At least 26 dead in massive US storm after Kansas reports 8 fatalities

At least 26 dead in massive US storm after Kansas reports 8 fatalities
Destruction from a severe storm is seen Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Wayne County, Mo. (AP)
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Updated 16 March 2025
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At least 26 dead in massive US storm after Kansas reports 8 fatalities

At least 26 dead in massive US storm after Kansas reports 8 fatalities
  • Wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico

Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the US, wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that has killed at least 26 people as more severe weather was expected late Saturday.
The number of fatalities increased after the Kansas Highway Patrol reported eight people died in a highway pileup caused by a dust storm in Sherman County Friday. At least 50 vehicles were involved.
Missouri recorded more fatalities than any other state as it withstood scattered twisters overnight that killed at least 12 people, authorities said. The deaths included a man who was killed after a tornado ripped apart his home.
“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field,” said Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, describing the scene that confronted rescuers. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing people trapped in their homes Friday night found five dead bodies scattered in the debris outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County, Missouri.
“It was a very rough deal last night,” he said Saturday, surrounded by uprooted trees and splintered homes. “It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night.”

Henderson said they rescued his aunt from a bedroom that was the only room left standing in her house, taking her out through a window. They also carried out a man who had a broken arm and leg.
Officials in Arkansas said three people died in Independence County and 29 others were injured across eight counties as storms passed through the state.
“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.
She and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency. Kemp said he was making the declaration in anticipation of severe weather moving in later Saturday.
On Friday, meanwhile, authorities said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
Extreme weather encompasses a zone of 100 million people
The deaths came as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.
Extreme weather conditions were forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible.
Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. Nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) had burned in his state.
The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.
Experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak
The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs on Saturday, but the greatest threat would come from winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100 mph (160 kph) possible.
Significant tornadoes continued to hit Saturday. The regions at highest risk stretch from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the center said.
Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched a massive tornado from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, about half a mile (0.8 km) away as it struck an area near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded a video depicting snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.
“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over — everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch reported on Facebook that all its staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the ranch itself.
“Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some of the imagery from the extreme weather has gone viral.
Tad Peters and his dad, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists flee the interstate to park.
“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn ...”
His father then rolled up the truck window. The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to turn around and head back home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they encountered wildfires.
Wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.
A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than a square mile (about 2 square kilometers) to an estimated 32.8 square miles (85 square kilometers), the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.
About 60 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, another fire grew to about 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) before its advance was halted in the afternoon.
High winds also knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, according the website poweroutage.us.


Russia and Arab League to hold summit this year: Putin

Russia and Arab League to hold summit this year: Putin
Updated 23 sec ago
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Russia and Arab League to hold summit this year: Putin

Russia and Arab League to hold summit this year: Putin
  • Many of our friends in the Arab world support this idea, says Putin, inviting Oman’s sultan

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced plans to stage a summit with the Arab League group of states later this year as Moscow searches for new partners after its three-year offensive on Ukraine.

Slapped with sweeping Western sanctions after sending troops into Ukraine, Russia has turned toward Asian, African and Arab countries for political and economic ties.

“We plan to hold a summit between Russia and Arab countries this year,” Putin told Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq, in the first-ever visit to Russia by an Omani head of state.

“Many of our friends in the Arab world support this idea,” he added, inviting the sultan to the summit, without specifying the date and location.

The sultan’s visit comes days after Putin hosted Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Moscow for talks on Syria and Gaza. 

Doha is a key mediator between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.

The Gulf states are gaining ever-growing diplomatic influence as mediators in negotiations to resolve the world’s most pressing crises, which have claimed thousands of lives, such as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Oman recently hosted talks between the US and Iran, the highest-level meeting between the two sides since Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term as US president.

Russia and Ukraine held indirect talks in Riyadh in March.

Meanwhile, Putin discussed Iran’s nuclear program with the leader of Oman, a Kremlin official was quoted as saying.

“We discussed the progress of negotiations between Iranian and American representatives,” Interfax quoted Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov as saying.

“We will see what the result will be. We maintain close contact with our Iranian colleagues. Where we can, we help.”

Trump has threatened to bomb Iran unless a deal is reached; Iran denies seeking atomic weapons. Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran in January and is also trying to improve relations with the Trump administration.

Moscow has a role in nuclear talks with Iran as a signatory to a previous nuclear deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. Russia has said any US military action against Iran would be illegal.

