Tornadoes strike Arkansas, Illinois; 4 dead, dozens injured
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas and collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.
At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.
Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28, five of them severely. The Belvidere Police Department said the collapse occurred as a heavy storm rolled through the area and that calls began coming from the theater at 7:48 p.m. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage.
The collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre during a heavy metal concert in the town located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.
Belvidere Fire Department Chief Shawn Schadle said 260 people were in the venue. He said first responders also rescued someone from an elevator and had to grapple with downed power lines outside the theater.
Belvidere Police Chief Shane Woody described the scene after the collapse as “chaos, absolute chaos.”
Gabrielle Lewellyn had just entered the theater when a portion of the ceiling collapsed.
“I was there within a minute before it came down,” she told WTVO-TV. “The winds, when I was walking up to the building, it went like from zero to a thousand within five seconds.”
Some people rushed to lift the collapsed portion of the ceiling and pull people out of the rubble, said Lewellyn, who wasn’t hurt.
“They dragged someone out from the rubble and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him) ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do.”
There were more confirmed twisters in Iowa and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Oklahoma, as the storm system threatened a broad swath of the country home to some 85 million people.
The destructive weather came as President Joe Biden toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.
The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighborhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.
In the evening, officials in Pulaski County announced a confirmed fatality in North Little Rock but did not immediately give details.
Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV in the afternoon that 21 people had checked in there with tornado-caused injuries, including five in critical condition.
Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who announced that he was requesting assistance from the National Guard, tweeted in the evening that property damage was extensive and “we are still responding.”
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the Arkansas National Guard to help local authorities respond to the damage throughout the state.
In Little Rock, resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to say a tornado was headed her way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it.
“It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared in the area.
At Clinton National Airport, passengers and workers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms.
“Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” Sanders, who declared a state of emergency, said on Twitter.
About 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw widespread tornado damage, Sanders confirmed.
St. Francis County Coroner Miles J. Kimble told the AP by phone Friday night that he was assisting the Cross County coroner in Wynne and that two people died there in the tornado.
The governor at a briefing with Little Rock officials Friday night said it was possible the number of deaths could rise.
City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP that the town Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris.
“I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”
The unrelenting tornadoes continued spawning and touching down in the area into the night.
The police department in Covington, Tennessee, said on Facebook that the west Tennessee city was impassable after power lines and trees fell on roads when the storm passed through Friday evening. Authorities in Tipton County, north of Memphis, said a tornado appeared to have touched down near the middle school in Covington and in other locations in the rural county.
Tipton County Sheriff Shannon Beasley said on Facebook that homes and structures were severely damaged.
Tornadoes moved through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage.
One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. Video from KCRG-TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills.
Nearly 90,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.
In neighboring Oklahoma, wind gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph) fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35.
In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria. More than 109,000 customers had lost power in the state as of Friday night.
More outages were reported in Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas.
Fire crews battled several blazes near El Dorado, Kansas, and some residents were asked to evacuate, including about 250 elementary school children who were relocated to a high school.
At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a traffic management program was put into effect that caused arriving planes to be delayed by nearly two hours on average, WFLD-TV reported.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.
Such “intense supercell thunderstorms ” are only expected to become more common, especially in Southern states, as temperatures rise around the world.
The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week.
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Associated Press writers Michael Tarm in Chicago, Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Harm Venhuizenin in Madison, Wisconsin, Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia, Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi, and Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Lance Reddick, ‘The Wire’ and ‘John Wick’ star, dies at 60
NEW YORK (AP) — Lance Reddick, a character actor who specialized in intense, icy and possibly sinister authority figures on TV and film, including “The Wire,” “Fringe” and the “John Wick” franchise, has died. He was 60.
Reddick died “suddenly” Friday morning, his publicist Mia Hansen said in a statement, attributing his death to natural causes. His death was first reported by celebrity website TMZ.com.
Tributes flashed across social media after news of the death, with filmmaker James Gunn calling Reddick “an incredibly nice guy, and an incredibly talented actor” in a tweet and Wendell Pierce, Reddick’s co-star on “The Wire” paying tribute on Twitter. “A man of great strength and grace,” he wrot e. “As talented a musician as he was an actor. The epitome of class.”
