US Business

The death toll from flooding in eastern Kentucky rose to 37 on Monday as more rain hampered recovery operations and possible severe weather overnight threatened to provoke further damage.

“We are ending the day with more heartbreaking news out of Eastern Kentucky. We can confirm the death toll has now risen to 37, with so many more still missing,” tweeted Andy Beshear, governor of the south-central US state.”

“Let us pray for these families and come together to wrap our arms around our fellow Kentuckians,” he added.

Beshear has said he expects the death toll to continue to rise as search and rescue teams fan out across flood-hit areas and recover more bodies.

Their efforts were hampered by more rain on Monday, with a series of new storms forecast to arrive overnight.

“If things weren’t hard enough on the people of this region, they’re getting rain right now,” Beshear said earlier in the day. “There is severe storm potential today in all of the impacted areas.

“That is just not right.”

The National Weather Service issued flood watches for most of eastern Kentucky for the evening and into Tuesday morning, warning that “a complex of storms is expected to move over the region tonight.”

“Heavy rain rates which could lead to flash flooding along with severe thunderstorms are possible,” the weather agency tweeted.

Last week, some areas in eastern Kentucky received more than eight inches (20 centimeters) of rain in a 24-hour period, provoking unprecedented flash flooding.

The water level of the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Whitesburg rose to a staggering 20 feet within hours, well above its previous record of 14.7 feet.

Some areas in the mountainous Appalachia region are still inaccessible following the flooding that turned roads into rivers, washed out bridges and swept away houses.

The floods hit a region of Kentucky that was already suffering from grinding poverty — driven by the decline of the coal industry that was the heart of its economy.

President Joe Biden has issued a disaster declaration for the state, allowing federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

The eastern Kentucky flooding is the latest in a series of extreme weather events that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of climate change.

Nearly 60 people were killed in western Kentucky by a tornado in December 2021.

Beyonce will remove a derogatory term for disabled people from her new song “Heated,” a spokesperson said Monday, after its use was condemned as offensive by campaigners.

The US pop megastar will re-record the track from her latest album “Renaissance” on which she originally sang the lyrics “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.”

“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” a spokesperson for Beyonce told AFP via email.

Co-written with Canadian rapper Drake, the dance track appears to use the word “spaz” in the colloquial sense of temporarily losing control or acting erratically.

But disability campaigners noted that the word is derived from “spastic.” 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spasticity is a movement disorder involving stiff muscles and awkward movement, suffered by 80 percent of people with cerebral palsy.

In June, US singer Lizzo re-recorded her song “Grrrls” to remove the same term following complaints that it was derogatory.

Australian disability campaigner Hannah Diviney said the inclusion of the word by Beyonce “feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo.”

“Guess I’ll just keep telling the whole industry to ‘do better’ until ableist slurs disappear from music,” she tweeted.

Beyonce’s eagerly anticipated seventh solo studio album “Renaissance” was released Friday, drawing mainly positive reviews with its nods to disco and electronic dance.

Other collaborators on the album — which leaked online in the days prior to its official release — include Nile Rodgers, Skrillex, Nigerian singer Tems, Grace Jones, Pharrell and Beyonce’s rap mogul husband Jay-Z.

In an Instagram post published soon after the album’s release, Beyonce said creating the album “allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world.

“My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment,” she wrote.

“A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom.”

The White House on Monday warned China against overreacting to a trip by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, saying she would have every right to visit the self-ruled island despite Beijing viewing it as a highly provocative challenge.

China need not turn any visit by Pelosi into a “crisis,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, even as he warned that Beijing may be “positioning” itself for a show of military strength around the island.

Media reports have said that Pelosi, currently on an official Asia tour, will stop off in Taiwan and meet President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday — if so, the highest-level US visit to Taipei in decades.

Beijing, which views Taiwan as its territory, has reacted furiously to the idea, warning President Joe Biden that his administration was playing “with fire” and announcing a series of live-fire military drills in the Taiwan Straits. 

While the White House and State Department are both understood to be opposed to Pelosi’s trip, Kirby made it clear that the speaker — who is second in line to the US presidency — was entitled to go where she pleased.

“The speaker has the right to visit Taiwan,” he told reporters, adding: “There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with longstanding US policies into some sort of crisis.”

Kirby cited intelligence that China was preparing possible military provocations that could include firing missiles in the Taiwan Strait or “large scale” incursions into Taiwan airspace.

Pelosi kicked her trip off Monday with a stop in Singapore, where Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged her at a meeting to strive for “stable” ties with Beijing.

Her itinerary also includes Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, but the prospect of a Taiwan visit has dominated attention.

– ‘Nothing has changed’ –

Speculation about Pelosi’s plans has coincided with an uptick in military activity across the region. 

Kirby said the United States “will not be intimidated” from continuing to move freely in the Pacific region.

