NEW YORK — Renowned French high-wire artist Philippe Petit marked the 50th anniversary of his famous walk between New York’s Twin Towers with a performance in a Manhattan cathedral, accompanied by live music from Sting.

Petit walked between the spires of the World Trade Center skyscrapers, 1,350 feet up, on August 7, 1974.

A photographer captured the feat with the New York skyline in the background as Petit — without a harness — made the crossing.

Now 74 years old, Petit partly re-created his gravity-defying stunt Thursday in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, about seven miles north of the former Twin Towers, which were destroyed in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

“Of course, my illegal walk between the towers was the most important moment of my life at the time, and now I look back and I have done something like 100 high wire walks all over the world,” Petit told AFP.

In the reconstruction, Petit was met by a police officer as he completed his walk.

The New York Times, which called Petit’s Twin Towers walk the “art crime of the century,” reported that in 1974 after 45 minutes of “knee bends and other stunts,” Petit turned himself over to waiting police.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and trespass, but the charges were dropped in return for a free aerial performance in a city park.

The feature film The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire tell the story of the famous stunt. 
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washington — The Biden administration has decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday, reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war.

The administration briefed Congress this week on its decision to lift the ban, a congressional aide said. One source said sales could resume as early as next week, while another said deliberations on timing were still under way.

“The Saudis have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours, returning these cases to regular order through appropriate congressional notification and consultation,” a senior Biden administration official said.

Under U.S. law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are made final.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned the provision of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in recent years, citing issues including the toll on civilians of its campaign in Yemen and a range of human rights concerns.

But that opposition has softened amid turmoil in the Middle East following Hamas’ deadly October 7 terror attack on Israel and because of changes in the conduct of the campaign in Yemen.

The threat level in the region has been heightened since late last month, with Iran and Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group vowing to retaliate against Israel after Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran.

The Biden administration also has been negotiating a defense pact and an agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisions Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, although that remains an elusive goal.

Since March 2022 — when the Saudis and Houthis entered into a U.N.-led truce — there have not been any Saudi airstrikes in Yemen and cross-border fire from Yemen into the kingdom has largely stopped, the administration official said.

Biden adopted the tougher stance on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in 2021, citing the kingdom’s campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, which has inflicted heavy civilian casualties.

Yemen’s war is seen as one of several proxy battles between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Houthis ousted a Saudi-backed government from Sanaa in late 2014 and have been at war against a Saudi-led military alliance since 2015, a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left 80% of Yemen’s population dependent on humanitarian aid.

“We are regularly conducting airstrikes to degrade Houthi capabilities, an effort that is ongoing and will continue together with a coalition of partners,” the senior U.S. administration official said.

“We have designated the Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, and we will have imposed sanctions and additional costs on the Houthi smuggling networks and military apparatus. This pressure will continue to build over the coming weeks,” the official said.
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WASHINGTON — A California man with a history of political violence was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and other makeshift weapons during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

David Nicholas Dempsey’s sentence is one of the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. Prosecutors described him as one of the most violent members of the mob of Donald Trump supporters that attacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.

Dempsey, who is from Van Nuys, stomped on police officers’ heads. He swung poles at officers defending a tunnel, struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacked police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture, prosecutors said.

He climbed atop other rioters, using them like “human scaffolding” to reach officers guarding a tunnel entrance. He injured at least two police officers, prosecutors said.

“Your conduct on January 6th was exceptionally egregious,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth told Dempsey. “You did not get carried away in the moment.”

Dempsey pleaded guilty in January to two counts of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon.

Only former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has received a longer sentence in the January 6 attack. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for orchestrating a plot to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

Dempsey called his conduct “reprehensible” and apologized to the police officers whom he assaulted. “You were performing your duties, and I responded with hostility and violence,” he said before learning his sentence.

Justice Department prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 21 years and 10 months for Dempsey, a former construction worker and fast-food restaurant employee. Dempsey’s violence was so extreme that he attacked a fellow rioter who was trying to disarm him, prosecutors wrote.