Reddick was often put in a suit or a crisp uniform during his career, playing tall taciturn and elegant men of distinction. He was best known for his role as straight-laced Lt. Cedric Daniels on the hit HBO series “The Wire,” where his character was agonizingly trapped in the messy politics of the Baltimore police department.
“I’m an artist at heart. I feel that I’m very good at what I do. When I went to drama school, I knew I was at least as talented as other students, but because I was a Black man and I wasn’t pretty, I knew I would have to work my butt off to be the best that I would be, and to be noticed,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2009.
Reddick also starred on the Fox series “Fringe” as a special agent Phillip Broyles, the smartly dressed Matthew Abaddon on “Lost” and played the multi-skilled Continental Hotel concierge Charon in the “John Wick” movies, including the fourth in the series that releases later this month.
He earned a SAG Award nomination in 2021 as part of the ensemble for Regina King’s film “One Night in Miami.” Reddick played recurring roles on “Intelligence” and “American Horror Story” and was on the show “Bosch” for its seven-year run.
His upcoming projects include 20th Century’s remake of “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Shirley,” Netflix’s biopic of former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. He was also slated to appear in the “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina,” as well as “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”
The Baltimore-born-and-raised Reddick was a Yale University drama school graduate who enjoyed some success after school by landing guest or recurring roles “CSI: Miami” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” He also appeared in several movies, including “I Dreamed of Africa,” “The Siege” and “Great Expectations.”
It was on season four of “Oz,” playing a doomed undercover officer sent to prison who becomes an addict, that Reddick had a career breakthrough.
“I was never interested in television. I always saw it as a means to an end. Like so many actors, I was only interested in doing theater and film. But ‘Oz’ changed television. It was the beginning of HBO’s reign on quality, edgy, artistic stuff. Stuff that harkens back to great cinema of the ’60s and ’70s,” he told The Associated Press in 2011.
“When the opportunity for ‘Oz’ came up, I jumped. And when I read the pilot for ‘The Wire,’ as a guy that never wanted to be on television, I realized I had to be on this show.”
Reddick attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music, where he studied classical composition, and he played piano. His first album, the jazzy “Contemplations and Remembrances,” came out in 2011.
Reddick had a recurring role as Jeffrey Tetazoo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on CBS’ “Intelligence.” On “American Horror Story: Coven,” Reddick portrayed Papa Legba, the go-between between humanity and the spirit world.
Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children, Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick.
Microsoft adds AI tools to office apps like Outlook, Word
NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft is infusing artificial intelligence tools into its suite of office software, including Word, Excel and Outlook emails.
The company said Thursday the new feature, named Copilot, is a processing engine that will allow users to do things like summarize long emails, draft stories in Word and animate slides in PowerPoint.
Microsoft 365 General Manager Colette Stallbaumer said the new features are currently only available for 20 enterprise customers. It will roll it out for more enterprise customers over the coming months.
Microsoft is marketing the feature as a tool that will allow workers to be more productive by freeing up time they usually spend in their inbox, or allowing them to more easily analyze trends in Excel.
The tech giant based in Redmond, Washington, will also add a chat function called Business Chat, which resembles the popular ChatGPT. It takes commands and carries out actions — like summarizing an email about a particular project to co-workers — using user data.
“Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
Mattel, Instacart and other companies have also been integrating generative AI tools like ChatGPT and the image generator Dall-E to come up with ideas for new toy cars and answer customers’ food questions.
Microsoft rival Google said this week it is integrating generative AI tools into its own Workspace applications, such as Google Docs, Gmail and Slides. Google says it will be rolling out the features to its “trusted testers on a rolling basis throughout the year.”
Microsoft’s announcement came two days after OpenAI, which powers the generative AI technology Microsoft is relying on, rolled out its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4.
Afghanistan: Taliban closes universities to women
The Taliban have announced the closure of universities to women in Afghanistan, according to a letter by the higher education minister.
The minister says the move is until further notice. It is expected to take effect immediately.
It further restricts women's access to formal education, as they were already excluded from most secondary schools.
One Kabul University student told the BBC she had been crying since she heard the news.
Three months ago thousands of girls and women sat university entrance exams across Afghanistan.
