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Several provisions in the Senate GOP’s version of President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ have run afoul of Senate rules and must be stripped if Republicans want to pass the package without the help of Democrats.

The bill is undergoing what’s called a ‘Byrd Bath,’ when the parliamentarian meticulously combs through each section of the mammoth bill to determine whether policies comport with the Senate’s Byrd Rule.

The point of the budget reconciliation process is to skirt the Senate filibuster and pass a massive, partisan legislative package. But if provisions are left in that fail the test, Senate Republicans will have to meet the typical 60-vote threshold. Provisions that don’t pass muster can still be appealed, however.

Senate Democrats vowed to use the Byrd Bath as a cudgel against the Senate GOP to inflict as much pain as possible and slow momentum as Republicans rush to put the colossal bill on Trump’s desk by July 4. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could also overrule the parliamentarian but has remained adamant he would not attempt such a move. 

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough scrutinized three chunks of the megabill from the Senate Banking, Environment and Public Works and Armed Services committees and found numerous policies that failed to meet the Byrd Rule’s requirements.

Among those was a provision that would have eliminated funding for a target of the GOP’s since its inception in 2008, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would have effectively eliminated the agency. Doing so also would have slashed $6.4 billion in spending.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in a statement he would ‘remain committed to cutting wasteful spending at the CFPB and will continue working with the Senate parliamentarian on the Committee’s provisions.’

Attempts to put guardrails on the $150 billion in Defense Department funding baked into the package also failed to pass muster. The language would have required that Pentagon officials outline how the money would be spent by a certain deadline or see the funding reduced.

Other provisions on the chopping block include language that cut $300 million from the Financial Research Fund and cut jobs and move the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board under the umbrella of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would have saved roughly $773 million.

An attempt to change the pay schedule for Federal Reserve employees was also nixed, which would have saved about $1.4 billion.

Environmental standards and regulations set by the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act were also determined to have run afoul of the Byrd Rule, including a repeal of tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles with a model year of 2027 and later. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Recent arrests of Chinese nationals at the University of Michigan have resurrected concerns about CCP-owned farmland and property in the United States, particularly in Michigan, and caused some to draw parallels with the current conflict between Iran and Israel. 

Earlier this month, two Chinese nationals were charged with allegedly smuggling a ‘dangerous biological pathogen’ into the U.S. to study at the University of Michigan in an incident that FBI Director Kash Patel described as a ‘sobering reminder that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate our institutions and target our food supply, an act that could cripple our economy and endanger American lives.’

Later, a third Chinese national with connections to the university was arrested, renewing questions about China’s efforts to infiltrate and influence various sectors in the United States, including buying up farmland, which has been a growing concern nationwide.

2023 report from the United States Department of Agriculture found that ‘foreign persons held an interest in nearly 45 million acres of U.S. agricultural land,’ which represents 3.5% of all privately held agricultural land and 2% of all land in the country.

While China is not at the top of the list of countries in that report, the arrests in Michigan have prompted calls from Congress to ensure that the CCP, viewed by many as the nation’s top geopolitical adversary, is not buying up farmland in the United States.

Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts exclusively told Fox News Digital this week that China has been aggressively buying American agriculture, ‘which is why we need to have a heightened sense of vigilance around protecting our homeland.’

Ricketts, along with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, introduced the bipartisan Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure (AFIDA) Improvements Act that seeks to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office in January 2024, which found the AFIDA was ill-equipped to combat foreign ownership of American agricultural land. 

‘China’s land purchases aren’t just about acreage—they’re about access,’ Michigan GOP Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the CCP, told Fox News Digital. 

‘Even small parcels near military bases or critical infrastructure pose serious national security risks. In my home state, we’ve seen concerning cases like Gotion’s site near Camp Grayling. We need full transparency into who’s buying land and where—because the Chinese Communist Party shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind shell companies to gain a foothold in our country.’

China’s encroachment into Michigan’s agriculture was enough of a concern for Republican state Rep. Gina Johnsen to introduce legislation earlier this year banning foreign adversaries from buying up farmland.

‘Our state’s agricultural industry is a pillar of our economy. My community is an agricultural community,’ Johnsen said. Our farms provide food security, jobs, and economic stability for countless residents. However, there is growing concern about losing our farmland to countries of concern.’ 

Additionally, Chinese farmland has become a topic of conversation in the wake of revelations that Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear capabilities was aided by years of covert planning, surveillance and infiltration by Israeli intelligence. 