“David Dempsey is political violence personified,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Brasher told the judge.

Defense attorney Amy Collins, who sought a sentence of 6 years and six months, described the government’s sentencing recommendation as “ridiculous.”

“It makes him a statistic,” she said. “It doesn’t consider the person he is, how much he has grown.”

Dempsey was wearing a tactical vest, a helmet and an American flag gaiter covering his face when he attacked police at a tunnel leading to the Lower West Terrace doors. He shot pepper spray at Metropolitan Police Department Detective Phuson Nguyen just as another rioter yanked at the officer’s gas mask, prosecutors wrote.

“The searing spray burned Detective Nguyen’s lungs, throat, eyes, and face and left him gasping for breath, fearing he might lose consciousness and be overwhelmed by the mob,” they wrote.

Dempsey then struck MPD Sergeant Jason Mastony in the head with a metal crutch, cracking the shield on his gas mask and cutting his head.

“I collapsed and caught myself against the wall as my ears rang. I was able to stand again and hold the line for a few more minutes until another assault by rioters pushed the police line back away from the threshold of the tunnel,” Mastony said in a statement submitted to the court.

Dempsey has been jailed since his arrest in August 2021.

His criminal record in California includes convictions for burglary, theft and assault. The assault conviction stemmed from an October 2019 gathering near the Santa Monica Pier, where Dempsey attacked people peacefully demonstrating against then-President Trump, prosecutors said.

“The peaceful protest turned violent as Dempsey took a canister of bear spray from his pants and dispersed it at close range against several protesters,” they wrote, noting that Dempsey was sentenced to 200 days of jail time.

Dempsey engaged in at least three other acts of “vicious political violence” that didn’t lead to criminal charges “for various reasons,” according to prosecutors. They said Dempsey struck a counterprotester over the head with a skateboard at a June 2019 rally in Los Angeles, used the same skateboard to assault someone at an August 2020 protest in Tujunga, California, and attacked a protester with pepper spray and a metal bat during an August 2020 protest in Beverly Hills, California.

More than 1,400 people have been charged with January 6-related federal crimes. Over 900 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to Tarrio’s 22 years.
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The U.S. presidential campaign is being closely followed in Ukraine as its outcome could significantly impact regional security, U.S. foreign policy, NATO support, aid to Ukraine, and relations with Russia. VOA Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. Camera: Daniil Batushchak, Vladyslav Smilianets
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By the beginning of 2024, the war in Ukraine had inflicted over $150 billion of damage on Ukraine’s infrastructure, according to the Kyiv School of Economics. But some scholars in the U.S., alongside Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, are already looking ahead to the end of the war and the opportunity to rebuild. Princeton University recently created a legal database to help. Iuliia Iarmolenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Oleksii Osyka
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U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pass the Democratic Party’s torch to Vice President Kamala Harris makes him a lame-duck president – one who remains in office without any hope of an additional term. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman at the White House looks at how Biden’s legacy may eventually compare to the previous one-term president who did not run for reelection.
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BARCELONA — Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium on Friday, having appeared at a rally in central Barcelona despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Spain, his party’s general secretary said on Friday.

Jordi Turull told RAC1 radio that he did not know whether Puigdemont had already reached his home in Waterloo, where he has lived for seven years in self-imposed exile since leading a failed bid for Catalonia’s secession in 2017.

He is wanted in Spain on suspicion of embezzlement related to a 2017 independence referendum, ruled illegal by the Spanish courts. Puigdemont says the vote was legal and therefore the charges linked to it have no basis.

“He did not come to be arrested in Spain but to exercise his political rights.”

Turull said Puigdemont had initially planned to attend an investiture vote in the regional parliament to elect a new leader of Catalonia.

Instead of walking from the rally to parliament, Puigdemont got into a car because of security concerns, and then decided at short notice to leave because he believed he would not be allowed to enter the parliament area, Turull said.

He added that Puigdemont had not wanted to provide an opportunity for photographs of him being arrested.

Turull was imprisoned between 2018 and 2021 on charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement over the independence referendum, but was pardoned by the Spanish government.

