with neo-Nazis. He cast opposition to what Russia calls a “special operation” as limited to the United States and countries under its sway, although nearly three-quarters of states in the assembly voted to reprimand Russia and demand it withdraw. Ukraine and its allies have dismissed the referendums as a sham designed to justify an escalation of the war and a mobilisation drive by Moscow after recent battlefield losses. Russian news agencies quoted unidentified sources as saying the two houses of the Russian parliament could debate bills to incorporate the new territories as soon as Thursday. State-run RIA Novosti said Putin could address parliament in an extraordinary joint session Friday. Russia says the referendums, hastily organised after Ukraine recaptured swathes of the northeast in a counter-offensive this month, enable people in those regions to express their view. The territory controlled by Russian forces in the four regions represents about 15% of Ukraine, about the size of Portugal. It would add to Crimea, which Russia claims to have already annexed in 2014, and which is nearly the size of Belgium.

They like to call it ‘the greatest museum you’ll never see.’ Tucked away in the corridors of its Langley, Virginia, headquarters, the revamped Central Intelligence Agency museum — while still closed to the public — is revealing some newly declassified artefacts from the spy agency’s most storied operations since its founding 75 years ago. Top among them: a slightly more than foot-long (30.5cm) scale model of the compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, that was used to brief President Joe Biden before the drone strike that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri just two months ago. “It’s very unusual for something to get declassified that quickly,” said Janelle Neises, the museum’s deputy director. “We use our artefacts to tell our stories. It’s a way to be really honest and transparent about the CIA, which is sometimes hard,” said Neises, who joined the museum’s director Robert Byer on Saturday in leading a media on a tour of renovated exhibits. The items, some of which are available to view online, are part of a broader effort to expand public outreach and recruitment by the legendary but secretive agency, known as much in some quarters for its scandals as for intelligence successes. CIA officials often say that the agency’s successes are secret but its failures sometimes public. The outreach effort includes the launch earlier this week of the CIA’s first public podcast on which Director William Burns said the agency sought to “demystify” its work at a time when “trust in institutions is in such short supply.” The hundreds of museum items, some of which have been on display since the 1980s, are all declassified. Neises said the agency does from time to time loan some to presidential libraries and other non-profit museums. On view for those cleared to visit: the AKM assault rifle toted by Osama bin Laden the night US Navy SEALs killed him in a raid of his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound in 2011, and a leather jacket found with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein when he was captured in 2003. Other exhibits range from flight suits worn by pilots of Cold War-era U-2 and A-12 spy planes to a wood-framed saddle, similar to those used by members of CIA’s Team Alpha as they navigated Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain by horseback shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. None of the items, all of which are considered US government heritage assets, have been assessed for value. “Our museum is operational,” Neises said. “It’s here for our workforce to learn from our successes and failures.”

Pharoah Sanders, one of the most wildly inventive figures in jazz who wrestled his saxophone to its limits and felt equally at home in Indian and African music, died yesterday. He was 81. His record label, Luaka Bop, said he died peacefully around friends and family in Los Angeles. “Always and forever the most beautiful human being, may he rest in peace,” a label statement said. Taking the open-mindedness of the free jazz movement to new heights, Sanders would virtually attack his saxophone by heavily overblowing on the mouthpiece — of which he collected hundreds — as well as biting the reed and even shouting into the bell of the instrument. Sanders, a disciple of John Coltrane, who played aggressive solos on the jazz master’s classic late-career Live in Japan album, was often seen as a sort of successor to the global-minded legend after Coltrane’s sudden death in 1967. Ornette Coleman — arguably the most important pioneer of free jazz — called Sanders “probably the best tenor player in the world.” But Sanders, who to a lesser extent played soprano and alto sax as well, also divided audiences and never reached quite the same commercial success as Coltrane, Coleman or other historic jazz innovators. With solos that built from screeching and squawking to silky and melodic, Sanders was described as a godfather of spiritual or even cosmic jazz, although the reticent musician brushed aside labels. His best-known works included The Creator Has a Master Plan, a nearly 33-minute track off his Karma album on which Sanders sounds as if he is exorcising demons, before reaching a state of nirvana. Leon Thomas sings on the track, released in 1969 at the apex of counterculture, with the lines, The creator has a master plan /Peace and happiness for every man. Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, off Sanders’ influential 1967 Tauhid album, builds off guitar twangs and a gentle xylophone paying tribute to African tradition as Sanders storms in with a saxophone that sounds like tortured howls. “I don’t really see the horn anymore. I’m trying to see myself,” he said in the liner notes to Tauhid, his first album on the Impulse! label that put out Coltrane. “And similarly, as to the sounds I get, it’s not that I’m trying to scream on my horn, I’m just trying to put all my feelings into the horn,” he said. Farrell Sanders — he changed his first name’s spelling at the encouragement of futuristic jazz composer Sun Ra — was born and raised in segregated Little Rock, Arkansas, where he played clarinet in a school band and explored jazz from touring artists. He moved after high school to Oakland, California, where for the first time he enjoyed the freedom to attend racially mixed clubs and had a fateful first meeting with Coltrane as they shopped for mouthpieces. He later headed to New York where he at times fell into homelessness, working as a cook and even selling his blood to survive. He met Sun Ra while cooking at a Greenwich Village club. Discovering his musical talent, Sun Ra and Coltrane enlisted Sanders as a band member, with Sanders coming into his own as a band leader after Coltrane’s death. Describing his style in a 1996 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Sanders said: “I have a dark sound; a lot of the younger guys have a bright sound, but I like a dark sound with more roundness, more depth and feeling in it,” he said. “I want my sound to be like a fragrance that people will like — something fresh, like the smell of your grandmother’s cake cooking,” he said. Sanders — distinctive in his later years for his long white beard and fez cap — dabbled in pop music, starting with 1971’s Thembi, named after his wife. But his mainstream direction was brief and he often found more musical kinship outside the United States. On 1969’s Jewels of Thought, Sanders explored mysticism from across Africa, opening with a Sufi meditation for peace. Decades later on The Trance of Seven Colors, Sanders collaborated with Mahmoud Guinia, the Moroccan master of the spiritual gnawa music and of the guembri lute. Sanders’ 1996 album Message from Home delved into the influences of sub-Saharan Africa including highlife, the pop mix of Western and traditional music that originated in Ghana. He also explored Indian form with his collaborations with Alice Coltrane, the jazz master’s second wife, who became a yogi. Sanders voiced the most admiration for Indian musicians, including Bismillah Khan, who brought a wider audience to the shehnai, a type of oboe played frequently at processions on the subcontinent, and Ravi Shankar, who made the sitar international. Sanders, accustomed to the sharing of energy within jazz bands, described Indian musicians as achieving “pure music.” “Nobody is trying to cut each other’s throat. There’s no ego,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. Describing his own music, he said: “I want to take the audience on a spiritual journey; I want to stir them up, excite them. Then I bring them back with a calming feeling.”

