According to California police, more than 150 people are missing in wildfires that have ravaged the state’s northern wine region.
At least 17 people are now confirmed dead and more than 2,000 buildings have been destroyed by the fires which broke out on October 8.
Eleven of the deaths have been in Sonoma County.
One of the worst affected towns there is Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco, where entire districts have been destroyed.
According to the Sonoma County sheriff’s office, 155 people were still unaccounted for, although that could be due to the chaotic pace of the evacuations.
In neighboring Napa County, victims included 100-year-old Charles Rippey and his 98-year-old wife, Sarah, police said.
The wildfires are among the deadliest in California’s history and have sent smoke as far south as San Francisco, about 60 miles away.
According to officials, more than 17 fires had burned about 115,000 acres in the past 24 hours.
There was some good news when winds that had been fanning the flames eased, helping firefighters to bring some of the blazes under control.
In Santa Rosa, a Hilton hotel and a mobile home park were destroyed. Tens of thousands of Sonoma County residents have fled, authorities said.
At least four wineries had suffered “total or very significant losses”, Napa Valley Vintners said, with nine others reporting some damage to buildings or vineyards.
More than 91,000 homes and businesses are without power.
California Governor Jerry Brown declared states of emergency in Sonoma, Napa and five other counties.
President Donald Trump has also approved a disaster declaration, allowing federal emergency aid to be disbursed.
The US and South Korea have conducted a joint military exercise, flying two strategic bombers over the Korean peninsula.
The B-1B combat bombers were joined by two South Korean F-15K fighter jets, and carried out air-to-ground missile drills off South Korean waters.
The move comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program.
North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, and launched two missiles over Japan, in recent months.
The bombers took off from the US Pacific territory of Guam on October 10, before entering South Korean airspace and conducting firing exercises over the East Sea and Yellow Sea, South Korea’s military said.
The training was part of a program of “extended deterrence” against North Korea, it added.
The US said Japan’s air force also took part in the drill.
According to the White House, President Donald Trump met top officials from his national security team on Tuesday night for a briefing on ways to respond to threats from North Korea.
President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have exchanged heated rhetoric in recent weeks.
In aspeech at the UN last month, President Trump accused Kim Jong-un of being “on a suicide mission” – while the North Korean leader responded by vowing to “tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire”.
On October 11, a South Korean lawmaker said North Korean hackers had reportedly stolen a large cache of military documents from his country, including a plan to assassinate Kim Jong-un, and wartime contingency plans drawn up by the US and South Korea.
The South Korean defense ministry refused to comment about the allegation, while North Korea denied the claim.
Harvey Weinstein’s wife, Georgina Chapman, says she is leaving the Hollywood producer following allegations of harassment against him from a string of actresses.
Georgina Chapman, 41, said Harvey Weinstein’s actions were “unforgivable”.
Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow are the latest actresses to come forward with accusations of harassment. Both said the incidents happened early in their careers.
On October 10, Harvey Weinstein also denied allegations of rape made in The New Yorker magazine.
On October 8, Harvey Weinstein was fired from his own film studio. The Weinstein Company board said on October 10 that they would help any criminal investigation.
Georgina Chapman told People magazine: “My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions.”
The London-born designer and Harvey Weinstein, 65, have two children together.
Meanwhile former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have joined the growing public condemnation.
In a statement the Obamas said they were “disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein” and added that they “celebrate the courage of women who have come forward”.
Harvey Weinstein was a big donor to the Democratic Party under Barack Obama’s leadership. The Obamas’ eldest daughter Malia worked as an intern at The Weinstein Company in New York earlier this year.
Harvey Weinstein also donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Hilalry Clinton said she was “shocked and appalled” by the revelations.
Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow both sent statements about Harvey Weinstein’s behavior to the New York Times, which first reported allegations against him last week.
Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow are the latest actresses to allege they were victims of harassment by Harvey Weinstein.
Both actresses said the incidents happened early in their careers.
Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow join a string of actresses accusing the Hollywood producer of harassment.
On October 10, the producer denied allegations of rape made in The New Yorker magazine.
His wife, designer Georgina Chapman, said on the same day that she was leaving him.
Georgina Chapman, 41, told People magazine: “My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions.”
London-born Georgina Chapman, co-founder of fashion label Marchesa, and Harvey Weinstein, 65, have two children together.
The mogul has also been fired over the allegations by his Hollywood studio The Weinstein Company.
Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have added their voice to growing demonstrations of public outrage. Their eldest daughter Malia worked as an intern at The Weinstein Company in New York earlier this year.
A statement released by the Obamas says they “have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein”.
It adds they “celebrate the courage of women who have come forward”.
Also on October 10, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie both sent statements to the New York Times, which first reported allegations against him last week.
Angelina Jolie said in an email: “I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did.
“This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.”
In a statement, Gwyneth Paltrow alleged that, after Harvey Weinstein cast her in the leading role in Emma, he summoned her to his hotel suite, where he placed his hands on her and suggested massages in his bedroom.
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” the actress told the NYT.
Gwyneth Paltrow said she told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident, and said he confronted Harvey Weinstein.
“I thought he was going to fire me,” she said.
The separate New Yorker report says that 16 former and current employees at Harvey Weinstein’s companies told the magazine “they witnessed or had knowledge of unwanted advances and touching at events associated with Weinstein’s films and in the workplace”.
