Michigan State head football coach Mel Tucker has been suspended without pay amid an ongoing investigation, the university announced Sunday.

Vice president and director of athletics Alan Haller announced in a news conference Sunday that Tucker is the subject of an ongoing investigation that began in December. An investigative report was submitted in July and a formal hearing will take place the week of October 5, Haller said.

Tucker’s suspension comes on the heels of an explosive report published in USA Today Saturday night.

According to the USA Today report, Tucker is alleged to have made sexual comments and masturbated while on a phone call with Brenda Tracy, an advocate and rape survivor.

In a letter to investigators, Tucker characterized his and Tracy’s relationship as “mutually consensual and intimate,” according to USA Today.

Tracy started the nonprofit Set The Expectation, where she speaks to athletes about ending sexual violence, according to her website. Tracy was raped in 1998 by four college football players, leading to her advocacy.

Tracy served as an honorary captain for the team’s spring football game in 2022, according to the program’s social media accounts.

This is Tucker’s fourth season with the team as he became the head coach in 2020 for the Spartans, according to the university’s website.

“This morning’s news might sound like the MSU of old; it was not,” Michigan State University interim president Teresa K. Woodruff said Sunday afternoon. “It is not because an independent, unbiased investigation is and continues to be conducted.”

Secondary coach Harlon Barnett will fill in as acting head coach, Haller announced, and former MSU head coach Mark Dantonio will become an associate head coach. The Spartans take on the Washington Huskies on Saturday at home, according to their football schedule.

Woodruff made note of counseling resources that are available for anyone who may be affected by this news and mentioned the Center for Survivors and Office for Civil Rights on campus.

“If you have heard or experienced or know of behavior that does not seem appropriate, please know that you have the support and resources here at MSU,” Woodruff said.

Hurricane Lee has strengthened back into a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, satellite pictures and data from a hurricane hunter plane indicated Sunday.

The powerful storm, which has fluctuated in intensity throughout its time over the open Atlantic, is expected to become a very dangerous Category 4 by late Sunday or early Monday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“Dangerous surf and rip currents have begun to reach portions of the southeast (United States) East Coast and are forecast to worsen and spread northward along much of the US East Coast during the next couple of days,” the National Hurricane Center said in an update Sunday.

Lee is forecast to slow down considerably as it moves well north of Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, but it will have an impact there and on other Caribbean islands. It remains too early to determine its long-term track for later this week and how significant the impacts could be for northeastern US states, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.

By midweek, Lee will make a turn to the north, eventually moving between Bermuda and the US East coast late this week.

The East Coast is bracing for the same kind of large swells and rip currents that the Caribbean is facing now.

“Swells generated by Lee are affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles,” the National Hurricane Center warned Friday night. The British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda also face swells this weekend that can bring life-threatening surf and rip conditions.

Waves breaking at 6 to 10 feet were forecast for Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Larger waves were expected this week along east- and north-facing beaches.

“Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible,” the office posted on social media.

Lee was centered around 285 miles north-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands at 5 p.m. ET Sunday, moving west-northwest at 8 mph.

Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed into Category 5 status as it moved west across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.

Vertical wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle – a process that occurs with the majority of long-lived major hurricanes – has since led to the weakening of the storm, the hurricane center said.

Differing scenarios on Lee’s impact

Computer model trends for Lee have shown the hurricane taking a turn to the north early this week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the US.

Several steering factors at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere will determine how close Lee will get to the East Coast.

An area of high pressure over the Atlantic, known as the Bermuda High, will have a major influence on how quickly Lee turns. A strong Bermuda High would keep Lee on its current west-northwestward track and slow it down a bit.

As the high pressure weakens this week, it will allow Lee to start moving northward. Once that turn to the north occurs, the position of the jet stream – strong upper-level winds that can change the direction of a hurricane’s path – will influence how closely Lee is steered to the US.

Scenario: Out to Sea

Lee could make a quick turn to the north early this week if high pressure weakens significantly.

If the jet stream sets up along the East Coast, it will function as a barrier that prevents Lee from approaching the coast. This scenario would keep Lee farther away from the US coast but could bring the storm closer to Bermuda.

Scenario: Close to East Coast

Lee could make a slower turn to the north because the high pressure remains robust, and the jet stream sets up farther inland over the Eastern US. This scenario would leave portions of the East Coast, mainly north of the Carolinas, vulnerable to a much closer approach from Lee.