However, he sought to lower tension by stressing several times that US policy was unchanged toward Taiwan. This means support for its self-ruling government, while diplomatically recognising Beijing over Taipei and opposing either a full independence bid by Taiwan or a forceful takeover by China.

“Nothing has changed,” he said. “There’s certainly no reason for this to come to blows.”

Kirby confirmed that Pelosi is traveling on a military aircraft and said Washington does not fear a direct attack but warned it “raises the stakes of a miscalculation.”

Pelosi’s office has said her trip “will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region,” referring to the Asia-Pacific.

The statement did not mention Taiwan. But visits by US officials there are usually kept secret until delegations land.

China’s ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Hun labelled such a visit “very much dangerous, very much provocative” as he spoke to reporters Monday. 

“If the US insists on making the visit, China will take firm and strong measures to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said at a briefing.

The Global Times, China’s state-run tabloid, suggested that Pelosi might use “emergency excuses like an aircraft fault or refuelling” to land at a Taiwanese airport.

“If she dares to stop in Taiwan, it will be the moment to ignite the powder keg of the situation in the Taiwan Straits,” Hu Xijin, a former Global Times editor and now commentator, tweeted.

And the Chinese army’s Eastern Theater Command shared footage on social media site Weibo featuring a combat-ready army with fighters and helicopters taking off, amphibious troops landing on a beach and a stream of missiles raining down on various targets.

“We will bury all enemies who invade our territory,” a short text accompanying the footage read. 

“We’re ready to fight,” it added. “Advance towards a joint combat and a victorious war.”

– Taiwan government silent –

Taiwan’s 23 million people have long lived with the possibility of an invasion, but the threat has intensified under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

American officials often make discreet visits to Taiwan to show support but a Pelosi trip would be higher-profile than any in recent history.

Taiwan’s government has remained silent on the prospect of a Pelosi visit and there has been minimal local press coverage. 

“I really hate what the Chinese are doing,” Hsu Ching-feng, a fruit vendor in Taipei, told AFP.

“But there’s nothing us common folks can do about it but ignore them.”

Firefighters faced “extremely dangerous” conditions Monday as they battled to save a community of 8,000 residents, with lightning strikes threatening to worsen a blaze that has already killed at least two people and become California’s biggest fire of the year.

Hundreds of personnel were involved in the fight against the fast-moving McKinney Fire, which has torn through more than 55,000 acres (22,000 hectares) near the border with Oregon, forcing thousands from their homes.

The National Weather Service meanwhile issued a warning because of the threat of dry lightning — powerful electrical strikes that come without any of the desperately needed rain.

“These conditions can be extremely dangerous for firefighters, as winds can be erratic and extremely strong, causing fire to spread in any direction,” said CalFire, an interagency website that collates fire information.

California, along with much of the western United States, is in the grip of its worst drought in more than 1,000 years.

The drought, exacerbated by man-made climate change, has left the countryside parched and exceedingly vulnerable to the wildfires that naturally break out, making the blazes hotter, faster and more destructive.

The McKinney Fire on Sunday claimed its first human lives, with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office saying firefighters found two people dead inside a burned-out car in the driveway of a home in the town of Klamath River.

Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said the pair were likely caught in the swift-moving fire as they tried to flee.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Siskiyou County, and more than 2,000 residents of the rural area are under evacuation orders.

A heat wave with temperatures of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), tinder dry terrain and thunderstorms packing strong winds are complicating the efforts of firefighters battling the blaze.

“Fire growth is expected to spread in all directions,” the Klamath National Forest service said in a statement. “Warning for thunderstorms and lightning. Gusty outflow winds of 30 to 50 mph (50 to 80 kph) will be possible near thunderstorm cells.”

According to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, the fire has destroyed more than 100 structures — including homes, a grocery store and a community center — in the area surrounding Yreka, though it has not yet encroached upon the town of about 7,800 people.

“Surrounding areas should be ready to leave if needed. Please don’t hesitate to evacuate,” the county sheriff tweeted.

The McKinney fire is California’s largest wildfire so far this year — though it remains much smaller than last year’s Dixie Fire, which burned nearly one million acres.

– Animal rescue –

An AFP journalist working in the fire area captured a photograph of a kitten with singed whiskers cowering in between rocks in the Klamath National Forest.

As the picture ricocheted around the internet, users asked for updates, with one seemingly offering to look after the animal.

“Do you know if this kitten has been cared for and adopted at this point?” tweeted @bobbiescat

Another journalist shared footage of a young puppy gratefully lapping at a bowl of water after emerging from the ashen ruins of a home in Klamath River.

Rescue Ranch Yreka, which took in the stricken pup, said it had received nearly 140 dogs in less than two days, and appealed for donations to help feed and care for them.

The fast-spreading blaze comes just days after the Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park destroyed dozens of buildings and forced thousands to evacuate.