Code-named ‘Am Kelavi’ (Rising Lion), the preemptive operation was the product of unprecedented coordination between the Israeli air force, the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Mossad and the country’s defense industries. For years, they worked ‘shoulder to shoulder’ to gather the intelligence files needed to eliminate Iran’s most sensitive military and nuclear assets.

As part of that operation, Israel was able to establish a drone base inside Iran, where Mossad operatives retrieved them from hiding spots to use against Iranian sites. 

Bryan Cunningham, president of Liberty Defense and former CIA intelligence officer, told Fox News Digital that the Israeli operation is a ‘wake-up call’ for the United States about what a foreign adversary like China could potentially carry out in the United States.

‘As an intelligence officer, part of me says, I wish that the sources and methods of building these drone factories inside the target countries hadn’t been revealed,’ Cunningham said. ‘But on the other hand, it does serve as a wake-up call, hopefully for our policymakers, and it also ties in, and if I were the administration, I would make this tie in immediately and loudly with the Trump administration’s border strategy.’

Cunningham continued, ‘Our borders are where you’re most likely to actually intercept these kinds of toxins, explosives, flares, 3D-printed weapons, ceramic weapons, whatever it is. So if it were me and I were the Secretary of Homeland Security, I would be tying this all together. You know, it is important to get people out of the country that have committed violent or other serious crimes in the country, but it’s also really important to prevent people like these guys from bringing in those kinds of materials.’

The FBI is increasing its surveillance of Iranian-backed operatives inside the United States as Trump weighs strikes, a senior law enforcement official told Fox News on Friday. 

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey, Lucas Tomlinson and Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

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Apple has plans to make a folding iPhone starting next year, reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said on Wednesday.

Kuo said Apple’s folding phone could have a display made by Samsung Display, which is planning to produce as many as eight million foldable panels for the device next year. However, other components haven’t been finalized, including the device’s hinge, Kuo wrote. He expects it to have “premium pricing.”

Kuo is an analyst for TF International Securities, and focuses on the Asian electronics supply chain and often discusses Apple products before they’re launched.

He wrote in a post on social media site X that Apple’s plans for the foldable iPhone aren’t locked in yet and are subject to change. Apple did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Apple’s iPhone makes up over half of Apple’s business and remains an incredibly profitable product, accounting for $201 billion in sales in the company’s fiscal 2024. But iPhone revenue peaked in 2022, and Apple is constantly looking for ways to attract new customers and convince its current customers to upgrade to more expensive devices.

Several of Apple’s rivals, including Huawei and Samsung, have been releasing folding smartphones since 2019.

The devices promise the screen size of a tablet in a format that can be stored in pants pockets. But folding phones still have hardware issues, including creases in the display where it is folded.

Folding phones also have yet to prove they drive significant demand after the novelty wears off.

Research firm TrendForce said last year that only 1.5% of all smartphones sold can fold. Counterpoint, another research firm tracking smartphone sales, said earlier this year that the folding market only grew about 3% in 2024 and is expected to shrink in 2025.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Crude oil futures rose more than 1% on Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel’s military to intensify attacks against Iran.

U.S. crude oil was last up $1.36, or 1.81%, to $76.50 per barrel by 9:38 a.m. ET, while global benchmark Brent added $1.10, or 1.43%, to $77.80 per barrel. Prices have gained more than 11% over the seven days since Israel began pounding Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.

Follow along for live coverage

Netanyahu ordered Israel’s military to intensify attacks on “strategic targets” in Iran and “government targets” in the country’s capital, Tehran, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a social media post. The goal of the strikes is to “undermine the ayatollah’s regime,” Katz said.

Israel’s decision to escalate its military operation against the Islamic Republic comes after an Iranian missile reportedly struck a major hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. Katz threatened Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the wake of the hospital strike.

Katz said Israel’s military “has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist,” referring to Khamenei.

President Donald Trump is still considering whether to order a U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear program. “I may do it, I may not do it, I mean nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

JPMorgan warned on Wednesday that regime change in a major oil producing country like Iran could have a profound impact on global oil prices. Iran is one of the top producers in OPEC.

“If history serves as a guide, further destabilization of Iran could lead to significantly higher oil prices sustained over extended periods,” Natasha Kaneva, head of global commodities research at JPMorgan, told clients in a note.

Supply losses in the wake of a regime change “are challenging to recover quickly, further supporting elevated prices,” Kaneva said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Tesla has inked its first deal to build a grid-scale battery power plant in China amid a strained trading relationship between Beijing and Washington.