The magazine quotes actress and director Asia Argento and Lucia Stoller, now Lucia Evans – who says she was an aspiring actress when Harvey Weinstein allegedly approached her in 2004. Both say they were forced into s**ual acts by the producer.
A third woman, who did not want to be named, said Harvey Weinstein had “forced himself on me s**ually”.
Asia Argento said she has not spoken until now because she feared it would ruin her career to do so.
“That’s why this story – in my case, it’s 20 years old, some of them are old – has never come out,” she told the New Yorker.
Other allegations in the piece came from Mira Sorvino, who won an Oscar in 1996 for her role in Mighty Aphrodite for Miramax, a studio headed by Harvey Weinstein at the time. She told the magazine that Harvey Weinstein had tried to pressure her into a relationship.
Roseanna Arquette also said that she rejected Harvey Weinstein’s advances and that she believes her acting career suffered as a result.
Harvey Weinstein’s spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister issued a statement in response to the article.
“Any allegations of non-consensual s** are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” she said.
“Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.
“Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual. Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path.”
Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shared a statement saying that she was “shocked and appalled” by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, who donated to her 2016 presidential campaign and has been a major donor to the Democratic Party.
President Donald Trump is challenging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to an IQ test, in the latest sign of discord between the two.
The president made the remark during an interview with Forbes magazine when asked about reports that Rex Tillerson had called him a moron.
“I think it’s fake news,” Donald Trump told the magazine, “but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”
On October 10, President Trump had lunch with Rex Tillerson.
Shortly beforehand, President Trump maintained he still had confidence in the secretary of state.
“I did not undercut anybody,” he also told reporters.
Asked about Donald Trump’s IQ test challenge, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the daily news briefing: “It was a joke. You should get a sense of humor.”
Reports have swirled of a schism in the Trump administration between the commander-in-chief and his top diplomat, as the US faces a host of vexatious foreign policy conundrums, from North Korea to Iran.
Last week, Rex Tillerson called a news conference to dismiss reports that he was considering quitting.
However, Rex Tillerson did not deny an NBC News report that he had called Donald Trump a moron after a July meeting at the Pentagon.
Earlier this month, President Trump publicly undercut the former ExxonMobile chief executive by tweeting that he was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with nuclear-armed North Korea.
Last week, the New York Times reported that the secretary of state was astonished at how little President Trump grasps the basics of foreign policy.
According to the newspaper, quoting sources close to the secretary of state, President Trump has been irritated by Rex Tillerson’s body language during meetings.
Rex Tillerson is said to roll his eyes or slouch when he disagrees with the president’s decisions.
Catalan leaders, including President Carles Puigdemont, have signed a declaration of independence from Spain, following the October 1 disputed referendum.
However, the Catalan leaders say the move will not be implemented immediately to allow talks with the Spanish central government.
It is unclear whether the document – calling for Catalonia to be recognized as an “independent and sovereign state” – has any legal status.
The move was immediately dismissed by the Spain’s government.
Catalonia independence referendum – which Catalan leaders say resulted in a Yes vote for independence – was declared invalid by Spain’s Constitutional Court.
Earlier in the day, Carles Puigdemont told the Catalan parliament in Barcelona that the region had won the right to be independent as a result of the referendum.
According to Catalan officials, the referendum resulted in almost 90% of voters backing independence. However, anti-independence voters largely boycotted the ballot – which had a reported turnout of 43% – and there were several reports of irregularities.
National police were involved in violent scenes as they manhandled voters while implementing the legal ruling banning the referendum.
The declaration reads: “We call on all states and international organizations to recognize the Catalan republic as an independent and sovereign state.”
Carles Puigdemont told the regional parliament that the “people’s will” was to break away from Madrid, but he also said he wanted to “de-escalate” the tension around the issue.
“We are all part of the same community and we need to go forward together. The only way forward is democracy and peace,” the Catalan president told deputies.
He also said Catalonia was being denied the right to self-determination, and paying too much in taxes to the central government in Madrid.
Spain’s Deputy PM Soraya Saenz de Santamaria responded to the declaration by saying: “Neither Mr. Puigdemont nor anybody else can claim… to impose mediation.
“Any dialogue between democrats has to take place within the law.”
Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy has called an extraordinary cabinet meeting for October 11 to address the latest moves in the crisis.
Independence supporters had been sharing the Catalan hashtag #10ODeclaració (10 October Declaration) on Twitter, amid expectations that Carles Puigdemont would ask parliament to declare independence on the basis of the referendum law it passed last month.
However, influential figures including Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau and European Council President Donald Tusk had urged Carles Puigdemont to step back from declaring independence.
Catalonia, a region of Spain for centuries but with its own distinct language and culture, enjoys broad autonomy under the Spanish constitution.
However, a 2005 amendment redefining the region as a “nation”, boosting the status of the Catalan language and increasing local control over taxes and the judiciary, was reversed by the Constitutional Court in 2010.
The economic crisis further fuelled discontent and pro-independence parties took power in the region in the 2015 elections.
Catalonia is one of Spain’s wealthiest regions, accounting for a quarter of the country’s exports. However, a stream of companies have announced plans to move their head offices out of Catalonia in response to the crisis.
The EU has made clear that should Catalonia split from Spain, the region would cease to be part of the European Union.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has decided to withdraw from October’s election re-run.