But sweeping restrictions were imposed on the subjects they could study, with veterinary science, engineering, economics and agriculture off limits and journalism severely restricted.
After the Taliban takeover last year, universities introduced gender segregated classrooms and entrances.
Female students could only be taught by women professors or old men.
Responding to the latest ban, a female university student told the BBC she thought the Taliban were scared of women and their power.
"They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future," she said.
"How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it."
Afghanistan's education sector was badly affected after the Taliban takeover and there has been an exodus of trained academics after the withdrawal of US-led forces last year.
Another woman spoke about "too many difficulties" just trying to continue her education after the Taliban takeover.
She told the BBC: "We fought with our brothers, with our fathers, with society and even with the government.
"We went through a hard situation just to be able to continue our education.
"At that time at least I was happy that I could graduate from university and achieve my dreams. But, now how can I convince myself?"
Afghanistan's economy has been largely dependent on foreign aid in recent decades, but aid agencies have partly - and in some cases fully - withdrawn support to the education sector after the Taliban refused to allow girls into secondary schools.
Many of the teaching staff who remain go unpaid for months.
The latest measures are likely to cause further concerns in the international community.
The US and other Western countries have made improvements to female education in Afghanistan a prior condition for the formal recognition of the Taliban government.
US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood condemned the Taliban's latest actions.
"The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans," he said.
"Especially the human rights and fundamental freedom of women and girls."
In November, the authorities banned women from parks in the capital Kabul, claiming Islamic laws were not being followed there.
- Source: BBC
TCI Youth Parliament Members Attend Caribbean Youth Parliament
Two members of TCI’s Youth Parliament are in Trinidad and Tobago for the 11th sitting of the Caribbean Youth Parliament from November 20th through 24th.
The 11th Commonwealth Youth Parliament will bring together 58 young people, aged 18 to 29 from 33 commonwealth jurisdictions. During the week long events, youth participants will act as elected representatives of a fictional jurisdiction and debate a mock parliamentary bill related to remote working and alternative working patterns.
Two of TCI’s Youth parliamentarians are in attendance, Shakiyah Lewis and Darron Hillare. Jr representing our Beautiful by nature islands. Hillaire spoke with RTC news about the event and the opportunity awarded to them.
The Commonwealth Youth Parliament is an annual event designed to introduce the young commonwealth citizens to the role and purpose of parliaments as democratic institutions and providers of good governance. It allows attendees to meet and network with other youth parliamentarians from across the region, empower them to shape their own jurisdictions and engage with local legislature.
The commonwealth youth parliament has been organized since 1997, however this is the first time since 2019 that the event is being held in person due to restrictions from the COVID 19 pandemic.
The Turks and Caicos youth parliament has been selected and their first sitting in the House of Assembly will be the first week of December.
Record Number of Tourism Employees Complete CHTAEF Training Program
415 hospitality and tourism employees across the TCI completed a 24 day intensive training programme with the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association Education Foundation.
The foundation in partnership with the Turks and Caicos Islands Hotel and Tourism Association conducted its largest “Caribbean Supercharged Service” training series in 36 years in the TCI. The five week programme provided both hands-on and service centered training for housekeepers, maintenance technicians, pool and beach specialists, groundsmen, front of house workers, Food and beverage servers, supermarket personnel and TCI’s border force.
The interactive sessions were delivered under a number of themes; including Heartfelt Guest Care, Happy Housekeepers, Realistic Leadership and 007 Secret Care Agents just to name a few.
RTC spoke with a participant of the program, Stevonya Higgs-Cox to find out how the training program was and why it is important for us to constantly train our hospitality staff.
The Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism association aims to assist all sectors of the hospitality and tourism industry to ensure an excellent standard of service is delivered to visitors and local alike.
Inter high school basketball season
The Inter high school basketball season is well underway.
On Friday we saw the Louise Garland Thomas High School take on British West Indies Collegiate with Louise Garland defeating BWIC 43 to 34.... It was quite an intense match up for the teams.
RTC spoke with coach for Louise Garland High to find out his views on the game and the fact that this is the youngest team in the league.
Games will continue this weekend in the Green Isle of North Caicos.