The U.S. company posted on the Chinese social media service Weibo that the project would be the largest of its kind in China when completed.

Utility-scale battery energy storage systems help electricity grids keep supply and demand in balance. They are increasingly needed to bridge the supply-demand mismatch caused by intermittent energy sources such as solar and wind.

Chinese media outlet Yicai first reported that the deal, worth 4 billion yuan ($556 million), had been signed by Tesla, the local government of Shanghai and financing firm China Kangfu International Leasing, according to the Reuters news agency.

Tesla said its battery factory in Shanghai had produced more than 100 Megapacks — the battery designed for utility-scale deployment — in the first quarter of this year. One Megapack can provide up to 1 megawatt of power for four hours.

“The grid-side energy storage power station is a ‘smart regulator’ for urban electricity, which can flexibly adjust grid resources,” Tesla said on Weibo, according to a Google translation.

This would “effectively solve the pressure of urban power supply and ensure the safe, stable and efficient electricity demand of the city,” it added. “After completion, this project is expected to become the largest grid-side energy storage project in China.”

According to the company’s website, each Megapack retails for just under $1 million in the U.S. Pricing for China was unavailable.

The deal is significant for Tesla, as China’s CATL and carmaker BYD compete with similar products. The two Chinese companies have made significant inroads in battery development and manufacturing, with the former holding about 40% of the global market share.

CATL was also expected to supply battery cells and packs that are used in Tesla’s Megapacks, according to a Reuters news source.

Tesla’s deal with a Chinese local authority is also significant as it comes after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on imports from China, straining the geopolitical relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk was also a close ally of President Trump during the initial stages of the trade war, further complicating the business outlook for U.S. automakers in China.

The demand for grid-scale battery installation, however, is significant in China. In May last year, Beijing set a new target to add nearly 5 gigawatts of battery-powered electricity supply by the end of 2025, bringing the total capacity to 40 gigawatts.

Tesla has also been exporting its Megapacks to Europe and Asia from its Shanghai plant to meet global demand.

Capacity for global battery energy storage systems rose 42 gigawatts in 2023, nearly doubling the total increase in capacity observed in the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed reporting.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Hackers stole the equivalent of roughly $90 million from Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Wednesday, according to multiple independent crypto-tracking firms.

A skilled pro-Israel hacking group known as “Predatory Sparrow” took credit for the cyberattack, which appeared to be aimed at further weakening Iran amid Israeli’s military strikes on Tehran.

In a post in Farsi on X, the hackers said that they had hit Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, claiming that Iran used the exchange to skirt international sanctions. And in an extraordinary move, the hackers may have effectively thrown the stolen crypto away by transferring it to digital “wallets” that they don’t have control over, according to multiple cybersecurity experts.

Nobitex acknowledged the incident in a statement on its website on Wednesday, saying that access to the crypto exchange had been “suspended,” as a precaution, until further notice. Crypto-tracking firms Elliptic and TRM Labs confirmed the crypto was stolen and sent to “wallets” or crypto accounts, with an expletive that referenced Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In a separate hack on Tuesday, Predatory Sparrow said it had destroyed data at Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah, claiming IRGC members used the bank’s services as a justification for the action. Iran’s state-affiliated Fars news agency warned of potential disruptions to bank services at gas stations.

The pair of stunning cyberattacks mark an escalation in Israel and Iran’s years-long shadow war in cyberspace, where the arch-enemies — or their supporters — have conducted digital spying and data-destroying attacks for tactical advantage.

Predatory Sparrow has emerged in the last five years to claim spectacular cyberattacks that have previously disrupted an Iranian steel mill and payments at Iranian gas stations. The hackers cast themselves as anti-government Iranian hacktivists but are widely suspected among cybersecurity experts of having ties to Israel.

Much of the cyber activity in recent days, as Israel and Iran trade missile strikes, appears aimed at sowing panic in the two countries. Israelis, for example, have received mass text messages impersonating authorities that claim that bomb shelters aren’t safe.

The Iranian government, meanwhile, has warned citizens not to use the WhatsApp messaging service out of fear that Israel was collecting information from those chats. A spokesperson for Meta, which owns WhatsApp, has called those claims false and underscored that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The United States appears to be moving closer to joining Israel’s conflict with Iran with a possible strike on the country’s key nuclear facilities – including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, which is hidden deep inside a mountain.

Days into Israel’s attacks on Iran and its nuclear program, Israeli leaders are waiting to learn whether US President Donald Trump will help them finish the job.