Novak Djokovic won the US Open Sunday, defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 in the men’s final to extend his record grand slam singles titles to 24.

The world No. 2 has further cemented himself as one of the greatest tennis players ever – with Sunday’s win, he matches Margaret Court’s record for most all-time grand slam titles.

In a rematch of the 2021 US Open final, the Serbian avenged his loss to No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York to complete his triumphant return to the United States.

Playing in front of a who’s who crowd, Djokovic was in his usual dominant form in the first set, never facing a break point, while hitting 12 winners in nine games. Entering tonight, Djokovic was 72-1 all-time at the US Open when winning the first set, with his only loss coming to Stan Wawrinka in the 2016 final.

The second set proved to be more competitive, as Djokovic and Medvedev exchanged games in a nail-biting back and forth, culminating in the Serb’s 7-5 tiebreak victory after an hour and 45 minutes.

From there, with the momentum in his favor and a fourth US Open title a set away, Djokovic cruised to victory, needing only one championship point to seal the historic title.

With the victory, the 36-year-old becomes oldest man to win the US Open singles title in the Open era and the first man to win three grand slam titles in a season for the fourth time – previously doing so in 2011, 2015 and 2021.

Djokovic also extends his lead over Spaniard Rafael Nadal (22) and Switzerland’s Roger Federer (20) for most men’s singles titles of all time.

At every grand slam this year, Djokovic had an opportunity to make history.

He drew level with Rafael Nadal’s 22 grand slam titles at the Australian Open, pulled clear with a men’s record 23 grand slam titles at the French Open and was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.

Standing in his way Sunday was third seed Daniil Medvedev who stunned Alcaraz in the semifinals and who already defeated Djokovic in a US Open final before, and in straight sets.

Though Medvedev’s game remains perfectly suited to the fast hard courts, he was expecting Djokovic to be “10 times better than he was that day.”

“Against Novak, it’s the same. He is always better than previous time he plays,” Medvedev had said, according to the ATP Tour. “For example, I beat him in the US Open final, he beat me in Bercy in a great match. Carlos beat him at Wimbledon, he beat him in Cincinnati. Novak is going to be his best version on Sunday, and I have to be the best-ever version of myself if I want to try to beat him.”

Djokovic is unvaccinated against Covid-19 and had been unable to enter the country for the past two years. However, vaccine requirements for non-US travelers were lifted earlier this year, enabling Djokovic to make his return.

The Serb will have an opportunity to pass Court and etch his name as the all-time winningest player at the Australian Open in January 2024.

‘Every final could be the last one’

When Djokovic and Medvedev last played each other in a grand slam final, it was the Russian who upset the odds and thwarted Djokovic’s attempt to win a then record 21st slam and complete the first men’s calendar grand slam – winning the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in the same year – since Rod Laver in 1969.

Since winning his first-ever grand slam at that US Open in 2021, Medvedev has come close to winning another, taking a two-set lead in the 2022 Australian Open final against Nadal but eventually succumbed to defeat.

“The challenge is that you play a guy who won 23 grand slams and I have only one,” he said, according to the US Open. “When I beat him here (in the 2021 final), I managed to play better than myself, and I need to do it again. There is no other way.”

At 36, Djokovic could become the oldest man to win the US Open singles title in the Open Era, surpassing the record set by Ken Rosewall in 1970.

“Every Grand Slam final could be the last one,” he told reporters ahead of the final. “Ten years ago, I felt like, ‘Hey, I still have quite a few years ahead of me.’ I don’t know how many I have ahead of me now, or how many years where I [can] play four Slams in the whole season. So I am aware of the occasion.”

It will be Djokovic’s 101st match at the US Open, a tournament which he has won three times already in his career, though not since 2018.

‘You want to fight ‘til the end’

Djokovic has had a relatively straightforward run to the final, aside from surviving a scare in the third round when he found himself two sets down against his compatriot Laslo Djere, he has completed every other match in just three sets, minimizing his time on court as he has swept aside the competition.

It marks a remarkable end to a year in which he has reached the final of every grand slam, adding two more titles to his collection, after a 2022 in which he could not compete in Australia or the USA due to his decision to remain unvaccinated against Covid-19.

For Medvedev, playing in the US Open final caps an impressive hard-court season in which he reached five consecutive finals on the surface and won four titles.