Raila Odinga said his decision would give the electoral commission enough time to introduce reforms that will help deliver a more credible election.
The Supreme Court annulled the result of the original August 8 poll, which saw Uhuru Kenyatta declared winner, after finding irregularities.
However, Uhuru Kenyatta says he is ready to proceed with the new vote as planned.
Kenya’s electoral commission said Uhuru Kenyatta had won the August vote by a margin of 1.4 million votes – or 54% of the total, compared to Raila Odinga’s 44%.
VP William Ruto has now called on the commission to declare Uhuru Kenyatta president as a result of Raila Odinga’s announcement.
The election re-run was due to take place on October 26, but Raila Odinga said on October 10: “We have come to the conclusion that there is no intention on the part of the IEBC [electoral commission] to undertake any changes to its operations and personnel… All indications are that the election scheduled for 26 October will be worse than the previous one.”
As a result, Raila Odinga said, “considering the interests of the people of Kenya, the region and the world at large” it was best that he withdrew from the race.
His coalition party believes the election will have to be cancelled as a result of his withdrawal, allowing “adequate time to undertake the reforms necessary to conduct an election that is in strict conformity with the constitution, the relevant laws and the constitution”.
However, Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking at a rally in the southern town of Voi, said: “We have no problem going back to elections. We are sure we will get more votes than the last time.”
According to new reports, North Korean hackers have stolen a large cache of military documents from South Korea, including a plan to assassinate the country’s leader Kim Jong-un.
South Korean lawmaker Rhee Cheol-hee said the information was from his country’s defense ministry.
The compromised documents include wartime contingency plans drawn up by the United States and South Korea.
The documents also include reports to the allies’ senior commanders.
The South Korean defense ministry has so far refused to comment about the allegation.
Plans for South Korea’s special forces were reportedly accessed, along with information on significant power plants and military facilities in the South.
Rhee Cheol-hee belongs to South Korea’s ruling party, and sits on its parliament’s defense committee. He said some 235 Gb of military documents had been stolen from the Defense Integrated Data Centre, and that 80% of them have yet to be identified.
The hack took place in September 2016. In May 2017, South Korea said a large amount of data had been stolen and that North Korea may have instigated the cyber attack – but gave no details of what was taken.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, Seoul has been subject to a barrage of cyber attacks by its North Korea in recent years, with many targeting government websites and facilities.
North Korea is believed to have specially-trained hackers based overseas, including in China.
Pyonyang has accused South Korea of “fabricating” the claims.
News that North Korea is likely to have accessed the Seoul-Washington plans for all-out war in the Koreas will do nothing to soothe tensions between the US and North Korea.
The US and North Korea have been at verbal loggerheads over Pyongyang’s nuclear activities, with the US pressing for a halt to missile tests and the North vowing to continue them.
North Korea recently claimed to have successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, which could be loaded onto a long-range missile.
In a speech at the UN last month, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy North Korea if it menaced the US or its allies, and said its leader “is on a suicide mission”.
Kim Jong-un responded with a rare statement, vowing to “tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire”.
President Trump’s latest comment took the form of a cryptic tweet at the weekend, where he warned that “only one thing will work” in dealing with North Korea, after years of talks had proved fruitless. The president did not elaborate further.
At least 13 people have been killed by fast-spreading fires that are ravaging parts of California’s wine region.
Mass evacuations have been ordered in the region after 1,500 properties were destroyed and a state of emergency was declared in northern areas.
About 20,000 people fled from Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties in response to some California’s worst-ever wildfires.
Such fires are more common in southern California but a combination of dry weather and strong winds has fuelled the destruction in the north.
On October 10, Cal Fire officials said that 17 wildfires in nine counties have burned more than 115,000 acres in just the past 12 hours.
California Governor Jerry Brown said: “These fires have destroyed structures and continue to threaten thousands of homes, necessitating the evacuation of thousands of residents.”
On October 9, the governor appealed to President Donald Trump in a five-page letter to declare a major disaster and send federal emergency aid to the fire-ravaged state.
Meanwhile, in southern California, a separate wildfire burnt 24 homes or other buildings in the wealthy Anaheim Hills area of Orange County, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
The fires – considered among the deadliest in state history – have sent smoke as far south as San Francisco, located about 60 miles away.
A new fire is reportedly burning near the Oakmont area of Santa Rosa, a city that has already been devastated by the blazes.
Hundreds of homes have been destroyed in the city by flames so hot that glass melted on cars.
Details of how the seven people died in Sonoma were not immediately available, but country sheriff Rob Giordano said he expected the death toll to rise.
“There is a lot of burned homes and a lot of burned areas, so it’s just logical that we’re gonna find more people,” he said.
Two people also died in Napa county and one in Mendocino county when thousands of acres burned in one valley.
Sonoma County officials said they had received more than 150 missing-person reports by Tuesday.
Dozens of vineyard workers were reportedly airlifted to safety overnight.
Wineries belonging to the rich and famous were abandoned. One belonging to musician Dave Matthews was closed and at risk of being burned to the ground, staff said, as was the nearby Francis Ford Coppola Winery.
The vine harvest is already under way and many of the grapes have been picked.
It is not yet known how the fires started on October 8, but such blazes are particularly fast-spreading because of a combination of 60mph winds, low humidity and hot, dry weather.