NASA has called off the scheduled Tuesday launch of its historic uncrewed mission to the Moon due to a tropical storm that is forecast to strengthen as it approaches Florida. After two previously canceled launch attempts, NASA is weighing returning the Artemis 1 mission rocket to its assembly site under the threat of extreme weather. "NASA is forgoing a launch opportunity... and preparing for rollback (from the launchpad), while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian," it said on Saturday. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ian is due to "rapidly intensify" over the weekend as it moves toward Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center, from which the rocket is set to launch. Currently south of Jamaica, the storm is expected to approach Florida's west coast "at or near major hurricane strength" early next week, threatening storm surge, flooding and hurricane-force winds across much of the state, the NHC said. On the launchpad, the giant orange and white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket can withstand wind gusts of up to 137 kilometers (85 miles) per hour. But if it has to be sheltered, the current launch window, which runs until October 4, will be missed. A decision on whether to roll back the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building is due to be taken by the Artemis 1 team on Sunday, "to allow for additional data gathering and analysis," with the operation, if necessary, starting late Sunday or Monday morning, NASA said. Jim Free, associate administrator for the agency's exploration systems development directorate, said on Twitter that a "step-wise approach" to the decision to roll back preserves "a launch opportunity if conditions improve," indicating a launch date before October 5 was still on the table. If not, the next launch window will run from October 17 to 31, with one possibility of take-off per day, except from October 24-26 and 28. The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS as well as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits atop it, in preparation for future Moon-bound journeys with humans aboard. Artemis is named after the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo, after whom the first Moon missions were named. Unlike the Apollo missions, which sent only white men to the Moon between 1969 and 1972, Artemis missions will see the first person of color and the first woman step foot on the lunar surface. A successful Artemis 1 mission would come as a huge relief to the US space agency, after years of delays and cost overruns. But another setback would be a blow to NASA, after two previous launch attempts were scrapped when the rocket experienced technical glitches including a fuel leak. The cost of the Artemis program is estimated to reach $93 billion by 2025, with its first four missions clocking in at a whopping $4.1 billion each, according to a government audit.

