Jumat, 03 September 2021
New Zealand stabbings were 'terror attacks', says Ardern - The Independent
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiK2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9WVlEbkRpcE1lOEXSAQA?oc=5
2021-09-03 09:19:53Z
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Taliban mount charm offensive to win Afghans’ trust - Financial Times
It seemed to be just a typical social media image of a smiling politician holding a bemused stranger’s chubby baby. Except the man was a senior Taliban official sporting a long black beard and large traditional turban and the setting was the Afghan capital, which had just been retaken by the Islamic militants 20 years after they were driven out.
“In the heart of Kabul, I fell in love with a glorious Kabuli child,” Ahmadullah Wasiq, deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, tweeted under the image a day after the last remaining US troops flew out of the country.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, Taliban-appointed provincial governors have been out on the streets chatting to shoppers and market vendors about their problems, while heavily armed Taliban fighters have posed for selfies with passers-by.
Kissing babies and meeting constituents could be gestures straight from a US election playbook. But for Afghanistan’s new rulers, such political theatre is part of a charm offensive aimed at winning over wary Afghans and persuading them the Taliban are no longer the harsh extremists that brutalised the population during their previous rule, from 1996-2001
“They want to have the support of the people,” Kabul-based political analyst Nasratullah Haqpal said. “They want to be popular with the people and to win hearts and minds. They plan to rule for many, many years and they understand the value of public support.”
Many Afghans remain deeply scarred by the Taliban’s first brutal regime, while young people have heard traumatic stories from their elders. Under the Islamists’ rule, women were barred from leaving their homes unless they were escorted by a male relative and wearing an all-encompassing burka. Beards, caps and traditional dress were mandatory for men, while television and images depicting people were prohibited. Violations of the regime’s medieval interpretation of Islamic rules were punished by public floggings, stoning and even on-the-spot executions.
Memories of the repression — along with fear of retribution against Afghans with links to the previous government and foreign military forces — fuelled the recent chaos at Kabul’s airport as it was overrun by panicked Afghans seeking to escape after the Taliban takeover.
With US troops gone, the Taliban is trying to reassure Afghans — now accustomed to mobile phones, internet access and greater personal and social freedom, especially in Kabul — that they have nothing to fear.
“Their biggest challenge right now — more than getting diplomatic recognition — is to persuade the people of Afghanistan to accept them as administrator,” said Avinash Paliwal, deputy director of SOAS University of London’s South Asia Institute. “The Taliban is trying to build a state-citizen consensus of sorts. They are harsh, they are very stringent, but they are trying to govern, for that they need to have appeal among the people.”
Paliwal, author of the book on Afghanistan, My Enemy’s Enemy, said the Taliban wanted to give Afghans the confidence that it was safe for them to go back to work — a move that is critical to keep state machinery and public services from collapsing.
“What they are doing makes perfect political sense,” he said. “They need to get the economy kicking again and for that people have to have confidence in them as not being completely war-crazed maniacs. Holding babies is important so that teachers turn up, bankers turn up and the guy selling kebabs on the side of the road turns up.”
At The Slice Bakery — a popular Kabul hang-out spot where young women and men mingle, the cashier said Taliban officials had visited and sat without troubling anyone, even women customers, while chess playing had continued unhindered. “We know the Taliban were against chess-playing in the past, but so far they haven’t bothered anyone,” said Farzad Karimi, a 23-year-old at a chess board in the café.
Haqpal, 33, whose family hid a television in an underground room during the last Taliban regime, said he believed the group had grown more worldly and was likely to be more selective in its strict enforcement of Islamic principles.
“They have studied why they collapsed and why the people hated them a lot,” he said. “They do not want to repeat the mistakes in the first era.”
But even as the Taliban work to burnish their image, many Afghans are afraid.
Many individuals linked to the former government are in hiding amid reports that some Taliban are hunting old enemies and outspoken critics for retribution. Women will undoubtedly face restrictions, if not the total repression of the first Taliban regime.
Analysts say the Taliban movement is also fragmented and divided on key ideological questions, with their new policies and the type of social order they wish to create likely to be clearer in the coming days.
Even as some Taliban shared photos on social media of young girls with pink backpacks going to school, Afghan’s state television this week broadcast an eerie victory parade of masked Taliban fighters, including from its “martyrdom units”, displaying their car bombs, roadside explosive devices and suicide vests — the kind of weapons that have claimed thousands of lives in Afghanistan over the past two decades.