He has served as general secretary of Puigdemont’s hardline separatist party Junts since June 2022.
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CHICO, California — California’s largest wildfire so far this year continued to grow Thursday as it chewed through timber in very hot and dry weather.

The Park Fire has scorched more than 1,709 square kilometers since erupting July 24 near the Sacramento Valley city of Chico and burning northward up the western flank of the Sierra Nevada. Containment remained at 34%, Cal Fire said.

The conflagration’s early explosive growth quickly made it California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record before favorable weather reduced its intensity late last week. It reawakened this week due to the heat and very low relative humidity levels.

A large portion of the burned area was in mop-up stage but spot fires were a continuing problem, officials said during Thursday morning’s operational briefing.

The fire’s northeast corner was the top firefighting priority, operations deputy Jed Gaines said.

“It’s not time to celebrate,” he said. “We got several more days of hard work to hold what we got in there.”

The latest Park Fire assessments found 636 structures destroyed and 49 damaged. A local man was arrested after authorities alleged he started the fire by pushing a burning car into a gully in a wilderness park outside Chico.

About 160 kilometers to the south, a new forest fire in El Dorado County was exhibiting extreme behavior, and some Park Fire aircraft were being diverted there.

The Crozier Fire, about 16 kilometers north of Placerville, had burned more than 5.17 square kilometers of timber and chaparral as of Thursday evening and was just 5% contained. The fire threatens 1,625 structures, according to Cal Fire.
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san diego, california — Two Chinese giant pandas are now California residents as their enclosure at the San Diego Zoo opened to the public on Thursday in an international ceremony. 

The pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, are the first to enter the United States in 21 years and were welcomed by California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng.  

Yun Chuan, a 5-year-old male, is easily recognized by his long, slightly pointed nose, while Xin Bao is a 4-year-old female with big fluffy ears whose name means a “precious treasure of prosperity and abundance.” 

Yun Chuan’s name means “big river of cloud.” His mother, Zhen Zhen, was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007. 

The zoo is working closely with Chinese experts to help with the adaptation period and understanding of the needs of the two pandas. The pair are enjoying a variety of fresh bamboo and a local adaptation of “wotou,” a traditional Chinese steamed cornbread that’s also called “panda bread.” 

“The arrival of Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, as we celebrate the 45th anniversary of our diplomatic ties, has sent a clear and important message,” said Xie.  

“China-U.S. cooperation on panda conservation will not cease. Our people-to- people exchanges and subnational cooperation will not stop, and once opened, the door of China-U.S. friendship will not be shut again,” he added. 

Newsom said the new pandas were about “celebrating our common humanity. It’s about celebrating the things that bind us together.” 

“And so, for me, this spirit of pride that is associated with this opening today with the experience that so many will have, that we just had at Panda Ridge, is about a deeper meaning,” Newsom added. 

Visitors of all ages to Panda Ridge on Thursday were exuberant about the pandas’ cuteness. 

“I have never seen a panda before. I’ve only seen them on TV and nature documentaries,” said Kobi Davis from Michigan. “They are super cute. They just kind of laze around, you know. There’s charm in that.”  

Keena Butcher from Canada called them “quiet, thoughtful creatures, and just realize we can have hope for our future if we can conserve them.”  

China’s Communist government has long used “panda diplomacy” to enhance the country’s soft power, lending the large but cuddly looking black-and-white bears to zoos in various countries over the decades as goodwill animal ambassadors. 

In late 2023, Washington’s National Zoo said goodbye to its beloved giant pandas, which were returned to China amid heightened tensions between the two global superpowers. 

In May this year, the National Zoo said China would send two young pandas to Washington by the end of the year.  
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washington — Germany’s entry into the U.S.-led U.N. Command, which expanded the multinational body tasked with defending South Korea against North Korea, reflects growing fears in Europe and the U.S. that multiple wars that could break out simultaneously across the globe, said analysts.

North Korea this week denounced Germany’s membership in the U.N. Command (UNC), calling the expansion an attempt by the U.S. to create an Asian version of NATO, according to state-run KCNA.