People who had Covid-19 are at higher risk for a host of brain injuries a year later compared with people who were never infected by the coronavirus, a finding that could affect millions of Americans, US researchers reported on Thursday. The year-long study, published in Nature Medicine, assessed brain health across 44 different disorders using medical records without patient identifiers from millions of US veterans. Brain and other neurological disorders occurred in 7% more of those who had been infected with Covid compared with a similar group of veterans who had never been infected. That translates into roughly 6.6 million Americans who had brain impairments linked with their Covid infections, the team said. "The results show the devastating long-term effects of Covid-19," senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University School of Medicine said in a statement. Al-Aly and colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System studied medical records from 154,000 U.S. veterans who had tested positive for Covid from March 1, 2020 to Jan. 15, 2021. They compared these with records from 5.6 million patients who did not have Covid during the same time frame, and another group of 5.8 million people from the period just before the coronavirus arrived in the United States. Al-Aly said prior studies looked at a narrower group of disorders, and were focused largely on hospitalized patients, whereas his study included both hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. Memory impairments, commonly referred to as brain fog, were the most common symptom. Compared with the control groups, people infected with Covid had a 77% higher risk of developing memory problems. People infected with the virus also were 50% more likely to have an ischemic stroke, which is caused by blood clots, compared with the never infected group. Those who had Covid were 80% more likely to have seizures, 43% more likely to have mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression, 35% more likely to have headaches and 42% more likely to suffer movement disorders, such as tremors, compared with the control groups. Researchers said governments and health systems must devise plans for a post-Covid world. “Given the colossal scale of the pandemic, meeting these challenges requires urgent and coordinated - but, so far, absent - global, national and regional response strategies,” Al-Aly said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday demanded that President Vladimir Putin be held to account as he faced Russia in a Security Council session in which the United Nations catalogued abuses in Ukraine. “The very international order we’ve gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes,” Blinken told the Security Council in a special session as leaders met at the United Nations. “We cannot – we will not – let President Putin get away with it,” he said. Blinken accused Putin of adding “fuel to the fire” with recent steps including calling up reservists and planning referendums in Russian-held Ukrainian territory. The top US diplomat said it was critical to show that “no nation can redraw the borders of another by force.” “If we fail to defend this principle when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send the message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it, too.” France, the current head of the Security Council, called the session to highlight the quest for accountability in Ukraine. “There is no peace without justice,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told reporters. Opening the session, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the UN rights body has seen “a catalogue of cruelty – summary executions, sexual violence, torture and other inhumane and degrading treatment against civilians and prisoners of war. “All these allegations must be thoroughly investigated, to ensure accountability,” he said, without directly pointing the finger at Russia. “Perpetrators must be held to account in fair and independent judicial proceedings. “Victims and their families have a right to justice, remedy and reparation,” Guterres said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday rejected the Western accusations at a UN Security Council session on abuses in Ukraine, calling instead for punishment of Kyiv’s government. “The US and their allies with the connivance of international human rights organisations have been covering the crimes of the Kyiv regime,” Lavrov said after the Security Council heard accounts of abuses by Russian forces. Blinken has refused one-on-one talks with his Russian counterpart since the invasion, doubting Moscow’s willingness for any peace efforts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the General Assembly on Wednesday, demanded a special tribunal and “punishment” for Russia over its invasion and abuses. Highlighting evidence from Ukraine was Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which announced an investigation into possible war crimes just days after Russia invaded its neighbour in February. “In my view the echoes of Nuremburg should be heard today,” he told the Security Council yesterday, referring to the German city where Nazi war crimes trials were held.

Baikonur (Kazakhstan): A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday on a Russian-operated flight, in a rare instance of co-operation between Moscow and Washington. The Russian space agency Roscosmos and Nasa both distributed live footage of the launch from Kazakhstan and commentators speaking over the feed said it was stable and that “the crew is feeling well”. Nasa’s Frank Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin make up the crew that launched from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome at 1354 GMT. Rubio is the first US astronaut to travel to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into pro-Western Ukraine on February 24. In response, Western capitals including Washington have hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions and bilateral ties have sunk to new lows. Space remained an outlier of cooperation between the two countries. Russia’s only active female cosmonaut Anna Kikina is expected to travel to the orbital station in early October aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. She will become only the fifth professional woman cosmonaut from Russia or the Soviet Union to fly to space, and the first Russian to fly aboard a spacecraft of SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk. Russian cosmonauts and Western astronauts have sought to steer clear of the conflict that is raging back on Earth, especially when in orbit together. A collaboration among the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, the ISS is split into two sections: the US Orbital Segment, and the Russian Orbital Segment. At present, the ISS depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, about 250 miles above sea level, with the US segment responsible for electricity and life support systems.

Beijing yesterday said President Joe Biden’s latest comments that the US would defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion “severely violate” Washington’s policy towards the island. Washington cut formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, switching recognition to Beijing as the sole representative of China — but it has maintained a decisive, if delicate, role in supporting the island since. In an interview with US broadcaster CBS, Biden was asked whether US troops would defend Taiwan, and replied “yes”, if it were “an unprecedented attack”. He went on to say that Taiwan makes its “own judgements” about independence and the US was not “encouraging...their being independent”. “That’s their decision,” he said. China reacted angrily yesterday, with foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning telling a regular press briefing: “The US remarks...severely violate the important commitment the US made not to support Taiwan independence, and send a seriously erroneous signal to Taiwanese separatist independence forces.” “We are willing to make the biggest sincere efforts to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification,” Mao said. “At the same time, we will never tolerate any activities aimed at splitting the country, and reserve the choice to take all necessary measures.” Tensions between China and the US are already higher than usual in the wake of a rare visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, a key Biden ally and speaker of the House of Representatives. Last week, a US Senate committee took the first step towards directly providing billions of dollars in military aid to Taiwan and making ties more official. The US approved a potential arms sale worth more than $1bn to Taiwan in early September, including 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, which provoked anger from China. “We urge the US side to fully recognise the extreme importance and high sensitivity of the Taiwan question...(and) earnestly implement the commitment made by US leaders not to support Taiwanese independence,” Mao added. Biden’s comments appeared to depart from decades of US policy towards Taiwan. While Washington does arm Taiwan, it has long maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily if Beijing were to invade. The policy is designed to dissuade both China from invading and Taiwan from formally declaring independence.