For now, though, many Kabul residents are relieved that their city has not turned into a battleground and that the Taliban appears more moderate than before. And as much as the Taliban’s sociocultural policies, the group’s ability to wrestle with a deepening economic crisis will greatly affect public perceptions in the days ahead.
“There is a lot of change with the Taliban this time and that gives hope to the hopeless Afghan,” said Lal Agha, a retired police officer in his 60s. “We do not care who is the leader, we do not care which system is ruling. We want to have peace — and a piece of bread.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2RhZjM4N2MwLTY1MjktNDhjMi1iMTM0LWJhMWVmNzBjZmJhNdIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2RhZjM4N2MwLTY1MjktNDhjMi1iMTM0LWJhMWVmNzBjZmJhNQ?oc=5
2021-09-03 10:59:29Z
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Breaking News: Terrorist who stabbed 6 people in New Zealand has been killed - Sky News
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2021-09-03 07:41:24Z
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Afghan refugees will get lessons in Britishness - Daily Mail
Afghan refugees will get lessons in Britishness: Migrants will learn English, British values and politics under new scheme
- Ministers want to emulate schemes in countries such as France and Germany
- In Europe refugees are giving 400-plus hours of language and culture lessons
- Robert Jenrick, communities secretary: 'We want to warmly welcome and support Afghan families'
Afghan refugees will be taught about British values, culture and civic duties to help them integrate into society, it was revealed today.
Ministers are said to want to emulate schemes in countries such as France and Germany where hours of language classes are given to newcomers.
A comprehensive programme would replace the existing patchwork of policies to teach English language skills and British values, Government sources told The Times, as well as the reversal of cuts to language classes.
The UK has evacuated more than 17,000 people from Afghanistan, including more than 5,000 Britons.
Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said: 'We're looking at how can we have an enhanced level of English-language training, how can we ensure people will get into the workplace as quickly as possible and how can we comprehensively introduce people to British culture, civic and political life, increasing people's knowledge and understanding of the country and its values, so they can contribute fully to British life.'
He added: 'We want to warmly welcome and support Afghan families, particularly those who stood shoulder to shoulder with our armed forces, while being clear that the UK is a country with its own values and rules.'
Malalai Hussiny (wearing green headscarf), a refugee from Afghanistan who arrived on a evacuation flight at Heathrow Airport with her daughter will be among those helped to learn English and about British culture
Thousands of people are going to be resettled in Britain after the Taliban swept back into power after the withdrawal of western troops
In France, people settling in the country get 400 hours of free French-language lessons as well as civic training classes. Young migrants get free trips to museums and galleries. Germany offers 600 hours of 'civic orientation' lessons.
Thousands of Afghans who risked their lives to help British forces will be allowed to live and work indefinitely in the UK.
The Home Office has said the coveted status would be granted immediately – and automatically – to around 10,000 refugees.
It will allow them to work and enrol their children in school as they try to build a new life here. The decision fast-tracks a process that can take years and with only a limited right to remain.
Boris Johnson said the policy reflected the 'immense debt' owed to translators and others who had helped the UK military during the 20-year engagement.
A Whitehall source said that the package, codenamed Operation Warm Welcome, was 'the least we could do' following the chaotic and bloody withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Ministers are still however under pressure to do more to help hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Afghans now in hiding from Taliban reprisals for helping British troops. Its leaders have claimed they will not seek revenge but militants yesterday raided the homes of former translators in Kabul.
Former interpreters told the Mail they were living in fear for their lives after failing to secure a place among the 10,000 flown to Britain.
A 35-year-old who has qualified for relocation to the UK said: 'No one believes the Taliban's words of forgiveness. We helped the British kill and capture their men.
'We provided the intelligence to fight against them. We questioned their captured and injured – so it is simple that they will want revenge.'
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday denied reports that more than 7,000 Afghans with links to UK forces had been left behind, but was unable to provide another figure.
He said the number of British citizens left in Afghanistan was in 'the low hundreds', following the evacuation of more than 15,000 people in the second half of August.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said around 300 Afghans granted refuge in the UK had been left behind, along with 700 relatives.
Normally, asylum seekers are banned from working while their claims are assessed. They are entitled to minimal financial support if they would 'otherwise be destitute'.
Permission to work may be granted only if their claim has not been processed within a year through no fault of their own. If they are eventually granted leave to remain it is typically capped at five years.
