Severe weather kills 3 in Oklahoma as storms move east
(NYT) — Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, died after severe weather struck Oklahoma on Saturday as part of a sprawling storm system that was bringing damaging winds and the threat of tornadoes to the South and Midwest on Sunday.
Wind gusts of up to 70 mph and pea-size hail swept through parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma on Sunday, and thunderstorms were expected across south-central Texas, posing a risk for travelers on the Easter holiday weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
On Saturday night, one person was killed and another was injured after a tornado touched down in Spaulding, Oklahoma, according to Hughes County Emergency Management. Two homes were destroyed, county officials said.
In Moore, Oklahoma, which is about 11 miles south of Oklahoma City, a woman and a 12-year-old boy were found dead after a vehicle they were in became stranded in floodwaters. The vehicle was swept under a bridge, the Moore Police Department said.
Republican senator calls Abrego Garcia case a ‘screw up’
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Republican U.S. senator John Kennedy criticized President Donald Trump and his administration on Sunday for their handling of the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran man wrongly deported by Washington, and for the Republican president’s comment that he wanted to deport some violent criminals who are U.S. citizens.
It is not very common for Republican lawmakers to criticize Trump, who took office on January 20 and whose administration’s deportation drive is condemned by rights groups as an assault on due process rights. The Supreme Court has directed the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return after Washington acknowledged he was deported because of an administrative error.
Senator Kennedy of Louisiana was asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program if he thought the law allowed Trump to send U.S. citizens who were criminals to foreign prisons.
“No, ma’am. Nor does it, nor should it, nor should it be considered appropriate or moral. We have our own laws,” he said. “We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.”
6 killed as giant waves batter the Australian coast
(NYT) — At least six people died in Australia as towering waves battered Sydney and other places along the country’s east coast over the Easter holiday weekend, police said.
A low pressure system brought powerful surf starting Friday, and waves taller than 24 feet were recorded off the coast of Brisbane in the state of Queensland on Friday, according to government data.
Australia’s meteorological agency had issued a warning for hazardous surf for a long stretch of coast from Queensland to New South Wales that includes Sydney, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, and cautioned that conditions could be dangerous for rock fishing, boating and swimming.
By the time the hazardous surf warning was lifted Sunday, five people had died in New South Wales, including in Sydney, and another in the state of Victoria, officials said. Another two people were missing.
