AFP UK

With feather headdresses, grass skirts and body paint, hundreds of indigenous demonstrators camped out in Brasilia Monday to protest President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies and an initiative that could take away their ancestral lands.

Pounding wooden tent poles into the ground, the protesters set up the “Fight for Life” camp outside the seat of power in the Brazilian capital, near the trio of modernist buildings housing the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court.

Convened by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), the protest camp, which opened Sunday, will hold a week of demos and other activities against what organizers call Bolsonaro’s “anti-indigenous agenda,” seeking to exert pressure ahead of a crucial Supreme Court ruling on native lands.

Indigenous groups in Brazil accuse the far-right president of systematically attacking their rights and trying to open their lands to agribusiness and mining interests.

The tension has peaked with a Supreme Court case opening Wednesday on the issue of how those lands are protected.

The agribusiness lobby argues Brazil’s constitutional protection of indigenous lands should only apply to those whose inhabitants were present in 1988, when the current constitution was adopted.

However, indigenous rights activists say native inhabitants were often forced off their ancestral lands, including by the 1964-1985 military dictatorship that preceded the current constitution.

Having now returned, they should have the right to benefit from the protected status of official reservations, their lawyers will argue before the court.

The case centers on a reservation in the southern state of Santa Catarina, but will set legal precedent for similar cases throughout Brazil.

The ruling could also deflate a bill before Congress that would enshrine the 1988 “time-frame argument” in law.

That bill, which passed a lower-house committee vote in June and is now due to come before the full Congress, is one of several legislative initiatives that indigenous activists and environmentalists say Bolsonaro and his allies are trying to use to further the advance of agriculture and industry into Brazil’s rapidly disappearing forests, including the crucial Amazon rainforest.

“It’s a very important case at a time when we are seeing numerous setbacks in terms of indigenous rights,” Juliana de Paula Batista, a lawyer with the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), told AFP.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine, a move expected to trigger a new wave of vaccine mandates as the Delta variant batters the country.

Around 52 percent of the country is fully vaccinated, but health authorities have hit a wall of vaccine hesitant people, impeding the national campaign.

“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the Covid-19 pandemic,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement.

“While all three COVID vaccines have met FDA’s strict standards for emergency use, this FDA approval should give added confidence that this vaccine is safe and effective. If you’re not vaccinated yet, now is the time,” tweeted President Joe Biden.

The vaccine, which will now be marketed under its brand name Comirnaty, is the first to receive full approval. 

More than 200 million shots have already been administered under an emergency use authorization (EUA) that was granted on December 11, 2020.

The decision to approve it among people aged 16 and up was based on updated data from the drug’s clinical trial, which found the vaccine more than 90 percent effective in preventing Covid.

“Overall, approximately 12,000 recipients have been followed for at least six months,” the FDA said in its statement.

Most commonly reported side effects included pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle or joint pain, chills and fever.

The FDA is continuing to investigate safety data regarding myocarditis (heart inflammation), particularly within seven days after the second dose. The data so far shows an increased risk among males under 40 compared to females and older males.

The highest risk has been detected in boys aged 12 through 17, with available data suggesting most individuals recover but some require intensive care.

The US military said shortly after the announcement that it would mandate the vaccine, and a slew of private businesses and universities are expected to follow.

Immediately after the announcement, New York City said it would require all its department of education employees to receive at least one dose of vaccine by September 27, without the option for regular testing instead.

The vaccine remains available under emergency use authorization to children aged 12 to 15, but because it has now been fully approved, physicians may prescribe it to children under 12 if they believe it will be beneficial.

– Blow to anti-vaxxers –

“One of the talking points of the anti-vaccine movement which has falsely claimed that this was an ‘experimental vaccine’ has been removed,” Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security told AFP. 

“Hopefully now you’ll see people who said that they were waiting for full approval line up to get vaccinated, hopefully more organizations, more businesses will require the vaccine as a condition of employment as a condition of participation.”

A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 30 percent of adults said full approval would make them more likely to get vaccinated.

It comes as the ultra-contagious Delta variant pummels the country, with new cases and hospitalizations approaching levels last seen during the winter wave.

The hardest hit regions include southern states Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. 

