‘Send help’: The desperate pleas from Hurricane Melissa survivors
Driving through western Jamaica, it’s staggering how wide Hurricane Melissa’s field of destruction is.
Town after town, miles apart, where trees have been uprooted and roofs peeled back.
Some homes are now just a pile of rubble, and we still don’t know how deadly this storm has been, although authorities warn the death toll will likely rise.
A total of 49 people have died in Melissa’s charge across the Caribbean – 19 in Jamaica alone.
Roads are still flooded in Jamaica
The storm has blown over telephone poles, which are blocking the roads
My team and I headed from Kingston airport, towards where the hurricane made landfall, referred to as “ground zero” of this crisis.
On the way, it’s clear that so many communities here have been brought to their knees and so many people are desperate for help.
We drive under a snarl of mangled power lines and over huge piles of rocks before reaching the town of Lacovia in Saint Elizabeth Parish.
The hurricane stripped the entire roof off this church
Many children live in homes with caved-in roofs
At the side of the road, beside a battered and sodden primary school, a woman wearing a red shirt and black tracksuit bottoms holds a handwritten sign in the direction of passing cars.
“Help needed at this shelter,” it says. The woman’s name is Sheree McLeod, and she is an admin assistant at the school.
She is in charge of a makeshift shelter in the school, a temporary home for at least 16 people between the ages of 14 and 86.
I stop and ask what she needs and almost immediately she begins to cry.
The primary school that has been housing those with no other place to stay
‘No emergency teams’
“I’ve never seen this in my entire life,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking, I never thought in a million years that I would be in the situation trying to get help and with literally no communication.
“We can’t reach any officials, there are no emergency teams. I’m hoping and praying that help can reach us soon.
“The task of a shelter manager is voluntary and the most I can do is just ask for help in whatever way possible.”
Read more:
Before and after images show hurricane’s destruction
What we know from the ground following the devastation
Sheree McLeod pleads for help for those sheltering at the school
At least 16 people currently live at the school, which is being used as a temporary shelter
Sheree shows me the classroom where she and 15 other people rode out the hurricane which she says hung over the town for hours.
They had just a sheet of tarpaulin against the window shutters to try to repel gusts of more than 170mph and a deluge of rain.
They took a white board off the wall to try to get more shelter.
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Hurricane Melissa was ‘traumatising’
“It was very terrible,” Sheree says. “We were given eight blankets for the shelter and that was it, but there were 16 people.
“Now all their clothes and blankets that they were provided with got damaged. Some people are sleeping in chairs and on wooden desks.”
Her plea for help is echoed across this part of Jamaica.
Toppled-over chairs and rubbish line a classroom in the school
The water tank at the school has run out
As we’re filming a pile of wooden slats that used to be a house, a passing motorcyclist shouts: “Send help, Jamaica needs help now.”
The relief effort is intensifying. After I leave Sheree, a convoy of army vehicles speed past in the direction of Black River, the town at the epicentre of this disaster.
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Diggers work to clear debris from the road late into the night. Ambulance sirens also grow more regular as the day goes on.
Help is coming and for many here, it can’t come soon enough.
A second fatal bombing on the streets of Moscow in the space of three days.
We do not know the full details of this latest explosion but the fact these incidents keep happening will be highly embarrassing for the Kremlin.
Pic: Reuters
Monday’s car bomb that killed Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was the latest in a long line of high-profile hits on Russian soil since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Live updates: Ukraine war latest
When a top military official was killed in similar circumstances this time last year, by a bomb hidden in a scooter, Vladimir Putin criticised Russia’s security services and told them they should learn from their mistakes.
It does not look like they have. Since then, there have been many more assassinations of senior officials – both in Moscow and further afield.
Pic: Investigative Committee of Moscow/AP
This latest killing of two police officers in the same area as Monday’s attack only makes things worse.
It doesn’t just look complacent. It’s starting to appear incompetent.
Although Ukraine has been behind some of the attacks, in this case, it has not commented.
But could this have been Kyiv’s way of trying to change the narrative in the peace talks? To show Donald Trump that Russia doesn’t ‘hold all the cards’?
Pic: Investigative Committee of Moscow/AP
The timing has certainly been helpful for Ukraine, coinciding with the latest negotiations. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that Kyiv has seemingly made progress in convincing Washington to agree to a less punishing peace proposal.
Article 5-style security guarantees are a big win for Ukraine, as is an allowance to retain the strength of its armed forces.
They are yet to convince the US on territory, but it’s still progress nonetheless.
Will Moscow agree to the other points? Don’t hold your breath.
Russia’s position “is well known”, the Kremlin said, when asked for its reaction to the latest proposals, suggesting it remains unmoved in its opposition to a security guarantee involving foreign troops.
