World

HAVANA — Havana resident Maykel was helping his friend fix an “almendron” — as the decades-old American cars that ply Cuba’s streets are known — when the lights suddenly cut out late Tuesday. He and his friend were among the 11 million Cubans plunged into darkness after powerful Hurricane Ian tore across the island’s west, damaging the electrical grid and causing a nationwide blackout.

“What are we going to do?” Maykel, 35, said dryly. “Survive”.

Lazaro Guerra, technical director of the state utility Union Electrica, said in televised remarks that there was no electric service “in any part of the country”.

The energy ministry noted it was dealing with “exceptional circumstances” and that power would be restored gradually.

Communist-ruled Cuba had already been dealing with electricity generation issues stemming from the obsolescence of its plants, breakdowns and maintenance, and heightened demand thanks to the summer heat.

Guerra said the latest problems were affecting the lines linking the country’s west, center and east, and that fluctuations in the charge and electrical frequency were causing instability.

“The western region has the additional complication of having a group of transmission lines that are out of service precisely because of the passing of Hurricane Ian,” he said.

The storm, which hit the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa and Havana, toppled trees into roadways and fuelled heavy ocean swells that inundated streets around the capital’s popular Malecon promenade.

State media reported that two people were killed on Tuesday in Pinar del Rio.

Completely in the dark

Harold Baez, a 27-year-old security guard for the half-century-old Coppelia ice cream parlour in the heart of Havana, said he was concerned about the situation but determined to carry on.

“A [nationwide] blackout like that always generates uncertainty, but that’s normal. You have to overcome everything,” he said as he headed for the cafeteria of the Habana Libre hotel which, like many accommodations aimed at international tourists, still enjoyed power thanks to generators.

In Cuba, few homes have gasoline-powered generators, though hospitals, offices and public institutions often do.

Some homes were lit up with candles or rechargeable lamps.

But without streetlights or even traffic signals to illuminate their neighbourhoods, many of those living in central Havana found themselves completely in the dark

“We came out because of the child... because he was going crazy” crying, said one woman who declined to be named as she soothed her baby by the light of her husband’s cell phone.

Restaurant worker Yoelmis Martinez, 36, sought to put an optimistic spin on the situation.

“It isn’t that [we want] it to turn out like this, but... the positive part is that at least we can save a fair bit during this blackout,” Martinez said as she returned home from a friend’s house where she rode out the storm.

LAUREL, United States — Bullseye: A NASA spaceship on Monday struck an asteroid 7 million miles away in order to deflect its orbit, succeeding in a historic test of humanity's ability to prevent a celestial object from devastating life on Earth.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor hit its target, the space rock Dimorphos, at 7:14 pm Eastern Time (23:14 GMT), 10 months after blasting off from California on its pioneering mission.

"We're embarking on a new era, an era in which we potentially have the capability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division.

Dimorphos, an asteroid roughly comparable in size to an Egyptian pyramid, orbits a half-mile long big brother called Didymos. Never seen before, the "moonlet" appeared as a speck of light around an hour before the collision.

Its egg-like shape and craggy, boulder-dotted surface finally came into clear view in the last few minutes, as DART raced towards it.

NASA scientists and engineers erupted in applause as the screen froze on a final image, indicating that signal had been lost and impact had taken place.

To be sure, the pair of asteroids pose no threat to our planet as they loop the Sun every two of our years.

But NASA has deemed the experiment important to carry out before an actual need is discovered.

By striking Dimorphos head on, NASA hopes to push it into a smaller orbit, shaving 10 minutes off the time it takes to encircle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes.

Ground telescopes, which can't see the asteroid system directly but can detect a shift in patterns of light coming from it, should provide a definitive orbital period in the coming days and weeks.

The proof-of-concept has made a reality of what has before only been attempted in science fiction, notably in films such as “Armageddon” and “Don’t Look Up”.

Astronomy community abuzz 

Minutes after impact, a toaster-sized satellite called LICIACube, which already separated from DART a few weeks ago, was expected to make a close pass of the site to capture images of the collision and the ejecta — the pulverised rock thrown off by the strike.

LICIACube’s pictures will be sent back in the next weeks and months.

Also watching the event: An array of telescopes, both on Earth and in space, including the recently operational James Webb, which might be able to see a brightening cloud of dust.

The mission has set the global astronomy community abuzz, with more than three dozen ground telescopes participating, including optical, radio and radar.

“There’s a lot of them, and it’s incredibly exciting to have lost count,” said DART mission planetary astronomer Christina Thomas.