The Prime Minister said that the decision by the US to remove its air cover for the Afghan army meant 'things did go faster' and allowed the Islanic extremists to catch the West on the hop.
The UK completed its withdrawal from Kabul at the weekend with the US mission coming to a close earlier this week
By contrast, those who have served British forces will immediately be granted indefinite leave to remain, which brings with it the right to work and the option to apply for British citizenship.
Those eligible under the Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy will also be eligible for immediate access to NHS services.
Councils have been offered a modest £5million to help with housing. Officials said they were working with more than 100 town halls and had so far found accommodation for more than 2,000 people.
Councils will be given an extra £12million to provide additional school places for Afghan children and further funding will be provided to create 300 university places.
Arrivals from Afghanistan will also be offered the Covid vaccine and given access to a portal where members of the public will be able to share offers of work and housing and make donations.
A Whitehall source last night told the Mail the package was 'likely' to be extended to 20,000 Afghans expected to come under a wider resettlement scheme – but this has not been decided.
In scenes likened to those described in the Bible, the exodus of refugees avoided Taliban checkpoints by heading to the desolate Nimruz region, before crossing into Pakistan near the border with Iran.
Many, with the help of people smugglers in Iran, are expected to head to Turkey where they can then plan routes to mainland Europe or Britain. Thousands of Afghans have already gathered at the main border crossings with Pakistan and Iran, despite the former insisting only those with visas or valid documents can enter.
Hundreds of thousands are believed to have crossed the Pakistan border at Spin Boldak. One Afghan said: 'Thousands were there. I saw women heavily pregnant, babies, old men. I remember the sound of crying babies echoing across the mountains.'
It came as Taliban fighters brazenly paraded some of the £62 billion worth of US military hardware they have seized. In Kandahar, their spiritual home, militia draped a convoy of £370,000 military vehicles in Taliban flags in scenes likely to further embarrass US President Joe Biden.
The parade even included a fly-past of a £5million Black Hawk chopper – complete with Taliban flag – just hours after a Pentagon spokesman dismissed the Taliban's capabilities, insisting: 'They can inspect all they want... they can't operate them.'
Boris Johnson insisted last night that it had been 'clear for many months' that the Taliban could seize power quickly in Afghanistan – just hours after Dominic Raab suggested the opposite.
The Foreign Secretary told reporters that no one in government could have predicted the speed of the Taliban's victory, adding that the intelligence claimed Kabul would not fall in August.
But visiting a military barracks in Essex, the Prime Minister said: 'I think it's been clear for many months that the situation could go very fast and that's been part of the intelligence briefing.'
His words appeared to support the position of Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said in an interview on Wednesday that he knew 'the game was up' in Afghanistan in July – a month before Kabul fell.
Mr Johnson added: 'There have also been suggestions that the Afghan national defence force might hold on for longer. But logically you can see what happened.
'Once the Afghan army felt that they were no longer going to be getting that American air cover, then I think the logic for them became really to end their resistance – and so things did go faster.'
The Prime Minister, who has been away with family in the West Country, made the comments during a visit to Merville Barracks in Colchester, where he met members of 16 Air Assault Brigade, who helped with the evacuation from Kabul.
The apparent barb came hours after Mr Raab reopened his public feud with the Defence Secretary over the handling of the crisis in Afghanistan.
The Foreign Secretary has faced criticism for taking a luxury holiday to Crete as the Taliban advanced on Kabul last month – despite his own department warning the situation could deteriorate quickly.
Dominic Raab arrived in Doha, Qatar, in the early hours of this morning as he stepped up efforts to help British allies left behind in Afghanistan
Mr Wallace's comments this week, made in an interview with The Spectator, appeared to pile further pressure on the beleaguered Foreign Secretary.
But, speaking on a visit to Qatar, Mr Raab rejected the Defence Secretary's assessment, suggesting that no one in Government could have predicted the speed of the Taliban victory.
He told reporters: 'Ben and I were taking the same assessment throughout until very late.
'The central assessment had been that Kabul wouldn't fall until after the end of August, [after] the evacuation of allied troops.'
After talks in Qatar yesterday, Mr Raab said he was hopeful evacuations for the remaining UK citizens and Afghan allies could continue from Hamid Karzai airport 'in the near future'.
Mr Raab told MPs this week that the number of British citizens left in the country numbered in 'the low hundreds' after the RAF's last civilian airlift on Saturday.
He said he could not give an accurate estimate for the number of Afghans left with the right to come to the UK – but it is thought to total several thousand.