His performance against Alcaraz in the semifinals displayed his powerful serve, shotmaking and tenacity, all marking him as a difficult opponent for Djokovic.

“You want to fight ‘til the end, you want to win,” Medvedev said, according to the ATP. “And that’s how you should be in the final of a grand slam.”

Ani Kirakosyani found out she was pregnant a month after the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh began.

Kirakosyani is one of the 120,000 inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh – known as the Republic of Artsakh by locals – a disputed territory home to a majority ethnic Armenian population that is internationally recognized as being a part of Azerbaijan. The region has been blockaded since December 2022, when the only road connecting the landlocked region to the outside world, the Lachin corridor, was blocked by “eco-activists” backed by the Azerbaijani government, which has since installed a military checkpoint along the corridor. This prompted the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) to warn of the risk of genocide against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Six months into her pregnancy, Kirakosyani felt a pain in her abdomen and was taken to the hospital. On the way, the ambulance had to stop and collect six other patients, as the driver had to ration its fuel. When Kirakosyani finally arrived in hospital, she was told her pregnancy was in jeopardy and she would have to give birth three months early.

Her husband was away working with the military, and he could not get fuel to make the 100-mile car ride to support her in the hospital. She was alone when the doctors told her she had had a stillbirth brought on by malnutrition and stress, she said.

International media have been refused entry into the territory since the blockade was imposed.

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan US congressional body, scheduled a Wednesday hearing on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

‘The road of life’

The Lachin corridor is known locally as “the road of life,” as 90% of the food consumed in Nagorno-Karabakh previously came into the region from Armenia via that route, according to figures provided by the elected president of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was previously the only NGO allowed to bring humanitarian aid across the Lachin corridor, last delivered desperately needed food supplies to the region on June 14, according to an ICRC press release from August 18.

In August, UN experts urged Azerbaijan to end “the dire humanitarian crisis” in the enclave by lifting the blockade, while former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said there was “reasonable basis to believe that genocide is being committed against Armenians.”

Responding to Ocampo’s comments, a lawyer hired by Azerbaijan called the claim of genocide “a groundless and very dangerous allegation.”

As food, medicine, water and fuel are prevented from entering the territory, local supplies are dwindling. According to the administration for the Artsakh Republic, dairy products, cereal, fish, chicken, cooking oil, sugar, salt, fruit and vegetables, as well as fuel and hygiene products, are unavailable inside the territory.

Outside his shop, queues for bread meander through the unkempt streets. Garbage collections are regularly postponed due to fuel shortages, while in the local pharmacy, supplies are rapidly diminishing.

The fuel shortages also mean electricity is rationed, with power cuts for eight hours each day, and drinking water is no longer treated, leading to a spike in related illnesses, according to Stepanyan.

According to the enclave’s administration, 95% of residents are suffering from malnutrition and hidden hunger, a term referring to a lack of essential vitamins and minerals.

As winter beckons and the harvest season approaches without fuel to collect the crops, those trapped in Nagorno-Karabakh fear their cries are being ignored.

‘Ethnic cleansing’

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a tug of war over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This power vacuum was filled by nationalism, and violence against ethnic minorities quickly followed. Both Armenians in Azerbaijan and Azeris in Armenia claim they were ethnically cleansed, leaving sectarian scars on the minds of generations – on either side of their disputed border.

In the early 1990s, Armenian forces took control of large swaths of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, in turn seized control over large parts of those territories during a six-week war in 2020 that claimed thousands of lives.

The separatist territory was left with the main city of Stepanakert and a few surrounding towns, as well as a population still reeling from the losses of the bloody 2020 conflict, which was followed by sporadic skirmishes along the border. Amid the latest flare-up of tensions, Baku claims it will fully retake and integrate the territory into Azerbaijan – while ethnic Armenians refuse to be uprooted from a region they claim is their homeland.

“Rather than use direct violence, which would incite opposition from abroad… Baku is determined to make the Armenians’ lives impossible, starve them out, and pressure them to leave,” he said.

To make matters more complicated, Azerbaijan – a one-party state headed by President Ilham Aliyev for the past two decades – has offered to supply the breakaway region via a crossing at the nearby Azerbaijani city of Aghdam.

“Instead of feigning attempts to deliver humanitarian assistance, Azerbaijan must unblock the Lachin corridor,” he said.