Finally, a full picture of what the system looks like will be revealled when a European Space Agency mission four years down the line called Hera arrives to survey Dimorphos’ surface and measure its mass, which scientists can currently only guess at.

‘Earthlings can sleep better’ 

Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in our solar system are considered potentially hazardous to our planet, and none are expected in the next hundred years or so.

But wait long enough, and it will happen.

We know that from the geological record, for example, the six-mile wide Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, plunging the world into a long winter that led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs along with 75 per cent of all species.

An asteroid the size of Dimorphos, by contrast, would only cause a regional impact, such as devastating a city, albeit with greater force than any nuclear bomb in history.

How much momentum DART imparts on Dimorphos will depend on whether the asteroid is solid rock, or more like a “rubbish pile” of boulders bound by mutual gravity — a property that’s not yet known.

If it had missed, NASA would have another shot in two years’ time, with the spaceship containing just enough fuel for another pass.

But its success marks the first step towards a world capable of defending itself from a future existential threat.

“I think Earthlings can sleep better, definitely I will,” said DART mission systems engineer Elena Adams.

ROME — Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni said Monday she was ready to govern for "all Italians" after her eurosceptic populists swept to victory in general elections, putting her on course to guide Italy's most right-wing government since World War II.

According to projections around one in four voters in Sunday's election backed Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots.

But the party leads a coalition set to win a majority in parliament.

Her success represents a seismic change in Italy, a founding member of the European Union and the eurozone's third largest economy — and for the EU, just weeks after the far-right outperformed in elections in Sweden.

Meloni, who campaigned on a motto of "God, country and family", is expected to become Italy's first female prime minister, although the process of forming a new government could take weeks.

At a time of soaring inflation, a looming energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, the 45-year-old sought to reassure those worried about her lack of experience and radical past.

Meloni said voters had sent a "clear message" of support for her party to lead their right-wing coalition to power.

"If we are called to govern this nation we will do it for all Italians. We will do it with the aim of uniting people, of enhancing what unites them rather than what divides them," she told reporters.

Her coalition allies, Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, lagged behind her in the polls.

But together they were forecast to win around 43 per cent, enough to secure a majority in both houses of parliament.

Full results are not due until later Monday but the centre-left Democratic Party, the coalition’s main rivals, conceded, saying it was a “sad” day.

Turnout fell to a historic low of around 64 per cent, about nine points lower than the last elections in 2018.

Meloni no longer wants Italy to leave the eurozone but says Rome must assert its interests more, and has policies that look set to challenge Brussels on everything from public spending rules to mass migration.

Congratulations came in quickly from her nationalist allies across the continent, from Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to Spain’s far-right party Vox.

“Meloni has shown the way for a proud, free Europe of sovereign nations,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal tweeted.

Meloni had been leading opinion polls since Prime Minister Mario Draghi called snap elections in July following the collapse of his national unity government.

Hers was the only party not to join Draghi’s coalition when, in February 2021, the former European Central Bank chief was parachuted in to lead a country still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

From a “very aggressive” opposition strategy under Draghi, Meloni then chose a “very cautious, very reassuring campaign”, Lorenzo De Sio, head of Italian electoral studies centre CISE, told AFP.

“Her challenge will be to turn this electoral success into a governing leadership... that can last,” he said.

Italian politics is notoriously unstable, with nearly 70 governments since 1946, and Meloni, Salvini and Berlusconi do not always agree.

Meloni’s “dissatisfied and essentially defeated allies” would likely be a “problem”, the Corriere della Sera newspaper said.

The League and Forza Italia looked to have performed poorly, taking eight percent each, down from 17 and 14 per cent respectively in 2018.

As provisional results emerged, Salvini hailed the coalition’s victory, tweeting “Grazie! [Thanks!]” while Berlusconi called Meloni to congratulate her.

Brothers of Italy has roots in the post-fascist movement founded by supporters of Benito Mussolini and Meloni herself praised the dictator when she was young.

She has sought to distance herself from the past as she built up her party into a political force, going from just 4 per cent of the vote in 2018 to Sunday’s projected triumph.

Her coalition campaigned on a platform of low taxes, an end to mass immigration and Catholic family values, which critics fear will see a reversal in hard-won rights such as abortion.

A straight-speaking Roman raised by a single mother, Meloni rails against what she calls “LGBT lobbies”, “woke ideology” and “the violence of Islam”.