He also defended the decision to talk to the Taliban, saying the West had to 'adjust to the new reality' of the group being in power. But he added that the UK would not formally recognise the Taliban government.
The group yesterday called China their 'most important partner', claiming Beijing was 'ready to invest in and reconstruct' Afghanistan and will maintain its embassy in Kabul. Speaking during his visit, Mr Raab added he was using the trip to build a coalition which would 'exert the maximum moderating influence'.
He is expected to visit a number of Afghanistan's neighbours in the coming days – including Pakistan – to seek help in extracting remaining UK citizens. It came as the Government announced a £30million package, which will help neighbouring countries deal with an expected influx of refugees from Afghanistan.
However, Mr Raab has faced criticism for failing to engage with neighbouring countries earlier. Sir Nick Kay, former British ambassador to Afghanistan, said: 'We are playing catch up.'
And, according to an Ipsos-Mori poll, only 15 per cent of voters felt that Mr Raab had done a good job on Afghanistan. This was marginally better than US President Joe Biden – who scored a dismal 12 per cent – and was eight points lower than Mr Johnson.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5bWFpbC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUtOTk1NDA2Ny9BZmdoYW4tcmVmdWdlZXMtbGVzc29ucy1Ccml0aXNobmVzcy5odG1s0gFdaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGFpbHltYWlsLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYXJ0aWNsZS05OTU0MDY3L2FtcC9BZmdoYW4tcmVmdWdlZXMtbGVzc29ucy1Ccml0aXNobmVzcy5odG1s?oc=5
2021-09-03 06:25:42Z
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Kamis, 02 September 2021
Texas abortion: Biden vows 'whole-of-government' response to new law - BBC News
US President Joe Biden has launched a "whole-of-government" response to oppose a new law in Texas that bans most abortions.
He called the Supreme Court's decision not to block the law an "unprecedented assault" on women's rights.
Any individual now has the right to sue anyone involved with providing or facilitating an abortion past six weeks of pregnancy in Texas.
This is before many women know they have conceived.
Rights groups had asked the Supreme Court to block the law, but it refused following a 5-4 vote.
The judges said their decision was not based on any conclusion about whether the Texas law was constitutional or not, and that the door remained open for legal challenges.
One of the liberal Supreme Court judges, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said those justices who had allowed the law to stand had "opted to bury their heads in the sand" over a "flagrantly unconstitutional law".
President Biden accused the court of unleashing "unconstitutional chaos". "The highest court of our land will allow millions in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer while courts sift through procedural complexities," he said.
Mr Biden said he had asked the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to see what steps the national government could take to "insulate women and providers", but did not provide further details.
He said the law violated the landmark Roe v Wade case in 1973, in which the Supreme Court legalised abortion across the US. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the president had long wanted to see the "codification" of Roe v Wade - which would mean Congress voting to make the precedent federal law.
Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott has said his state will "always defend the right to life".
The ruling was welcomed by Dan Patrick, Texas's Republican lieutenant governor, who tweeted: "A tremendous #prolife victory! This lifesaving legislation reflects Texas' pro-life beliefs and our continued commitment to protecting the most vulnerable."
How have abortion providers reacted?
Abortion providers in Texas were also looking for ways to challenge the new law, while dealing with its immediate impact.
"It has been truly devastating," said Andrea Ferrigno of Whole Woman's Health.
Patients have been "talking about their despair and how they've felt pressured and rushed to make a decision", she told the BBC.
For people already beyond the six-week deadline, she said Whole Women's Health had been offering information about what they could do next.
But she said the company was also "regrouping and consulting with our legal counsel" to decide on its next steps.
In the city of San Antonio, Planned Parenthood said it had paused its abortion services "while this plays in the courts".
Its director of public affairs, Mara Posada, said they were "getting calls and having to either let a person know that they cannot get an abortion after six weeks here in Texas, or if they are early enough in their pregnancy, we are referring them to a provider that is currently providing abortion care under the limits".
She added that in the week leading up to the law coming into force, they had seen twice the normal number of patients.
Hope Hanzlik, 21, had an abortion earlier this week, five weeks into her pregnancy. Her abortion provider told her they were having trouble finding appointments for everyone and that she was fortunate to get one.
How does the new law apply?
The so-called Texas Heartbeat Act prohibits abortions after what anti-abortion campaigners call a foetal heartbeat.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says the term "heartbeat" is misleading, and that what is being detected at this stage is "a portion of the foetal tissue that will become the heart as the embryo develops".