First Lady Melania Trump has responded through a spokeswoman to the president’s ex-wife Ivana, who claimed during an ABC’s Good Morning America interview that she is the actually the first lady.
Melania Trump’s spokeswoman described comments made by Ivana Trump as “attention seeking and self-serving noise”.
Ivana Trump told GMA she was “basically first Trump wife, I’m first lady”.
Donald Trump’s ex-wife said she had a direct line to the White House but did not want to “cause any kind of jealousy”.
Ivana Trump is promoting her book Raising Trump, to be released on October 10.
She was married to Donald Trump in 1977 but they divorced in the 1990s over his affair with Marla Maples, who became his second wife.
Ivana and Donald Trump had three children – Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump.
She described President Trump as a dad: “He was not the father which would take a stroller and go to Central Park.”
Ivana Trump also told GMA she spoke to her former husband about once a fortnight.
“I have the direct number to White House, but I no [sic] really want to call him there because Melania is there,” she said.
“I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I’m basically first Trump wife. I’m first lady, OK?”
First Lady Melania Trump responded with a barbed statement through her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.
The statement read: “Mrs. Trump has made the White House a home for [their son] Barron and The President.
“She loves living in Washington, DC and is honored by her role as First Lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books.
“There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise.”
The exchange is thought to be the only public row between a first lady and a president’s former wife.
Before Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan was the only divorcee president.
This year’s Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to American economist Richard Thaler, one of the founding fathers of behavioral economics.
Prof. Richard Thaler, of Chicago Booth business school, co-wrote the global best seller Nudge, which looked at how people make bad or irrational choices.
Judges said Richard Thaler, 72, had demonstrated how “nudging” – a term he coined – may help people to exercise better self-control.
He will receive 9 million Swedish krona from the committee.
“I will try to spend it as irrationally as possible!” Richard Thaler said.
One of the Nobel prize judges, Per Stroemberg, said Prof. Richard Thaler’s work had explored how human psychology shaped economic decisions.
“Richard Thaler’s findings have inspired many other researchers coming in his footsteps and it has paved the way for a new field in economics which we call behavioural economics,” Per Stroemberg said.
The panel said Prof. Richard Thaler’s insights helped people to recognize marketing tricks and avoid bad economic decisions.
In particular, his work looked at how to “nudge” people into doing more long-term planning, such as saving for a pension.
Richard Thaler also made a cameo appearance in the Hollywood movie, The Big Short, explaining the complex financial instruments that led to the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008.
It is the final Nobel to be announced this year, after prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were awarded last week.
The economics prize is the only Nobel not created by Alfred Nobel, and was instead launched in 1968, long after the philanthropist’s death.
To date the US has dominated the prize, with American economists accounting for roughly half of laureates since it started. Between 2000 and 2013, American academics won or shared the prize every year.
Argentine Airlines is the latest carrier to suspend flights to Venezuela.
The carrier said it had concerns over security in Venezuela because of increasing criminal violence and political uncertainty.
Aerolineas Argentinas joins dozens of airlines who have taken similar action.
IATA, the trade body for the world’s airlines, says Venezuela is becoming increasingly isolated.
The body’s vice-president, Peter Cerdá, said last week: “The situation has become increasingly difficult, most of IATA’s members have left Venezuela. There are only six or seven carriers left operating a very low flight frequency.
“Venezuela is becoming disconnected, it’s practically disconnected from the rest of the world, above all by air, and we can’t see any solution in the short term.”
Since 2003 Venezuela has operated a series of currency exchange controls managed by the government.
Airline companies have been attempting for years to change the local bolivar currency it receives when it sells tickets in Venezuela into dollars.
However, the government strictly controls the amount of foreign currency it allows onto the market.
Peter Cerdá said passenger traffic in Venezuela had dropped by 75% in the last four years.
Most of the airlines that have left reported disputes with the Venezuelan government over unpaid contracts and worries over crew safety.
In August 2017, the president of the Panamanian airline Copa, Pedro Heilbron, told AFP that the company would continue to operate in Venezuela despite the difficulties.
He said: “We are becoming practically the only operator in the market but our intention is not to leave, not to abandon the market in Venezuela.”
Pedro Heilbron said Copa crews would not stay the night in Venezuelan cities.
American airlines United and Delta, and the Colombian airline Avianca, suspended flights to Venezuela this year. Lufthansa left in 2016.
Between 2014 and 2015, Air Canada, Aeromexico, Alitalia, Lan, Tam, and Gol suspended their flights to Venezuela.
The US and Turkey have become embroiled in a consular row, mutually suspending most visa services.
The Turkish embassy in Washington said it needed to “reassess” the US government’s commitment to the security of the mission and personnel.
A very similar statement was earlier made by the US embassy in Ankara.
This comes after a US consulate worker in Istanbul was held last week on suspicion of links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed for the 2016 failed coup in Turkey.
The US condemned the move as baseless and damaging to bilateral relations.
According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, the arrested consulate employee was a male Turkish citizen.
In its statement on October 8, the Turkish embassy in Washington said: “Recent events have forced the Turkish government to reassess the commitment of the government of the US to the security of the Turkish mission facilities and personnel.
“In order to minimize the number of the visitors to our diplomatic and consular missions in the US while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all visa services regarding the US citizens at our diplomatic and consular missions in the US.
“This measure will apply to sticker visas as well as e-visas and border visas.”
