1 Louisiana Braces For Hurricane On Saturday
The National Hurricane Center is predicting the season’s first hurricane, to be named Barry, will develop over the Gulf of Mexico and strike the coast of Louisiana on Saturday. The storm is predicted to be a massive rainmaker, unloading double-digit rainfall totals that will probably trigger serious inland flooding.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has already declared a state of emergency and is warning residents that “[t]his is going to be a Louisiana event with coastal flooding and heavy rainfall potentially impacting every part of the state. No one should take this storm lightly.” Hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge watches have already been issued ahead of the storm affecting much of coastal Louisiana. The storm surge watch includes New Orleans, where levees protecting the city may be tested by ocean waters rushing up the Mississippi River rising water levels to historic heights Saturday.
2 Acosta Defends His Decision In The Epstein Plea Deal
Labor Secretary Alex Acosta has been under fire for a prosecutorial decision he made a decade ago involving billionaire sex offender, Jeffery Epstein.In an afternoon news conference, Acosta talked about his decision to negotiate a non-prosecution deal with the billionaire Epstein. He classified it as a catch-22, saying that while the terms were softer than he'd have preferred, it provided a more certain outcome than going to trial, which he said amounted to a "roll the dice" proposition. Acosta claimed his office got involved with the case only after state prosecutors were planning to go after Epstein on lesser charges. He said his priority was ensuring that Epstein went to prison, paid restitution to his victims and registered as a sex offender. He also suggested that shifts in the way society views victims of sexual crimes meant his actions were being viewed differently now than they were a decade ago. While he didn't apologize for his decision, he did insist that his office had secured a reasonable sentence facing an uncertain trial with reluctant witnesses.
3 Iran Claims The US Is Engaging In Economic Terrorism Against Them
Iran says its facing "economic terrorism" at the hands of the United States with its "sadistic" sanctions.This, according to Kazem Gharib Abadi, an Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who made the comments in Vienna during an emergency meeting called by the US after Tehran breached the landmark 2015 nuclear deal this week. "The United States has imposed economic terrorism against some states, including through the imposition of sanctions and extraterritorial application of them," Gharib Abadi said."The sadistic tendency of the United States to use illegal, unilateral sanctions as an instrument to coerce sovereign states and private entities should come to an end," he said. Iran claims they will continue to breach the contract until the remaining parties in the deal, including the UK, France, and Germany, do more to mitigate the effect of the crippling US sanctions. Gharib Abadi said the current impasse was the result of Washington's "outlaw behavior."