The coalition also wants to renegotiate the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, arguing that the almost 200 billion euros ($193 billion) Italy is set to receive should take into account the energy crisis.

But the funds are tied to a series of reforms only just begun by Draghi, and analysts say she has limited room for manouevre.

Despite her euroscepticism, Meloni strongly supports the EU’s sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

NEW YORK — The United States has warned Russia privately of "catastrophic" consequences if it uses nuclear weapons as part of the Ukraine invasion, top US officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a thinly veiled threat to use nuclear arms in a speech on Wednesday in which he announced the mobilisation of reservists following Ukrainian gains on the ground.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, confirmed reports that the United States has sent private warnings to Russia to steer clear of nuclear war.

"We have been very clear with the Russians publicly, and, as well as privately, to stop the loose talk about nuclear weapons," Blinken told the CBS News programme "60 Minutes" in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"It's very important that Moscow hear from us and know from us that the consequences would be horrific. And we've made that very clear," Blinken said.

"Any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic effects for, of course, the country using them, but for many others as well."

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, said in a separate interview Sunday that the United States has warned Russia at "very high levels" of "catastrophic consequences" for using nuclear arms.

'Scare the whole world' 

The United States and its allies would "respond decisively," Sullivan said on CBS's "Face the Nation".

"We have been clear and specific about what that will entail."

Russia and the United States are the world's largest nuclear weapons powers, but separate from the threats of planetary destruction, Russian military doctrine permits the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to force an enemy to retreat.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, asked during a news conference Saturday at the United Nations about Putin's comments, said only that Moscow's doctrine "is an open document".

President Volodymyr Zelensky told “Face the Nation” that Putin’s veiled nuclear threat “could be a reality”, saying Russian military activity at nuclear power plants in Ukraine are “the first steps of his nuclear blackmail”.

“He wants to scare the whole world,” the Ukrainian leader said of Putin.

“I don’t think he’s bluffing. I think the world is deterring it and containing this threat. We need to keep putting pressure on him and not allow him to continue,” Zelensky added.

No country has used nuclear weapons on the battlefield except the United States in 1945, when it destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 people. Imperial Japan surrendered days later, ending World War II.

SAN ILDEFONSO, Philippines — The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year left at least six people dead, authorities said Monday, after heavy rain and fierce winds battered the country's most populous island.

Typhoon Noru toppled trees, knocked out power and flooded low-lying communities as it swept across Luzon on Sunday and Monday.

There have so far been no reports of widespread severe damage to buildings from the storm, which hit the country as a super typhoon.

Five people suffered minor injuries and several others are missing, disaster officials said.

"I think that we may have gotten lucky at least this time, a little bit," President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a briefing with disaster agencies.

Five rescuers were killed after they were sent to help flooded residents in San Miguel municipality in Bulacan province, near the capital Manila.

Lt. Col. Romualdo Andres, chief of police in San Miguel, said the rescuers were wading through floodwaters when a wall collapsed, sending them into the fast current.

"Our house was swept away by the flood, it's gone," said Willie Ortega, 59, in San Miguel. "We weren't able to save anything, even the rice to eat, none."

An elderly man died after he was hit by a landslide in Burdeos municipality on the Polillo Islands, part of Quezon province, where the storm made landfall, said Garner Jimenez from the local civil defence office.

The Philippines is regularly ravaged by storms, with scientists warning they are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.

Noru smashed into the archipelago nation on Sunday after an unprecedented "explosive intensification" in wind speeds, the state weather forecaster said earlier.

It made landfall about 100 kilometres northeast of Manila, before weakening to a typhoon as it crossed a mountain range, coconut plantations and rice fields.

More than 74,000 people were evacuated from their homes before the storm hit, as the meteorology agency warned heavy rain could cause "serious flooding" in vulnerable areas and trigger landslides.

But on Monday, there was no sign of the widespread devastation many had feared, as the storm moved over the South China Sea towards Vietnam.

State weather forecaster Ana Laurel said Noru brought less rain and moved faster compared to other destructive typhoons that have hit the Philippines.

"It all depends on the interplay of the weather systems. Each typhoon has its own characteristics," Laurel explained.

Aerial footage taken during Marcos's inspection flight over central Luzon showed rivers that were swollen or had burst their banks, and patches of farmland under water.

Officials estimate about 141 million pesos ($2.4 million) worth of crops were damaged.

National disaster agency spokesperson Rafaelito Alejandro described the storm's impact as "very minimal".

Marcos said preparations for the storm helped.

