WELLINGTON: A man was struck and killed by a tree branch in a city park Tuesday as stormy weather buffeted New Zealand’s capital.
The dangerous winds and heavy rain disrupted travel, closed schools and cut electricity in parts of the country. Wind canceled flights into and out of Wellington for several hours before they resumed to bumpy take-offs and landings. The storm also halted passenger ferry sailings.
The man who died had been injured on Mount Victoria, a popular trail walking spot in the central city.
Authorities urged residents to stay out of the city’s parks and reserves because of the danger from falling trees. A dashcam video taken by a motorist Tuesday morning showed a pedestrian sent sprawling by a wind gust into the road, where they narrowly avoided being hit by oncoming cars.
The MetService weather agency said winds were recorded at speeds of up to 120 kph (75 mph) in the area of Kelburn. Wellington is New Zealand’s windiest city and known for its howling gales but the gusts were strong even by the capital’s standards.
About 10,000 properties were without electricity in the neighboring rural region of Wairarapa, according to figures from the local lines company. Schools and businesses in the area closed for the day.
Throughout Tuesday the lower North Island, where Wellington is located, and most of the South Island were under wind or rain warnings. In Christchurch on the South Island, gales disrupted flights on Tuesday afternoon.
Some state highways on both islands were closed due to flooding and landslides. In Hawkes Bay on the North Island, the wind toppled a truck, injuring one person and closing the road, authorities said.
New Zealand’s location in the southern latitudes and the mountain ranges that run the length of the country can produce wild weather throughout the year. MetService said the tempest was due to ease Wednesday before a second, more severe weather system was expected Thursday.
Man killed by tree branch, pedestrian blown into road as storm buffets Wellington, New Zealand
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Man killed by tree branch, pedestrian blown into road as storm buffets Wellington, New Zealand
- The dangerous winds and heavy rain disrupted travel, closed schools and cut electricity
- The man who died had been injured on Mount Victoria, a popular trail walking spot in the central city
Rubio says technical talks with Denmark, Greenland officials over Arctic security have begun
- US Secretary of State on Wednesday appeared eager to downplay Trump’s rift with Europe over Greenland
WASHINGTON: Technical talks between the US, Denmark and Greenland over hatching an Arctic security deal are now underway, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland agreed to create a working group aimed at addressing differences with the US during a Washington meeting earlier this month with Vice President JD Vance and Rubio.
The group was created after President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, in the name of countering threats from Russia and China — calls that Greenland, Denmark and European allies forcefully rejected.
“It begins today and it will be a regular process,” Rubio said of the working group, as he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We’re going to try to do it in a way that isn’t like a media circus every time these conversations happen, because we think that creates more flexibility on both sides to arrive at a positive outcome.”
The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday’s talks focused on “how we can address US concerns about security in the Arctic while respecting the red lines of the Kingdom.” Red lines refers to the sovereignty of Greenland.
Trump’s renewed threats in recent weeks to annex Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of a NATO ally, has roiled US-European relations.
Trump this month announced he would slap new tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries that opposed his takeover calls, only to abruptly drop his threats after a “framework” for a deal over access to the mineral-rich island was reached, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s help. Few details of the agreement have emerged.
After stiff pushback from European allies to his Greenland rhetoric, Trump also announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that he would take off the table the possibility of using American military force to acquire Greenland.
The president backed off his tariff threats and softened his language after Wall Street suffered its biggest losses in months over concerns that Trump’s Greenland ambitions could spur a trade war and fundamentally rupture NATO, a 32-member transatlantic military alliance that’s been a linchpin of post-World War II security.
Rubio on Wednesday appeared eager to downplay Trump’s rift with Europe over Greenland.
“We’ve got a little bit of work to do, but I think we’re going to wind up in a good place, and I think you’ll hear the same from our colleagues in Europe very shortly,” Rubio said.
Rubio during Wednesday’s hearing also had a pointed exchange with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, about Trump repeatedly referring to Greenland as Iceland while at Davos.
“Yeah, he meant to say Greenland, but I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles,” Rubio said in responding to Kaine’s questions about Trump’s flub — taking a veiled dig at former President Joe Biden. “We’ve had presidents like that before. Some made a lot more than this one.”
