Violent attacks continue in Pakistan amid national election
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Heavy rains killed eight people, mostly children, and injured 12 in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said Saturday.
Downpours in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province caused rooms to collapse, crushing the people inside, according to Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the local disaster management authority.
Shahzad said that three of the dead were siblings aged between 3 and 7 years old, from the same family. The casualties occurred in the past 24 hours, he added.
Pakistan has this year experienced a delay in winter rains, which started in February instead of November. Monsoon and winter rains cause damage in Pakistan every year.
Fruit carts are pictured half submerged in a flooded street after rainfall in Karachi on February 4, 2024.
ASIF HASSAN/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this month, around 30 people died in rain-related incidents in the northwest.
Across the border in Afghanistan, heavy rainfall on March 29 and 30 destroyed more than 1,500 acres of agricultural land, causing severe damage to hundreds of homes and critical infrastructure like bridges and roads in seven provinces, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Saturday.
The provinces most affected are northern Faryab, eastern Nangarhar, and central Daikundi.
It’s the third time that the northern region has experienced flooding in less than a month, with seven people killed and 384 families affected by heavy rains, the U.N. agency said.
HONG KONG — China said Thursday that it will lift tariffs placed on Australian wine over three years ago, in a sign of improving ties between the two countries.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said the decision would take effect Friday.
China imposed tariffs on Australian wine in 2020 during a diplomatic feud over Australia’s support for a global inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. The duties on Australian wine skyrocketed above 200%.
Australian wine producers took a heavy hit from the tariffs, as China was Australia’s top wine export destination.
The Australian government welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that the tariffs were lifted at a “critical time for the Australian wine industry.”
He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said China and Australia are “each other’s important trade partners.”
“We are willing to work with Australia to resolve each other’s concerns through dialogue and consultation and jointly promote the stable and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations,” He said.
The trade in 2019, before the tariffs were in place, was worth 1.1 billion Australian dollars ($710 million) a year to the local economy.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the level of trade would most likely increase when restrictions were scrapped.
“We reckon that the resumption of trade, which we think is imminent, will see an even higher amount because that’s what we’ve seen with other products that have been resumed,” he said during a visit to a winery located in Australia’s Hunter Valley wine region on Thursday before the lifting of tariffs was announced.
“China wants good high-quality wine and Australia produces it.”
China imposed a raft of sanctions on Australian goods in 2020 during the most recent nadir in the bilateral relationship. It is estimated that the tariffs cost the Australian economy 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion).
The trade barriers were widely regarded as punishment for the previous Australian government passing laws that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics, for barring Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from rolling out Australia’s 5G network due to security concerns and for calling for an independent investigation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
China was also angered by Australia’s deepening security ties with the United States, notably the AUKUS agreement that also includes Britain and will provide Australia with submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
Most of the tariffs have since been lifted as the relationship thawed. Relations have steadily improved after the change in the Australian government, with Albanese visiting Beijing last November.
In April, Australia suspended a complaint to the WTO in a bid to reopen the Chinese market to Australian barley, which was one of the products targeted by the tariffs, in what was widely seen as an attempt by the new Australian government to repair relations with Beijing.
The Australian government also halted another WTO dispute with China over sanctions on Australian wine in exchange for China’s review of the tariffs.
FILE – Visitors wearing face masks walk past a display of Australian wines and other agricultural products at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China, Nov. 5, 2020. China on Thursday, March 28, 2024, said it would lift tariffs placed on Australian wine over three years ago, in a sign of improving ties between Australia and China.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday said it will lift tariffs placed on Australian wine over three years ago, in a sign of improving ties between the two countries.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said the decision will take effect Friday.
China imposed tariffs on Australian wine in 2020 during a diplomatic feud over Australia’s support for a global inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The duties on Australian wine skyrocketed above 200%.
Australian wine producers took a heavy hit from the tariffs, as China was Australia’s top wine export destination.
The Australian government welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that the tariffs were lifted at a “critical time for the Australian wine industry.”
He Yadong, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said China and Australia are “each other’s important trade partners.”
“We are willing to work with Australia to resolve each other’s concerns through dialogue and consultation and jointly promote the stable and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations,” He said.
Trade tariffs have been a hot topic between Beijing and Canberra in recent years after China imposed a raft of sanctions on Australian goods in 2020 during the most recent nadir in the bilateral relationship. It is estimated that the tariffs cost the Australian economy 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion).
Most of the tariffs have since been lifted as the relationship thawed.
A powerful storm brought heavy winds, snow and rain to the central United States on Monday, making travel hazardous and “nearly impossible” in some areas, with extreme weather on both coasts set to last into Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said early Monday that the Northern and Central Plains into the Upper Midwest would be affected, with sleet and freezing rain reaching as far as the Mississippi Valley.
