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Forecasters are warning that Hurricane Sally will create catastrophic and life-threatening floods as it moves over parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast Wednesday.  The National Hurricane Center says the powerful storm made landfall early Wednesday morning near the coastal town of Gulf Shores, Alabama, carrying maximum sustained winds of 165 kilometers an hour, making it a Category 2 storm on the five-tiered scale that measures a storm’s potential destructiveness. NHC has issued a hurricane warning for residents from the Mississippi-Alabama border to parts of the so-called “Panhandle” region of northern Florida as Hurricane Sally turns northeastward.  Forecasters say the region will experience huge rainfall totals of 20 to 30 centimeters throughout the day, with isolated areas expected to get as much as 88 centimeters, triggering “historic and catastrophic flooding.”Hurricane Sally Threatens Historic Floods Along US Gulf CoastThe National Hurricane Center expected Sally to remain a Category 1 hurricane, with top sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour at landfall late Tuesday or early WednesdayHeavy rains are also expected as far north into parts of Virginia and North and South Carolina.   Hurricane Sally may also lead to tornadoes throughout the day into Wednesday night across portions of the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southwestern Georgia.   President Donald Trump issued emergency declarations Monday for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and he tweeted that residents should listen to state and local leaders. 
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Nigerians are protesting a hike in electricity and fuel costs in the middle of the economic hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic. But authorities maintain the new rates are in the best interests of Nigerians. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.Camera: Emeka Gibson    Produced by: Rob Raffaele        
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden traveled to Florida on Tuesday to court the Latino vote in this crucial battleground state. VOA’s Brian Padden reports, nationwide, Latino voters still favor Biden over Trump, but recent polls show Biden’s advantage eroding, and Trump now holds a slight lead among Latinos in Florida, due in part to the president’s hardline policies toward Cuba and Venezuela.  
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KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA—In a tailored appeal to Hispanic voters, Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden accused incumbent President Donald Trump of having “failed the Hispanic community time and time again” during his nearly four years in office, in part by fanning “the flames of hatred and division in this country for his own gain.”  The former vice president made the comment during a Hispanic Heritage Month event in Florida where he finds his critically needed support among Latinos eroding.  Biden accused Trump of neglecting the people of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.    Trump has “insulted the dignity of Hispanic families over and over and over again,” Biden said, noting that with only 49 days left until the election, “I’m asking for your vote.    Biden, in a live streamed webcast, told the Latino community: “You can decide the direction of this country.”WATCH: Biden at Hispanic Heritage Month eventSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Performer Luis Fonsi arrives to speak at a Hispanic Heritage Month event featuring Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Fla.Nationally, Biden’s lead over Trump with Latinos has dropped from 30 percent to 9 percent.  Only a handful of supporters, with face coverings and socially distanced, were allowed in the room where the former vice president made his Tuesday evening comments – exemplifying his cautious campaign in contrast to Republican Trump’s packed rallies amid the coronavirus pandemic.  The campaign of the incumbent has chipped away at Biden’s favorability with Hispanics as it tries to paint the Democratic Party challenger as a puppet of socialists. Trump has also repeatedly emphasized his administration’s hardline policies on communist Cuba and Venezuela’s socialist government.    Biden flew to Florida on Tuesday to appeal to the growing Puerto Rican population in the central part of the state. Many of them feel their island, a U.S. commonwealth, has been treated poorly by Trump, especially after it struggled following the 2017 hurricane.  Also damaging the president’s image with Puerto Ricans are reports that Trump wanted to sell the island and purchase Greenland because “Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor,” said actress Eva Longoria.Actress Eva Longoria speaks during a Hispanic Heritage Month event featuring Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Fla.“He called us drug dealers and rapists, and he spent the last four years doubling down on denigrating Latinos,” she added at Tuesday evening’s event prior to Biden’s remarks. “Latinos will decide the 2020 election.”  Biden, as president, “will respect the dignity of the Puerto Rican people,” said singer Ricky Martin, alongside Longoria.  “He will never abandon us in our time of need,” said singer Luis Fonsi, who introduced Biden, pitching Latinos to register to vote and cast ballots for the Democrat. “Nothing less than the future of our country is on the ballot in November.”  The president, who met with Latino supporters in Nevada on Monday, interpreted the polls as a clear victory for his campaign.    “I mean, this is, this is good,” Trump said. “You know, this is what the polls are all saying too you know. As a Republican, Republicans don’t do as well as perhaps they should, and probably some shouldn’t do very well, but the polls came back and we’re leading ‘Sleepy Joe’ by a lot.” In appealing to Latinos, Biden has criticized Trump’s harsh immigration policies and promised increased economic and medical assistance to help these communities hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.      Older Cubans are generally seen as firm backers of Trump, but Biden is looking to gain support from a younger generation with no memory of life in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.  Progressive activists are urging Biden to reach out to younger Cubans who are more focused on domestic issues such as economic and racial inequality.        “There’s a lot of new Latino young people, young Cubans, who’ve come of age who are registered to vote, who are way more progressive than their fathers or their grandmothers,” said Chuck Rocha, an adviser to former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.  Brian Padden in Washington contributed to this report.
