hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from the united states and all over the world. you re watching cnn newsroom. i m kristie lu stout. it is now 2 am on the u.s. east coast. almost the entire state of florida is bracing for the impact of hurricane ian, a monster storm stretching 700 miles across and getting stronger. causing a nationwide blackout in cuba, ian is turning in the gulf of mexico as a category three hurricane with sustained winds just shy of a category four. and along with life-threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding and powerful winds. now, conditions will deteriorate throughout the night ahead of the expected landfall in the coming hours. more than two and a half million people are under some form of evacuation warning. state authorities say the time to leave is quickly running out. people in southwest florida, this is going to likely make landfall as a category 4 hurricane. there will be catastrophic flooding, and life-threat
Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently being held in a Georgian prison, said he warned Western leaders that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wanted to seize Ukraine decades ago, according to The Times on July 18.
The Danish Energy Agency has invited the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, to take part in an operation to recover an object found near the gas pipeline.
German energy company Wintershall Dea said on Thursday that it had completely written off its share in the Nord Stream project after the blasts at the gas pipelines.
The US intelligence information about alleged supplies of Chinese weapons to Russia is nothing but slander, Washington had better share true data on the explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.