Hurricane Erick slams Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a powerful Cat 3 storm
ABC News
(OAXACA, Mexico) — Hurricane Erick, which rapidly intensified overnight, made landfall Thursday morning on Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Erick came ashore in Mexico’s western state of Oaxaca packing sustained winds of 125 mph and heavy rain, accordin to the NHC.
The hurricane was located on Thursday morning about 20 miles east of Punta Maldonado and was moving northwest at about 9 mph, according to the NHC.
Before making landfall, the Erick had spooled up to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, but was downgraded to a Cat 3 before making landfall, the NHC center reported.
Erick is the first Pacific Category 3 hurricane on record to make landfall over Mexico in June.
A hurricane warning remained in effect Thursday from Acapulco to Puerto Angel.
It remained unclear if villages along Mexico’s populated Pacific Coast had sustained damaged. There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
The major hurricane appeared to hit he coastline between the resort towns of Acapulco and Puerto Escondido in an area near the border of Oaxaca and Guerrero states, according to the NHC.
As it sweeps across the state of Oaxaca, Erick is expected to slam parts of the region with strong winds and heavy rain for most of Thursday before weakening over land by Friday.
Erick will produce heavy rainfall up to 6 to 8 inches across southeastern Guerrero and west-coastal Oaxaca through Friday and likely trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides — especially in areas of steep terrain.
Erick formed as a tropical storm early Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean near southern Mexico and rapidly intensified, reaching hurricane strength by Wednesday, according to the NHC.
(LONDON) — Reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian is expected on Tuesday to take the stand in a Paris courtroom, where a trial is underway for 10 people accused in connection with the violent robbery of millions of dollars’ worth of her jewelry.
Kardashian is expected to testify midafternoon to give her version of the events, which allegedly saw her tied up and held at gunpoint in a luxury hotel suite during Paris fashion week in 2016.
Nine men and one woman are accused in connection with the robbery, during which five masked men posing as police officers allegedly stormed into Kardashian’s hotel suite.
The suspects allegedly made off with valuables worth at least $6 million, including a diamond engagement ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband Kanye West. That ring alone was said to be worth about $4 million.
The trial, which began last month, has been a spectacle in the French media, where the defendants are collectively referred to as the “grandpa robbers” — or “papys braqueurs” — because many of them are over 60.
The defendants are charged with several counts, the main one for most of them being armed robbery in an organized gang. Some are also charged with kidnapping.
There were initially 12 defendants in this case, one of whom has since died. Another person cannot be tried due to their medical condition, according to French authorities.
Kardashian “has tremendous appreciation and admiration for the French judicial system and has been treated with great respect by the French authorities,” Michael Rhodes, an American lawyer representing the influencer, said in a statement prior to the trial.
Rhodes added, “She wishes for the trial to proceed in an orderly fashion in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Will Gretsky, Hugo Leenhardt and Aicha El-Hammar Castano contributed to this report.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — This week marked a possible pivot by President Donald Trump regarding Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with his Monday announcement of a “really big” deal to provide Kyiv with new weapons and threats to impose further sanctions on Russia if it fails to agree a ceasefire within 50 days.
Though Trump’s decision was welcomed by leaders in Kyiv, Ukrainians and their supporters abroad also raised concerns that the 50-day window may offer Russian President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to intensify his long-range strikes against Ukrainian cities and ongoing summer frontline offensive.
Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing Zelenskyy’s party and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News he was “cautiously optimistic,” hoping Trump’s announcement may signal a new “maximum pressure” campaign on Putin.
“However, the 50-day deadline is of some concern, because Putin might take it as a green light to intensify offensive operations,” he said.
The Russian attacks over the two nights since Trump’s announcement suggest Moscow remains unmoved.
Monday night and Tuesday night saw a cumulative 667 attack and decoy drones of various types, plus one missile, launched into Ukraine by Russia, according to figures published by the Ukrainian air force and analyzed by ABC News.
The previous 50 days before Trump’s announcement saw a total of 9,618 drones and 349 missiles launched into Ukraine — an average of around 192 drones and seven missiles each day.
The pattern of Russian long-range strikes suggest the next 50 days might be even more difficult for Ukrainians. Since May, the scale of Russian attacks has been steadily increasing despite Trump’s efforts to force a ceasefire and eventual peace deal.
In May, Russia launched a total of 3,835 drones and 117 missiles, for an average of around 124 drones and nearly four missiles each day.
June saw 5,438 drones and 239 missiles fired into Ukraine, with a daily average of 181 drones and nearly eight missiles.
Already in the first half of July, Ukraine has reported facing 4,003 drones and 89 missiles, for a daily average of 250 drones and more than five missiles.
“Russia is not changing its strategy,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after Tuesday night’s attacks, in which the president said at least 16 people were injured.
“To effectively counter this terror, we need a systematic strengthening of defense: more air defense, more interceptors, more determination so that Russia feels our response,” he added.
Ukraine says many of those Russian drones have been aimed at non-military targets, including residential areas and city centers across Ukraine. Russia has maintained that it targets military and infrastructure sites.
Trump defended his decision to give Moscow 50 days to act, telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday, “I don’t think it’s a long time. I think really the question should be asked, why did [former President Joe] Biden get us into that ridiculous war? Why did Biden bring us there?”
Asked why he believes Putin’s opinion will change in 50 days, Trump said, “a lot of opinions change very rapidly.” He added, “It might not be 50 days, he might be much sooner than 50 days.”
But Russian officials gave a cold response to Trump’s announcement on Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s “statements are very serious,” telling reporters at a daily briefing, “Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin. We definitely need time to analyze what was said in Washington.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, meanwhile, told the state-run Tass news agency that making any demands of Russia is “unacceptable,” and that the Kremlin’s position is “unshakable.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Trump is “under enormous, frankly indecent pressure from the EU and NATO’s current leadership.”
Responding directly to Trump’s timeline, Lavrov said Moscow wants “to understand what this 50-day reference means. There were earlier mentions of 24 hours, then 100 days. We’ve seen this pattern before and genuinely want to comprehend the U.S. president’s reasoning.”
As to the threat of new tariffs or sanctions, the foreign minister said, “We’re already dealing with an unprecedented number of sanctions and managing well. I have no doubt we’ll handle these new measures too.”
Perhaps most forthright was Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — who wrote on social media that the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum.”
“The world shuddered, expecting the consequences,” wrote Medvedev, who, during Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine, has become known as a particularly hawkish voice within Putin’s security establishment. “Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(SEOUL and LONDON) — North Korea launched “more than a dozen” rockets on Thursday morning, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said.
The rockets were launched at about 10 a.m. local time from the Sun’an area of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, the ministry said, adding that “the details are being analyzed by the Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.”
“Our military maintains the ability and posture to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation while paying attention to various trends in North Korea under a strong joint defense posture between Korea and the United States so that North Korea does not misjudge in the current security situation,” the ministry said in a statement.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the rockets were fired into the Yellow Sea, which is known in the south as the West Sea.