Turks and Caicos Youth Parliament
The Turks and Caicos Youth Parliament was established by the Local Commonwealth Parliamentary Association designed to award the youth a forum in which they can discuss issues they feel are important.
The objectives of the Youth Parliament is to:
- Provide the young people the opportunity to express their ideas and concerns with regard to governing the country
- To develop their interest in the parliamentary system
- To provide the government with a document expressing the views of the young people
- To develop confidence and encourage teamwork
This past weekend a two day training session was hosted by the TCI Youth Department to explain to the youth the Role of the Opposition, Bills, Standing Orders, the Role of the Speaker and more.
RTC spoke with Leader of of the Opposition Hon. Edwin Astwood to get his views on the importance of the TCI Youth Parliament.
Minister of Education, Hon. Rachel Taylor was also present at the training session and noted that we must prepare the youth from an early stage.
The Turks and Caicos Islands Youth Parliament is open to the ages of 18 to 30 years old. Some young people are not strangers to the platform having served in the parliament for years. Here's what some of the participants had to say:
The TCI Youth Parliament is set to have their first sitting in the House of Assembly the first week of December. There are 14 participants in this sitting.
Elon Musk says he will find a new leader for Twitter
Nov 16 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Wednesday he expected to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social media company, adding that he hoped to complete an organizational restructuring this week.
Musk made the remarks while testifying in a Delaware court to defend against claims that his $56 billion pay package at Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) was based on easy to achieve performance targets and was approved by a compliant board of directors.
Tesla investors have been increasingly concerned about the time that Musk is devoting to turning around Twitter.
Shares of Tesla fell 3% at midday.
"There's an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition to reorganize the company," Musk said in his testimony. "But then I expect to reduce my time at Twitter."
Musk also admitted that some Tesla engineers were assisting in evaluating Twitter's engineering teams, but he said it was on a "voluntary basis" and "after hours."
The billionaire' s first two weeks as Twitter's owner has been marked by rapid change and chaos. He quickly fired Twitter's previous chief executive and other senior leaders and then laid off half of Twitter's staff earlier this month.
Musk sent an email to Twitter employees early Wednesday, telling them they needed to decide by Thursday whether they wanted to stay on at the company to work "long hours at high intensity" or take a severance package of three months of pay.
Toyota revamps Prius in bid to give hybrids back their halo
TOKYO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) rolled out a 2-litre plug-in version of its Prius on Wednesday, in an attempt to reboot the 25-year-old hybrid that was once at the cutting edge of low-emissions technology and appeal more widely to cost-conscious drivers.
Toyota billed the new Prius, with its shark-like front and ability to operate as an electric-only vehicle for most daily driving, as a way bring hybrids to a wider audience. Battery-powered electric vehicles such as those made by Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) still remain too expensive for many consumers.
Launched in 1997, the petrol-electric Prius hybrid was a hit with eco-conscious drivers and even now it is among the most fuel-efficient mid-priced. Although worldwide sales have reached around 5 million cars, the Prius has in recent years been overshadowed by the likes of Tesla and other cars that don't use petrol.
"We need ecological solutions within the reach of the many," Simon Humphries, Toyota's design senior general manager, said at the launch. "The Prius is a car for the majority. It is a car to be driven by all people, not just a few."
Despite touting the accessibility, Toyota did not give details on the cost. The hybrid models will launch this winter and the plug-in hybrids will launch in the spring, it said.
The new Prius will be the first to feature Toyota's 2-litre plug-in hybrid system, which includes an EV driving range that is about 50% higher than that of the previous model, Toyota said.
In addition to Japan, it will be launched in North America, Europe and then other countries, Toyota said.
The retool also comes as Japan's largest automaker has come under increasing criticism for its reliance on hybrid technology, with ESG investors and environmental groups accusing of it being too slow to embrace battery electrics.
Reuters reported last month that the automaker is considering a reboot of its electric strategy to better compete in the booming market it was slow to enter.
Toyota has also pushed back against critics, saying hybrids make sense in markets where infrastructure isn't ready to support a faster move to battery vehicles.
Hybrids are often cheaper than EVs as they typically have smaller batteries and are not reliant on charging stations, important factors in markets where customers are price sensitive and charging infrastructure can be patchy.