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)
TT
20

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.



Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's Nuclear Program Return to Oman

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
TT
20

Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's Nuclear Program Return to Oman

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A

Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program will return Saturday to the sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on Iran closing in on half a century of enmity. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Neither Iran nor the US have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to Muscat, the Omani capital nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend's talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations.

But Rome remains in mourning after the death of Pope Francis, whose funeral will be Saturday. And Iranian state television, in covering last weekend's talks, complained at length on air about the “paparazzi” gathered across the street from the Omani Embassy in Rome's Camilluccia neighborhood.

“As you can see, unlike the first round of talks where the presence of journalists was limited and the Omanis had special management in place to prevent a large and chaotic media presence from disrupting the negotiations, this time in Rome, Italy, that kind of control hasn’t been applied,” said Hosnieh Sadat Shobeiri, an Iranian state TV journalist dressed in gray, all-encompassing chador.

“Because of the crowd we’re seeing here, with media outlets from various countries — including some that are anti-Iran — it’s possible that we’ll hear more conflicting reports and news aimed at disrupting the talks coming out of Rome compared to Oman.”

'Peaceful use of nuclear energy'

The Muscat talks come as Iran appears to have lined up Chinese and Russian support. Araghchi traveled to Moscow last week and this week visited Beijing.

On Thursday, Chinese, Iran and Russian representatives met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that likely will verify compliance with any accord like it did with Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That deal included China and Russia, as well as France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, Iran has greatly restricted the IAEA's inspections — leading to fears internationally that centrifuges and other nuclear material could be diverted.

The IAEA offered no readout from the talks, but China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday described the three nations as saying the agency has “the necessary potential and expertise to contribute constructively to this process.”

“China, Russia and Iran emphasized that political and diplomatic engagement based on mutual respect remains the only viable and practical path for resolving the Iran nuclear issue,” the report said. It added that China respects Iran's “right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The Trump administration has kept France, Germany and the UK out of its direct negotiations with Iran, something similarly reflected in Witkoff's negotiations with Russia over ending its war on Ukraine. Witkoff traveled Friday to Moscow ahead of Saturday's meeting in Muscat.

Araghchi meanwhile has said he's open to visiting Berlin, London and Paris to discuss the negotiations.

“The ball is now in the E3’s court,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X on Thursday, using an acronym for the countries. “They have an opportunity to do away with the grip of Special Interest groups and forge a different path. How we act at this critical junction is likely to define the foreseeable future.”

US stance on enrichment hardens Two Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, are expected to lead Tehran’s expert team, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. Takht-e Ravanchi took part in the 2015 nuclear talks, while Gharibabadi as well as been involved in atomic negotiations.

The US technical team, which is expected to arrive in Oman on Friday, will be led by Michael Anton, the director of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's policy planning staff. Anton does not have the nuclear policy experience of those who led America's efforts in the 2015 talks.

However, he was an early supporter of Trump, describing the 2016 election as a “charge the cockpit or you die” vote. “A Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto,” Anton wrote. “With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.” He also criticized “Iran sycophancy” in the same essay.

Rubio, speaking on a podcast released this week, also kept up a Trump line that Iran needed to stop its enrichment of uranium entirely.

“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said.

Iran ‘on high alert’

But Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key. Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.

Meanwhile, one more wildcard is Israel, whose devastating war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Trump initially announced the Iran talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. But Israel, which for years has targeted Iran's nuclear program with attacks on its facilities and scientists, has kept open the possibility of airstrikes to destroy Tehran's enrichment sites.

On Monday, Israel's military conducted drills preparing for possible new Iranian missile attacks, the country's public broadcaster KAN reported.

“Our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response,” Araghchi wrote on Wednesday in a post on X.