02/08/2025

SATURDAY | AUG 2, 2025

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Downpours disrupt rail and air travel along East Coast

PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMITS ABOLISHED IN EL SALVADOR SAN SALVADOR: Lawmakers here on Thursday adopted a constitutional reform to abolish presidential term limits and allow current leader Nayib Bukele, who enjoys overwhelming majority support in parliament, to run indefinitely. The reform, reviewed under an expedited procedure and which also extends the term in office from five to six years, was adopted in a 57-3 vote. – AFP U.S. CUTS EXPERTS NEW YORK: The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told physician groups, public health professionals and infectious disease experts that they would no longer be invited to help review vaccine data and develop recommendations, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. – Reuters FROM VACCINE POLICY PANELS

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7.62cm generally, with localised downpours that could produce between 12.7cm and 17.78cm, said New Jersey acting governor Tahesha Way. She warned that the extreme rainfall could trigger landslides, rock slides and flash flooding of roadways across New Jersey, with additional hazards posed by damaging winds from thunderstorms. “Residents should remain off the roads and indoors unless absolutely necessary.” Way is temporarily serving as the state chief executive while Governor Phil Murphy is out of the state on vacation with his family. The Weather Service attributed the storm threat to a cold front that is bringing a combination of unstable air mass and exceptional amounts of atmospheric moisture to the region. – Reuters content on the impeachments of Trump. It was intended to be a short-term measure to address events at the time. However, the label remained in place until July,“ the spokesperson said in an email. The Washington Post reported that the exhibit now notes that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal”. The temporary label, which read “Case under redesign (history happens)”, also offered information about the impeachments of former presidents, the newspaper reported, featuring a photograph of the label. The spokesperson said the Smithsonian decided to restore the exhibit to how it looked in 2008. The Smithsonian receives most of its budget from the US Congress but is independent of the government in decision-making. In Trump’s first term in office from 2017 to 2021, he became the first president to be impeached twice, the first time over a request that Ukraine investigate former president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and the second over the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters. – Reuters external structure. Trump has said for some time he wants to build a White House ballroom inspired by his own properties. On Thursday, he praised the newly built, lavish ballroom, named after himself, at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, one of dozens of properties owned by the Trump family. The Republican billionaire, inspired by the patios of Mar-a-Lago, recently ripped up the lawn at the White House historic Rose Garden and is paving the area, where official events are often held. – AFP

and Wilmington due to severe storms causing high water flooding the tracks. A daily rainfall outlook map issued by the Weather Prediction Centre put the risk of “excessive” showers capable of triggering flash floods at 40% or higher for a swath of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast that is home to 37 million people. Up to 12.7cm of rain was forecast in the heaviest bands of showers expected across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson River Valley, with rainfall rates that could exceed 5cm per hour, according to a statement from Hochul. “I am urging all New Yorkers to stay vigilant, stay informed and use caution as we expect excessive rainfall with the potential for flash flooding,” she said. New Jersey was bracing for rainfall totals of between 2.54cm and WASHINGTON: The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History has removed explicit reference to US President Donald Trump from an exhibit about impeachment, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The museum made the change as part of a review that it agreed to undertake following White House pressure to remove an art museum director, the Washington Post cited a source as saying. The spokesperson said: “A future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments.” Trump signed an executive order in March calling for “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology”to be removed from the Smithsonian, a vast museum and research institution that is a premier exhibition space for US history and culture. The order raised concern of political interference at the institution as well as fear that his administration is undoing decades of social progress and undermining the acknowledgement of critical phases of American history. “In September 2021, the museum installed a temporary label on Trump has also redone the Oval Office to splash the room in gold, from the stars surrounding the presidential seal on the ceiling to the gold statues on the fireplace, to the mantel itself. The project is shaping up to be one of the most significant to break ground at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since renovation and expansion works undertaken by former president Theodore Roosevelt at the start of the 20th century. Former president Harry Truman also oversaw notable construction work between 1948 and 1952 but did so without changing the

New Jersey and the New York City metropolitan area. Severe thunderstorm watches were also in effect across much of the Interstate-95 corridor. The stormy weather appeared to be a key factor disrupting commercial air travel across the Northeast on Thursday. Eight major airports serving the region, namely Washington Dulles, Baltimore-Washington, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Philadelphia, Newark Liberty, LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International and Boston Logan, accounted for the cancellation of at least 1,170 flights into, out of or within the United States, according to online flight tracking service FlightAware. Passenger rail travel was also hampered, with Amtrak reporting service halted between Philadelphia

NEW YORK: New York Governor Kathy Hochul and her acting New Jersey counterpart on Thursday declared a state of emergency for areas facing the threat of flash floods from downpours disrupting rail and air travel along the Eastern Seaboard. The National Weather Service posted flash flood warnings along parts of the Northeast urban corridor stretching from the Washington-Baltimore region north through Philadelphia, Wilmington and Delaware and into Newark, o 1,170 flights into, out of or within United States cancelled at eight major airports

Trump’s name removed from museum impeachment exhibit

SHOW OF RESPECT ... Police officers lining the street and saluting as the casket of NYPD officer Didarul Islam, who was killed by a mass shooter, is carried to a hearse during funeral services in the Bronx borough of New York City. – AFPPIC

Plan to build US$200m ballroom at White House

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, who is remodeling the White House to his tastes, will build a massive ballroom for hosting official receptions, one of the largest projects at the US executive mansion in over a century. Trump and unspecified donors will foot the bill for the US$200 million (RM855 million) project, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday. “For 150 years, presidents, administrations and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex,“ US

second term in January 2029, she said. The hope is that it would host grand state dinners, given in honour of foreign heads of state visiting Washington. Until now, these were generally done by erecting a huge tent on the White House grounds. A model of the ballroom presented by the government shows that it will be a white building with tall windows. Its columns and front look reminiscent of the main White House building, a facade known worldwide. The ballroom building would replace the East Wing, which usually houses the offices of the US first lady.

she said. “There has never been a president that was good at ballrooms,“ the 79-year-old president and former real estate developer told reporters. “I am good at building things and we will get it built quickly and on time. It will be beautiful,“ said Trump, adding that the character of the original building would be preserved. The new structure will span over 8,000 square metres and have space to seat 650 people, said Leavitt. Work on the ballroom would begin in September and is expected to be completed “well before” the end of his