Minnesota could see snowfall of 6 to 12 inches an hour, bringing travel chaos to the Twin Cities.
A 51-year-old woman died Sunday in Burnsville, 15 miles south of Minneapolis, after her vehicle ran off the road and struck a tree, police said.
Minnesota State Patrol named her as Elizabeth Evans of Lakeville and said she was driving north on Interstate 35E approaching County Road 42 at the time of the accident, NBC News affiliate station KARE 11 reported.
The state patrol said there had been at least 328 crashes reported as of 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, involving 13 injuries. More than 200 vehicles spun out or slid off roads, while 10 semi-trailers jack-knifed.
Some 20 million people across the continental United States, from the West Coast to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, were subject to weather warnings Sunday.
California was rocked by a spring storm on Sunday, with hailstones the size of quarters and winds as strong as 60 mph, the NWS said. Lake Tahoe received about a foot of snow, potentially a boost for ski resorts — although several were forced to close ski lifts on Saturday after recording wind gusts measuring more than 90 mph.
Dramatic video captured the moment the L.A. Fire Department rescued a 35-year-old woman from the Los Angeles River, fast-moving and swollen from the storm waters. She was picked out of the rapids by a firefighter lowered by a rescue helicopter. She was taken to a hospital with only minor injuries and hypothermia, the fire department said.
Hundreds of traffic accidents across the Northeast were reported to police overnight as icy conditions took hold.
Over the weekend a powerful weather system battered the tri-state area, with more than 2 feet of snow and downed power lines in some parts. Vermont saw as much as 30 inches of snow, the weather service said.
More than 100,000 customers were still without power in Maine, along with 22,000 in New Hampshire and 12,000 in New York, as of 6:30 a.m. ET Monday, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks energy connections.
Central Maine Power, the state’s largest utility, said in a statement early Monday that it had returned power to half the 200,000 customers affected by the storm, after responding to some 775 emergency calls.
A powerful weather system is battering the tri-state area with heavy rain and strong winds Saturday as a fast-moving storm blankets northern New England with snow.
A flood watch went into effect Saturday morning for the New York City metro area through central and southern New Jersey. The storm could dump up to 4 inches of rain on parts of the region.
The heaviest rainfall is expected in the afternoon and early evening, and minor flooding in low-lying areas such as roads and yards is possible.
Isolated flooding late Saturday and into Sunday is also expected.
The New York City area is also under a wind advisory, with winds up to 25 mph expected throughout the day, according to the National Weather Service.
The weather agency cautioned that winds of that speed could cause flying debris, power outages and could send unsecured objects flying into the air.
Even stronger wind gusts of 45-50 mph are expected.
Weather conditions are causing major delays across New York City airports. Arrivals at John F. Kennedy International Airport are delayed an average of three hours as of 5 p.m. EDT, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. La Guardia Airport is also experiencing delays in arrival and departure flights.
Philadelphia already surpassed a daily rainfall record and is experiencing its wettest day in March since 1872, with 3.06 inches of rain, according to National Weather Service.
Elsewhere, a fast-moving storm is dumping snow across parts of northern New England. More than 30 million people from the northern Rockies and Upper Midwest through the central Great Lakes into New England are under winter alerts.
Light to moderate snow is expected for the Upper Midwest to the Great Lakes, where 2 to 7 inches will fall. In the northern New England area, snow as high as 12 to 18 inches is expected.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency said the storm could bring the largest snowfall of the season and urged motorists to use caution.
“Mixed precipitation in some areas will make for especially hazardous travel conditions,” the agency said in a post on X. “Check your local forecast for conditions.”
In the Twin Cities area, the storm could bring more than 12 inches. Combined with a 2.9-inch accumulation from a “teaser” snowstorm Thursday night and Friday morning, snow totals could exceed the 14.3 inches that had fallen in the previous season.
While the weather begins to let up in New York, more than 80,000 power outages have been reported statewide, with the majority concentrated near Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Saturday evening.
“State emergency response officials are in constant contact with impacted counties and utility companies, especially National Grid, which has informed us that most outages will be restored later tonight,” Hochul said.
She urged New Yorkers to “stay off the roads, don’t crowd the plow and avoid downed power lines.”
Next Weather: WBZ evening forecast for March 23, 2024
Next Weather: WBZ evening forecast for March 23, 2024
03:53
It may officially be spring, but wintry weather blanketed the U.S. on Saturday with New England and California seeing a mix of rain, heavy snow and gusty winds.
In the West, a winter storm warning was in effect through Sunday morning for parts of the Sierra Nevada, and a 91-mph wind gust was recorded at Mammoth Mountain near the California-Nevada line. About a foot of snow had fallen by Saturday morning north of Lake Tahoe.