The number of people rolling up their sleeves for a shot has risen in these states in recent weeks, but the national rate is still well below its peak from spring.

Some 628,000 people have died from coronavirus infection in the United States, making it officially the hardest hit country in the world — though experts say it is possible that India may in fact hold the record.

Vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant than they were against previous strains, particularly against infection, making the goal of high population level vaccination critical.

The Biden administration announced last week plans to make a booster shot immediately available for immunocompromised individuals, and recommended all vaccinated people get a third shot eight months after their second.

Thousands of climate change demonstrators thronged central London on Monday, as environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion held its latest round of protests, promising two weeks of disruption.

Protesters were greeted with a visibly heavy police presence as they converged on Trafalgar Square in the heart of the British capital, where they rallied with a marching band and speeches.

The latest action — branded the “Impossible Rebellion” — saw participants block roads leading to the square, deploying a large pink structure with the slogan “come to the table” written on it.

“What are you waiting for? Your local area to flood, or your street to get blocked with rubble and cars?” Extinction Rebellion’s UK branch said on Twitter.

“The #ClimateEmergency is happening now, and the rebellion for life is happening now.”

The group, formed in Britain in 2018, is a network of climate activists who use civil disobedience to spotlight inaction on global warming.

Since holding its first protests in London that year, activists have repeatedly brought parts of the capital and other cities to a standstill with carnival-like demonstrations.

They have also targeted individual businesses and premises in London for direct action, including newspapers’ offices and energy companies’ headquarters.

The rallies have spread to many countries around the world.

Police at previous UK protests have arrested hundreds of participants, but have also faced criticism for being too lenient.

Maddy Hayley Thomas, 33, was among those rallying at the first day of the demonstrations in the British capital. 

“What is extreme is the fact that the government, huge corporations, all of our system is allowing the devastation to our planet, to the global south,” she said.

Extinction Rebellion’s latest action comes as the UK government gears up to host the crucial COP26 United Nations climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow, in November.

It is set to draw thousands of delegates — and demonstrators — from around the world.

Global leaders are under renewed pressure to agree radical policy changes at the summit following the publication this month of a UN climate science report called “terrifying” by campaigners.

It warned the world is on course to reach 1.5C of warming around 2030, much sooner than once predicted, and set to cause dire fallout impacting every continent.

Scores of firefighters battled to contain two new wildfires in Greece on Monday, as winds fanned the blazes and forced several villages and neighbourhoods to be evacuated. 

Both fires erupted not far from the site of devastating wildfires that swept parts of Greece earlier this summer, forcing thousands from their homes and destroying property, wildlife and livestock.

Scientists have warned that extreme weather and fierce fires will become increasingly common due to man-made global warming, and Greece’s prime minister has linked the blazes to climate change. 

The first fire broke out in the early hours Monday on southern Evia island, northeast of the capital Athens, and the Greek fire brigade said the blaze was largely contained at noon but had not been brought under control.

Two neighbourhoods were evacuated and several boats were offshore to offer help to contain the fires. 

A second fire broke out Monday in Vilia, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) northwest of Athens, in an area of thick forestland. 

Greek police blocked traffic on a nearby highway as winds fanned the blaze, while two villages were evacuated in the area as a preventative measure.

“The battle against the fires continues wherever there is a front,” government spokesman Yiannis Oikonomou said Monday.

“We have already started repairing damage and providing practical support to those affected,” he added.

The civil protection authorities had warned Sunday a “very high risk” of fire for many areas of Greece on Monday.

Since July, wildfires have ravaged the islands of Evia and Rhodes as well as forests to the north and southeast of Athens and parts of the Peloponnese peninsula. Three people have died in the fires. 

An earlier fire in Evia burned for more than 10 days, decimating swathes of land, while another blaze that hit Vilia lasted six days was only declared under control on Saturday. 

Tropical Storm Henri was downgraded to a tropical depression late Sunday after slamming into Rhode Island on the US east coast, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, uprooting trees, and bringing record rainfall.

The storm hit land near the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, at approximately 12:15 PM (1615 GMT), the National Weather Service said. Henri had already been downgraded from a Category 1 Hurricane earlier on Sunday.