The Texas law enforces its ban with an uncommon approach: it empowers any private citizen to sue anyone who "aids and abets" an illegal abortion.
This means that an American may now be able to seek up to $10,000 (£7,200) in damages in a civil court against abortion providers and doctors - and possibly anyone involved in the process. People like clinic staff, family members, or clergy who encourage or support the procedure could, in theory, be sued.
Turning over enforcement of the Heartbeat Act to private citizens instead of government officials likely means that - in the absence of Supreme Court intervention - the law cannot be challenged until a private citizen seeks damages.
The legislation makes an exception in the case of medical emergency, which requires written proof from a doctor, but not for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
Texan women who wish to have an abortion after six weeks will need to travel to other states.
What is Roe v Wade?
Abortions were made legal across the US in a landmark 1973 Supreme Court judgement, often referred to as the Roe v Wade case.
By a vote of seven to two, the court justices ruled that individual state governments lacked the power to prohibit abortions.
The court's judgement was based on the decision that a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy came under the freedom of personal choice in family matters as protected by the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
The ruling came after a 25-year-old single woman, Norma McCorvey under the pseudonym "Jane Roe", challenged the criminal abortion laws in Texas that forbade most abortions.
Henry Wade was the Texas attorney general who defended the anti-abortion law.
The case created the "trimester" system that:
- gives American women an absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy
- allows some government regulation in the second trimester of pregnancy
- declares that states may restrict or ban abortions in the last trimester as the foetus nears the point where it could live outside the womb
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2021-09-02 23:26:24Z
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Death toll rises to 45 in eastern US after flash floods batter region - Financial Times
At least 45 people died in six states in the eastern US after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rainfall that caused flash floods across the region late on Wednesday.
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said at least 23 people had perished in his state, most of them after becoming trapped in cars that were “overtaken by the water”. Four bodies were also found at an apartment complex in the port city of Elizabeth.
Twelve of the dead were in New York City. Eleven of them died in flooded basements and another in a car, the police said. Three others died in nearby suburban Westchester County.
A sergeant for the Connecticut State Police also died after floodwaters swept away his cruiser. Authorities in Pennsylvania reported five fatalities, including one person killed by a falling tree while deaths were also reported in Maryland and Virginia.
New York City’s main transport systems were pummeled by the storm, with floods forcing the subway to grind to a halt over night, stranding passengers on trains under ground, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s acting boss Janno Lieber told CNN.
The MTA urged passengers to avoid unnecessary travel “until further notice” as it struggled to get the system back to full capacity. Service was still “extremely limited” on Thursday afternoon.
The storm’s ability to cripple the nation’s most densely populated area in a matter of hours showed how New York’s infrastructure remains ill-prepared for the stronger, wetter storms associated with climate change.
Images of water rising to the windows of parked cars, gushing down the stairwells of subway stations, and spilling into the basements of homes across the New York metropolitan area were widely shared on social media.
A travel advisory asking non-emergency vehicles to stay off the roads remained in effect on Thursday.
“What we have to recognise is the suddenness, the brutality of storms now,” said Bill de Blasio, New York City’s mayor. “It is different . . . This is the biggest wake-up call we could ever get. We’re going to do a lot of things differently and quickly.”
The flash flood emergency for all five New York boroughs was the first ever issued by the National Weather Service, officials said. The storm also broke the record for the most rainfall observed in Central Park in a single hour, with 3.15 inches falling. The previous record was set less than two weeks ago by Tropical Storm Henri.
President Joe Biden said he had spoken with the governors of New York and New Jersey for updates on the flooding and offered federal help to the rescue and clean-up efforts.
“There’s a lot of damage, and I made clear to the governors that my team at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the ground and ready to provide all assistance that’s needed,” Biden said.
Newark Liberty International Airport said it had experienced “severe flooding,” cancelled more than 300 flights, and briefly evacuated an air traffic control tower because of strong winds.
Amtrak suspended all of its rail service between Boston and Washington on Thursday.
Tennis matches at the US Open tournament in Queens were interrupted, as heavy rain breached Louis Armstrong Stadium’s retractable roof. Close to 200,000 utility customers lost power because of the storm, while homes were levelled by a tornado that touched down in Mullica Hill, New Jersey.
Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, the strongest storm to strike the area since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Entergy, Louisiana’s largest electric utility, has restored some service but hundreds of thousands of customers remained in the dark and those in the worst-hit areas face weeks without power.