In its statement, the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry said the Aghdam route would allow humanitarian aid to be supplied by third parties such as the ICRC and accused Armenia of stepping back at the last moment from agreements it said had been reached in August on transportation through the Aghdam and Lachin routes. It also pointed to comments from European Council President Charles Michel in July, following talks with Aliyev and Pashinyan, in which Michel called for the Lachin corridor to be opened but said both options were “important.”

“These reasons include energy reliance on Azerbaijan,” he added.

According to Reuters, the European Union agreed in July 2022 to double gas imports from Azerbaijan by 2027.

Meanwhile Russia, which brokered the ceasefire in 2020, has peacekeepers along the Lachin corridor but has refrained from intervening further.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing on August 2 that Russia dismissed any claim of inaction against the Russian peacekeepers “as counterproductive and non-reflective of their real contribution to the effort to stabilize the situation on the ground.”

‘Running out of hope’

As co-ordinated international action to end the blockade appears unlikely anytime soon, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are left focusing on short-term solutions: gathering firewood, collecting water and foraging for food.

Next week was meant to be her five-year-old son’s first day of school. Instead, she is wondering how he will survive the winter.

At a UN Security Council meeting in August, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, Vahe Gevorgyan, warned that Azerbaijan’s blockade “has impacted 2,000 pregnant women, around 30,000 children, 20,000 older persons, and 9,000 persons with disabilities.”

“If the blockade does not end soon – more people will starve. I cannot sleep thinking about how I will feed my three sons,” Gharaghazaryan said. “We are all running out of hope. How many more people will have to die before the world takes notice?”

This story has been updated with comment from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

After enduring nearly a month of heartache and anxiety, a dog owner can finally rest after her missing dog was found safely at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Saturday, according to airport officials.

Delta Air Lines passenger Paula Rodriguez’s 6-year-old dog, Maia, was lost in August at the airport, which is considered the busiest in the world.

The airport’s operations team found Maia hiding near the north cargo facilities, according to a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Tired but in apparent good health, she was transported to a vet and is expected to return home soon,” airport officials said.

On August 18, Rodriguez and Maia embarked on a journey from their home in the Dominican Republic to California for a two-week vacation.

With the next flight to Punta Cana scheduled for the following day, Rodriguez faced the distressing reality of spending the night alone in a detention center, separated from her beloved canine companion.

The next day, Rodriguez arrived at her flight’s gate early, eagerly awaiting her reunion with Maia. To her dismay, Maia never arrived.

Unable to remain in the United States for over 24 hours without a visa, Rodriguez was left with no choice but to board her flight to Punta Cana without Maia, an experience that she said triggered a panic attack during her journey home.

“Everyone who knows me knows what she means to me,” Rodriguez said of her beloved pet. “I don’t go anywhere without her. She’s so well behaved that I take her to restaurants, literally everywhere. She’s my partner in everything.”

Despite Rodriguez’s relentless calls to Delta for updates, weeks went by without receiving any new information.

With the cancellation of her tourist visa, Rodriguez sent her mother to Atlanta to join the search efforts in the vast 4,000-acres of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

Her worst fears faded on Saturday when Atlanta Airport officials announced Maia’s discovery three weeks after she was lost.

A small mosque at the heart of the Marrakech Medina in the city’s historical quarter was a treasured place of prayer for the hundreds of traders working at the busy market outside.

Now, it’s off limits.

The mosque, located in the corner of the famous Jemaa el-Fna square, had a beautiful tower which, once adorned with white triangle decoration, has almost entirely collapsed in the powerful earthquake that struck the area on Friday night.

The beautiful building is barely recognizable now. The ornate tower is almost entirely gone – just one bare stump of bricks sticking out of the rubble.

Outside the damaged mosque, local resident Zined Hatimi recalled the terror of Friday night.

Hatimi, 53, slept in a central Marrakech park with her entire family, including little children. She said it got cold at night, so they stayed together.

“Everybody was outside. All of the neighbours, everyone. We don’t want to go inside, everyone is scared, the shaking was so strong,” she said.

The Marrakech Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage site was hit by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Friday, the largest to hit the area in at least 120 years.

The Medina district dates back centuries and is enclosed by walls built of red sandstone. Once defending the city from danger, large parts of these walls have been damaged in the quake. Long sections are showing deep cracks and parts have crumbled.

