FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — It's been a wild week of weather in many parts of the United States, from heat waves to snowstorms to flash floods.
Here's a look at some of the weather events:
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FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — It's been a wild week of weather in many parts of the United States, from heat waves to snowstorms to flash floods.
This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Hone as it continues to track to the west toward the Hawaiian Islands, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
A worker is diffused by heat vapors while marking pavement on a street construction project as temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
A coat of snow covers ski lifts on Mount Bachelor Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Bend, Ore. (Garrett Lockrem/Mount Bachelor Ski Resort via AP)
The aftermath of a deadly landslide is seen in Ketchikan, Alaska, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (Anna Laffrey/Ketchikan Daily News via AP)
U.S. Army soldiers of the Arizona National Guard guide tourists trapped by flash flooding into a UH-60 Blackhawk, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, on the Havasupai Reservation in Supai, Ariz. (Maj. Erin Hannigan/U.S. Army via AP)
Judah Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splashes water as he runs on the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Millions of people in the Midwest have been enduring dangerous heat and humidity.
An emergency medicine physician treating Minnesota State Fair-goers for heat illnesses saw firefighters cut rings off two people's swollen fingers Monday in hot weather that combined with humidity made it feel well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius).
Soaring late summer temperatures also prompted some Midwestern schools to let out early or cancel sports practices. The National Weather Service issued heat warnings or advisories across Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Several cities including Chicago opened cooling centers.
Forecasters said Tuesday also will be scorching hot for areas of the Midwest before the heat wave shifts to the south and east.
An unusually cold storm on the mountain peaks along the West Coast late last week brought a hint of winter in August. The system dropped out of the Gulf of Alaska, down through the Pacific Northwest and into California. Mount Rainier, southeast of Seattle, got a high-elevation dusting, as did central Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor resort.
Mount Shasta, the Cascade Range volcano that rises to 14,163 feet (4,317 meters) above far northern California, wore a white blanket after the storm clouds passed. The mountain’s Helen Lake, which sits at 10,400 feet (3,170 meters) received about half a foot of snow (15 centimeters), and there were greater amounts at higher elevations, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Shasta Ranger Station.
Three tropical cyclones swirled over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, including Tropical Storm Hone, which brought heavy rain to Hawaii; Hurricane Gilma, which weakened to a tropical storm on Tuesday; and Tropical Storm Hector, which was churning westward, far off the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.
The biggest impacts from Tropical Storm Hone (pronounced hoe-NEH) were rainfall and flash floods that resulted in road closures, downed power lines and damaged trees in some areas of the Big Island, said William Ahue, a forecaster at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. No injuries or major damage had been reported, authorities said.
A landslide that cut a path down a steep, thickly forested hillside crashed into several homes in Ketchikan, Alaska, in the latest such disaster to strike the mountainous region. Sunday’s slide killed one person and injured three others and prompted the mandatory evacuation of nearby homes in the city, a popular cruise ship stop along the famed Inside Passage in the southeastern Alaska panhandle.
The slide area remained unstable Monday, and authorities said that state and local geologists were arriving to assess the area for potential secondary slides. Last November, six people — including a family of five — were killed when a landslide destroyed two homes in Wrangell, north of Ketchikan.
The body of an Arizona woman who disappeared in Grand Canyon National Park after a flash flood was recovered Sunday, park rangers said. The body of Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was discovered by a group rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, the park said in a statement.
Nickerson was hiking along Havasu Creek about a half-mile (800 meters) from where it meets up with the Colorado River when the flash flood struck. Nickerson’s husband was among the more than 100 people safely evacuated.
The flood trapped several hikers in the area above and below Beaver Falls, one of a series of usually blue-green waterfalls that draw tourists from around the world to the Havasupai Tribe’s reservation. The area is prone to flooding that turns its iconic waterfalls chocolate brown.
Construction workers start their day as the sun rises on the new Republic Airlines headquarters building in Carmel, Ind., Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Hone as it continues to track to the west toward the Hawaiian Islands, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)
A worker is diffused by heat vapors while marking pavement on a street construction project as temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
A coat of snow covers ski lifts on Mount Bachelor Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Bend, Ore. (Garrett Lockrem/Mount Bachelor Ski Resort via AP)
The aftermath of a deadly landslide is seen in Ketchikan, Alaska, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (Anna Laffrey/Ketchikan Daily News via AP)
U.S. Army soldiers of the Arizona National Guard guide tourists trapped by flash flooding into a UH-60 Blackhawk, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, on the Havasupai Reservation in Supai, Ariz. (Maj. Erin Hannigan/U.S. Army via AP)
Judah Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splashes water as he runs on the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A military court in Congo handed down death sentences Friday to 37 people, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in a coup attempt.