Republican movements may be gaining steam in British realms across the globe, but in the tiny Caribbean paradise of Antigua and Barbuda, residents have decidedly mixed feelings about their leaders’ push to break that final link. Days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Antigua and Barbuda became the first of the 14 remaining realms now ruled over by her son, Charles, to openly float the idea of replacing the British monarch as its head of state. Doing so would not be “an act of hostility” but “the final step to complete the circle of independence,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne told British broadcaster ITV news, saying that he hopes to hold a referendum on the matter within the next three years. Whether his people want to take that step is an open question, admitted Browne’s chief of staff Lionel Hurst during an interview at the prime minister’s office overlooking the port capital of St John’s in the country’s main island, Antigua. “We’re not sure yet,” he said Friday. If Browne wins the next general election, which must be held by 2023, the years before any referendum would be spent “selling the idea” to Antiguans and Barbudans. On St John’s busy Market Street, most residents agreed the idea would need to be sold. “I think we should stay with the crown. This country cannot manage on its own,” 53-year-old Leonie Barker told AFP after buying groceries ahead of Tropical Storm Fiona, due to brush past the island Friday night. Others said that it was too early to take a stand. Education and engagement on the idea are needed, 58-year-old Peter Thomas said. “I think we have reached a stage in life (where) we would like to be on our own, but are we ready? That’s the next story,” he said. Fashion designer and singer Kelly Richardson also said islanders needed more information, adding that he did not think it was “a bad idea.” “I’m open to changes,” he told AFP from behind dark sunglasses. Some could see potential on both sides. Antigua has already come far since independence in 1981, local cameraman JC Cornelius argued, so when it comes to removing the queen as head of state — “why not?” But then again, he added, “unity and one love is really key. So, being with the queen... I mean, why not?” The matter, he said, would require “some nice diligent consideration.” Browne’s hoped-for referendum would come nearly 400 years after Britain first colonised Antigua in 1632, followed by neighbouring Barbuda in 1678. Settlers began growing sugar on the islands — but with Indigenous Caribbean people dying by the thousands across the region, they imported African slaves to tend the profitable crop. Emancipation finally came in 1833, and many of Antigua and Barbuda’s 97,000 people today are the descendants of slaves. The country, whose economy is now heavily dependent on tourism, has been an independent nation for more than four decades — but, argues government spokesman Hurst, it’s a funny kind of independence. “The monarchy is in England, we don’t deceive ourselves,” he told AFP. “It’s kind of less than independence when your head of state is determined not by you, but by a tradition that lies 6,000 miles away.” Any control Britain exerts is mostly procedural, however, he said — and breaking away from that is “symbolic.” “In large part it will have a psychological impact on the people of Antigua and Barbuda, that is its primary purpose,” he said. Whether the younger generations are as impacted by the wounds of the past, however, also appears to be a question of some debate. Generation Z’s biggest concern is not the nation’s psyche but development, 19-year-old student Kemani Sinclair told AFP, gesturing at the colourful buildings around the centre of St John’s — some of which have fallen into disrepair. The process of holding a referendum on removing the British monarchy would be a costly waste of money that could be spent elsewhere, he argued. “I truly believe Antigua shouldn’t become a republic. It’s just not ready,” Sinclair said.

Almost five decades after she refused an Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando over the treatment of Native Americans by the US film industry, Sacheen Littlefeather was honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In a moving ceremony in Los Angeles filled with singing and dancing, the Academy publicly apologised to Littlefeather, who was feted by activists in the wake of her protest, but blackballed by the movie world. Littlefeather, who is Apache and Yaqui, was booed at the 1973 Academy Awards — the first to be broadcast live around the world — while explaining on Brando’s behalf why he would not accept his best actor Oscar for The Godfather. On Saturday she told a packed audience at the Academy’s newly-opened museum how she had arrived at the ceremony just minutes before she took the stage because Brando had taken so long writing his non-acceptance speech. “I went up there, like a proud Indian woman with dignity, with courage, with grace, and with humility,” she said. “I knew that I had to speak the truth. Some people may accept it. And some people may not.” She was greeted on stage by Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann and James Bond star Roger Moore, who proffered the statuette she refused to accept. Under strict instructions from Academy managers not to give an acceptance speech longer than 60 seconds, she delivered instead a dignified impromptu address. “I said okay, and I had made this promise to Marlon (Brando) not to touch the Oscar. And so I wasn’t under any pressure that night,” Littlefeather quipped. She said veteran Western star John Wayne had to be restrained from physically assaulting her as she left the stage. Littlefeather, a member of the Screen Actors’ Guild, subsequently found it difficult to get work in Hollywood, with casting directors warned not to employ her. Former Academy president David Rubin, who penned the apology earlier this year, took to the stage to read his words, which invoked “the emotional burden” Littlefeather bore and “the cost to your own career.” “For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.” Rubin’s apology comes as the movie industry reckons with what many view as a culture of sexism, racism and impunity. “The academy and our industry finds itself at an inflection point,” Rubin said on Saturday. “We are actively examining our past and focusing on how best we can facilitate healing.” The museum, which opened last September, has pledged to confront the Oscars’ “problematic history” including racism. One display already tackles the harassment of Littlefeather. The Academy has also moved to confront accusations of a lack of racial diversity in recent years. In 2019, Last of the Mohicans star Wes Studi became the first Native American actor to receive an Oscar, with an honorary Academy Award recognising his career. Its museum has also previously hosted events on women who achieved historic Oscars milestones including a talk with Buffy Sainte-Marie — the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar, for best original song in 1983.

