Powerful storm kills 2 people and leaves 1.1 million without power in eastern US

By Ashraf Khalil & Jeffrey Collins

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—At least two people died, thousands of US flights were canceled or delayed, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power Monday as severe storms, including hail and lightning, moved through the eastern US.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater D.C. area, lasting until 9 p.m. A special Weather Service statement warned, “There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.”

The storms’ spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said more than 29.5 million people were under a tornado watch Monday afternoon.

In Anderson, South Carolina, a 15-year-old boy who arrived at his grandparent’s house during the storm was struck and killed when a tree fell on him as he got out of a car, according to the Anderson County Office of the Coroner.

In Florence, Alabama, police said a 28-year-old man was struck by lightning and died, WAAY-TV reported.

By Monday night, more than 2,600 US flights had been canceled and nearly 7,900 delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Many cancellations were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which was digging out from disruptions caused by Sunday storms.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was rerouting planes around storms heading to the East Coast.

The White House pushed up by 90 minutes President Joe Biden’s departure on a four-day trip that’s taking him to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The White House also canceled a back-toschool cybersecurity event that was to feature first lady Jill Biden, who is a teacher, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and school administrators, educators and education technology providers from around the country.

The Office of Personnel Management announced Monday that all non-emergency employees would have to depart before 3 p.m., when all federal offices closed.

“This does look to be one of the most impactful severe weather events across the Mid-Atlantic that we have had in some time,” National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Strong said in a Facebook live briefing.

The storms were expected to strike major population areas in late afternoon and early evening, prompting federal workers to be sent home early so they wouldn’t be in their cars amid wind, hail and tornadoes.

Strong advised residents: “Have yourself in a strong shelter. Be at home or be at work.”

The storms postponed a Major League Baseball game between the Phillies and the Washington Nationals in Philadelphia, and in Maryland, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning into Tuesday after 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain fell in a short amount of time.

By early evening, more than 1.1 million customers were without power across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,

Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia—all states along the storm system’s path, according to poweroutage.us. The Knoxville Utilities Board tweeted that the damage across its service area in Tennessee was “widespread and extensive” and will likely take several days to repair.

Trees and power lines were toppled in multiple states, falling into roads and some homes, news outlets reported.

A row of utility poles was toppled in Westminster, Maryland, WJLA-TV reported.

In Hockessin, Delaware, at least one residence had the roof ripped off, 6ABC-TV reported.

“We saw the clouds coming and could hear a rumbling in the distance,” said Tom Tomovich, whose home was damaged. “We went into the house and we were on the first floor, and before we could blink an eye the winds just came right through the back of our house.”

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington and AP Airlines Writer David Koenig contributed to this report.

WHO issues global alert about tainted Indian-made cold medicine sold in Iraq

By Zachary R. Mider

THE World Health Organization issued a global alert about a cold medicine made in India and sold in Iraq that was contaminated with toxic chemicals.

A batch of Cold Out syrup made last year “is unsafe and its use, especially in children, may result in serious injury or death,” the WHO said Monday.

The contamination came to light when Bloomberg News purchased a sample of the syrup at a pharmacy in Baghdad in March and arranged a test by an inde - pendent Connecticut-based lab, Valisure LLC. Bloomberg reported the test results to the WHO as well as to Iraqi and Indian authorities last month.

It’s the sixth warning the WHO has issued in the past year regarding syrup medications tainted with poisonous industrial solvents, and the fifth tied to an Indian manufacturer. Iraqi officials have not reported any illnesses related to Cold Out. The Ministry of Health said last week that the medicine had failed separate tests conducted by Iraqi authorities and that products circulating in the market were being confiscated.

Outbreaks tied to tainted syrup in Indonesia, Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon have killed about 300 children in the past year.