California still has months of fire season ahead of it.

Other parts of the world have also faced intense wildfires this year, as scientists say climate change is making heatwaves more frequent and more intense, increasing the risk of fires.

In Portugal, a blaze broke out in the Mafra area, north of Lisbon, over the weekend while in France at least four firefighters were seriously injured and motorways were closed.

Also over the weekend, hundreds of firefighters battled a blaze in eastern Germany, with four people injured.

A Texas militia member was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Monday, the longest jail term yet for a participant in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump.

Guy Reffitt, 49, was convicted in March of bringing a gun to Washington, interfering with police and impeding an official proceeding — the certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 presidential election.

Reffitt, a member of a right-wing militia called the Texas Three Percenters, was also found guilty of obstruction for threatening his teenaged son and daughter if they spoke to law enforcement about his involvement in the attack on the Capitol.

Reffitt’s then 18-year-old son did go to the FBI despite his father’s warning that “traitors get shot” and delivered emotional testimony against his father in court.

US District Judge Dabney Friedrich sentenced Reffitt to 87 months in prison, the stiffest sentence meted out to a Capitol riot defendant so far.

Two men who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers were sentenced previously to 63 months in prison.

US Attorney Matthew Graves said Reffitt’s sentence “holds him accountable for his violent, unconscionable conduct.”

“Guy Reffitt came to the Capitol on Jan. 6 armed and determined to instigate violence,” Graves said in a statement. “He and others contributed to the many assaults on law enforcement officers that day, putting countless more people — including legislators — at risk.”

Reffitt, an oil industry worker from Wylie, Texas, was the first person to go on trial on charges stemming from the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress.

Dozens of other participants in the Capitol riot have been sentenced after entering into plea agreements.

Video of Reffitt confronting police on the steps of the Capitol and urging on the pro-Trump crowd was played for the jury during his trial.

Prosecutors also displayed text messages from Reffitt in which he promised to drag lawmakers out of Congress “by their hair.”

Reffitt was wearing body armor and a helmet, carrying zip-tie handcuffs and armed with a .40 caliber handgun when he arrived at the Capitol, according to prosecutors.

More than 850 people have been arrested for their roles in the January 6 attack and around 330 have pleaded guilty to various charges.

The storming of the Capitol left at least five people dead and 140 police officers injured and followed a fiery speech by Trump to thousands of his supporters near the White House.

Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot — he was charged with inciting an insurrection — but was acquitted by the Senate.

A man has been arrested after he was found with an assault rifle outside the New York City home of an Iranian-American journalist who has been critical of Iran’s regime.

The journalist — 45-year-old Masih Alinejad — was the target of a kidnap plot by Iranian intelligence agents last year, according to US prosecutors.

On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, suspect Khalid Mehdiyev was spotted acting suspiciously outside a house in Brooklyn, the FBI said in documents filed in a Manhattan criminal court.

He was apprehended by New York Police Department officers who found in his Subaru car a loaded AK-47 and approximately 66 rounds of ammunition, the report added.

Feminist activist Alinejad was not named in the documents but confirmed on Twitter that the man had been outside her home.

“These are the scary scenes capturing a man who tried to enter my house in New York with a loaded gun to kill me,” Alinejad wrote, posting CCTV footage of a man on her porch.

“Last year the FBI stopped the Islamic Republic from kidnapping me. My crime is giving voice to voiceless people. The US administration must be tough on terror,” she added.

Mehdiyev was charged with one count of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number and was ordered detained without bond by a judge.

Dual US-Iranian citizen Alinejad is known for her criticism of Iran’s clerical regime, including its requirement that women veil themselves.

She founded the My Stealthy Freedom movement, which encourages women to remove their hijabs.

In July last year, the US Justice Department revealed charges against four Iranian intelligence agents, who had allegedly planned to seize the dissident and smuggle her to Iran.

According to the indictment, intelligence officers had first tried in 2018 to force relatives of their kidnap target to lure her to a third country to be arrested and brought to Iran to be imprisoned.

They then moved to surveilling the victim and other members of her household in Brooklyn “on multiple occasions in 2020 and 2021,” the Justice Department’s statement had said.

A fifth person in California was accused of financing the alleged operation. 

Iran called the US charges “baseless and absurd.”

Beyonce will remove a derogatory term for disabled people from her new song “Heated,” a spokesperson said Monday, after its use was condemned as offensive by campaigners.

The US pop megastar will re-record the track from her latest album “Renaissance” on which she originally sang the lyrics “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.”

“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” a spokesperson for Beyonce told AFP via email.

Co-written with Canadian rapper Drake, the dance track appears to use the word “spaz” in the colloquial sense of temporarily losing control or acting erratically.

