Hurricane Sam "has peaked in intensity," no landfall expected
CBSN
Miami — Hurricane Sam was a powerful Category 4 storm in the Atlantic Ocean, but forecasters said late Sunday that it had "peaked in intensity." Sam was centered well offshore from land, located about 850 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. It was traveling northwest at 7 mph. Sam had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, making it a Category 4 hurricane. Forecasters said there would be some fluctuations in its strength over the next day or so, followed by a slow weakening.
The Miami-based hurricane center said Sam was a small tropical cyclone, with hurricane-force winds extending outward just 30 miles from its center. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect, however swells from Hurricane Sam could cause dangerous rip current conditions off the coast of the Lesser Antilles early this week, officials said.
Zhytomyr, Ukraine — Exactly 1,000 days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry accused Ukrainian forces on Tuesday of firing six U.S.-made and -supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian region of Bryansk. If confirmed, it could be the first time Ukrainian troops had taken advantage of President Biden easing restrictions over the weekend on Ukraine's use of the U.S.-made missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russian territory.
President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-made and supplied missiles deeper into Russia — a major policy shift announced over the weekend after months of intense lobbying by Kyiv — has drawn a furious response from Moscow. While there was no immediate reaction directly from the man who launched the nearly three-year war on his neighboring nation, lawmakers aligned with President Vladimir Putin in Russia said Monday that the move was unacceptable and warned it could lead to a third world war.
Tel Aviv — After more than a year of bombing and homelessness, Gazans are looking to a new administration in Washington for help. President-elect Donald Trump's election victory has raised hopes and fears among the five million residents of the Palestinian territories — the warn-torn Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Johannesburg — It's often called the forgotten conflict, but the civil war that has torn Sudan apart for 19 months is fueling the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. In just over a year and a half, 13 million people have been displaced from their homes. At least one overcrowded camp for displaced civilians is already dealing with famine, while other parts of the country are suffering though famine-like conditions.