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A Trump health appointee who is accused of trying to muzzle an important scientific publication in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic apologized Tuesday for a separate video in which he reportedly says scientists battling the virus are conspiring against President Donald Trump and warns of shootings in America if Trump loses the election. Michael Caputo, the top spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS)  apologized to his staff for the Facebook video, said an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss internal matters.  The department is standing by Caputo in the face of calls by congressional Democrats for his dismissal — and for the resignation of his boss, HHS Secretary Alex Azar. But Caputo, a Trump loyalist and former New York political operative, has become a new problem for a White House that has struggled with its coronavirus messaging. He can be heard on an HHS podcast asserting that Democrats don’t want a coronavirus vaccine before the election in order to punish Trump. Although Trump has made the same assertion, with no evidence to support it, such broadsides are not in a department spokesman’s normal portfolio. News reports alleged last week that Caputo’s office tried to take over and muzzle a scientific weekly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that publishes what is supposed to be authoritative, unvarnished information about disease-fighting efforts, including, most importantly at present, COVID-19. Accusations on FacebookThen on Monday came an account of the video on Caputo’s personal Facebook page in which he accused government scientists of conspiring against Trump and suggested violence could break out after the election. Caputo was named the top HHS spokesman in April, during a tense period in relations between the White House and Azar. On a taxpayer-funded podcast earlier this summer he accused Democrats and the media of not wanting a coronavirus vaccine until after the elections in order to defeat Trump. “There are people in the United States government on the Democrats’ side … (who) do not want a vaccine,” he said.  “They don’t want a vaccine until November 4th,” he added, citing the day after the presidential election. It’s highly unusual to use an agency communications platform for such a blatantly political message. Over the weekend, Caputo made headlines when Politico and The New York Times reported that his office had tried to gain control over a CDC publication known as the MMWR, or Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In previous administrations, political appointees in the HHS secretary’s office maintained a hands-off policy. The story took a strange turn Monday, after the Times reported about a live video hosted by Caputo on his personal Facebook page. In it, Caputo reportedly accused government scientists of conspiring against Trump as part of a “resistance.”  Then Caputo reportedly predicted that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would refuse to concede defeat to Trump in the election, and violence would break out. The Associated Press was unable to independently view the video. HHS supportHHS supported Caputo, with a statement calling him a “critical, integral part of the president’s coronavirus response, leading on public messaging as Americans need public health information to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.” There was no immediate statement from the White House. Attempts to interview Caputo were unsuccessful. Calls for removalOn Capitol Hill, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called on Azar to fire Caputo, accusing the spokesman of trying to interfere with CDC reports. And Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Azar himself to resign, citing interference with the CDC as one example of what he termed the administration’s failures. Officials at CDC have privately complained of recent efforts by political appointees at HHS to try to edit or press for changes in the agency’s weekly MMWR publications, a go-to resource for public health professionals.  MMWR articles are technical, but they reveal telling details. One published earlier this year noted that while Trump’s travel restrictions dramatically reduced travel from China in February, nothing was being done at that time to restrict travel from Italy and Europe, where the coronavirus was spreading widely and rapidly. Analysis of virus samples from hard-hit New York in March suggested it was introduced there from Europe and other parts of the U.S., the CDC article reported. Trump loyalistCaputo is an unswerving Trump loyalist. His recent book, “The Ukraine Hoax,” claims the president’s “phony” impeachment was rooted in a vast conspiracy. His appointment at HHS was seen as an attempt by the White House to exert more control over Azar, whom other administration officials were trying to blame for the government’s slow response in the initial weeks of the pandemic. At HHS, he’s been closely affiliated with Operation Warp Speed, the government’s effort to have millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine ready for distribution as soon as one is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Caputo interviewed Dr. Moncef Slaoui, a top outside adviser to the vaccine effort, on an HHS podcast July 31. Commiserating with Slaoui over Democrats and news articles that were critical of the doctor, Caputo said: “I know that’s hard to believe, but the people who are abusing you, and who are beating down Operation Warp Speed, and the incredible historic work that’s going on, they don’t want a vaccine until November 4th. I don’t want to talk about politics here, but November 3rd is an important day. They don’t want a vaccine now because of politics, sir.” 