The Turkish’s embassy statement is virtually the same as the earlier American one, with only country names being replaced.
The American mission said that “all non-immigrant visa services at all US diplomatic facilities in Turkey” had been suspended.
Non-immigrant visas are issued to those travelling to the US for tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work or study.
Those seeking citizenship or permanent residency apply for US immigrant visas.
Turkey has for months been pressing the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen over his alleged role in the coup attempt in July 2016.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gulen of instigating the unrest – a charge the cleric denies.
In the aftermath of the coup attempt, which was led by military officers, 40,000 people were arrested and 120,000 sacked or suspended.
According to TMZ, Nelly was taken into custody on a second degree rape charge.
In a statement, the artist’s lawyer also described the allegation as “completely fabricated”.
Scott Rosenblum said in a statement: “Our initial investigation clearly establishes this allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness.”
Nelly, 42, is best known for his No 1 hits Hot in herre and Dilemma, but has not released new music for a number of years.
In 2015, the rapper was arrested on felony charges after police found drugs and guns on board his tour bus.
He is currently on tour with the Backstreet Boys and Florida Georgia Line, and performed in Auburn on October 6.
The bus was parked near a local Walmart at the time of the alleged incident. A police statement said they were continuing to investigate.
Nelly was due to perform on the Smooth Stadium Tour in Ridgefield near Portland on October 7.
Hurricane Nate has it the Gulf Coast bringing strong winds, torrential rain.
The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 85mph, made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana on October 7.
Moving north, Nate made a second landfall at Biloxi, Mississippi.
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida earlier issued warnings and evacuation orders amid fears of rapidly rising sea waters.
Tropical Storm Nate killed at least 25 people in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras.
It then strengthened to a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale as it headed towards the US.
Although not as strong as last month’s Maria and Irma, officials had warned Nate was a fast-moving storm that could bring flooding to low-lying areas.
On October 7, President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for Louisiana, allowing the state to seek federal help with preparation and possible relief efforts.
In Alabama, Republican Governor Kay Ivey urged residents in areas facing heavy winds and storm surges to take precautions.
Five ports along the Gulf Coast were closed to shipping as a precaution.
Most oil and gas platforms in the US Gulf of Mexico evacuated their staff and stopped production ahead of the storm.
In an update at 03:00 GMT, the NHC said a hurricane warning was in effect for the “mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida border”.
Evacuation orders were put in place for some low-lying areas.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency ahead of the hurricane, saying more than 1,000 National Guard troops had been mobilized with a number sent to New Orleans to monitor the drainage pumps there.
A mandatory curfew from 18:00 local time was in place in New Orleans, where residents from areas outside the city’s levee system were evacuated.
A tropical storm warning is currently in effect for New Orleans.
The NHC said that Hurricane Nate “is expected to weaken quickly after landfall, and it is likely to become a tropical storm on October 8.
“It should degenerate into a remnant low late Monday.”
Nate went past Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula – home to the popular beach resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen – on Friday night as it headed north, the NHC said.
Nate caused heavy rains, landslides and floods which blocked roads, destroyed bridges and damaged houses as it tore through central America.
At least 13 people died in Nicaragua, eight in Costa Rica, three in Honduras and one in El Salvador.
The tail of the storm is still causing problems in the region, where thousands have been forced to sleep in shelters and some 400,000 people in Costa Rica were reported to be without running water.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Geneva-based group was formed in 2007 and inspired by a similar campaign to ban the use of landmines.
As a coalition of hundreds of NGOs from across the world, they have highlighted the humanitarian risk of nuclear weapons.
The group’s 10 years of advocacy helped pave the way for the introduction of a UN treaty banning the weapons, which was signed this year.
While 122 countries backed the treaty, the talks were notably boycotted by the world’s nine known nuclear powers and the only NATO member to discuss it, the Netherlands, voted against.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, the Nobel committee chair, said: “We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time.”
Tensions between President Donald Trump and North Korea have been mounting for several months over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
President Trump is also threatening to withdraw from an agreement which monitors and limits Iran’s nuclear development.
In a statement posted on Facebook, ICAN said the prize “shines a needed light on the path the ban treaty provides towards a world free of nuclear weapons”.
“This is a time of great global tension, when fiery rhetoric could all too easily lead us, inexorably, to unspeakable horror,” the statement read.
“If ever there were a moment for nations to declare their unequivocal opposition to nuclear weapons, that moment is now.”
The number of nuclear weapons worldwide has been steadily decreasing since the 1980s, but none of the world’s nuclear powers have fully disarmed – an ambition set out in the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Nuclear armed nations boycotted the latest talks because they favor working within the NPT’s original framework to reduce stockpiles.
Unlike the NPT, the 2017 treaty explicitly bans nuclear weapons. It calls for signatories not to develop, test or threaten to use the weapons. It also forbids nations from having weapons tactically stationed in their countries from allied partners.
However, so far it has only been acceded to by 53 of the world’s countries including Cuba, Ireland and New Zealand.
President Donald Trump has rolled back the access to birth control as his government issued a ruling that allows employers to opt out of providing free birth control to millions of Americans.
The rule allows employers and insurers to decline to provide birth control if doing so violates their “religious beliefs” or “moral convictions”.
About 55 million women benefited from the Obama-era rule, which made companies provide free birth control.