Many of the old buildings inside the Medina have been damaged and some have collapsed entirely. On Sunday morning, large piles of rubble were dotted around the area, with stray cats scouring them for food. Some sections of the city were cordoned off with fencing as the old building could be at risk of collapse.

Outside Marrakech, the impact of the quake is still emerging. Images showed the 12th Century Tinmal Mosque in the High Atlas mountains had been badly damaged.

The mosque is seen as a prime example of Almohad architecture, referring to the period when Almohads ruled over Morocco as well as parts of Algeria and Spain.

Other buildings in Marrakech appear to have escaped nearly unscathed.

The Kutubiyya mosque, Marrakech’s crown jewel, stood intact on Sunday morning, despite videos showing it shaking violently in the quake.

Away from the historical Medina, in many of the modern parts of Marakkech, the impact was barely noticeable. Cafes and restaurants were getting ready to open on Sunday morning, catering to tourists who decided to stay.

Miami Hurricanes football safety Kamren Kinchens was carted off the field after a tackle attempt during the team’s 48-33 upset victory against No. 23 Texas A&M on Saturday.

The injury happened late in the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium, when Kinchens took a blow to the chest as he attempted to tackle Aggies receiver Ainias Smith. The safety laid motionless after making the tackle.

Players from both teams gathered around the 20-year-old as he was looked at by medical staff. The All-American player was carted off the field following a lengthy delay.

According to ABC’s broadcast of the game, Kinchens was awake and communicating with medical staff as he left the field. He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami.

Miami Hurricanes football head coach Mario Cristobal said in the team’s postgame news conference that tests on Kinchens seemed to be “relatively normal.”

“We’re going to head over there right after I get done with this press conference to see how he’s doing but it seems like we’re going to be fine,” Cristobal said.

At every grand slam this year, Novak Djokovic has had an opportunity to make history, to stamp his authority on the game as unequivocally its best men’s player, to equal or break another record.

He drew level with Rafael Nadal’s 22 grand slam titles at the Australian Open, pulled clear with a men’s record 23 grand slam titles at the French Open, was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final, and now has another chance to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles in the US Open final on Sunday.

Standing in his way is third seed Daniil Medvedev who stunned Alcaraz in the semifinals and who has already defeated Djokovic in a US Open final before, and in straight sets.

Though Medvedev’s game remains perfectly suited to the fast hard courts, he is expecting Djokovic to be “10 times better than he was that day.”

“Against Novak, it’s the same. He is always better than previous time he plays,” Medvedev said, according to the ATP Tour. “For example, I beat him in the US Open final, he beat me in Bercy in a great match. Carlos beat him at Wimbledon, he beat him in Cincinnati. Novak is going to be his best version on Sunday, and I have to be the best-ever version of myself if I want to try to beat him.”

‘Every final could be the last one’

When Djokovic and Medvedev last played each other in a grand slam final, it was the Russian who upset the odds and thwarted Djokovic’s attempt to win a then record 21st slam and complete the first men’s calendar grand slam – winning the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in the same year – since Rod Laver in 1969.

Since winning his first-ever grand slam at that US Open in 2021, Medvedev has come close to winning another, taking a two-set lead in the 2022 Australian Open final against Nadal but eventually succumbed to defeat.

“The challenge is that you play a guy who won 23 grand slams and I have only one,” he said, according to the US Open. “When I beat him here (in the 2021 final), I managed to play better than myself, and I need to do it again. There is no other way.”

At 36, Djokovic could become the oldest man to win the US Open singles title in the Open Era, surpassing the record set by Ken Rosewall in 1970.

“Every Grand Slam final could be the last one,” he told reporters ahead of the final. “Ten years ago, I felt like, ‘Hey, I still have quite a few years ahead of me.’ I don’t know how many I have ahead of me now, or how many years where I [can] play four Slams in the whole season. So I am aware of the occasion.”

It will be Djokovic’s 101st match at the US Open, a tournament which he has won three times already in his career, though not since 2018.

‘You want to fight ‘til the end’

Djokovic has had a relatively straightforward run to the final, aside from surviving a scare in the third round when he found himself two sets down against his compatriot Laslo Djere, he has completed every other match in just three sets, minimizing his time on court as he has swept aside the competition.