But disability campaigners noted that the word is derived from “spastic.” 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spasticity is a movement disorder involving stiff muscles and awkward movement, suffered by 80 percent of people with cerebral palsy.

In June, US singer Lizzo re-recorded her song “Grrrls” to remove the same term following complaints that it was derogatory.

Australian disability campaigner Hannah Diviney said the inclusion of the word by Beyonce “feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo.”

“Guess I’ll just keep telling the whole industry to ‘do better’ until ableist slurs disappear from music,” she tweeted.

Beyonce’s eagerly anticipated seventh solo studio album “Renaissance” was released Friday, drawing mainly positive reviews with its nods to disco and electronic dance.

Other collaborators on the album — which leaked online in the days prior to its official release — include Nile Rodgers, Skrillex, Nigerian singer Tems, Grace Jones, Pharrell and Beyonce’s rap mogul husband Jay-Z.

In an Instagram post published soon after the album’s release, Beyonce said creating the album “allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world.

“My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment,” she wrote.

“A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom.”

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday kicked off an Asia tour that has been shrouded in secrecy following an escalation in tensions with China over Taiwan.

With no word if Pelosi will visit the island, she stopped first in Singapore, where Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged her at a meeting to strive for “stable” ties with Beijing.

Her itinerary also includes Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, but a possible Taiwan visit has dominated attention in the run-up.

Reports about a plan to visit the island have enraged Beijing and caused unease in the White House, with President Joe Biden trying to lower the temperature.

Beijing considers self-ruled Taiwan its territory — to be seized one day, by force if necessary — and said it would regard a Pelosi visit as a major provocation.

Pelosi’s office confirmed her Asia trip in a statement Sunday once her plane was in the air, following days of US media speculation and the speaker refusing to confirm her itinerary.

“The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region,” it said, referring to the Asia-Pacific.

The statement did not mention Taiwan. But visits by US officials there are usually kept secret until delegations land.

And as speculation mounted, both foreign and local media cited unnamed sources Monday to report that Pelosi does indeed plan to include the island on her Asia tour, while the Financial Times said she would meet with President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday in Taipei.

– ‘Bury all enemies’ –

The Global Times, China’s state-run tabloid, suggested that Pelosi might use “emergency excuses like an aircraft fault or refuelling” to land at a Taiwanese airport.

“If she dares to stop in Taiwan, it will be the moment to ignite the powder keg of the situation in the Taiwan Straits,” Hu Xijin, a former Global Times editor and now commentator, tweeted.

And the Chinese army’s Eastern Theater Command shared footage on social media site Weibo featuring a combat-ready army with fighters and helicopters taking off, amphibious troops landing on a beach and a stream of missiles raining down on various targets.

“We will bury all enemies who invade our territory,” a short text accompanying the footage read. 

“We’re ready to fight,” it added. “Advance towards a joint combat and a victorious war.”

Taiwan’s 23 million people have long lived with the possibility of an invasion but the threat has intensified under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The United States maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity” over whether it would militarily intervene were China to invade.

While it diplomatically recognises Beijing over Taipei, it also backs Taiwan’s democratic government and opposes any forced change to the island’s status.

American officials often make discreet visits to Taiwan to show support but a Pelosi trip would be higher-profile than any in recent history.

Taiwan’s government has remained silent on the prospect of a Pelosi visit and there has been minimal local press coverage. 

“I really hate what the Chinese are doing,” Hsu Ching-feng, a fruit vendor in Taipei, told AFP.

“But there’s nothing us common folks can do about it but ignore them. I will just ignore them.”

– ‘Wrong target’ –

As House speaker, Pelosi is second in line to the US presidency and one of the country’s most powerful politicians.

The last House speaker to visit was Newt Gingrich in 1997.

Biden and Xi had a tense phone call last week clouded by disagreements over Taiwan.

Xi issued an oblique warning to the United States not to “play with fire” over the island.

Speculation about Pelosi’s Taiwan plans has coincided with an uptick in military activity across the region.

US officials have sought to downplay the significance of a Pelosi visit, urging calm from Chinese leaders.

Kharis Templeman, a Taiwan expert at the Hoover Institution, said Beijing “misread US politics and screwed their signalling up” with its intense reaction.

“They picked the wrong target. Biden doesn’t control the Speaker or any other member of Congress,” he tweeted Sunday.

“They’ve drawn the line at the Speaker of the House, on a visit rich in symbolism but of limited practical value. And now it will be politically costly for either Pelosi not to go, or Xi not to respond with something dramatic.”

In Taiwan, there have been mixed views about the prospect of Pelosi visiting, but figures from both the ruling party and the main opposition have said the island should not cave to Chinese pressure.

“If Pelosi were to cancel or postpone the trip, it would be a victory for the Chinese government and for Xi as it would show that the pressure it has exerted has achieved some desired effects,” Hung Chin-fu, from Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, told AFP.