The UN General Assembly is back in person after the pandemic disruption but in a world as full of crises as ever, with the war in Ukraine set to pit the West against Russia. Some 150 world leaders will descend on New York for a week of diplomacy, with all required to come in person to speak save one — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, granted an exception as he leads the fight against Russian invaders. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking ahead of the summit that formally begins Tuesday, said that the world’s divisions “are the widest they have been since at least the Cold War.” “Our world is blighted by war, battered by climate chaos, scarred by hate and shamed by poverty, hunger and inequality,” Guterres said. “As fractures deepen and trust evaporates, we need to come together around solutions.” For the two previous years, the annual meeting that jams traffic through Midtown Manhattan had been a more subdued affair with leaders allowed to send in videos. The General Assembly voted Friday to let Zelensky speak by video. Seven nations voted against including Russia, saying that the right should be extended to all leaders, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping, not planning to travel to New York. Several US adversaries are expected, however, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, defying loud protests from their opponents in the United States. Richard Gowan, who follows the United Nations for the International Crisis Group, said that Zelensky’s speech will “get 1,000 times more attention than most in-person speeches by other leaders.” “But Zelensky has to be careful. A lot of non-Western politicians are resentful of the West’s focus on Ukraine and worry that the war is distracting international attention from issues like the global food crisis,” he said. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, acknowledged the concerns, saying that despite discussions on Ukraine, “it will not be the only thing that we’re dealing with.” “We cannot ignore the rest of the world and what is happening in the rest of the world, the impact of climate change, the impact of the pandemic, conflicts elsewhere in the world,” she said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday will co-chair a summit on food security with the African Union, European Union and Spain as high global prices — worsened by the invasion of major grain producer Ukraine — bring new hunger around the world. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said that he will seek “dialogue with our partners from the South to avoid planting this idea that it’s the West against the rest.” Despite the shift toward normalcy, the schedule of the General Assembly was scrambled by the death of Queen Elizabeth II. US President Joe Biden, who traditionally would have been one of the first speakers Tuesday and who would have led the food summit, will instead speak Wednesday. And with Covid concerns lingering, the United Nations is still limiting the size of delegations and requiring the wearing of masks in the towering headquarters on the East River. Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took office two days before the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, will fly after the funeral to the United Nations on her first foreign trip since taking office. The UN summit will also mark a fresh occasion to build momentum on global action on climate change, amid mounting signs that the planet is descending into dangerous levels of warming. “We have run out of time to waste,” said ambassador Walton Webson of Antigua and Barbuda, heading the Alliance of Small Island States. “Our islands are being hit with more severe and more frequent climate impacts and recovery comes at the cost of our development,” he said. Guterres said he will use the week to speak frankly with leaders amid guarded hopes for further progress on climate during the next climate summit, COP27, in Egypt in November.

Contenders are warming up for the race to succeed Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum in the running to become the country’s first woman head of state. The presidential election is not until July 2024, and officially the campaign has not yet started. But a war of “likes” is already under way on social media between Sheinbaum — a scientist by training and close ally of Lopez Obrador — and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. Both hope to be the presidential candidate of the ruling Morena party, which holds its annual congress this weekend. “A woman can be an astronaut, a lawyer, a policewoman, deputy governor, and president of the republic,” Sheinbaum said during a recent trip outside the capital to greet supporters. Party members will decide the Morena candidate in 2023, and opinion polls suggest their pick will be the favourite to govern for six more years. In the meantime, anyone can ask Ebrard, 62, questions on WhatsApp after he published a contact number, or watch TikTok videos in which he declares himself a fan of K-pop superstars BTS. People can also watch Sheinbaum, 60, on TikTok playing with a yo-yo or confessing with a laugh to having been the talker of the school classroom, in contrast to her serious adult image. An opinion poll published in late August by the firm Enkoll found that 35% of respondents would favour Sheinbaum to be Morena’s presidential candidate, against 26 percent for Ebrard. And 82 percent said they would vote for a woman president, which would mark a sea change for a country with a longstanding culture of machismo. But another survey, released September 6 by Poligrama, showed Sheinbaum and Ebrard almost neck and neck. While Lopez Obrador has said that he will back whoever wins, he often shows support for Sheinbaum, whom he describes as “incorruptible” and a person of “convictions.” Ebrard, himself a former mayor of Mexico City, “knows how to govern and is efficient,” but is not as close to Lopez Obrador as the president’s “stalwart” confidante Sheinbaum, said analyst Pablo Majluf. A weak opposition means the big winner of the early campaigning is Lopez Obrador — with an approval rating of more than 60% — since only his candidates are in the race so far, said political analyst Carlos Bravo Regidor. Sheinbaum, who is of Lithuanian and Bulgarian descent, “feels very motivated to continue (Lopez Obrador’s reform agenda) and be the first woman president in the history of Mexico,” a source close to her told AFP. Ebrard, who has French roots, is trying to raise his profile with domestic trips in addition to his international agenda, which includes attending Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London tomorrow. In videos shared on social networks, Mexico’s top diplomat is seen harvesting agave in a tequila plantation and performing traditional dances in Bolivia. It is not Ebrard’s first shot at the presidency. He was defeated by Lopez Obrador in the internal Morena vote to be the party’s candidate in the 2018 presidential elections. The Mexican constitution limits presidents to a single six-year term and the incumbent has promised not to run again. Some analysts believe Lopez Obrador will seek to assert his influence beyond 2024 to safeguard his reform agenda. He will be better positioned to wield power from the sidelines “if he is followed by a weak president or a president who needs support,” Bravo Regidor said.