But the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its 5:00 am (0900 GMT) advisory that Henri was “nearly stationary” and winds had reduced to 30 miles per hour (48 kilometers per hour) — much lower than predicted gusts of 75 mph — with “little change in strength” forecast.

Henri is a rare tropical storm to strike America’s northeastern seaboard and comes as the surface layer of oceans warms due to climate change.

The warming is causing cyclones to become more powerful and carry more water, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities, scientists say.

Millions of residents in New England and New York’s Long Island had been told to prepare for violent winds, days without electricity, and storm surges of up to five feet.

Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee said there was “significant flooding” in areas. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

By mid-afternoon, the NHC had lifted all surge warnings and initial reports from residents indicated the storm was not as bad as projections feared although fallen trees nearly damaged homes in Groton, Connecticut. 

“We dodged a bullet,” James Kiker, of Newport, Rhode Island, told AFP, saying he saw only “minimal damage” in his area, including a few broken branches.

Residents on Long Island, home to the plush Hamptons villages where wealthy New Yorkers retreat in summer, expressed relief that the storm’s path had skirted east of them.

“I will continue to stay alert as still plenty of wind, rain and surging seas await us but I am breathing a little easier,” Amy Pedatella, a 46-year-old property manager who spent Saturday securing seaside homes in the Hamptons, told AFP.

– Emergency rescues –

In Newark, New Jersey, flash flooding caused havoc with emergency services rescuing 86 people, including 16 children, from submerged vehicles.

In Helmetta, 30 miles south, volunteer firefighters waded through waist-deep water to help evacuate residents from waterlines rising dangerously close to their homes.

Some 79,000 people lost power in Rhode Island and another 33,000 suffered blackouts in Connecticut, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.

More than 200 flights were canceled at Newark airport while New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports canceled almost 200 between them, they said.

President Joe Biden ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate disaster relief efforts in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed 500 National Guard soldiers.

“We’re doing everything we can now to help those states prepare, respond and recover,” he told reporters.

Henri missed New York City by several miles but still caused tropical storm conditions overnight and throughout Sunday, where a flash flood warning was in effect until 5:45 pm.

– Concert abandoned –

Rain late Saturday forced New York to halt a star-studded Central Park concert billed as a “homecoming” for a metropolis hard hit by the pandemic.

An announcer cut off pop legend Barry Manilow mid-song to urge revelers to proceed swiftly but calmly to the nearest exit.

The National Weather Service said 1.94 inches of rain fell in the park between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm Saturday, the wettest hour on record in the city of eight million people.

By the time it blows out, Henri is expected to have produced three to six inches of rain (7.5 to 15 centimeters) across the region, with isolated maximum totals near 12 inches, the NHC said.

Before the downgrade, Henri was set to be the first hurricane to hit New England in 30 years. Hurricane Bob in 1991 killed at least 17 people. 

The warnings also reignited memories of Hurricane Sandy, a more powerful storm that knocked out power for much of Manhattan and flooded subways in 2012.

India’s capital New Delhi opened its first “smog tower” on Monday aimed at reducing the air pollution blamed for thousands of premature deaths every year, but experts were sceptical.

Concentrations of tiny deadly particles in Delhi’s air regularly exceed safe limits by up to 20 times, particularly in winter when its 20 million people are enveloped in a noxious grey blanket of smog.

Forty giant fans on the 25-metre (82-foot) tower will pump 1,000 cubic metres of air per second through filters that halve the amount of harmful particulates in a radius of one square kilometre (0.4 square miles), according to engineers.

“Today is a big day for Delhi in its fight for clean air against pollution,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said after the inauguration near the busy shopping area of Connaught Place.

The installation “is being looked at in an experimental way. We will analyse the data and if it’s effective, more towers will be built across Delhi,” Kejriwal added.

The tower cost $2 million and critics say erecting a sufficient number to clean the air substantially across the city would cost huge amounts of public money, and that efforts would be better directed at the sources of the smog.

These include vehicle exhaust, heavy and small-scale industry, construction activity, the combustion of waste and fuel, and in winter the burning of crops in neighbouring regions.

“Let’s just be clear that this is futile, an absolute waste,” Karthik Ganesan from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water told AFP.