But even so, it seems the spotlight is back on Moscow.
Families in Nigeria were reunited with more than a hundred schoolchildren and teachers abducted in November.
The tearful reunions happened just in time for Christmas.
“This Christmas, since we are celebrating Christmas with our children, we are so glad. And this Christmas will be different from the others,” said Yusuf Timothy, whose daughter, Rejoice, was among those freed.
The hostages were abducted in November. Pic: AP
Loved ones of the kidnapped children had an emotional reunion. Pic: AP
Mr Timothy said his family had to put their life on hold since the attack.
“Sometimes, even though I’m asleep with my wife, if we wake up, we will start thinking. We will start crying. When are we going to see our child?” he said.
The group of children and teachers were the last to be freed after the 21 November attack on St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri.
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“I am happy, I am happy,” said Rita Marcus, who was reunited with her son, tears flowing down her face.
“This happiness, it is too much.”
The attack on the Papiri school was one of Nigeria’s biggest mass kidnappings. Pic: AP
The children’s loved ones checked them for injuries and lifted them high in the air as they celebrated the hostages coming home.
Most of the children were between 10 and 17, according to the school.
Nigerian authorities initially said 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers had been kidnapped but later revised the number to 230.
They say all of the hostages have now been released.
Although school kidnappings in Nigeria have become a major security issue, the November attack was one of the country’s biggest mass kidnappings in recent years.
A trove of newly released Epstein files include emails that appear to involve Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, while another suggests Donald Trump travelled on the billionaire’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
The US Department of Justice released at least 11,000 more files on Tuesday.
It went on to claim that some of them “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” about President Trump.
Here are some of the latest news lines from this release of Epstein files. Being named in these papers does not suggest wrongdoing.
Who is ‘The Invisible Man’?
Among the documents released is an email sent to Ghislaine Maxwell that speaks about “the girls” being “completely shattered” at a Royal Family summer camp at Balmoral.
It is dated 16 August 2001 and sent by a person referred to only as “The Invisible Man”, but whom Sky News is reporting appears to be the former prince, Andrew.
We have come to that conclusion from reviewing the email address used, which is assigned to the Duke of York in Epstein’s contacts book and the chain of correspondence.
In the correspondence, “The Invisible Man” asks Maxwell: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied any allegations against him.
The Peru trip
Another email appears to show Maxwell arranging “two-legged sight seeing” for “The Invisible Man” during a trip to Peru.
She appears to forward to “The Invisible Man” part of a conversation between herself and another person.
The email says: “I just gave Andrew your telephone no. He is interested in seeing the Nazca lines. He can ride but it is not his favorite sport ie pass on the horses.”
“Some sight seeing some 2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families) and he will be very happy. I know I can rely on you to show him a wonderful time and will only introduce him to friends that you can trust,” Maxwell said.
The context of the email is unclear and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
Trump on Epstein’s jet?
The latest bunch of files also includes an email from an unidentified prosecutor dated 7 January, 2020, in which President Trump is mentioned.
The email accuses him of travelling on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
It adds that President Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present”.
The email’s sender and receiver have been redacted. However, at the bottom of the email it says assistant US attorney, Southern District of New York. The name has also been redacted.
President Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his relationship with Epstein, and being on any of Epstein’s flights does not indicate any wrongdoing.
Read more:
Trump defends ‘big boy’ Clinton after Epstein files release
Why Andrew photo in Epstein files is awkward for Royal Family
Limousine driver report about Trump
One of the documents in the release shows a report made to the FBI that was recorded on 27 October 2020.
It includes an unverified claim by a limousine driver that he overheard the US president discussing “abusing some girl” in 1995.
The driver also mentions Trump said “Jeffrey” while on the phone during a journey to Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas.
A significant part of the statement, along with the driver’s identity, has been redacted.
The US justice department has said that some of the documents in the latest Epstein files release “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election”.
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” it said.
Postcard mentions ‘our president’
Also among the documents is a postcard that claims to have been sent by Jeffrey Epstein, but has been refuted by the justice department.
In it, the sender tells the recipient: “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls.”
It’s not clear who “our president” refers to and the context of the postcard is also unclear.
The US justice department initially said it was “looking into the validity” of the postcard but later said on X that the “FBI has confirmed” the postcard is “FAKE”.
It cited reasons including a claim that the writing does not appear to match Epstein’s and another that the letter was postmarked three days after his death.
Row over unreleased documents
It is believed that many files relating to Epstein are yet to be made public.
There has been anger at the justice department’s slow release of the files, with politicians threatening to launch legal action against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The deadline for the release of all the documents has passed.
“The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected,” Republican congressman Thomas Massie said.
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