At least 49 Armenian soldiers and 50 Azeri military personnel were killed yesterday in the deadliest fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia since a 2020 war, each side said, spurring Russian President Vladimir Putin to appeal for calm. Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbouring former Soviet republics, blamed each other for the renewed fighting which began overnight at several points along their border, raising fears of another major armed conflict in the area of the old Soviet Union while Russia’s military is tied up in Ukraine. Russia has peacekeeping troops in the Azeri-Armenian conflict zone as guarantor of an agreement that ended a six-week war two years ago over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia said Azerbaijan had shelled towns near the border including Jermuk, Goris and Kapan, forcing it to respond. Baku said Armenian sabotage units had sought to mine Azeri positions and began the shooting. It also accused Armenian troops of firing heavy weapons in violation of a ceasefire reached earlier on Tuesday. Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield accounts from either side. “It is difficult to overestimate the role of the Russian Federation, the role of Putin personally,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “The president is naturally making every effort to help de-escalate tensions at the border.” Russia’s war in Ukraine has undermined its status as a regional security guarantor, leaving room for Azerbaijan to make more claims, said Laurence Broers, associate fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House think tank. Azerbaijan, which is politically and culturally linked to Turkiye, made significant territorial gains in 2020, reclaiming land lost to ethnic Armenians in an earlier war over Nagorno-Karabakh 30 years before. “Since February, we also have been seeing the collapse of Russia’s reputation as a security patron and a provider of security in the region,” Broers said. “That has created a window of opportunity for Azerbaijan, recalling that the outcome of the second war in 2020 left unfinished business.” The CSTO, a Russian-led military alliance of former Soviet states that includes Armenia but not Azerbaijan, met  on Tuesday to discuss the  situation. Turkiye reiterated its support for its ally Azerbaijan, with Defence Minister Hulusi Akar quoted by his ministry as saying that Ankara “will continue to stand by it in its just causes”. “Responsibility for the provocation, clashes and losses lies with the military-political leadership of Armenia,” the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said. “Any actions against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan will be resolutely prevented.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of attacking Armenian towns because it did not want to negotiate over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. He said the intensity of hostilities had declined although attacks from Azerbaijan continued. Azerbaijan, which accused Armenian troops of carrying out intelligence activity and moving weapons along the border, said its military positions came under attack by Armenia. Both Russia and the United States called on Baku and Yerevan to observe restraint. “Whether Russia tries in some fashion to stir the pot, to create a distraction from Ukraine, is something we’re always concerned about,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters, adding that Moscow could also use its influence to help “calm the waters”. Russia’s foreign ministry said the conflict “should be resolved exclusively through political and diplomatic means”. The Azeri and Russian defence ministers spoke on Tuesday and agreed to take steps to stabilise the situation on the border. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks with his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov and called for Armenia to “cease its provocations”. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, also urged the sides to de-escalate. Michel met with Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev last month in Brussels for talks on a normalisation of ties, humanitarian issues and the prospect of a peace treaty over Nagorno-Karabakh. EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar was set to travel to both countries to support efforts to curb the violence. France will raise the clashes at the UN Security Council, the office of President Emmanuel Macron said.