The Cold Out product label identifies the manufacturer as Chennai-based Fourrts (India) Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. A Fourrts vice president, Bala Surendran, told Bloomberg last month that production of the medicine had been subcontracted to another company, Puducherry-based Sharun Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., and that Fourrts had found no contamination in a sample it had on hand. The WHO alert was issued after normal business

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscow’s previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied. He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced Monday it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

It claimed the woman “was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskyy’s visit.”

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskyy’s route, times and visits in the region. She was detained when she tried to pass

He has been one of Ukraine’s unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognizable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. He said Kherson had endured a “tough night” as the Russians “covered the central part of the city with fire.”

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

J im Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

S. Korea begins evacuating thousands of Scouts from its coast as storm nears

By Kim Tong-Hyung The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea—Buses began moving thousands of global Scouts from their campsite on South Korea’s coast to inland venues Tuesday ahead of a tropical storm that is forecast to bring intense rains and strong winds to the peninsula within days.

More than 1,000 vehicles are being used to move 37,000 Scouts—mostly teenagers—from the World Scout Jamboree that opened last week in Buan, a county on South Korea’s southwestern coast. Most will be accommodated in Seoul and the capital’s metropolitan area, where officials have secured university dormitories, government and corporate training centers, and hotels.

Tropical Storm Khanun has meandered around Japan’s southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power and damaging homes.

Early Tuesday morning, the storm was centered 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of Kagoshima, a city on the southwestern tip of Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu. Khanun had winds of 108 kph (67 mph) with gusts to 144 kph (89 mph) and was moving slowly north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

the campsite will not be used for any event after the Scouts leave.

More than 270 police cars and four helicopters were being deployed to escort the buses that began departing the site on 9 a.m., said Lee Sang-min, South Korea’s Minister of the Interior and Safety. The evacuation is expected to take six hours or more.

More than 13,500 scouts will be accommodated at 64 different venues in Gyeonggi province, South Korea’s largest province surrounding Seoul. About 3,100 scouts will stay in Seoul and another 3,200 will be sent to nearby Incheon. Nearly 9,000 scouts will be sent to 25 different venues in the North and South Chungcheong provinces in the country’s central region, Lee said.

“Local governments are checking the sanitation of the accommodation venues and restrooms and are preparing medical measures to ensure that the Scouts would be safe and comfortable after they arrive,” Lee said. “Police will patrol the accommodations while officials from the Korea Food and Drug Administration will carefully check the quality, quantity and safety of meals.” hours in India, and the companies couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The Cold Out sample was one of 33 Indian-made syrup bottles tested by Valisure as part of a Bloomberg investigation into the global trade in unsafe drugs. The medicines were purchased in pharmacies in six countries and tested for two toxic chemicals, ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol. The Cold Out sample was the only one Bloomberg collected that exceeded the limit of 0.1 percent for either chemical. It had 2.1 percent ethylene glycol and 0.25 percent diethylene glycol. Bloomberg News

South Korea’s weather agency, which measured the storm at typhoon strength of 126 kph (78 mph), expected it to gain strength slightly before making landfall Thursday morning. It’s expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains to South Korea from Wednesday to Friday.

South Korea’s safety ministry instructed local officials to prepare to shut down coastal areas, hiking trails, river parks, underpass tunnels and other places vulnerable to flooding.

The Jamboree attended by scouts from 158 countries started last Wednesday at the campsite on land reclaimed from the sea, and hundreds of participants already were treated for heat-related ailments during one of South Korea’s hottest summers in years. Concerns had been raised beforehand about having such large numbers of young people in a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat. Organizers said

The announcement about the evacuations came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it called on South Korea to quickly move the Scouts from the storm’s path and provide necessary resources for participants until they return to their home countries.

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site. The British scouts—about 4,500—were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts, numbering about 1,000, were moved to Camp Humphreys, a major US military base 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul.

“This is the first time in more than 100 years of World Scout Jamborees that we have had to face such compounded challenges,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, secretary general of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, who credited South Korea’s government of “mobilizing all available resources” into the relocation effort.

“It’s disappointing that these adverse weather conditions have forced us to shift our plans,” he said.