The move will “inevitably aggravate the military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the region,” KCNA said Tuesday.

Pushing back against Pyongyang’s criticism, the German Federal Foreign Office told VOA Korean in a statement on Tuesday that by joining UNC, it is “sending a signal for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and strengthen[ing] our commitment in the Indo-Pacific.”

The statement continued, “Just as others are there for us, we are there for others when they need us.”

Germany joined UNC on August 2, becoming the 18th member of the body charged with maintaining the armistice on the Korean Peninsula during peacetime. In the event of war, the UNC would coordinate the movement of troops and weapons from its members to the Combined Forces Command of the U.S. and South Korea. 

Enhanced deterrence

Markus Garlauskas, who served as the U.S. national intelligence officer for North Korea from 2014 to 2020, said the UNC’s main role is to defend South Korea but that “expanding the number of countries contributing to UNC helps enhance deterrence … of the escalation of aggression in the entire region.”

This is particularly important because a conflict on the Korean Peninsula could escalate into a conflict with China, said Garlauskas, director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

The U.S. maintains several military bases and approximately 28,500 troops in South Korea.

But with wars raging in Ukraine and Gaza and the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, analysts said the addition of new members to the UNC makes it easier for the United States to respond to crises elsewhere without having to send additional forces that may be needed to defend South Korea if the North attacks.

“The U.S. military is not large enough to fight multiple contingencies around the world” by itself, said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.

The U.S. Commission on the National Defense Strategy released a report in July saying the U.S. must prepare to deal with simultaneous conflicts coordinated by China and Russia and involving countries such as North Korea and Iran, amounting to a “global war.”

Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, said, “The more forces that are available to potentially assist South Korea, the better it is for the U.S. if conflict occurs in both Taiwan and in Korea.”

By joining the UNC, “Germany is hoping South Korea will also become more supportive of the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression” by sending ammunition and other weapons, Bennett said.

South Korea has withheld sending lethal weapons directly to Ukraine while providing nonlethal weapons.

Germany’s membership in UNC follows a NATO summit last month in Washington where the alliance agreed to cooperate closely on security with the Indo-Pacific countries of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Germany’s participation in UNC demonstrates “a tangible step” toward that defense cooperation, Garlauskas said. He noted that Pyongyang’s and Beijing’s support of Russia’s war against Ukraine “directly threatens Germany security.”

Germany, along with other NATO member states, has been arming Ukraine so it can defend against Russia, which has been threatening NATO with nuclear strikes. The U.S. and its NATO allies have condemned China for supporting Russia’s defense industry and North Korea for sending munitions to aid its war in Ukraine.

James Przystup, senior fellow and Japan chair specializing in alliance management in the Indo-Pacific at the Hudson Institute, said Germany, the U.K., France, the Netherlands and the EU “have all released Indo-Pacific strategy that recognizes that stability in the region is critical to Europe’s own prosperity.”

Those countries have also expressed their commitment to supporting a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, he said. “But this is far from the emergence of an Indo-Pacific NATO.”
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Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s ties to China will likely inform his work if elected. Where does he stand on key issues? And how does Beijing see him? Everyone has an opinion. VOA’s Anita Powell and Paris Huang report from Washington.
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CAIRO — Security forces have arrested five people in connection with an attack this week at a military base in Iraq in which five U.S. troops and two U.S. contractors were wounded, Iraqi officials said on Thursday. 

The arrests were announced by the Iraqi Security Media Cell, an official body responsible for disseminating security information. 

“After in-depth legal investigations and listening to witnesses’ statements … five of those involved in this illegal act were arrested,” the Security Media Cell added in a statement. 

In Monday’s attack, two Katyusha rockets were fired at Ain al-Asad air base in the west of the country. On Tuesday, Iraq’s military condemned what it called “reckless” actions against bases on its soil and said it had captured a truck with a rocket launcher. 

The attack came as the Middle East braced for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week’s killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. 

It was unclear whether the incident in Iraq was linked to threats by Iran to retaliate over the killing in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. 