A massive wildfire burned out of control yesterday in Oregon forcing residents to flee and threatening towns and thousands of homes, in the latest blaze to scorch the US West during a blistering summer. Dozens of active infernos in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and other western states have ravaged more than 3,100 square kilometres, worsening air quality and highlighting the devastating effects of a historic two-decade-plus drought that has left the region parched. The Cedar Creek fire east of the city of Eugene, Oregon experienced “extreme” growth over the weekend and has now consumed 86,734 acres —roughly twice the size of the US capital Washington — with zero percent containment as of yesterday, according to the National Wildfire Co-ordinating Group (NWCG). More than 1,200 firefighters and other personnel have converged on the steep mountainous terrain, much of it in US national forest land and hard to reach. “They have been constructing firelines away from the active fire edge, along roads and trails, where they have a better chance of successfully stopping the fire,” NWCG reported. Evacuations were ordered for Lane and Deschutes counties, and the Deschutes and Willamette national forests have been closed. More than 2,000 homes were under threat, authorities said. Dense smoke has enveloped the region, and according to NWCG, “smoke has created unhealthy air quality for communities east of the fire as well, including Bend,” a town that serves as a gateway for outdoor tourism. “Get out of here as fast as I can,” Herman Schimmel, who moved to the small town of Westfir only recently, told The Oregonian newspaper. “That’s all I was thinking about.” The western United States is more than two decades into a historic drought that scientists say is being worsened by human-made climate change. Much of the countryside is parched, creating conditions for hot, fast and destructive wildfires. An even larger blaze was burning in northwestern Oregon, in a more remote region. The Double Creek fire, first detected on August 30, has consumed 155,000 acres and was 15 percent contained. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 90 fires were currently burning across seven states in the west: California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. More than 1,200 square miles in total was burning – an area larger that Yosemite National Park – NIFC reported Sunday. The Mosquito Fire, California’s current largest blaze, has now swept through 46,500 acres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with several small nearby towns reportedly evacuated. The official Cal Fire website said while cooler temperatures — following more than a week of blistering heat — had somewhat slowed the fire’s progress, stronger winds were pushing it to the north and northeast, threatening hundreds of homes. Meanwhile firefighters were working to contain the major Fairview Fire, south of Los Angeles, which has claimed two lives. Air quality alerts have been issued in Oregon, Washington and Idaho due to smoke from wildfires.

Students from a Texas school that was hit by one of the worst mass shootings in US history returned to class yesterday under tight security, American media reported. The May massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde — in which an 18-year-old shot and killed 19 students and two teachers as police waited more than an hour to confront him — sent shockwaves throughout the country. Classes did not resume after the attack, and the start of the new school year was delayed by a month to allow still-traumatised students more time to prepare.The children will not be returning to the original Robb Elementary building and instead began their new classes at another school — still with the same name — about half a mile (one kilometre) away. In an effort to reassure shaken parents and families, administrators have implemented several security measures at the new building, including a perimeter fence, surveillance cameras and guards.The school has also said it is making mental health counsellors available to students, and local media reported that 10 comfort dogs will be present at schools throughout the Uvalde district for the first few weeks of the year. Despite these efforts, some families remain wary, with several telling CNN they hesitated to send their kids back because the emotional pain of the last several months is still too strong.

Canadian police issued warrants yesterday for the arrests of two fugitives who are the target of a massive manhunt after allegedly carrying out a stabbing spree that killed 10 people, while the number of wounded rose to 18. The killings in the remote James Smith Cree Nation Indigenous community and the town of Weldon in Saskatchewan are among the deadliest incidents of mass violence to ever hit the nation. Police have been scouring Saskatchewan and two neighbouring provinces for the men, whose motives remain unclear, since early Sunday. Evan Bray, police chief of provincial capital Regina, said that the two suspects may hiding out in the city — 300km from the site of the attack — after suspected sightings in the area. They “are still at large, despite relentless efforts” to locate them, Bray said. “There’s a lot of grief. There’s a lot of anxiety in our province and in our communities,” he added, vowing to continue the pursuit until the suspects are caught. Federal police announced several murder, attempted murder and burglary charges have been laid against the pair, adding that “further charges are anticipated as the investigation progresses.” Police have released few details of the crimes, except for descriptions of the alleged attackers they say fled in a vehicle. They have been identified as Myles and Damien Sanderson, aged 30 and 31 respectively, both with black hair and brown eyes. Myles Sanderson was also wanted for breaching parole. Public broadcaster CBC said he vanished in May after serving part of a five-year sentence for assault and robbery. Local residents spoke of their shock and devastation, and have identified two of the victims as a 77-year-old widower and a 49-year-old mother of two. Weldon resident Diane Shier told the daily Saskatoon Star Phoenix her neighbour — the widower — lived with his adult grandson, who hid in the basement and called police. “It was about 7:30am. My husband was in the garden. He saw police cars and an ambulance come to town. It’s a little town. This is terrible, terrible. We’ve still got our doors locked, staying inside, not going out,” she told the newspaper. Fellow town resident Ruby Works said the killings would haunt the town. “No-one in this town is ever going to sleep again. They’re going to be terrified to open their door,” Works said. Another resident, Robert Rush, said he had left his granddaughter at home to go buy a birthday cake for his wife. “I gave her two guns and a bat,” he said. Police Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said that authorities believe some of the victims were targeted and others were attacked randomly. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “shocked and devastated by the horrific attacks,” adding in a statement that Canadians are mourning this “tragic violence.” The flag on parliament was lowered in memory of the victims. Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron lamented “the unspeakable violence that claimed the lives of innocent people.” In a statement, he blamed “harmful illegal drugs (that) invade our communities” for the destruction. Blackmore said “maximum” police resources were being deployed for the search for the suspects across Saskatchewan and neighbouring Alberta and Manitoba provinces. “We are using every human, investigational and technological resource we have available to locate and arrest the persons responsible for this tragedy,” she said yesterday. Forensic teams could be seen in broadcast images combing 13 crime scenes in the Indigenous community and Weldon for clues, as the manhunt across a huge region continued. The Red Cross, meanwhile, told AFP it was helping provide support to victims’ families and the affected communities. In recent years, Canada has witnessed a rampaging gunman masquerading as a policeman kill 22 people in Nova Scotia, another kill six and wound five worshippers at a Quebec City mosque, and a driver of a van kill 11 pedestrians in Toronto. Foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, sent messages of condolences, calling the attack “horrific” and “brutal.”