“I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate. And I said, why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Iran experts warn that a US attack on Iran could draw it into a quagmire even more challenging than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – a drawn-out confrontation that could last the duration of Trump’s presidency and exact a heavy toll on American lives and resources at Israel’s behest.

Tehran may not be able to sustain a long fight with the US, but it won’t be an easy war for Washington either, he said.

“Iran is a very large country, which means there would be a very large number of targets the United States would have to hit to take out Iran’s ability to strike back,” Parsi said, noting that this would be happening when there isn’t widespread support for a war with Iran in Trump’s own camp.

“Once you open up this Pandora’s box, we have no idea where things go,” Geranmayeh said. “Trump has, in the past, stepped back from the brink of war with Iran, he has the ability to do so again.”

Iran is ‘not one to surrender’

The Islamic Republic already sees the US as complicit in Israel’s attacks on Iran, saying the Israelis are attacking it with American weapons; and some Iranian officials have said that Tehran has already prepared itself for a “full-blown, drawn-out war.”

On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not back down, a day after Trump called for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” in a social media post.

“Let the Americans know that the Iranian nation is not one to surrender, and any military intervention on their part will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage,” Khamenei said in a national address.

Direct US involvement in the conflict could see Iran activate what remains of its proxies across Iraq, Yemen and Syria, which have previously launched attacks on American assets in the region.

Knowing that it can’t outright win a conflict against Israel and the US, experts say Tehran could seek to engage in a war of attrition, where it tries to exhaust its adversary’s will or capacity to fight in a drawn-out and damaging conflict, as it did during the decade-long war it fought with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s.

“The Iranian strategy may end up being just to try to sustain themselves, strike back as much as they can, and hope that Trump eventually tries to cut the war short, as he did in Yemen,” Parsi said.

After months of strikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the US in May struck a ceasefire deal with the group, to Israel’s dismay.

“Here is how Tehran sees a chance of winning such a war of attrition,” Abdolrasool Divsallar, senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, wrote on X. “Benefiting in the long term from its offensive capabilities and exhausting US-Israel combined defense forces.”

“US entrance into this war is a bad and costly decision for everyone,” Divsallar added.

Not the end of the nuclear program

In a Persian language post directed at Trump on X, former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian, who now lives in New Jersey, called on the president to be a “president of peace,” warning that a strike on Fordow would be both fruitless – as Iran has probably moved some of the advanced centrifuges to other locations – and likely to push Iran to a seek a nuclear bomb.

“With one wrong decision, you may not only be responsible for Iran’s decision to build a nuclear bomb, but also lead the United States into a war whose consequences for the American people will be far more damaging than the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq,” Mousavian wrote.

Parsi said if Iran’s nuclear program is destroyed, it could just be a matter of time to build a bomb should the government choose to do so.

“The Iranians have the knowhow and capacity to rebuild everything,” Parsi said. “All it (an attack) does is that it sets it back while dramatically increasing Iran’s motivation to build a nuclear weapon.”

Fordow is seen as the most difficult and sought-after target for Israel in its desire to destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. But what exactly is inside the secretive facility is unclear, Parsi said.

“The main enrichment was taking place in Natanz (nuclear facility). Fordow was doing other things, more research,” he said, adding that it’s not entirely clear where Iran keeps its stockpile of enriched uranium.

Whether a US strike can successfully destroy the complex that is hidden deep in a mountain close to the holy city of Qom also remains unclear.

Fordow’s main halls are an estimated 80 to 90 meters (around 262 to 295 feet) underground – safe from any aerial bomb known to be possessed by Israel.

Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US, has said that only the US Air Force has the weapon that can destroy the site. But analysts caution that there’s no guarantee that even America’s “bunker buster” bomb – the GBU-57/B, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator – could do the job.

Potential radioactive fallout?

Israel’s relentless bombing of Iran and its nuclear facilities has raised regional concern about potential radioactive fallout, which could spread far beyond Iran’s borders should a nuclear plant be struck.

Iran has only one nuclear power plant, located in the southeastern city of Bushehr – and Israel has not targeted it.

Scott Roecker, the vice president for Nuclear Materials Security at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said there wouldn’t be a major radiation dispersal risk at Fordow “because that enriched uranium is fresh, as we call it in the industry.”

“It’s not been run through a reactor, and so you wouldn’t have radiation spread out over a large area, like you would, for example, if they would bomb Bushehr, the operational nuclear power plant, that would result in the dispersal of a lot of radiation.”