The insurance hit from Ida is expected to be substantial. Fitch Ratings predicted earlier this week that the overall cost to insurers and reinsurers could be between $15bn and $25bn, likely exceeding the impact of this year’s winter storm Uri, which had knocked out Texas’s electric grid, but still well below the $65bn hit from Katrina.
Boston-based catastrophe modelling firm Karen Clark & Company published a “flash estimate” of $18bn of claims from Ida, including $40m in the Caribbean and the rest in wind and storm-related losses in the US.
“It will take many months or longer for the financial view of this event to fully develop,” insurance broker Aon said on Monday. The uninsured costs will also be significant, it added, including damage to infrastructure as well as properties without flood cover.
The insurance industry is already reeling after the worst start to the year for natural catastrophes in a decade, as urban development and climate change effects combined to deal a $40bn first-half blow from events such as wildfires and winter storms.
Additional reporting by Justin Jacobs in Houston
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2021-09-02 22:29:59Z
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Death toll rises in New York area after flash floods hit city - Financial Times
At least 17 people died in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rainfall that caused flash floods across the region late on Wednesday.
New York City was particularly hard hit with many of the financial centre’s main transport systems knocked offline. Floods forced the city’s subway system to halt overnight, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority urging riders to avoid unnecessary travel on Thursday morning as they struggled to get the system back to full capacity.
Newark Liberty International Airport said it had experienced “severe flooding,” cancelled more than 300 flights, and briefly evacuated an air traffic control tower due to strong winds.
Nine of the dead were in New York City, eight of them in flooded basements in Queens borough, the police said. Another four were found dead at an apartment complex in the port city of Elizabeth, New Jersey, the AP said, and more fatalities were reported outside Philadelphia.
“What we have to recognise is the suddenness, the brutality of storms now,” said Bill de Blasio, New York City’s mayor. “It is different . . . This is the biggest wake-up call we could ever get. We’re going to do a lot of things differently and quickly.”
Joe Biden said he had spoken with the governors of New York and New Jersey for updates on the flooding and offered federal help to the rescue and clean-up efforts.
“There’s a lot of damage, and I made clear to the governors that my team at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the ground and ready to provide all assistance that’s needed,” Biden said.
The flash flood warning for all five New York boroughs was the first ever issued by the National Weather Service, officials said. The storm also broke the record for the most rainfall observed in Central Park in a single hour, with 3.15 inches falling. The previous record was set less than two weeks ago by Tropical Storm Henri.
Tennis matches at the US Open tournament in Queens were interrupted, as heavy rain breached Louis Armstrong Stadium’s retractable roof. Close to 200,000 utility customers lost power due to the storm, while homes were levelled by a tornado that touched down in Mullica Hill, New Jersey.
Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, the strongest storm to strike the area since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Entergy, Louisiana’s largest electric utility, has restored some service but hundreds of thousands of customers remained in the dark and those in the worst-hit areas face weeks without power.
The storm’s ability to cripple the nation’s most densely populated area in a matter of hours showed how New York’s infrastructure remains ill-prepared for the stronger, wetter storms associated with climate change.
Images of water rising to the windows of parked cars, gushing down the stairwells of subway stations and spilling into the basements of homes were widely shared on social media.
A travel advisory asking non-emergency vehicles to stay off the roads remained in effect on Thursday.
The insurance hit from Ida is expected to be substantial. Fitch Ratings predicted earlier this week that the overall cost to insurers and reinsurers could be between $15bn and $25bn, likely exceeding the impact of this year’s winter storm Uri, which had knocked out Texas’s electric grid, but still well below the $65bn hit from Katrina.
Boston-based catastrophe modelling firm Karen Clark & Company published a “flash estimate” of $18bn of claims from Ida, including $40m in the Caribbean and the rest in wind and storm-related losses in the US.
“It will take many months or longer for the financial view of this event to fully develop,” insurance broker Aon said on Monday. The uninsured costs will also be significant, it added, including damage to infrastructure as well as properties without flood cover.
The insurance industry is already reeling after the worst start to the year for natural catastrophes in a decade, as urban development and climate change effects combined to deal a $40bn first-half blow from events such as wildfires and winter storms. That was followed by more extreme weather in July, including floods in Europe that were estimated to be the region’s costliest weather event in decades.
Additional reporting by Justin Jacobs in Houston
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2021-09-02 16:37:42Z
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