Iraq is a rare ally of both the U.S. and Iran. It hosts 2,500 U.S. troops and has Iran-backed militias linked to its security forces. It has witnessed escalating tit-for-tat attacks since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza in October. 

Iraq wants troops from the U.S.-led military coalition to begin withdrawing in September and to formally end the coalition’s work by September 2025, Iraqi sources have said, with some U.S. forces likely to remain in a newly negotiated advisory capacity.
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VIENNA, AUSTRIA — The 19-year-old Austrian who masterminded a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift fans at a concert in Vienna with a bomb or knife had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, authorities said on Thursday.

The main suspect, who has North Macedonian roots, made a full confession in custody, Austria’s general director for public security, Franz Ruf, told a news conference.

He swore loyalty to the IS militant group’s leader on the internet and kept chemicals and technical devices at his home in the town of Ternitz in preparation for an attack, Ruf said.

The 19-year-old, whose name was not given, was planning an attack with an explosive or knife among the estimated 20,000 “Swiftie” fans set to gather outside the stadium, said national intelligence head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

“There is currently no information that other concerts are subject to an explicit threat,” he said at the news conference.

Two other Austrian youths, ages 17 and 15, were also detained Wednesday over the foiled plot.

Swift’s three concerts in Vienna, due to start on Thursday for a sold-out audience of 65,000 each, were canceled, to the consternation of fans, many of whom had traveled far.

“It’s just heartbreaking, just frustrating. But at the end of the day, I guess it’s for everyone’s safety,” said Mark del Rosario, who had flown from the Philippines for the show.

U.S. broadcaster ABC cited law enforcement and intelligence sources as saying Austrian authorities had received information about the Swift concert threat from U.S. intelligence.

It cited the sources as saying at least one of the suspects had pledged allegiance to ISIS-K, a resurgent wing of IS, on Telegram in June, although the plot was IS-inspired rather than directed by the group’s operatives.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said foreign intelligence agencies helped with the investigation, as Austrian law does not allow monitoring of messenger apps.

Event organizer Live Nation urged fans of Coldplay, which is due to play at the same stadium on August 21, to stay calm and said it was in contact with authorities.

It did not comment on whether the show would take place.

British police said on Thursday there was nothing to indicate that the planned attack in Vienna would have an impact on her shows at Wembley Stadium in London next week.

Past attacks and plots

“Concerts are often a preferred target of Islamist attackers, large concerts,” said Karner, listing the 2015 attack on Paris’ Bataclan venue and the 2017 bombing at the Manchester Arena where U.S. pop star Ariana Grande had played.

The planned attack also recalled a foiled plot by three IS-linked suspects against Vienna’s gay pride parade last year.

Authorities have revamped their national security intelligence in the wake of a 2020 attack by a convicted jihadist in the center of Vienna that left four dead, the first such militant attack in the Austrian capital in a generation.

Swifties disappointed

The shows were to be part of the record-breaking Eras Tour by the American singer-songwriter, which started on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, and is set to conclude on Dec. 8, 2024, in Vancouver, Canada.

Swift, 34, has not yet commented on the cancellations on her official Instagram account, which has 283 million followers.

Her fans were horrified at the threat, with some begging organizers to postpone the concert instead of canceling it outright. Promoters have said they will pay back tickets.

“I can’t believe the concert i’ve been waiting for over 10 years is now gone. I don’t think i’ll ever get over this,” wrote one fan on social media.

“As disappointing as not being able to go to this concert is TRUST ME u do not want to experience that,” added another.

Some who had traveled from abroad for the concerts planned to do some sightseeing or hang with friends instead.

“We’ll check out some museums, maybe catch up with a few friends who reside here,” said del Rosario. “But apart from that, maybe look at Swiftie-organized events. To be with fellow fans, you know, share the same pain and just dance it out. As I believe Taylor Swift would want us to have fun.”

One group of local Swifties said they had received permission to still hold tour parties in coordination with local police.
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GEORGETOWN, Texas — As with any desktop 3D printer, the Vulcan printer pipes layer by layer to build an object – except this printer is more than 45 feet (13.7 m) wide, weighs 4.75 tons and prints residential homes.

