Hurricane Nicholas has made landfall along the Texas coast, bringing the threat of up to 20 inches (50cm) of rainfall to parts of the Gulf Coast which have already been battered by storms this year.
Nicholas is the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.
Nearly all of Texas’ coastline is under a tropical storm warning, which includes potential flash floods, power cuts, and storm surges.
Forecasters are most concerned about how much rainfall Nicholas could produce, especially in flood-prone Houston.
Authorities in the city have deployed high-water rescue vehicles throughout the city and erected barricades at more than 40 locations that tend to flood, mayor Sylvester Turner said.
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“This city is very resilient. We know what we need to do. We know about preparing,” said Mr Turner, referencing four major flood events that have hit the Houston area in recent years, including devastating damage from Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Harvey was blamed for at least 68 deaths, including 36 in the Houston area.
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The Houston school district, the state’s largest, as well as others, announced that classes would be cancelled on Tuesday and Texas governor Greg Abbott says rescue teams have been deployed in case they are needed.
The weather threat also closed multiple COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites in the Houston and Corpus Christi areas, and forced the cancellation of a Harry Styles concert scheduled for Monday evening in Houston.
Six to 12 inches (15 to 30cm) of rain were expected along the middle and upper Texas coast, with isolated maximum amounts of 18 inches (46cm) possible.
Other parts of southeast Texas and south-central Louisiana and southern Mississippi could see four to eight inches (10 to 20cm) over the coming days.
President Joe Biden declared an emergency for Louisiana and ordered federal assistance to supplement local response efforts due to conditions resulting from Nicholas, the White House said.
A tornado or two may be possible Tuesday along the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coast, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The worry with Nicholas will be how slowly it moves. Storms are moving slower in recent decades, and Nicholas could get stuck between two other weather systems, said hurricane researcher Jim Kossin of The Climate Service.
Federal air safety regulators have opened a fresh investigation into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner – after the firm said several employees had committed “misconduct” by falsely claiming tests had been completed.
The probe will look into whether Boeing completed inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings of certain 787 Dreamliner planes join the fuselage, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
The investigation will also look at “whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records”, the US federal government agency added.
The FAA said Boeing is “reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet” while the investigation is taking place.
Boeing shares were down 1.5% at $177.03 late on Monday afternoon.
‘Several people not performing required test’
In an email from 29 April, Scott Stocker, who leads Boeing’s 787 program, said that an employee saw what appeared to be an irregularity in a required 787 conformance test.
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Mr Stocker wrote that after receiving the report “we quickly reviewed the matter and learned that several people had been violating company policies by not performing a required test, but recording the work as having been completed”.
In the email, addressed to employees in South Carolina where the 787 is assembled, Mr Stocker said Boeing promptly informed the FAA about what it had learned and said it is taking serious corrective action with “multiple” employees.
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He added that “our engineering team has assessed that this misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue”.
‘They are putting out defective airplanes’
It comes weeks after a Congressional investigation in April heard evidence on the safety culture and manufacturing standards at Boeing.
Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer at the company, told members of a Senate subcommittee that Boeing was taking shortcuts to bolster production levels that could lead to jetliners breaking apart.
He said of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which has more than 1,000 in use across airlines globally including at British Airways, that excessive force was used to jam together sections of fuselage.
He claimed the extra force could compromise the carbon-composite material used for the plane’s frame.
The engineer said he studied Boeing’s own data and concluded that the company is “taking manufacturing shortcuts on the 787 programme that could significantly reduce the airplanes’ safety and the life cycle”.
Boeing denied his claims surrounding both the Dreamliner’s structural integrity and that factory workers jumped on sections of fuselage to force them to align.
Two Boeing engineering executives said this week that its testing and inspections regimes have found no signs of fatigue or cracking in the composite panels, saying they were almost impervious to fatigue.
A US soldier was detained in Russia over the weekend while on a private trip, according to officials.
The soldier, who hasn’t been named, has been accused of stealing from a woman, Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News, reported, citing four US officials.
The White House is aware of reports of an American soldier being detained in Russia, national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday.
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“The Russian Federation notified the USDepartment of State of the criminal detention in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” Ms Smith said.
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“The army notified his family and the US Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the soldier in Russia.
“Given the sensitivity of this matter, we are unable to provide additional details at this time.”
A man who tried to shoot a pastor during his service at a church was wrestled to the floor after his gun failed to fire, according to police.
Bernard J. Polite, 26, said “God made me do it” and planned to “wait to be arrested”, court documents reveal, when he entered the Pennsylvania church just after 1pm on Sunday.
Glenn Germany, who was giving a sermon being live streamed from Jesus’ Dwelling Place Church, told WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh that Polite smiled at him just before he pointed the gun.
He ducked out of the way as someone from the congregation tackled Polite, before he helped to wrest the gun away and keep him down until officers arrived.
“I am feeling grateful that I woke up this morning and that I am here, it could have gone an opposite direction,” Mr Germany said on Monday.
“But God has intervened and I am grateful for him.”
Polite was not known at the church, officials said, and court filings say he wandered over to the church after hearing music coming from there.
The body of a shooting victim was found in a home near the church in North Braddock, where Polite had been shortly before going to the church, county police said.
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The county medical examiner’s office identified the body as Derek Polite, 56, of North Braddock, but did not confirm any specific relation to Bernard Polite.
Polite faces numerous charges, including aggravated assault and attempted homicide, and is in custody without bail.
State police said they don’t know if Polite has a lawyer, and county court records do not list one.
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