“Now that taxpayers’ money has been spent, let Delhi be the test case for all other Indian cities… to ensure no other city spends on such ideas which we can’t afford,” he added.

India has 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities, according to the World Health Organization.

A 2020 study in the Lancet found there were 1.67 million deaths in the country attributable to air pollution in 2019 including almost 17,500 in Delhi.

In 2018 China built a much larger 60-metre smog tower in the polluted city of Xian, but the experiment has not spread to other cities so far.

Do you want to buy a more than 5,000-year-old Sumerian tablet, listed as the property of a gentleman from Sussex in England and passed down as a family heirloom?

On auction site liveauctioneers.com, bidding for the Sumerian clay tablet starts at 550 pounds ($750).

The item weighs just 70 grams (2.5 ounces) but bears traces of cuneiform writing — the oldest recorded in the world — and is listed as “Property of a West Sussex, UK, gentleman”.

This example comes with letters of provenance by experts.

But the ownership history of some such objects can be harder to prove. 

They may not have been handed down but handed on, via smugglers and middlemen.

The boom in looted objects from antiquity is a real problem in Iraq, where corruption is prevalent and archaeological sites are poorly protected. 

For some objects, it can be hard to prove that it was not in fact stolen from lands where the Sumerian empire stood in the fourth millennium BC.

Chris Wren, from the British firm TimeLine Auctions, parent company of liveauctioneers.com, says they are aware “of the potential for looted, smuggled or other stolen materials” to come onto the market.

“We spend a great deal of effort and money in seeking to weed such possibilities out,” he said.

– Lucrative trade –

Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians all trod on the ancient land that is now Iraq, and that makes it a land of choice for smugglers.

It teems with archaeological sites where traffickers engage in “random exhumations”, said Laith Majid Hussein, director of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

“We don’t have statistics on the number of antiquities that end up as contraband,” Majid said.

Corruption and the prevalence of armed groups have encouraged the growth of this lucrative business.

In one site in southern Iraq, where the Sumerian and Babylonian civilisations once flourished, a security guard described the challenges he faced.

“One day, I saw a truck arrive with three armed men,” the guard said, who asked not to be named to protect both himself and the location of the site.

“They started digging, and when I intervened they started shooting in the air and shouting at me — ‘You think you own this place?'”

The lack of resources to protect Iraq’s ancient sites is dire.

In a country where an estimated 27 percent of the 40 million citizens live below the poverty line, the authorities say they have other priorities.

Iraq’s ancient sites are concentrated in the south, around Kut, Samawa and Nasiriyah.

From there, smugglers transport their booty to the southern marshes, and to Amara, a city not far from Iran, which has become a “hub for antiquities trafficking”, according to one archaeologist who asked to remain anonymous.

The stolen antiquities are then taken into Iran “to cross the sea in fishing boats to the Gulf countries”, he said.

Alternatively, they may be smuggled overland across Iraq’s western desert, which borders Jordan, Syria and Turkey.

An Iraqi government source said that the money earned from trafficking feeds criminal networks, in a country where armed groups, some close to Iran, have grown in power.

Corruption also plays a role in a state where government officials are poorly paid.

Graft watchdog Transparency International ranks Iraq as 160th out of 180 countries listed for corruption.

– Major earner –

When the Islamic State group (IS) occupied large swathes of Iraqi territory between 2014 and 2017, the jihadists used bulldozers, pickaxes and explosives to ransack dozens of pre-Islamic sites and their treasures.

Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian empire founded in the 13th Century BC and located outside Mosul in the north of the country, was one such target.

The jihadists “also engaged in smuggling”, said one European security expert, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That earned them money — but it affected Syria more.”

The group did well from the trade in illegal antiquities, according to a 2020 report published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, a Geneva-based organisation.

It said that in 2015, “of IS’s annual income, deemed to be between US $2.35 billion and $2.68 billion, antiquities trafficking and (in-state) taxation accounted for US $20 million”.

Earlier this month, the United States returned to Iraq about 17,000 archaeological treasures dating back 4,000 years that had been looted in recent decades.

Despite welcoming such moves, the Iraqi government source said he believes the problem “lies in neighbouring states” that are complicit in the smuggling.