"You might think that we overdid it. There is no such thing as overkill when it comes to disasters," he said.

'The wind was whistling'

The Polillo Islands bore the brunt of Noru with storm surges blamed for flooding coastal communities.

"The wind was whistling and it had heavy rains," said Ervin Calleja, a 49-year-old teacher in Burdeos municipality.

Ferocious winds ripped off roofs and brought down large trees. Some crops were wiped out.

"Here at the town centre all banana trees were flattened, 100 per cent," said Liezel Calusin, a member of the civil defence team in Polillo municipality.

"We still have no electricity, but the phones are working."

In Banaba village near Manila, Terrence Reyes fled his riverside home with his family and neighbours as floodwaters rose during the storm.

They returned home Monday to find their belongings sodden and caked in mud.

"We just have to throw them away and start over again," Reyes, 25, said.

The Philippines — ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change — is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.

ROME — Italians voted Sunday on whether to usher in the country's first government led by the far right since World War II, bringing eurosceptic populists to the heart of Europe.

The Brothers of Italy party, headed by one-time Mussolini supporter Giorgia Meloni, has led opinion polls and looks set to take office in a coalition with the far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia parties.

Meloni, 45, who has campaigned on a motto of "God, country and family", hopes to become Italy's first female prime minister.

Even before they had opened at 05:00 GMT, voters began queueing at polling stations, AFP correspondents saw.

"I'm playing to win, not just to take part," Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, told reporters as he went to cast his ballot.

"I can't wait to come back from tomorrow as part of the government of this extraordinary country," he added.

President Sergio Mattarella and Enrico Letta, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, also voted early Sunday. Polls close at 21:00 GMT.

Many voters are expected to pick Meloni, "the novelty, the only leader the Italians have not yet tried", Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy told AFP.

Brussels and the markets are watching closely, amid concern that Italy — a founding member of the European Union — may be the latest to veer hard right, less than two weeks after the far-right outperformed in elections in Sweden.

If she wins, Meloni will face challenges from rampant inflation to an energy crisis as winter approaches, linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

The Italian economy, the third largest in the eurozone, rebounded after the pandemic but is saddled with a debt worth 150 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

'Limited room for manoeuvre' 

Meloni has dedicated her campaign to trying to prove she is ready despite her party never before being in power.

Brothers of Italy, which has roots in the post-fascist movement founded by supporters of dictator Benito Mussolini, pocketed just four percent of the vote during the last elections in 2018.

Meloni has moderated her views over the years, notably abandoning her calls for Italy to leave the EU’s single currency.

However, she insists her country must stand up for its national interests, backing Hungary in its rule of law battles with Brussels.

Her coalition wants to renegotiate the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, arguing that the almost 200 billion euros Italy is set to receive should take into account the energy crisis aggravated by the Ukraine war.

But “Italy cannot afford to be deprived of these sums,” political sociologist Marc Lazar told AFP, which means Meloni actually has “very limited room for manoeuvre”.

The funds are tied to a series of reforms only just begun by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who called snap elections in July after his national unity coalition collapsed.

Despite her euroscepticism, Meloni strongly supports the EU’s sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, although her allies are another matter.

Berlusconi, the billionaire former premier who has long been friends with Vladimir Putin, faced an outcry this week after suggesting the Russian president was “pushed” into war by his entourage.

‘Woke ideologies’ 

A straight-speaking Roman raised by a single mother in a working-class neighbourhood, Meloni rails against what she calls “LGBT lobbies”, “woke ideology” and “the violence of Islam”.

She has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who arrive on Italy’s shores each year, a position she shares with Salvini, who is currently on trial for blocking charity rescue ships when he was interior minister in 2019.

The centre-left Democratic Party says Meloni is a danger to democracy.

It also claims her government would pose a serious risk to hard-won rights such as abortion and will ignore global warming, despite Italy being on the front line of the climate emergency.

On the economy, Meloni’s coalition pledges to cut taxes while increasing social spending, regardless of the cost, and they want the EU’s rules on public spending amended.

The last opinion polls two weeks before election day suggested one in four voters backed Meloni.

However, around 20 per cent of voters remain undecided, and there are signs she may end up with a smaller majority in parliament than expected.

In particular, support appears to be growing for the populist Five Star Movement in the poor south.

The next government is unlikely to take office before the second half of October, and despite pledges from Meloni and Salvini to serve five years, history suggests they may struggle.

Italian politics are notoriously unstable. The country has had 67 governments since 1946.