New Orleans under Hurricane Watch from Tropical Storm Sally

A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Sunday, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast. (AP)
A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Sunday, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast. (AP)
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New Orleans under Hurricane Watch from Tropical Storm Sally

A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Sunday, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast. (AP)
A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Sunday, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast. (AP)

Tropical Storm Sally formed Saturday off south Florida amid forecasts it would grow into a hurricane capable of striking the US Gulf Coast in coming days with high winds and a life-threatening storm surge.

The earliest 18th-named storm in an Atlantic tropical season, Sally quickly became better organized within hours of forming and was expected to become a hurricane by late Monday, the National Hurricane Center said. New Orleans and surrounding areas, along with a stretch of the coast from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida line, were placed under a hurricane watch.

Late Saturday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, and officials in the New Orleans area issued a mandatory evacuation order for areas outside of levee protection, including Venetian Isles, Lake Catherine, and Irish Bayou. The evacuation order was set to go into effect at 6 pm Sunday.

The National Hurricane Center said dangerous storm surge was possible along the northern Gulf Coast starting on Monday and added hurricane conditions could set in there early Tuesday.

The Miami-based hurricane tracking center said Sally spent Saturday afternoon spreading gusty winds and heavy rains around south Florida.

Sally's maximum sustained winds were clocked at 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts.

By late Saturday, Sally was centered about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Port Charlotte, Florida, and about 425 miles (685 kilometers) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm was crawling into the Gulf at a pace of 8 mph (13 kph), heading in a west-northwest direction.

Sally became the earliest 18th-named storm on record in an Atlantic hurricane season, besting Stan when it formed on Oct. 2, 2005, said Colorado State hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

A tropical storm watch has been extended westward from the Okaloosa/Walton County line in Florida to the Alabama-Florida line.

A storm surge watch, meanwhile, was in effect from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Alabama-Florida line, including Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas, Lake Borgne in Louisiana — and Mobile Bay in Alabama.

Elsewhere, a strengthening Paulette became a hurricane late Saturday as it bore down on Bermuda, threatening to bring dangerous storm surge, coastal flooding and high winds to the territory in the coming days.

Paulette had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) as of 11 p.m. Saturday, and was about 385 miles (615 kilometers) southeast of Bermuda. Forecasters warned Paulette was expected to become a dangerous hurricane when it nears or crosses over Bermuda on Monday. Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, as well as heavy rainfall totals, are likely, forecasters said. Residents of the island were urged to rush final storm preparations to a conclusion.

Tropical Storm Rene weakened in recent hours and was reclassified as a tropical depression. It had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was about 1,200 miles (1,935 kilometers) east-northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands. Forecasters said Rene wasn’t expected to strengthen and did not pose any threat to land.



Trump Holds Situation Room Meeting on Iran, Officials Say 

People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Trump Holds Situation Room Meeting on Iran, Officials Say 

People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk at the Tehran Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

President Donald Trump met with his top national security aides on Tuesday to discuss Iran's nuclear program ahead of a second meeting between US and Iranian officials on Saturday, sources said.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet his Iranian counterpart on Saturday, a session currently scheduled to be held in Oman. Trump spoke to the sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, about Oman's mediation role between Washington and Tehran.

A White House official confirmed the White House Situation Room meeting on Iran and said the location was not unusual since Trump gets briefed there regularly to take advantage of the chamber's secure setting.

A second source briefed on the meeting said Trump and his top aides discussed the Iran talks and next steps. US officials have been working on a framework for a potential nuclear deal.

Trump has threatened military action against Iran if it does not give up its nuclear program while also stressing the need for diplomacy and negotiations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump's bottom line in the talks, which included an initial session last Saturday, is he wanted to use negotiations to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump and the Omani leader also discussed ongoing US operations against Yemen's Houthis, she said.

"The maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues," Leavitt said at a press briefing. "The president has made it clear he wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran, while making his directive about Iran never being able to obtain a nuclear weapon quite clear."

She added that he had "emphasized" this directive during the call with Sultan Haitham.

Both sides described last weekend's US-Iran talks in Oman as positive.

Trump has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, after he ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.

Iran's nuclear program has leaped forward since then. The two countries held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden's term but made little, if any progress.

Iran's clerical rulers have publicly said that demands such as dismantling the country's peaceful nuclear program or its conventional missile capabilities were off the table.