The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian and Canadian, have five days to appeal the verdict on charges that included attempted coup, terrorism and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June.
The court in the capital, Kinshasa, convicted the 37 defendants and imposed “the harshest penalty, that of death” in the verdict delivered by the presiding judge, Maj. Freddy Ehuma, at an open-air military court proceeding that was broadcast live on TV. The three Americans, wearing blue and yellow prison clothes and sitting in plastic chairs, appeared stoic as a translator explained their sentence.
Richard Bondo, the lawyer who defended the six foreigners, said he disputed whether the death penalty could currently be imposed in Congo, despite its reinstatement earlier this year, and said his clients had inadequate interpreters during the investigation of the case.
"We will challenge this decision on appeal,” Bondo said.
Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga in May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said.
Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga, who is a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans were convicted in the the attack. His mother, Brittney Sawyer, has said her son is innocent and was simply following his father, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile.
In the months since her son's arrest, Sawyer has declined multiple interview requests and has focused her energy on fundraising to send Marcel money for food, hygiene products and a bed. He has been sleeping on the floor of his prison cell and is suffering from a liver disease, she said.
The other Americans are Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, who flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family believed was a vacation, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, who is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company. The company was set up in Mozambique in 2022, according to an official journal published by Mozambique’s government, and a report by the Africa Intelligence newsletter.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington on Friday that the federal government was aware of the verdict. The department has not declared the three Americans wrongfully detained, making it unlikely that U.S. officials would try to negotiate their return.
“We understand that the legal process in the DRC allows for defendants to appeal the court’s decision," Miller said. "Embassy staff have been attending these proceedings as they’ve gone through the process. We continue to attend the proceedings and follow the developments closely.”
Thompson had been invited on an Africa trip by the younger Malanga, his former high school football teammate in a Salt Lake City suburb. But the itinerary might have included more than sightseeing. Other teammates alleged that Marcel had offered up to $100,000 to join him on a “security job” in Congo.
Thompson’s family maintains he had no knowledge of the elder Malanga’s intentions, no plans for political activism and didn’t even plan to enter Congo. He and the Malangas were meant to travel only to South Africa and Eswatini, his stepmother, Miranda Thompson, told The Associated Press in May.
The Thompsons have been working with a lawyer in their home state of Utah to encourage U.S. officials to intervene. Utah’s U.S. Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee have not publicly urged the U.S. government to advocate for the Americans' release.
“My thoughts are with the families during this difficult time. We will continue to work with the State Department to receive updates on this case," Lee told the AP on Friday.
“This is an extremely difficult and frightening situation for the families involved," Romney's office said in a written statement. "Our office has consistently engaged with the State Department and will continue to do so.”
Last month, the military prosecutor, Lt. Col. Innocent Radjabu, called on the judges to sentence all of the defendants to death, except for one who suffers from “psychological problems.”
Congo reinstated the death penalty earlier this year, lifting a more than two-decade-old moratorium, as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks in the country.
Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writers Monika Pronczuk in Dakar, Senegal, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
America Marcel Malanga attends a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
Back row, Tyler Thompson, 2nd left, Marcel Malanga, center, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 2nd right, all American citizens, attend a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
Tyler Thompson, left, Marcel Malanga and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, all American citizens, attend a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
America Marcel Malanga attends a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
America Tyler Thompson attends a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
American Tyler Thompson arrives for a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
Tyler Thompson, left, Marcel Malanga and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, all American citizens, attend a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
American Marcel Malanga arrives for a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
Back row, Tyler Thompson, 2nd left, Marcel Malanga, center, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 2nd right, all American citizens, attend a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
American Marcel Malanga, fourth right, stands with others during a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, Friday Sept .13, 2024, on charges of taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
FILE - From left T,yler Thompson Jr, Marcel Malanga and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, all American citizens, face the court in Kinshasa with 52 other defendants on June 7, 2024, accused of a role in last month's attempted coup in Congo led by little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga in which six people were killed. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