“It’d be localized around the site, and because it’s buried underground too, I don’t know you know how much of that would even be released,” Roecker added.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior director at the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based pro-Israel think tank, described the potential damage as being a chemical problem – a different kind of fallout than bombing a nuclear reactor.

There would be some concern, he said, but noted the risk is not as large as hitting a live reactor.

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Hurricane Erick powered up into a Category 3 major hurricane Wednesday evening as it bore down on the southern Mexico coast, threatening to unleash destructive winds, flash floods and a dangerous storm surge on the region in coming hours, forecasters said.

Swiftly strengthening from a Category 1 hurricane hours earlier, Erick had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (200 kph) by nightfall as it churned offshore about 55 miles (85 kilometers) southwest of Puerto Angel, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Erick was also about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Punta Maldonado and moving northwest at 9 mph (15 kph) toward an expected landfall sometime Thursday morning, according to the center’s latest advisory. A major hurricane is defined as Category 3 or higher and wind speeds of at least 111 mph (180 kph). Forecasters said further strengthening is expected and devastating wind damage is possible near where the eye crashes ashore.

Acapulco warily eyes the approaching hurricane

The projected path would take its center near the resort of Acapulco, which was devastated in October 2023 by Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 hurricane that rapidly intensified and caught many unprepared. At least 52 people died in Otis and 32 were missing, after the storm severely damaged almost all of the resort’s hotels.

In Acapulco on Wednesday, there was a strong presence of National Guard and police in the streets, but most visible were trucks from the national power company. Crews worked to clear drainage canals and brush.

Some beaches were already closed, but tourists continued to sunbathe on others hours earlier as the storm gained strength well offshore.

On a beach in Acapulco, a line of people waited for the help of a backhoe to pull their boats out of the water.

Adrián Acevedo Durantes, 52, hauls tourists around Acapulco’s picturesque coastline in boats. Two of his boats sank in Hurricane Otis and a third was badly damaged.

“We’re taking precautions because with Otis we never expected one of that magnitude to come and now with climate change the water is warmer and the hurricanes are more powerful,” Acevedo said.

This time the port administration ordered that no one ride out the storm aboard their boats. During Otis many lost their lives by staying on boats in the harbor, which had traditionally been how they ensured their safety during previous storms. He said knew some of those lost at sea.

He acknowledged that it was sunny and the water calm Wednesday afternoon, making it hard to imagine a major storm was on the way, but said “with Otis it was calm all day, sunny, then at midnight there were two hours of strong winds and we saw what had happened the next day.”

Some rush to finish storm preparations

Francisco Casarubio, a 46-year-old choreographer, carried a carton of eggs as he did some last-minute shopping ahead of the storm. He planned to pick up rice, beans and some canned food as well.

His home flooded and lost power in Otis and said he was taking Erick more seriously, but hadn’t had time to shop until Wednesday.

Forecasters said Erick was expected to lash Mexico’s Pacific coast with heavy rain, strong winds and a fierce storm surge. Rains of up to 16 inches (40 centimeters) could fall across the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, with lesser totals in Chiapas, Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco states, the center’s advisory said. The rainfall threatened flooding and mudslides, especially in areas with steep terrain.

A hurricane warning was in effect from Acapulco to Puerto Ángel. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected in the area, and preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion, according to the hurricane center advisory.

Down the coast in Puerto Escondido near the southern edge of Erick’s possible path, some fishermen began pulling their boats out of the water under a drizzling sky Wednesday.

Surfers ignore red flag warnings to ride the waves

Even though the wind had yet to pick up at the Zicatela beach, red flags were up to warn people to stay out of the water. But some surfers ignored them as they continued to ride waves.

Laura Velázquez, Mexico’s national civil defense coordinator, said Erick was forecast to bring “torrential” rains to Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico. The mountainous region along the coast is especially prone to mudslides with numerous rivers at risk of flooding.

Guerrero Gov. Evelyn Salgado said all schools were closed Wednesday and the state had alerted all of the fishing and tourism operators to make their boats storm-ready. Acapulco’s port closed Tuesday evening. Salgado said 582 shelters were set to receive people who might evacuate their homes.

President Claudia Sheinbaum warned in her daily briefing that those in the hurricane’s path should heed government instructions and wait out the storm in their homes or designated shelters.

Erick quickly doubled in strength

Having doubled in strength in less than a day, Erick was churning through an ideal environment for quick intensification. Last year, there were 34 incidents of rapid intensification — when a storm gains at least 35 mph in 24 hours — which is about twice as many as average and causes problems with forecasting, according to the hurricane center.

