Today’s news briefs:
Hurricane Dorian turning north
Dorian has destroyed thousands of homes in the Bahamas and left an entire island without power. The hurricane, which was a Category 5 storm for over 24 hours, was downgraded to Category 3 early today. It is the strongest hurricane on record to hit the Bahamas, with sustained winds that reached 185 miles an hour on Sunday.
Dorian is now slowly turning north though the eye will remain several hundred miles off shore as it moves towards Virginia.
Forecasters and the media were criticized for making predictions more than a week ago of possible landfall in Florida causing widespread panic. While there is a very small chance of landfall in Florida, traditionally, forecasting a landfall more than 10 days out is not standard practice and is often driven by media ratings goals.
New tariffs on China
New U.S. tariffs on clothing and other imports from China that went into effect Sunday are expected to hit some consumers. But, while the media is reporting it as a disaster for clothes shoppers, the facts tell a different story. Only 25% of clothes and shoes that Americans purchase are made in China. Most of the rest, 70%, is made in China’s competitors and they’re already planning to make up the slack.
President Trump has since told U.S. companies to look for alternatives to China. A round of retaliatory Chinese tariffs has now also taken effect, targeting imports of U.S. soybeans, crude oil and pharmaceuticals. In that area as well, demand in the rest of the world is taking up the slack of lost sales to China.
Bodies recovered but others are at bottom of the sea
A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early on Sept. 2, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing.
Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel.
Rescuers recovered four bodies about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island. The Coast Guard says five others have been found but not recovered due to unsafe conditions under the boat, which sank under 60 feet of water.
Teen goes blind after fad diet
A 17-year-old British boy who subsisted on a diet consisting mostly of french fries, chips, processed meat, and white bread has gone blind due to vitamin deficiency.
The fussy eater, who is from Bristol and is now 19, had hardly eaten any fruit or vegetables in about a decade, according to a doctor who treated the teen in hospital.
“His diet was essentially a portion of chips from the local fish and chip shop every day. He also used to snack on crisps—Pringles—and sometimes slices of white bread and occasional slices of ham, and not really any fruit and vegetables,” said Dr. Denize Atan, according to a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal.
Google to move production out of China
Google is moving its Pixel smartphone production from China to Vietnam as it plans to build a cheap supply chain in Southeast Asia, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Aug. 28.
The shift came as a result of rising Chinese labor costs, as well as added burden from tariffs due to the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.
The U.S. internet giant has begun converting an old Nokia factory in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh, Nikkei reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plans.
–Metro Voice and wire services