Before taking office, Donald Trump had pledged to eliminate that requirement.
The mandate requiring birth control coverage had been a key feature of ObamaCare – President Obama’s efforts to overhaul the healthcare system.
However, the requirement included a provision that permitted religious institutions to forgo birth control coverage for their employees.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on October 6 it was important to expand which organizations can opt out and deny free contraceptive coverage.
“We should have space for organizations to live out their religious ideas and not face discrimination because of their religious ideas,” said one HHS official, who did not wish to be named.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, praised the decision as “a landmark day for religious liberty”.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Women’s Law Center have announced that they will sue the federal government over the decision.
In announcing the rule change, HHS officials cited a study claiming that access to contraception encourages “risky s**ual behavior”.
The HHS disputes reports that millions of women may lose their birth control coverage if they are unable to pay for it themselves.
Roger Severino, the director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights, argued that only a small percentage of employers will choose to opt out, and therefore only a limited number of women will be affected.
However, many health policy analysts say employers that do not wish to pay for their employees’ contraceptive coverage will now be able to.
Catalonia’s chief of police Josep Lluis Trapero is appearing before a judge in Madrid on suspicion of sedition against the state.
His Mossos d’Esquadra force is accused of failing to protect Spanish national police from protesters ahead of the October 1 independence referendum.
Another Catalan police officer and two leading independence activists are also being questioned as suspects.
Catalonia’s independence vote was declared illegal under Spanish law.
The hearing is taking place at the national criminal court in Madrid. The defendants are accused of failing to help Guardia Civil police tackle thousands of pro-independence protesters outside the Catalan Economy Department in Barcelona on September 20.
According to ElPais, the accusation against the Mossos is extraordinary in post-Franco democratic Spain.
The crime of sedition has been in every Spanish penal code since 1822 and carries a potential prison term of up to 15 years. It amounts to rebellion against state decisions or national security forces.
As recently as August the Mossos was being widely praised for quickly tackling the Islamist cell that carried out the Barcelona terror attack in that month.
Following October 1 vote the Catalan regional government says it might unilaterally declare independence within days.
Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy will chair a cabinet meeting to discuss the next moves in the confrontation with Catalonia.
Referendum organizers put the turnout at 42%, with 2.2 million people taking part. They say 90% voted for independence, but have not published final results. There have been several claims of irregularities.
There was violence at polling stations as police, trying to enforce a Spanish court ban on the vote, attempted to seize ballot boxes and disperse voters.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has offered the airline’s pilots better pay and conditions.
The improved conditions came after Ryanair was forced to cancel thousands of flights in recent weeks.
In a letter to pilots, Michael O’Leary also apologized for changes that caused disruptions to their rotas and urges them not to leave the airline.
The chief executive’s apology came after he accused the pilots of being “full of their own self-importance”.
However, in the letter seen by the Irish Independent newspaper, Michael O’Leary urges pilots to stay with Ryanair “for a brighter future”.
Ryanair has been in crisis after the rota changes – brought about to comply with new aviation rules – led to a shortage of pilots because the airline failed to plan for enough leave.
The airline announced its first wave of 2,100 cancelations in the middle of September, after it rearranged pilots’ rosters to comply with new aviation rules requiring a change in how their flying hours are logged.
Towards the end of September Ryanair announced 18,000 further flights would be canceled over the winter season. These moves affect more than 700,000 passengers.
Ryanair blamed the flight fiasco on its own mistaken decision to force its pilots to take their remaining annual leave before the end of this year, rather than by the end of the financial year next March.
That left the airline without enough pilots to fly all its scheduled flights in September and October.
However, passengers have complained about the short notice of the cancellations and the consumer group Which? said Ryanair’s compensation information was “woefully short”.
Many of Ryanair’s 4,200 pilots had joined unions over the past two weeks over discontent with the disruptions caused by the rota changes.
Michael O’Leary’s letter implored the pilot team not to leave Ryanair and offered them improved terms and working conditions.
The sweeteners included pay increases, loyalty bonus payments, improved rotas and better compensation for pilots forced to work away from their home base.
Michael O’Leary stressed that Ryanair was a “very secure employer” and he emphasized that the airline’s pilots “are the best in the business”.
He asked them not to allow competitor pilots or their unions “to demean or disparage our collective success”.
The Ryanair boss also urged the airline’s pilots not to join “one of these less financially secure or Brexit-challenged airlines”.
Michael O’Leary’s letter asked the pilots to take note of “the recent bankruptcies of Air Berlin, Alitalia and Monarch”, as well as the difficulties faced by another budget airline, Norwegian Air, which has been under pressure to boost its finances.
In today’s world, “brand-building” has become a big term in the marketing sector. Although defined broadly, brand-building is basically about making your product or service line more appealing and attractive to members of the target audience by creating consistent images and ideas around it. This marketing strategy is important because it increases the likelihood that members of your target audience will remember specific details about your product line. Once this happens, they’re more likely to buy your product when given a choice between your brand and a line they’ve never heard of. Digital advertising can play a big role in the brand-building process because it makes your company increasingly visible in the online world. Luckily, there are hundreds of digital advertising techniques you can deploy to make this happen. Here are some of them:
Image source Flickr
Social Media Marketing.