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Leaving hospital with wounds still fresh, the sole survivor of last week’s Air India plane crash solemnly carried the coffin of his brother, performing the last rites for a life lost in the deadly disaster.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, appeared overcome with grief as he led the funeral procession through the streets of the western Indian coastal town of Diu on Wednesday.

Ramesh, who was discharged from hospital a day prior, had bandages on his face from cuts and bruises sustained after flight AI171 traveling to London’s Gatwick Airport from the western city of Ahmedabad plunged to the ground seconds after takeoff last Thursday, killing 241 people on board.

How Ramesh escaped with a few wounds is being described as nothing short of a miracle.

“I don’t know how I survived,” he told Indian state broadcaster DD News while in the hospital, explaining how he unbuckled himself from his seat in 11A – an emergency exit seat – shortly after the crash and walked away from the scene.

“For some time, I thought I was going to die. But when I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,” he said.

He and his brother, who had been sitting a few rows away, had been returning to the UK after spending a few weeks visiting family in India.

Video of Ramesh stumbling from the crash has been viewed widely on news channels and across social media. Flames can be seen billowing behind him, with thick plumes of smoke rising high into the sky.

Authorities tasked with identifying the victims’ bodies have described just how difficult that process has been. High temperatures from the burning fuel left “no chance” to rescue passengers, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said, making bodies difficult to recognize.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was carrying 125,000 liters – enough to last a 10-hour flight from Ahmedabad to London – but it crashed less than a minute after takeoff, plunging into a hostel for medical students, killing several on the ground.

As of Thursday, more than 150 bodies have been handed over to loved ones, according to health officials, with funerals taking place in various cities across the country.

Investigators, meanwhile, are looking at the wreckage to determine what could have caused one of the worst air crashes India has seen in decades.

A mayday call from the cockpit was made to air traffic control shortly before the crash, Indian civil aviation authorities said.

Both black boxes, the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, are now being analyzed for valuable clues that could help determine the cause. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are leading the probe into the crash with assistance from the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as officials from Boeing.

The Indian government has also set up a separate high-level committee to examine what led to the crash. The committee is expected to file their preliminary findings within three months.

Air India – the country’s flagship carrier – said on Wednesday it is conducting safety inspections across all of its Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft fleet.

“Out of total 33 aircraft, inspections have now been completed on 26 and these have been cleared for service, while inspection of the remainder will be complete in the coming days,” it said in a statement on X.

Meanwhile, it has reduced international services on its widebody aircraft by 15% due to the ongoing inspections and the conflict in the Middle East, it added.

For days, families of victims have gathered near morgues awaiting to collect the bodies of their loved ones and searching for answers.

Grieving families

As Ramesh laid his brother to rest Wednesday, another family around 160 miles south in the city of Mumbai, performed burials for four members killed in the crash.

Imtiaz Ali Syed, 42, whose brother Javed, sister-in-law, nephew and niece were on board the Air India flight, said he received their bodies from authorities in Ahmedabad and brought them to the family’s hometown on Wednesday.

Syed’s sister, who also lives in the UK, took a direct flight from Mumbai to London, he said. But Javed and his family were on a different flight via Ahmedabad.

He described his disbelief when he learned that Javed was on the ill-fated Air India plane. “Someone woke me up and said a plane crashed in Ahmedabad and asked me to check what flight Javed was on,” Syed recalled.

Syed fondly described his brother as someone who was “always available” for their family.

“He looked after my grandmother’s medicines, he looked after my mother, he would take care of our sister,” he said, describing the unbearable pain of losing Javed.

“Within a week or fifteen days, or a month, maybe he will call,” Syed said. “Telling me he is somewhere.”

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Hungarian police said on Thursday in a statement that they were banning the Budapest Pride march of the LGBTQ+ community planned for June 28.

Hungary’s parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, citing the protection of children.

Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony tried to circumvent the law when he announced on Monday that since the Budapest Pride march will be a municipal event “no permits from authorities are needed”.

Budapest metropolitan police, however, said the law applied to the event organised by the mayor and banned it.

The police ban has “no relevance” as authorities were not officially notified of the plans for the event, Karacsony said on Facebook.

“The Metropolitan Municipality will host the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration on June 28, the day of Hungarian freedom, as a municipal event. Period,” the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest.

Orban faces a challenging election in 2026 where a new surging opposition party poses a threat to his rule.

His government has a Christian conservative agenda and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community has aimed to please Fidesz’s core voters, mostly in the countryside.

Orban said in February that organisers should not even bother organizing Pride in Budapest this year.

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