This summer, the robotic printer from ICON is finishing the last few of 100 3D-printed houses in Wolf Ranch, a community in Georgetown, Texas, about 30 miles from Austin.

ICON began printing the walls of what it says is the world’s largest 3D-printed community in November 2022. Compared to traditional construction, the company says that 3D printing homes is faster, less expensive, requires fewer workers, and minimizes construction material waste.

“It brings a lot of efficiency to the trade market,” said ICON senior project manager Conner Jenkins. “So, where there were maybe five different crews coming in to build a wall system, we now have one crew and one robot.”

After concrete powder, water, sand and other additives are mixed together and pumped into the printer, a nozzle squeezes out the concrete mixture like toothpaste onto a brush, building up layer by layer along a pre-programmed path that creates corduroy-effect walls.

The single-story three- to four-bedroom homes take about three weeks to finish printing, with the foundation and metal roofs installed traditionally.

Jenkins said the concrete walls are designed to be resistant to water, mold, termites and extreme weather.

Lawrence Nourzad, a 32-year-old business development director, and his girlfriend Angela Hontas, a 29-year-old creative strategist, purchased a Wolf Ranch home earlier this summer.

“It feels like a fortress,” Nourzad said, adding that he was confident it would be resilient to most tornados.

The walls also provide strong insulation from the Texas heat, the couple said, keeping the interior temperature cool even when the air conditioner wasn’t on full blast.

There was one other thing the 3D-printed walls seemed to protect against, however: a solid wireless internet connection.

“Obviously these are really strong, thick walls. And that’s what provides a lot of value for us as homeowners and keeps this thing really well-insulated in a Texas summer, but signal doesn’t transfer through these walls very well,” Nourzad said.

To alleviate this issue, an ICON spokeswoman said most Wolf Ranch homeowners use mesh internet routers, which broadcast a signal from multiple units placed throughout a home, versus a traditional router which sends a signal from one device.

The 3D-printed homes at Wolf Ranch, called the “Genesis Collection” by developers, range in price from around $450,000 to close to $600,000. Developers said a little more than one quarter of the 100 homes have been sold.

ICON, which 3D-printed its first home in Austin in 2018, hopes to one day take its technology to the Moon. NASA, as part of its Artemis Moon exploration program, has contracted ICON to develop a construction system capable of building landing pads, shelters, and other structures on the lunar surface.
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HUGER, S.C. — Tropical Storm Debby has made a second landfall in South Carolina on its way up the East Coast, where residents as far north as Vermont could get several inches of rain this weekend.

The National Hurricane Center says Debby came ashore early Thursday near Bulls Bay, South Carolina. The storm is expected to keep moving inland, spreading heavy rain and possible flooding all the way up through the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast by the weekend.

Debby first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is now a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds at 50 mph (80 kph).

Considerable flooding is expected across parts of eastern South Carolina and southeast North Carolina through Friday, with an additional 3 to 9 inches (8 to 23 centimeters) of rain forecast, as well as in portions of Virginia, according to the hurricane center.

Days of rain have forced the deluge-hardened residents of a South Carolina community to begin the near-ritualistic task of assessing damage left behind by Debby, which continued spinning over the Atlantic Ocean and influencing thunderstorms from the East Coast to the Great Lakes on Wednesday. The National Weather Service’s office in Charleston also said survey teams confirmed four-Debby related tornadoes.

In Huger, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Charleston, Gene Taylor was waiting in the afternoon for a few inches of water to drain from his house along French Quarter Creek as high tide passed.

Taylor saw the potential for flooding last week and started moving belongings out or up higher in his home. It’s a lesson learned the hard way — Taylor estimated that this is the fourth time he has had floodwater in his home in the past nine years.

“To save everything, we’ve learned from the past it’s better be prepared for the worst. And unfortunately, I think we got it,” Taylor said.

A few doors down, Charles Grainger was cleaning up after about 8 inches (20 centimeters) of water got into his home.