If you’re serious about optimizing and accelerating the brand-building process in the online domain, get serious about social media marketing. This form of marketing can help you share your brand in a dynamic way because it enables you to connect with people in a casual, light-hearted manner through social channels like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and much more. Another big benefit of social media marketing is that it empowers you to enhance your level of communication with the audience. For example, social media marketing enables you to speak directly with your prospect or client through channels like Twitter. At the same time, a good social media optimization (SMO) campaign will enable you to develop ongoing, back-and-forth communication with the client, thereby putting the relationship-building process in full swing.
An example of a social media marketing strategy you might deploy is Twitter polls. Twitter polls are important and effective because they enable you to learn what the target audience thinks about one or more of the products/services you offer!
Web Design And Development.
Web design and development is still one of the most important components of a solid brand-building campaign in the digital domain. Site development is important because there are now thousands and thousands of websites flooding the internet. As such, you need to maintain an entertaining, information-rich, or otherwise compelling website to ensure that your organization catches the attention of the individuals who may be interested in your brand. Good web developers possess the knowledge, open-minded attitude, and diverse skill set necessary to put together compelling content, intriguing images, and all of the other site components that set your website apart from what your competitors have constructed. Also know that companies such as 1shopping cart will provide you with ecommerce shopping cart software to help shorten and simplify the client’s experience of selecting products and checking out!
Online Reputation Management.
In addition to tapping into the power of web design and development, make sure that you incorporate online reputation management (ORM) into your digital advertising campaign. ORM is essentially about implementing customized strategies that will limit negative feedback about your brand in the online world. This marketing strategy is immensely important because when numerous people say negative things about your products or level of customer service, you can experience a significant decrease in your conversion rates. This is not what you want, and a good digital marketing team will work with intelligence and expedience to prevent it from happening. One ORM strategy that a digital marketing firm might deploy to ensure that your organization maintains a positive, dynamic online image is asking satisfied clients to write reviews of your brand and post them through internet mediums such as Yelp!
Content Optimization.
Online content is still one of the most important components of the digital advertising process. Specifically, people go online and read through the content about specific brands so that they can develop clear concepts of what certain products and services are all about. If you have compelling, information-rich content that really shares your brand with online audiences in a dynamic way, you can almost count on building a bigger internet audience and experiencing a substantive increase in your conversion rates. Hiring the right team of content writers is the simple key to success with this process, and hundreds and hundreds of digital marketing firms now employ individuals who have extensive experience in this sector.
Start Growing Your Company Online Now!
Four digital strategies that can build your brand in the online realm include social media marketing, web design and development, online reputation management, and content optimization. When you’re ready to really push your brand forward in digital space, begin incorporating these techniques into your marketing plan.
At least 22 people have been killed in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras as Tropical Storm Nate moves north towards the US.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Central American countries, where more than 20 people are missing.
Nate has caused heavy rains, landslides and floods which are blocking roads, destroying bridges and damaging houses.
In Costa Rica, nearly 400,000 people are without running water and thousands are sleeping in shelters.
At least 8 people have died in the storm there, while another 11 were killed when it moved north and reached Nicaragua, where as much as 15ins of rain had been predicted to fall by the US’s National Hurricane Center.
Three people have been killed in Honduras, including two youths who drowned in a river, and several are reported missing.
One man was also reportedly killed in a mudslide in El Salvador, according to emergency services.
On October 5, all train journeys were suspended and dozens of flights canceled in Costa Rica.
More than a dozen national parks popular with tourists have been closed as a precaution.
Nate also caused extensive damage to infrastructure in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua’s VP Rosario Murillo advised people to be cautious in the heavy rains.
“Sometimes we think we think we can cross a river and the hardest thing to understand is that we must wait,” he said on state radio.
“It’s better to be late than not to get there at all.”
According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm was expected to move off the eastern coast of Honduras at 23:00 ET on October 5.
Forecasters say Nate will gain strength and become a category one hurricane before it makes landfall on the southern coast of the United States on October 8.
Residents from Florida to Texas have been told to prepare for the storm, which, if it does strike, might be the third major storm to hit the southern coast his year.
Both Texas and Florida are still recovering from the damage inflicted by Hurricane Harvey, which hit the former in August and caused “unprecedented damage”, and Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in Florida in September.
A state of emergency was declared in 29 Florida counties, and in New Orleans in Louisiana.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told people who live on low-lying ground to evacuate.
He tweeted: “There is no need to panic.
“Be ready and prepare. Get a plan. Prepare to protect your personal property.”
Oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico says they are evacuating staff from platforms which lie along the predicted path of Tropical Storm Nate.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the English author Kazuo Ishiguro.
Kazuo Ishiguro, 62, was praised by the Swedish Academy as a writer “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.
His most famous novels The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go were adapted into highly acclaimed films. The novelist was made an OBE in 1995.
Kazuo Ishiguro said the award was “flabbergastingly flattering”.
The author has written eight books, which have been translated into over 40 languages.
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954, he moved to England with his family when his father was offered a post as an oceanographer in Surrey.
He read English and philosophy at the University of Kent after a gap year that included working as a grouse beater for the Queen Mother at Balmoral.
Kazuo Ishiguro studied an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, where his tutors were Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter.
His thesis became his critically acclaimed first novel, A Pale View of Hills, published in 1982.
Kazuo Ishiguro won the Booker Prize in 1989 for The Remains of the Day.