Chileans voted yesterday to approve or reject a progressive new constitution that would replace its current market-friendly text dating back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. The new text is the result of an agreement reached to quell violent protests against inequality in 2019 and focuses on social rights, the environment, gender equality and indigenous rights. While nearly 80% of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution in late 2020, polls show public support for the new text has dropped amid fear of certain proposals and controversies surrounding the constituents elected to draft it. The number of voters planning to vote ‘no’ on the new text first surpassed the ‘yes’ vote in April and has kept a varying lead. The latest polls before a two-week blackout showed the ‘no’ vote ahead with 47% compared with 38% for ‘yes’ and 17% undecided. But unlike previous elections, this vote is mandatory, adding another layer of uncertainty, according to experts. “That’s probably the biggest uncertainty, a lot of people like to extrapolate results from polls,” said Rossana Castiglioni, a professor of political science at Diego Portales University, noting that only 43% of the population turned out to elect constituents to draft the new text. “But the truth is we know relatively little from this 50%, from this half of the population that abstains from electoral processes.” President Gabriel Boric voted in the southern city of Punta Arenas early yesterday and vowed to preserve unity regardless of the outcome. “In the difficult times we had as a country we took the path of resolving our differences and moving forward with more democracy,” Boric told reporters after voting. He added that no matter the outcome, the government will work with all sectors to “advance in justice, equality, growth and development for everyone.” More than 15mn Chileans and residents are eligible to vote across more than 3,000 voting centres, including the national stadium in Santiago, where Rosemarie Williamson, 54, voted to reject the new constitution alongside her 85-year-old mother. Williamson voted to draft a new constitution in 2020, but rejected the proposed constitution today, citing worries over several proposals. “The main one is plurinationality and then pension funds,” Williamson said. “I’ve worked my whole life and I’m not willing to share that.” Some voting centres reported long lines but voters said the process has been fast and efficient. “Everything was quick and there were a lot of people inside,” said Ursula Lezema, a psychologist who voted in downtown Santiago. “I hope the new constitution is approved and to be celebrating in the afternoon.” Some polls from outside the country, including from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China, have already closed and show a favourable lead for the new text. Votes from Chileans residing outside the country historically skew more progressive than the rest of the electorate. Polls will close at 6pm but stay open for voters waiting in line. Chile’s election agency expects to have results within a few hours. The ruling coalition has already agreed to modify the text if it is approved and 57 transitory norms will help guide the transition from one constitution to the next. If the text is rejected, Boric has said the process should restart to fulfil the mandate given by the 2020 vote to draft a new constitution. Other political figures have said the current constitution should be amended given recent legislative changes to lower majorities needed to do so.

The toll from cataclysmic floods in Pakistan continued to climb yesterday with 57 more deaths, 25 of them children, as the country grapples with a relief and rescue operation of near unprecedented scale. A high-level body set up to co-ordinate the relief effort met in Islamabad yesterday for the first time, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to take stock of the disaster. Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains brought floods that have affected 33mn people and killed at least 1,265 people, including 441 children. The inundation, blamed on climate change, is still spreading. The proportion of children’s deaths has raised concern. On Friday, the United Nations children’s agency (Unicef) said there was a risk of “many more” child deaths from disease after floods. The floods that have inundated a third of the country were preceded by four heatwaves and multiple raging forest fires, the disaster management chief told the high-level meeting, highlighting the effects of climate change in the South Asian nation. “The year 2022 brought some harsh realities of climate change for Pakistan,” the chief of the National Disaster Management Authority Lieutenant-General Akhtar Nawaz told a briefing for the country’s top leadership. “This year we did not witness a spring season — we faced four heatwaves which caused large-scale forest fires across the country,” he said. The fires were particularly severe in the southwestern province of Balochistan, destroying swaths of pine-nut forests and other vegetation, not far from areas now underwater. Balochistan has received 436% more rain than the 30-year average this monsoon. The province has seen widespread devastation, including a washing away of key rail and road networks as well as breakdowns in telecommunications and power infrastructure, the meeting was told. The country has received nearly 190% more rain than the 30-year average in the quarter through August, totalling 390.7mm (15.38 inches). Sindh province, with a population of 50mn, was hardest hit, getting 464% more rain than the 30-year average. Aid has flowed in from a number of countries, with the first humanitarian assistance flight from France landing yesterday morning in Islamabad. But Pakistan’s largest charity group has said there were still millions who had not been reached by aid and relief efforts. Initial estimates of the damage have been put at $10bn, but surveys are still being conducted along with international organisations. The United Nations has appealed for $160mn in aid to help tackle what it said was an “unprecedented climate catastrophe” as Pakistan’s navy has fanned out inland to carry out relief operations in areas that resemble a sea.