“Eight inches disrupts your whole life,” Grainger said. “You don’t get used to it. You just grin and bear it. It’s part of living on the creek.”

In Georgia, at least four dams were breached northwest of Savannah in Bulloch County, but no deaths had been reported, authorities said at a briefing.

More than 75 people were rescued from floodwaters in the county, said Corey Kemp, director of emergency management, and about 100 roads were closed.

“We’ve been faced with a lot of things we’ve never been faced with before,” Bulloch County Commission Chairman Roy Thompson said. “I’m 78-plus years old and have never seen anything like this before in Bulloch County. It’s amazing what has happened, and amazing what is going to continue to happen until all these waters get out of here.”

For residents on Tappan Zee Drive in suburban Pooler, west of Savannah, Georgia, the drenching that Debby delivered came with a painful dose of déjà vu. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew overflowed a nearby canal and flooded several of the same homes.

Located roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, with no creeks or rivers nearby, the neighborhood doesn’t seem like a high-risk location for tropical flooding. But residents say drainage problems have plagued their street for well over a decade, despite local government efforts to fix them.

Debby also dumped rain on communities all the way up to the Great Lakes and New York and New Jersey. Moisture from the tropical storm strengthened another system Tuesday evening, which caused strong thunderstorms, according to weather service meteorologist Scott Kleebauer.

“We had a multi-round period of showers and thunderstorms that kind of scooted from Michigan eastward,” Kleebauer said.

As much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of New Jersey in less than four hours.

Emergency officials in New York City warned of potential flash flooding, flying drones with loudspeakers in some neighborhoods to tell people in basement apartments to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Multiple water rescues were reported in and near the city.

About 270,000 customers remained without power in Ohio as of Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, following severe storms including two confirmed tornadoes. Utility officials with FirstEnergy’s Illuminating Company said via social media that power restoration would take days due to the damage.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said his state was just entering Act 2 of a three-act play, after more than 60 homes were damaged but roads and water systems were without significant problems.

The final act may come next week if enough rain falls upstream in North Carolina to cause major flooding along rivers as they flow to the Atlantic Ocean.

A state of emergency was in effect for both North Carolina and Virginia. Maryland issued a state of preparedness declaration that coordinates preparations without declaring an emergency.

At least six people have died due to the storm, five of them in traffic accidents or from fallen trees. The sixth death involved a 48-year-old man in Gulfport, Florida, whose body was recovered after his anchored sailboat partially sank.
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BARCELONA, Spain — Former Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain after organizing an independence referendum in the wealthy Spanish region nearly seven years ago that was declared illegal, returned to the country on Thursday despite a pending arrest warrant.

Puigdemont defiantly appeared in Barcelona after traveling from Belgium and made a speech in front of a large crowd of supporters. He faces charges of embezzlement for his part in the attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain.

Addressing the crowd, Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of “a crackdown” on the Catalan separatist movement.

“For the last seven years we have been persecuted because we wanted to hear the voice of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont said. “They have made being Catalan into something suspicious.”

He added: “All people have the right to self-determination.”

The 2017 referendum organized by Puigdemont was declared illegal at the time both by Spain’s central government and the Constitutional Court.

Puigdemont has dedicated his career to the goal of carving out a new country in northeast Spain — a struggle which is decades-old. His largely uncompromising approach has brought political conflict with other separatist parties as well as with Spain’s central government.

Puigdemont appeared in a central Barcelona park where several thousand separatist supporters who had gathered in expectation of his arrival waved Catalan flags. He punched the air to cheers on a bright, sunny day.

The event was organized by his political party Together for Catalonia (Junts), hours before a new regional government was to take office nearby.

Local police were deployed in a security ring around a section of the park where Catalonia’s parliament building is located behind walls. Puigdemont, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie, walked toward the building followed by masses of supporters.

Puigdemont had earlier announced publicly he was going back to Spain, though he gave no travel details.

Puigdemont’s presence in Spain is likely to generate renewed political tension over the smoldering issue of Catalan independence. The failed secession attempt triggered a protracted constitutional crisis.