In televised comments, Putin was shown telling the sultan that Russian energy companies were interested in developing relations with Oman.


US Treasury secretary says trade war with China is not ‘sustainable’

US Treasury secretary says trade war with China is not ‘sustainable’
Updated 22 April 2025
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US Treasury secretary says trade war with China is not ‘sustainable’

US Treasury secretary says trade war with China is not ‘sustainable’
  • Bessent also cautioned that talks between the United States and China had yet to formally start
  • “I do say China is going to be a slog in terms of the negotiations,” Bessent said

WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Tuesday speech that the ongoing tariffs showdown against China is unsustainable and expects a “de-escalation” in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
But in a private speech in Washington for JPMorgan Chase, Bessent also cautioned that talks between the United States and China had yet to formally start. Trump placed import taxes of 145 percent on China, which has countered with 125 percent tariffs on US goods. Trump has placed tariffs on several dozen countries, causing the stock market to stumble and interest rates to increase on US debt as investors worry about slower economic growth and higher inflationary pressures.
Details of the speech were confirmed by two people familiar with the remarks who insisted on anonymity to discuss them.
“I do say China is going to be a slog in terms of the negotiations,” Bessent said according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press. “Neither side thinks the status quo is sustainable.”
The S&P 500 stock index rose after Bloomberg News initially reported Bessent’s remarks.
The Trump administration has met for talks with counterparts from Japan, India, South Korea, the European Union, Canada and Mexico, among other nations. But Trump has shown no public indications that he plans to pullback his baseline 10 percent tariff, even as he has insisted he’s looking for other nations to cut their own import taxes and remove any non-tariff barriers that the administration says have hindered exports from the US
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that Trump told her “we’re doing very well” regarding a “potential trade deal with China.”
China on Monday warned other countries against making trade deals with the United States that could negatively impact China.
“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
Leavitt said the Trump administration has received 18 proposals from other countries for trade deals with the US, adding that “everyone involved wants to see a trade deal happen.”
The uncertainty over tariffs in the financial markets has also been amplified by Trump calling on the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate, with the president saying he could fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell if he wanted to do so.
Leavitt said Trump believes the Fed has by holding rates steady as it awaits the impacts of tariffs “in the name of politics, rather in the name of what’s right for the American economy.”


Ukraine ready for direct talks with Russia only after ceasefire: Zelensky

Ukraine ready for direct talks with Russia only after ceasefire: Zelensky
Updated 22 April 2025
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Ukraine ready for direct talks with Russia only after ceasefire: Zelensky

Ukraine ready for direct talks with Russia only after ceasefire: Zelensky
  • “After the ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format,” Zelensky told journalists
  • Kyiv and its allies dismissed the truce as a public relations exercise from Putin

KYIV: Ukraine will only hold direct talks with Russia once a ceasefire is in place, its President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as his US counterpart Donald Trump pushed for a speedy deal to end the three-year Ukraine conflict.
“After the ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format,” Zelensky told journalists at a briefing a day before key talks in London on a potential Ukraine settlement.
Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, has failed since his return to office three months ago to wrangle concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his troops’ offensive in Ukraine.
Trump said over the weekend that he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides were anywhere close to agreeing even a ceasefire, let alone a wider long-term settlement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Tuesday against rushing into a speedy ceasefire, telling a state TV reporter that the issue was too “complex” for a quick fix.
“It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short time frame,” he said.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov meanwhile told state media that US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff was expected this week in Moscow, his fourth visit to Russia since Trump took office.
Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war started in February 2022.
After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for a full and unconditional ceasefire last month, Putin announced a surprise Easter truce over the weekend.
Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.
Kyiv and its allies dismissed the truce as a public relations exercise from Putin.
“The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told FranceInfo radio.
Ukraine’s allies will meet in London on Wednesday, a senior Kyiv official told AFP.
They are expected to discuss the contours of a possible deal they could all get behind.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the London talks due to scheduling issues, a State Department spokeswoman said, adding that US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would take part.
European leaders are scrambling to work out how to support Ukraine should Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.
Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be “an unconditional ceasefire.”
He proposed to Russia on Sunday a halt of missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.
While saying he would “analyze” the idea, Putin threw doubt on it 24 hours later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.
He held open the prospect of bilateral talks on the topic, though the Kremlin said there were no fixed plans to engage with Kyiv.
“There are no concrete plans (to talk), there is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” Peskov said Tuesday.
“If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.
Russia hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Myrnograd with drones Tuesday, killing three people and wounding two, local authorities said.
One person was reported dead and 23 wounded after two guided aerial bombs pounded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor said.
Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man tended to by medics on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.
“One guided aerial bomb hit an infrastructure facility, another one hit a densely populated neighborhood, a residential building directly,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.
Russian strikes wounded another six in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv in the northeast, officials said.
The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured a village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.
Russia has pressed on with a grinding advance in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine and recaptured much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.
There were no ongoing discussions on any new US aid packages with the Trump administration, Zelensky said.
In Paris last week, Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the conflict, though both he and Trump warned that Washington’s patience was wearing thin and could lead it to withdraw.
Many in Ukraine fear any US-brokered settlement would benefit Russia.