A winter weather advisory was issued through Sunday night for parts of northern Arizona, the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff to the New Mexico border with up to a half-foot of snow possible at upper elevations and winds gusting to 40 mph.
In Maine, the National Weather Service warned of a treacherous travel day with an increase in ice forming inland from the coast, on top of snow or sleet that had already fallen.
Farther inland forecasters called for anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snow across the mountains in western Maine and areas north and in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, according to Maura Casey, a lead forecaster for the weather service, based out of Gray, Maine.
In the lakes region of New Hampshire up to Maine, totals were expected to be somewhat lower at 6 inches to a foot with sleet and freezing rain mixing in.
Across Connecticut, New York City, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the storm was expected to remain largely a rain event.
“Overnight dry weather will give way to sunshine,” said Frank Nocera, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Norton, Massachusetts. Despite the sun, Sunday was expected to be blustery with temperatures chillier than average for late March, he said.
In New York City, a flood watch and wind advisory were in place until 2 a.m. Sunday.
Flooding impacted subway service, shutting down a section of the Staten Island Railway in both directions. Flooding also closed part of the Cross Island Parkway in Queens, and police warned motorists about standing water on roadways throughout the city.
The storm was blamed for hundreds of delayed and canceled flights at New York-area airports, and it also postponed the opening of Coney Island’s Luna Park, home to the famous Cyclone and Thunderbolt roller coasters.
Fans of skiing welcomed the snowfall.
At Loon Mountain in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, skiers were looking forward to the 12 to 20 inches of new snow the storm was expected to drop on top of a foot earlier this week.
“The storm is great. It’s brought a lot of skiers out to the mountain today,” said Kevin Bell, vice president of marketing for the resort. “This could be the biggest snow we’ll see all year. It sets us up for a really good spring. The more snow New England gets, the better for us.”
The Mount Washington Avalanche Center issued an avalanche warning along the White Mountain’s Presidential Range until 7 a.m. Sunday.
“Very dangerous avalanche conditions exist. Natural and human-triggered avalanches large enough to bury people are very likely,” the center said. “Some avalanches will be large enough to snap trees or destroy a house and may run far into areas previously considered safe.”
The storm should be completely out of the New England region by Sunday morning. It comes at the end of a winter season in some areas of the Northeast, including Boston, that saw little snow and warmer temperatures.
In South Florida, severe thunderstorms Friday night delayed departures at the Miami International Airport during the busy spring break season, suspended a popular electronic music festival and disrupted matches at a high-profile tennis tournament.
And in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, crews battling wildfires this week got an assist from some wet weather.
“Without a doubt the rain is helping,” said Cory Swift, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Forestry.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s decision to put heavy weapons at the disposal of the Rosgvardia (the Russian National Guard) may indicate that he views this structure as one of the main pillars of the regime’s security.
Reference: Rosgvardia has about 200,000 personnel and has existed in its current form since 2016, headed by Viktor Zolotov, Putin’s former bodyguard.
On 4 August, Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the provision of heavy weapons to Rosgvardia, and about a month before that, there was a mutiny by the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC).
UK Defence Intelligence emphasises that, despite Zolotov’s statement that this structure performed “excellently” during the mutiny, there is no evidence that Rosgvardia took any effective action against Wagner, although this was exactly the kind of internal security threat that the organisation was created to respond to.
Quote: “With Zolotov previously suggesting that heavy equipment should include artillery and attack helicopters, the move suggests that the Kremlin is doubling down on resourcing Rosgvardia as one of the key organisations to ensure regime security,” the review notes.
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Concerns about electric vehicle costs, charge capabilities still heavy for consumers – CBS News
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Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Beijing as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri dumped record rainfall on the city, grounding flights and flooding hundreds of roads on Monday, state media reported.
Besides Beijing, heavy rain continued to soak the neighboring city of Tianjin as well as Hebei province in a region nearly the size of Britain in the wake of Doksuri, which was downgraded to a tropical depression on the weekend.
Three of the five rivers that make up the Hai river basin rose to dangerous levels on Monday. Some houses were washed into the Yongding river, and nearly 55,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Baoding city, state media reported.
Doksuri was one of the strongest storms to hit China in years and caused widespread flooding over the weekend in the southern province of Fujian, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Average rainfall in Beijing reached 176.9 mm (7 inches) between Saturday night and Monday afternoon, with the maximum recorded rainfall in Mentougou district hitting 580.9 mm (23 inches), according to state media.
The Beijing observatory kept a red alert — the highest warning — for heavy rainfall in place while Beijing Hydrology Station upgraded its flood warning with more rain and river flooding forecast.
Residents walk through flood waters in the aftermath of Typhoon Doksuri in Fuzhou, southeastern China on July 29, 2023. Chinatopix / AP
More than 31,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Beijing, work at more than 4,000 construction sites was halted, almost 20,000 buildings were inspected for damage, and scenic spots in the city were closed, media reported.