 
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South Sudanese peace activist Rita Lopidia Abraham received the 2020 Women Building Peace Award on Tuesday from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) based in Washington, D.C. Abraham told South Sudan In Focus that her struggle for peace in South Sudan has been an uphill task full of threats from men at the negotiating table. “Sometimes when you talk to the parties and you speak truth to power, people seem to misunderstand you,” she said. “This is very sad, because at the end of the day, the purpose is for peace. But with the warring parties (in South Sudan), it’s not always the case.’’ She will receive $10,000 to be used at her discretion and will be recognized by the Institute during a celebration in the fall of 2021. Abraham, the CEO of EVE, an organization formed in 1996, said she will use part of the money to educate more women in South Sudan about their rights. “I am so passionate about young women. So, part of the cash that will come with the award I hope to invest in the incubator project, which is a young women’s leadership project which the EVE organization is running. The plight of orphans has always been in my mind. Part of the award will go towards helping orphans and street children in the South Sudan capital, Juba,” Lopidia said. Abraham, who is in her mid-30s, has been a delegate at the South Sudan peace talks in Addis Ababa and Khartoum. She signed a peace agreement in 2018 in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on behalf of the South Sudan Women Coalition for Peace, an umbrella group of 50 women’s organizations in South Sudan and the diaspora. She said the leaders of South Sudan are lagging in implementing key provisions of the peace agreement. “I am as disappointed as other South Sudanese (because) the implementation of the peace agreement has been reduced to power-sharing. People are only focusing on what positions they can get,’’ she said. She said the parties are not talking about Chapter 2 of the agreement, which stipulates benchmarks for security arrangements in Juba and other states. She said issues in Chapter 1 of the arrangement have also not been addressed.  “We still have challenges in the formations of the legislature, state governments. And there is a power vacuum in the states. This is a big challenge,” she said.  
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Scientists at a Russian university have announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved ice age cave bear, with much of its soft tissue including its nose, flesh and teeth intact.In a statement, scientists from North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk say reindeer herders on Great Lyakhovsky island in the New Siberian Islands archipelago discovered the carcass in the melting permafrost. NEFU is considered the premier center for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric, ice age species.Scientists at the research center have hailed the find as ground-breaking. Previously, scientists had only the bone of cave bears to study. The species, or subspecies, lived in Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene period and became extinct about 15,000 years ago.Preliminary analysis suggests this specimen to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, but it will be carbon dated to confirm that.Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, ice age foal, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost inside the Arctic Circle melts. 
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America’s image as a global superpower has been tarnished since Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. A 13-nation survey by the U.S. think tank found that only 41% of those surveyed in Britain have a favorable opinion of the U.S., the lowest percentage of any comparable survey Pew has conducted in the country. A mere 31% of the population in France views the U.S. favorably, mirroring survey results from March 2003, when tensions between the two countries peaked over the Iraq War, the survey found. The survey also found that much of the damage to America’s international reputation among key allies and partners is linked to its handling of the coronavirus crisis. Only 15% of the participating countries gave the U.S. good marks for dealing with the pandemic. Most of the countries said the World Health Organization and the European Union have done an admirable job containing the pandemic. Almost all of the countries, except the U.S. and Britain, gave their countries positive grades for their handling of the outbreak. FILE – A demonstrator protests before the arrival of U.S President Trump at Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland, Wednesday, June 5, 2019.While few of the countries believe China has effectively handled the outbreak, it still received significantly better reviews than the U.S. response. Trump’s performance on the world stage has remained low since he entered office, the survey said. Belgium gave him his most negative assessment, with just 9% expressing confidence that Trump will do what is right when handling global affairs. Japan gave him the highest rating, with one-quarter of its respondents expressing confidence.  Global attitudes toward Trump have consistently been considerably lower than those of former President Barack Obama, particularly in Western Europe, the survey found. Trump, however, is perceived more favorably among Europeans who have favorable views of “right-wing populist parties, though confidence is still relatively low among all groups,” the survey said. Pew noted that 45% of the adherents of Spain’s Vox Party are confident in Trump’s ability to handle global issues, much higher than the 7% approval rate among Spaniards who do not support Vox. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn as he arrives at the White House, Sept. 14, 2020, in Washington from a trip to Phoenix.Trump ranks last in trust when compared with the six world leaders in the survey. Some 83% of the respondents said they have “no confidence” that Trump will “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” higher than Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 78% “no confidence” rating and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 73%. The White House did not immediately respond to the survey, but Trump has maintained he has done a good job in handling the coronavirus crisis, although the U.S. continues to lead the world in coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths.  During a White House news conference last month, Trump said, “When you look at the job we’ve done, compared to others, we’ve done a great job.” Trump also suggested at the news conference that the U.S. has not been as adversely affected by the virus when compared with other countries.  “We’ve done a great job, and on top of that, when you look at the numbers, how we were impacted less than these other countries,” Trump said. During a recent interview with Axios, Trump said the U.S. has done a “great” and “incredible” job in handling the pandemic.  Pew said the survey’s findings are based on feedback from 13,273 respondents from June 10 to Aug. 3. The respondents were in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Britain. The U.S. was not included in the survey.   