FACTBOX-Major militant attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir

FACTBOX-Major militant attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir
Updated 22 April 2025
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FACTBOX-Major militant attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir

FACTBOX-Major militant attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir
  • At least 20 people feared dead after suspected militants opened fire on them in Indian controlled Kashmir
  • India and Pakistan, who administer parts of Kashmir but claim it in entirety, have fought two wars over Kashmir 

NEW DELHI, April 22 : At least 20 people were feared dead after suspected militants opened fire on them in India’s Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, with officials saying it was one of the deadliest such attacks in recent times.

Here is a look at major attacks over the years in India’s only Muslim-majority region, where militants have fought security forces for decades.

NOVEMBER 2024

At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at security personnel in a crowded flea market in the main city of Srinagar.

OCTOBER 2024

Six migrant workers and a doctor were shot dead by militants who opened fire near a tunnel construction site. The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility.

JUNE 2024

At least nine people died and 33 were injured when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims plunged into a deep gorge after a suspected militant attack.

MAY 2024

Suspected militants opened fire on a tourist couple from the northwestern city of Jaipur, injuring them both.

FEBRUARY 2019

At least 44 security personnel were killed after a suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus carrying Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir. The militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility.

JULY 2017

At least seven Hindu pilgrims, on their way back from the revered Amarnath shrine deep in the Himalayas, died when their bus got caught in crossfire after two militant attacks on police in the area.

SEPTEMBER 2016

At least 17 soldiers were killed as separatists armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades stormed an army base in Uri near the disputed border with Pakistan.


Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions

Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions
Updated 22 April 2025
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Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions

Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions
  • Hegseth left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated
  • “We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation,” he said

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Tuesday of possible prosecutions of former senior advisers who were fired during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media, saying evidence would be handed over to the Department of Justice once the investigation is completed.
Dan Caldwell, who was one of Hegseth’s top advisers, and two other senior officials were fired on Friday after being escorted out of the Pentagon. But they have denied any wrongdoing and said they have been told nothing about any alleged crimes.
Hegseth, who has come under fire for using unclassified messaging system Signal to discuss plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi group, left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated during the investigation but played down those chances.
“If those people are exonerated, fantastic. We don’t think — based on what we understand — that it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation,” Hegseth told Fox News.
Hegseth said there had been a number of leaks that triggered the investigation, including about military options to ensure US access to the Panama Canal and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon.
“We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation,” Hegseth said.
“We took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time. But it’s not my job to protect them. It’s my job to protect national security.”
He said evidence would eventually be handed over to the Department of Justice.
“When that evidence is gathered sufficiently — and this has all happened very quickly — it will be handed over to the DOJ and those people will be prosecuted if necessary,” Hegseth said.
Caldwell had played a critical role as an adviser to Hegseth and his importance was underscored in a leaked text chain on Signal disclosed by The Atlantic last month.
In it, Hegseth named Caldwell as the best staff point of contact for the National Security Council as it prepared for the launch of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
On Sunday, news emerged of a second Signal chat, a disclosure that Hegseth and other officials have blamed on former Pentagon employees.
Despite growing calls from Democrats for Hegseth to resign, President Donald Trump has stood firmly by his defense secretary.
John Ullyot, who was ousted from his job as a Pentagon spokesperson after two months, said on Sunday that Hegseth’s Defense Department was in “total chaos.”
“The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion piece in Politico.
Asked about Ullyot’s remarks, Hegseth said: “He’s misrepresented a lot of things in the press. It’s unfortunate.”