Both airports in the capital cancelled more than 180 flights on Monday morning, with hundreds more delayed, according to flight tracking app Flight Master.
Railway authorities dispatched workers to send food including instant noodles, eggs and ham, and drinking water to train passengers who were stuck overnight.
As many as 358 roads in Beijing were affected by the rain as of Monday.
There was no reported damage or casualties, state media said, but south of Beijing, Doksuri’s impact was more pronounced.
In northern Hebei province, a driver was missing after two trucks fell off a collapsed bridge in Baoding city on Sunday, while a railway bridge for freight in Shijiazhuang city was washed away in a swollen river, media reported.
While Doksuri continues to taper off, forecasters warned that typhoon Khanun was approaching and was set to strike China’s densely populated coast this week.
Authorities said Khanun could inflict further damage to corn and other crops that have already been hit by Doksuri.
With an ever-increasing demand for internet access, EchoStar launched a powerful new communications satellite late Friday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket that will deliver broadband service across nearly 80% of North and South America.
Running two days later after a last-minute scrub Wednesday, the Falcon Heavy’s first stage, made up of three strapped-together Falcon 9 boosters, roared to life with a sky-lighting burst of flaming exhaust at 11:04 p.m. Eastern time.
An instant later, with its 27 engine generating more than five million pounds of thrust, the rocket majestically climbed away from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, putting on a spectacular overnight show for area residents and tourists as it arced away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean.
Generating more than 5 million pounds of thrust, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket thunders away from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, boosting a powerful EchoStar internet relay satellite into space.
William Harwood/CBS News
Two-and-a-half minutes later, the two side boosters, making their third flight each, peeled away, reversed course and flew back to the launch site, carrying out equally spectacular side-by-side landings at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as shotgun-like sonic booms rumbled across the Space Coast.
The central core stage, meanwhile, was discarded a few moments after the side boosters departed, and the flight continued on the power of the single engine powering the Falcon Heavy’s second stage. Three upper stage engine firings over the next three-and-a-half hours were required to reach the planned deploy orbit.
If all goes well, the Jupiter 3 satellite’s on-board thrusters will circularize the orbit at an altitude of 22,300 miles above the equator at 95 degrees west longitude. At that “geosynchronous” altitude, the satellite will take 24 hours to complete one orbit, appearing stationary above the western hemisphere.
Tipping the scales at more than nine tons, Jupiter 3, also known as EchoStar 24, is believed to be the heaviest commercial communications satellite ever launched. With solar panels stretching 127 feet from tip to tip, the bus-size satellite will provide broadband service through EchoStar’s subsidiary, Hughes Network Systems. Xplorenet Communications, a long-time Hughes partner, will provide service across Canada.
EchoStar’s satellites represent an alternative approach to space-based internet, using a few, very powerful high-altitude data relay stations as opposed to thousands of small low-Earth orbit satellites like SpaceX’s Starlink system and Amazon’s planned Kuiper satellites.
A time exposure captures the fiery trail of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket during blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center, along with the plumes from two side boosters as they descended to side-by-side landings at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now
The low-altitude systems provide high speeds and low latency, passing off a user’s internet activity from one satellite to another as they streak overhead. Geosynchronous satellites are much farther away and signals take longer to traverse the distance. But no handoffs are required and multiple beams deliver relatively fast service to high-demand areas.
“A geostationary satellite is proven, it’s time-tested and they’re great at laying down dense broadband capacity right where our customers need it the most,” Sharyn Nerenberg, EchoStar vice president of corporate communications, told Spaceflight Now.
“Jupiter 3 was designed to do exactly that. It was custom designed to lay down the most capacity possible where we know our customers really need it.”
It’s designed to do that with 300 steerable “spot beams” that can deliver broadband access to targeted locations across North and South America where demand is highest, shifting beams from point to point as traffic requires.
“Deploying these very small, densely concentrated spot beams allows us to target capacity in the specific areas where our customers need it most,” according to EchoStar’s web site.
“With coverage from Canada, across the U.S., Brazil and throughout South America, Jupiter 3 will expand the reach of our HughesNet satellite internet service to nearly 80 percent of the population across the Americas.”
Built by Maxar, Jupiter 3 will join two less powerful Jupiter-series satellites already in orbit. The new satellite has a capacity of more than 500 gigabytes per second, delivering up to a gigabyte per spot beam and 100 megabytes per second to end users.
Friday’s launching was just the seventh of a Falcon Heavy and the third so far this year. The heavy-lift rocket’s most recent previous launch on April 30 put another geosynchronous broadband satellite into orbit — ViaSat-3.1 — but that spacecraft’s huge mesh antenna failed to fully deploy and the relay station may be a total loss.
William Harwood
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”