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U.N. officials say governments that provide healthcare and social protections to their people, especially to the most vulnerable will be better able to cushion the shock of the devastating coronavirus pandemic.  The officials participated in a debate on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights at the U.N. Human Rights Council.  No country has been spared the blows of this global pandemic.  But, as is the case with other disasters, UN officials say it is the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalized members of society who suffer most from the impact of COVID-19.   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet says some states have responded to this crisis by implementing human rights-based policies.   She says States that have enacted policies such as access to healthcare to those who cannot afford it and providing cash grants, emergency food and other essential aid to those who have lost their jobs are better able to weather this calamity.   On the other hand, she warns nations that ignore the needs of the weakest members of society will face a grimmer future. “To date, some States have demonstrated deep mistrust of their people — repressing criticism, limiting freedom of information and cracking down on the civic space.  These and other human rights violations have undermined public health, as well as human rights and the prospect of a strong and sustainable recovery,” said Bachelet.  Lockdown measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus have devastated the economies of many countries.  They have had a particularly harsh impact on the poor and on the more than two billion people working in the informal sector. The International Labor Organization reports women are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in terms of job losses and decrease in hours.   It says others who bear the brunt of this unfolding economic and employment crisis include migrant workers, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.  It says social protection systems are a key element in recovery from COVID-19. The World Health Organization reports the number of coronavirus cases globally will soon top 29 million, including nearly one million deaths.   Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Program, Michael Ryan notes human health and human rights are intrinsically linked.  And, yet, he says access to health care in the time of coronavirus has not been fair. “It has been influenced by gender, by wealth, by age, by social class, by legal status, by ethnicity and by so many other things… WHO supports OHCHR ‘s [Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights] consistent warnings that the COVID-19 pandemic should not be used as an excuse to clamp down on fundamental freedoms,”   he said.Ryan says the international community must work together to develop safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19.  He says access to these life-saving products must be shared and distributed rapidly and equitably to rich and poor alike.  He says their availability should not be based on the ability to pay for them.    
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Hurricane Sally drew closer to  the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday morning, bringing heavy rains and  surging water ahead of its expected landfall as a Category 2 hurricane, with the chance of further strengthening possible.
The second strong storm in less than a month to threaten the region, Sally’s winds increased to 100 miles per hour (155 kph), and late Monday was 90 miles (145 km) east of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
It could wallop the Mississippi and Alabama coasts on Tuesday with devastating winds of up to 110 mph, on the cusp of becoming a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, the NHC said.
Hurricanes are considered to have the potential for devastating damage when they have sustained winds past 111 mph (179 kph).
Mississippi and Louisiana called for evacuations of low-lying areas and President Donald Trump issued an emergency disaster declaration for both states. Alabama closed the state’s beaches and recommended evacuations of residents in low-lying areas.
Mobile, Alabama Mayor Sandy Stimpson warned residents he expected a “tremendous amount of flooding” and said the city was barricading intersections likely to see high water.
Ports, schools and businesses closed along the coast. The U.S. Coast Guard restricted travel on the lower Mississippi River in New Orleans to the Gulf, and closed the ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
Energy companies buttoned up or halted oil refineries and pulled workers from offshore oil and gas production platforms.
The hurricane is expected to dump between 8 and 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) of rain on the coast, with isolated 24-inch downpours, and cause widespread river flooding.
Mississippi appears more likely for landfall, but Sally’s biggest threat is that it will be a “rainmaker” across a wide swath of the Gulf Coast, with 3 to 4 inches (7.62 to 10.2 cm) in areas as far inland as Atlanta, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, an energy, agriculture and weather data provider.
Sally is the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth of tropical storm or hurricane strength to hit the United States — something “very rare if not a record” said Dan Kottlowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, noting that accurate data on historic tropical storms can be elusive.
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