It wasn’t immediately clear how authorities would proceed if Puigdemont was arrested.

A contentious amnesty bill, crafted by Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government, could potentially clear Puigdemont and hundreds of other supporters of Catalan independence of any wrongdoing in the illegal 2017 ballot.

But the bill, approved by Spain’s parliament earlier this year, is being challenged by the Supreme Court, which argues the pardon does not apply to embezzlement, unlike other crimes that Puigdemont had previously been charged with. Puigdemont could be placed in pretrial detention.

The former Catalan leader’s return threatened to complicate a deal brokered after months of deadlock between Salvador Illa’s Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the other main Catalan separatist party and left-wing Esquerra Republicana (ERC).

That deal had ensured just enough support in Catalonia’s parliament for Illa to become the next regional president in an investiture debate Thursday.
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LONDON — Far-right demonstrations that had been anticipated by police in dozens of locations across Britain failed to materialize Wednesday as peaceful anti-racism protesters instead showed up in force.

Police had prepared for another night of violence at 100 locations following a week of rioting and disorder fueled by misinformation over a stabbing attack against young girls. Many businesses had boarded up windows and closed down in fear of what lay ahead.

Stand up to Racism and other groups had planned counter-protests in response, but in most places they reclaimed their streets with nothing to oppose.

In London, Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool and Birmingham, large, peaceful crowds gathered outside agencies and law firms specializing in immigration that had been listed by internet chat groups as possible targets of far-right activity. 

In resounding choruses they chanted: “Whose streets? Our streets!”

It was a vast change from the chaos that has erupted on streets throughout England and Belfast, Northern Ireland, since July 30.

Cities and towns have been wracked by riots and looting for the past week as angry mobs, encouraged by far-right extremists, clashed with police and counter-demonstrators. The disturbances began after misinformation spread about the stabbing rampage that killed three girls in the seaside community of Southport, with social media users falsely identifying the suspect as an immigrant and a Muslim.

Rioters spouting anti-immigrant slogans have attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum-seekers, creating fear in Muslim and immigrant communities. In recent days, reports have emerged of violent counterattacks in some areas.

The head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service said earlier Wednesday that officers were focused on protecting immigration lawyers and services. In addition to thousands of officers already deployed, about 1,300 specialist forces were on standby in case of serious trouble in London.

“We’ll protect those people,″ Commissioner Mark Rowley said. “It is completely unacceptable, regardless of your political views, to intimidate any sector of lawful activity, and we will not let the immigration asylum system be intimidated.”

By early late evening, though, with the exception of scattered disturbances and some arrests, trouble had not erupted. 

A crowd of immigrant supporters that quickly grew to several hundred in the London neighborhood of North Finchley found themselves largely alone with several dozen police officers.

The crowd chanted “refugees welcome” and “London against racism.” Some held signs saying, “Stop the far right,” “Migration is not a crime” and “Finchley against Fascism.” 

At one point, an unruly man who had been shouting at the group and pulling his shirt up to show off an eagle tattoo was punched by a protester. He was led away by someone and officers questioned a possible suspect. 

Outside an immigration center in the Walthamstow area in east London, an anti-racism protest leader barked “fascist scum” to which a crowd of hundreds responded: “off our streets.”

In Liverpool, hundreds showed up to defend the Asylum Link immigration center. A grandmother held a placard reading “Nans Against Nazis” and someone else held a sign saying, “When the poor blame the poor only the rich win.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the previous disturbances as “far-right thuggery,” rejecting any suggestion that the riots were about the government’s immigration policies. He has warned that anyone taking part in the violence would “face the full force of the law.”

Police have made more than 400 arrests and are considering using counter-terrorism laws to prosecute some rioters. The government has pledged to prosecute those responsible for the disorder, including those who use social media to incite the violence.

Among the first to be sentenced was Derek Drummond, 58, who received three years in prison after admitting to violent disorder and punching a police officer in the face in Southport on July 30. He was one of three men jailed after their cases were heard Wednesday at Liverpool Crown Court.
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