The court’s ruling on October 5 upheld a challenge by Catalonia’s Socialist Party, which opposes secession from Spain, and not from the government in Madrid.
Allowing the regional parliament to meet and declare independence, the court said, would violate the rights of the party’s lawmakers.
An earlier ruling by the court aimed at stopping October 1 vote was ignored by Catalonia’s leaders. That challenge to the court had come from Spain’s government, which condemned the referendum as illegal.
Organizers of October 1 vote put the turnout at 42%, with 2.2 million people taking part. They say 90% voted for independence, however they have not published final results. There have been several claims of irregularities.
There was violence at polling stations as police, trying to enforce a Spanish court decision to ban the vote, attempted to seize ballot boxes and disperse voters.
A lot of people tend to stick to fads and trends when it comes to diet and a healthy lifestyle. If a celebrity does this miracle workout or eats this “magic bullet” meal, then it automatically becomes a trend that a lot of people follow. Most of the time, these diets do work for a select few individuals.
However, it’s a good thing to keep in mind that these celebrities have personal trainers and their work involves them in getting that hard, chiseled body for a role they are going to portray. A better solution for average people like you and me is that we do research and stick to the facts about the food we consume. Here are some facts that you need to know to ensure that you are living healthy and happy.
Omega-3 and the Good Cholesterol
Most of the time when people think of cholesterol, they immediately think of greasy burgers, bacon, and other unhealthy treats. Most of them consider cholesterol as bad for the body. However, there are classifications of cholesterol that the body recognizes as healthy.
HDL or High-Density Lipoproteins are the good cholesterol which helps lower the risk of a heart attack. LDL or Low-Density Lipoproteins are the bad cholesterol which increases the risk of heart attacks and obesity. Typically found in deep sea fish such as tuna, Omega-3 is a healthy oil which pairs up with HDL and makes the body more healthy.
Veggies can make you Healthy
Well, Captain Obvious is right. Eating vegetables does make a person healthy. Admit it, most of us don’t like veggies because of their taste and smell. In reality, behind the awful taste and smell of most vegetables, these plants are packed with vitamins, fiber, antioxidants, and nutrients.
Eating vegetables does make you healthy, but be sure to check your sources. Pesticide filled crops often defeat the benefits of healthy veggies. When preparing such food, it’s a good idea to wash them before cooking thoroughly. Another foolproof way to avoid such chemicals is by going organic.
Supplements can never replace Food
Although taking supplements is a good way to acquiring vitamins and nutrients, these small pills simply cannot replace the nutritional value of food. It’s a worrying trend that a lot of nutrition enthusiasts insist on Nutritionism. The basics of nutritionism argue that the same nutrients in food are also in supplements.
No amount of supplements can ever replace real, organic food. The taste, the smell, the nutritional values, everything that comes from good-natured food is too good to give up. And no amount of supplements can heal a lifestyle that depends on a bad diet.
Processed food is never good
Although a lot of processed food often gives us convenience, over-consumption of such food is harmful to us. In fact, during the “processing” of these foods, a lot of essential and healthy components are lost.
Healthy components such as fiber get removed and get replaced with unhealthy trans fat, sugar, and anything refined. Preservatives and other additives such as coloring also are dangerous for the health. When trying to eat healthily, try eating real, organic food.
Takeaway
To be healthy, people need to wise up and try living happily and healthily. By eating healthy and leading a lifestyle that’s free from anything unhealthy, people can begin to feel the rewards of how a person should be in the optimal state.
A lot of times people are misled by some facts and tend to settle on beliefs. However, with a little research and reading, people will find out that being healthy isn’t that difficult to achieve. Get all day health just by eating the right type of food.
Rebecca Bredow, a mother-of-two from Michigan, has been sentenced to seven days in jail after she refused a judge’s order to have her son vaccinated.
The woman would not let her 9-year-old boy be immunized after initially agreeing with the father to do so.
Rebecca Bredow’s ex-husband has now been awarded temporary primary custody in order to get the boy the jab.
Michigan parents are legally allowed to skip or delay their children’s vaccinations due to personal beliefs.
However, Rebecca Bredow fell foul of the law because she reneged on agreements with her former spouse dating back to November 2016 to have the boy immunized.
On October 4, she was sentenced for contempt of court after flouting a court order last week to have her son vaccinated.
Rebecca Bredow and her ex-husband decided at the time of their child’s birth that they would space out and delay jabs for their son.
The couple separated in 2008, according to ABC News, but they shared parental custody and the father still wanted the boy vaccinated.
Oakland County Court Judge Karen McDonald said that even though Rebecca Bredow was the child’s primary caregiver: “Dad gets a say.”
Rebecca Bredow, from the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, said in court on October 4: “I am an educated vaccine-choice mother.”
She argued that to immunize her son “goes against my beliefs”.
“I would rather sit behind bars standing up for what I believe in, than giving in to something I strongly don’t believe in,” she added.
Anti-vaccination advocates – whose claims have been widely debunked by the medical community – fear the procedure exposes children to harm, and could be the cause of autism.
According to Mlive, child immunization rates in Michigan are among the worst in the nation, ranking 43rd among the 50 US states.
The federal government does not legislate child immunization, only issuing recommendations while leaving requirements to states or local school districts.
If a parent does not comply with a school’s vaccination guidelines, the child is not permitted to attend school and the parent can be jailed for the pupil’s truancy.