“The Iraqi state is weak,” he said. “Archaeological artefacts are not a priority.”

Scores of firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft battled a forest fire that broke out early Monday on the southern part of Greece’s Evia island, less than two weeks after an inferno decimated its northern part.

The fire was burning near the village of Fygia where two neighbourhoods have been evacuated and was moving toward the coastal tourist village of Marmari, where authorities were preparing boats to evacuate people if needed, according to Athens News Agency.

Forty-six firefighters were battling flames fanned by high winds — assisted by 20 fire engines, three water-dropping airplanes and two helicopters, the Greek fire brigade said. 

Authorities have boats on standby off Marmari. Evia is northeast of the capital Athens.

The civil protection authorities had announced on Sunday a “very high risk” of fire for many areas of Greece on Monday. 

Wildfires since July have ravaged the islands of Evia and Rhodes as well as forests to the north and southeast of Athens, and parts of the Peloponnese peninsula. Three people have died as a result of the fires.

The government has blamed the disaster on the worst heatwave the country has seen in decades.

Climate scientists warn extreme weather and fierce fires will become increasingly common due to man-made global warming, heightening the need to invest in teams, equipment and policy to battle the flames.   

Do you want to buy a more than 3,000-year-old Sumerian tablet, listed as the property of a gentleman from Sussex in England and passed down as a family heirloom?

On auction site liveauctioneers.com, bidding for the “Sumerian clay tablet” starts at 550 pounds ($750).

The item weighs just 70 grams (2.5 ounces) but bears traces of cuneiform writing — the oldest recorded in the world — and is listed as “Property of a West Sussex, UK, gentleman”.

This example comes with letters of provenance by experts.

But the ownership history of some such objects can be harder to prove. 

They may not have been handed down but handed on, via smugglers and middlemen.

The boom in looted objects from antiquity is a real problem in Iraq, where corruption is prevalent and archaeological sites are poorly protected. 

For some objects, it can be hard to prove that it was not in fact stolen from lands where the Sumerian empire stood in the fourth millennium BC.

Chris Wren, from the British firm TimeLine Auctions, parent company of liveauctioneers.com, says they are aware “of the potential for looted, smuggled or other stolen materials” to come onto the market.

“We spend a great deal of effort and money in seeking to weed such possibilities out,” he said.

– Lucrative trade –

Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians all trod on the ancient land that is now Iraq, and that makes it a land of choice for smugglers.

It teems with archaeological sites where traffickers engage in “random exhumations”, said Laith Majid Hussein, director of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.

“We don’t have statistics on the number of antiquities that end up as contraband,” Majid said.

Corruption and the prevalence of armed groups have encouraged the growth of this lucrative business.

In one site in southern Iraq, where the Sumerian and Babylonian civilisations once flourished, a security guard described the challenges he faced.

“One day, I saw a truck arrive with three armed men,” the guard said, who asked not to be named to protect both himself and the location of the site.

“They started digging, and when I intervened they started shooting in the air and shouting at me — ‘You think you own this place?'”

The lack of resources to protect Iraq’s ancient sites is dire.

In a country where an estimated 27 percent of the 40 million citizens live below the poverty line, the authorities say they have other priorities.

Iraq’s ancient sites are concentrated in the south, around Kut, Samawa and Nasiriyah.

From there, smugglers transport their booty to the southern marshes, and to Amara, a city not far from Iran, which has become a “hub for antiquities trafficking”, according to one archaeologist who asked to remain anonymous.

The stolen antiquities are then taken into Iran “to cross the sea in fishing boats to the Gulf countries”, he said.

Alternatively, they may be smuggled overland across Iraq’s western desert, which borders Jordan, Syria and Turkey.

An Iraqi government source said that the money earned from trafficking feeds criminal networks, in a country where armed groups, some close to Iran, have grown in power.

Corruption also plays a role in a state where government officials are poorly paid.

Graft watchdog Transparency International ranks Iraq as 160th out of 180 countries listed for corruption.

– Major earner –

When the Islamic State group (IS) occupied large swathes of Iraqi territory between 2014 and 2017, the jihadists used bulldozers, pickaxes and explosives to ransack dozens of pre-Islamic sites and their treasures.

Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian empire founded in the 13th Century BC and located outside Mosul in the north of the country, was one such target.

The jihadists “also engaged in smuggling”, said one European security expert, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That earned them money — but it affected Syria more.”

The group did well from the trade in illegal antiquities, according to a 2020 report published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, a Geneva-based organisation.

It said that in 2015, “of IS’s annual income, deemed to be between US $2.35 billion and $2.68 billion, antiquities trafficking and (in-state) taxation accounted for US $20 million”.

Earlier this month, the United States returned to Iraq about 17,000 archaeological treasures dating back 4,000 years that had been looted in recent decades.

Despite welcoming such moves, the Iraqi government source said he believes the problem “lies in neighbouring states” that are complicit in the smuggling.

“The Iraqi state is weak,” he said. “Archaeological artefacts are not a priority.”

Tropical Storm Henri slammed into Rhode Island on the US east coast Sunday, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, uprooting trees and bringing record rainfall before weakening as it moved across New England.

The storm — earlier downgraded from a Category 1 Hurricane — hit land near the town of Westerly at approximately 12:15 PM (1615 GMT), the National Weather Service said.

Henri is a rare tropical storm to strike America’s northeastern seaboard and comes as the surface layer of oceans warms due to climate change.

The warming is causing cyclones to become more powerful and carry more water, posing an increasing threat to the world’s coastal communities, scientists say.

Millions of residents in New England and New York’s Long Island had been told to prepare for violent winds, days without electricity and storm surges of up to five feet.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Henri brought maximum sustained gusts of 60 mph, lower than the 75 mph gusts predicted earlier.

Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee said there was “significant flooding” in areas. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

By mid-afternoon the NHC had lifted all surge warnings and initial reports from residents indicated the storm was not as bad as projections feared although in Groton, Connecticut fallen trees threatened some homes.

“We dodged a bullet,” James Kiker, of Newport, Rhode Island, told AFP, saying he saw only “minimal damage” in his area, including a few broken branches.

Residents on Long Island, home to the plush Hamptons villages where wealthy New Yorkers retreat in summer, expressed relief that the storm’s path had skirted east of them.

“I will continue to stay alert as still plenty of wind, rain and surging seas await us but I am breathing a little easier,” Amy Pedatella, a 46-year-old property manager who spent Saturday securing seaside homes in the Hamptons, told AFP.

– Concert abandoned –

In Newark, New Jersey, flash flooding caused havoc with emergency services rescuing 86 people, including 16 children, from submerged vehicles.

In Helmetta, 30 miles south, volunteer firefighters waded through water waist deep to help evacuate residents from waterlines rising dangerously close to their homes.

Some 79,000 people lost power in Rhode Island and another 33,000 suffered blackouts in Connecticut, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.

More than 200 flights were canceled at Newark airport while New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports canceled almost 200 between them, they said.

President Joe Biden ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate disaster relief efforts in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed 500 National Guard soldiers.

“We’re doing everything we can now to help those states prepare, respond and recover,” he told reporters.

The NHC said in its 5:00 pm advisory that winds had reduced to 40 mph and “additional weakening” of the storm was expected as it scales down to a tropical depression during the evening.

Henri missed New York City by several miles but still caused tropical storm conditions overnight and throughout Sunday, where a flash flood warning was in effect until 5:45 pm.

– Sandy fears –

Rain late Saturday forced New York to halt a star-studded Central Park concert billed as a “homecoming” for a metropolis hard hit by the pandemic.

An announcer cut off pop legend Barry Manilow mid-song to urge revelers to proceed swiftly but calmly to the nearest exit.

The National Weather Service said 1.94 inches of rain fell in the park between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm Saturday, the wettest hour on record in the city of eight million people.

By the time it blows out, Henri is expected to have produced three to six inches of rain (7.5 to 15 centimeters) across the region, with isolated maximum totals near 12 inches, the NHC said.

Before the downgrade, Henri was set to be the first hurricane to hit New England in 30 years. Hurricane Bob in 1991 killed at least 17 people. 

The warnings also reignited memories of Hurricane Sandy, a more powerful storm that knocked out power for much of Manhattan and flooded subways in 2012.