Six In The Morning Thursday 27 August 2020

Hurricane Laura causes flash flooding as it makes landfall in Louisiana

Hurricane Laura has made landfall in the US state of Louisiana, causing flash flooding and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power.

It is one of the strongest to ever hit the US Gulf Coast, striking at category four with winds up to 150mph (240km/h).

Laura's feared storm surge has so far reached 9ft (2.7m) in parts. It is still considered life-threatening and could spread 40 miles (65km) inland.

Half a million residents have been told to leave parts of Texas and Louisiana.

Hong Kong Free Press journalist denied visa amid fears for media freedom

Irish journalist Aaron McNicholas’s visa was rejected in what’s believed to the first such case at a local title

Helen Davidson

@heldavidson

Thu 27 Aug 2020 05.00 BST

After months of reassurance that Beijing’s national security law would not affect Hong Kong’s free press, the government has denied a visa to local media outlet, the Hong Kong Free Press.

The English-language outlet had sought to employ a new editor, Aaron Mc Nicholas, an Irish journalist already based in Hong Kong. However the immigration department rejected an application to transfer his work visa after an almost six-month wait, without giving an official reason.

It’s believed to be the first time Hong Kong immigration has rejected a journalist’s work visa for a local title, but comes amid widespread reports of delays with visa applications from foreign journalists. In 2018 the department prompted considerable outcry when it refused a visa renewal and then entry to the territory for the Financial Times’s Victor Mallett. The government declined to provide reasons at the time, but it was widely believed to be connected to Mallet chairing a talk by a Hong Kong independence activist at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club.

Alexei Navalny: Russia launches probe into ‘poisoning’ of Putin critic

Preliminary investigation underway a week after opposition leader fell ill, as supporters urge authorities to open criminal case

Harry Cockburn

The Russian government is launching a preliminary investigation into the hospitalisation of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an incident that his team and family say was a poisoning.

Mr Navalny was evacuated from a Siberian hospital to Berlin on Saturday and remains in a medically induced coma.

The German doctors treating him said their initial medical examination also pointed to poisoning, but the Russian doctors who saw Mr Navalny in a Siberian hospital have contradicted that diagnosis.

Lebanon at ‘risk of disappearing’, French minister says, pushing govt to adopt reforms

Lebanon is at "risk of disappearing", French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday, urging emergency reforms under a new government.

"The risk today is of Lebanon disappearing so these measures have to be taken," he told RTL radio ahead of President Emmanuel Macron's return visit to Beirut next week to push reform and reconstruction after the devastating port blast.

"They are caught up between themselves in a consensus of inactivity," Le Drian said. "That can't go on and we are saying that very clearly."

China fires 'aircraft-carrier killer' missile in warning to US

Ballistic missiles launched in response to US aerial activities in a 'no-fly zone' during a Chinese naval drill.

China has fired two missiles, including one dubbed an "aircraft-carrier killer", into the South China Sea, according to a news report, in a pointed warning to the United States as tensions in the disputed sea lane rise to new levels. 

The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that Beijing fired one intermediate-range ballistic missile, DF-26B, from Qinghai province and another medium-range ballistic missile, DF-21D, from Zhejiang province on Wednesday in response to US aerial activities in a "no-fly zone".

Kenosha shooting suspect is a former member of a youth police cadet program, Illinois police say

By Christina Maxouris and Paul Murphy, CNN

Updated 1300 GMT (2100 HKT) August 27, 2020

The suspect in the Kenosha, Wisconsin, fatal shooting is a former member of a youth police cadet program with an affinity for guns, according to police and online profiles.

Antioch, Illinois, police identified the suspect Wednesday as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.

In Grayslake, Illinois -- about 10 miles from Antioch and 30 miles from Kenosha -- police chief Phillip L. Perlini said the suspect in the shooting was a former Public Safety Cadet.