It marks a remarkable end to a year in which he has reached the final of every grand slam, adding two more titles to his collection, after a 2022 in which he could not compete in Australia or the USA due to his decision to remain unvaccinated against Covid-19.

For Medvedev, playing in the US Open final caps an impressive hard-court season in which he reached five consecutive finals on the surface and won four titles.

His performance against Alcaraz in the semifinals displayed his powerful serve, shotmaking and tenacity, all marking him as a difficult opponent for Djokovic.

“You want to fight ‘til the end, you want to win,” Medvedev said, according to the ATP. “And that’s how you should be in the final of a grand slam.”

How to watch

The final will begin at 4p ET on Sunday, and viewers in the US can watch all the action on ESPN, while Sky Sports will broadcast the matches in the UK.

As Hurricane Lee fluctuates in intensity over open Atlantic waters, its effects may soon be felt at beaches up and down the East Coast in the form of life-threatening rip currents and dangerous shoreline conditions.

Lee is forecast to continue moving well north of Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, but it will have an impact there and at other Caribbean islands. It remains too early to determine its long-term track for later this week and how significant the impacts could be for northeastern US states, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.

The East Coast, however, is expected to face large swells and rip currents in an increasing manner through this week – much as the Caribbean is being affected now.

“Swells generated by Lee are affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles,” the National Hurricane Center warned Friday night. The British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda also face swells this weekend that can bring life-threatening surf and rip conditions.

Waves breaking at 6 to 10 feet were forecast for Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Larger waves were expected this week along east- and north-facing beaches.

“Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible,” the office posted on social media.

Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed into Category 5 status as it moved west across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.

Vertical wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle – a process that occurs with the majority of long-lived major hurricanes – has since led to the weakening of Lee, the hurricane center said.

Now a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, forecasters expect Lee to regain strength “during the next couple of days, followed by gradual weakening,” the hurricane center said early Sunday. Lee is centered around 280 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands as of 5 a.m. ET Sunday and moving in a west-northwest direction at 9 mph.

Differing scenarios on Lee’s impact

Computer model trends for Lee have shown the hurricane taking a turn to the north early this week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the US.

Several steering factors at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere will determine how close Lee will get to the East Coast.

An area of high pressure over the Atlantic, known as the Bermuda High, will have a major influence on how quickly Lee turns. A strong Bermuda High would keep Lee on its current west-northwestward track and slow it down a bit.

As the high pressure weakens this week, it will allow Lee to start moving northward. Once that turn to the north occurs, the position of the jet stream – strong upper-level winds that can change the direction of a hurricane’s path – will influence how closely Lee is steered to the US.

Scenario: Out to Sea

Lee could make a quick turn to the north early this week if high pressure weakens significantly.

If the jet stream sets up along the East Coast, it will act as a barrier that prevents Lee from approaching the coast. This scenario would keep Lee farther away from the US coast but could bring the storm closer to Bermuda.

Scenario: Close to East Coast

Lee could make a slower turn to the north because the high pressure remains robust, and the jet stream sets up farther inland over the Eastern US. This scenario would leave portions of the East Coast, mainly north of the Carolinas, vulnerable to a much closer approach from Lee.

The inaugural Africa Climate Summit drew to a close on Wednesday, with the host, Kenya’s president William Ruto, saying that a total of $23 billion had been pledged to green projects by governments, investors, development banks and philanthropists.

The summit, which focussed on driving green growth and climate finance solutions, concluded with the “Nairobi Declaration,” a call from African leaders for urgent action on climate change, which included a request for new global taxes on carbon pollution as well as phasing out coal use and ending fossil fuel subsidies.

African heads of state and government warned that many African countries face “disproportionate burdens and risks” from climate change, and called on the global community “to act with urgency” in reducing planet-heating pollution and supporting the continent in addressing the problem.

“Africa is not historically responsible for global warming, but bears the brunt of its effect, impacting lives, livelihoods, and economies,” the leaders said in the joint declaration.

Among the most eye-catching finance announcements, the United Arab Emirates pledged $4.5 billion to clean energy initiatives in Africa. The pledge was announced by Sultan Al-Jaber, the head of the UAE’s national oil company, ADNOC, and the government-owned renewable energy company, Masdar. He will also serve as the president of COP28, the annual UN climate meeting that will take place in Dubai starting in November.

“It is our ambition that this will launch a new transformative partnership to jumpstart a pipeline of bankable clean energy projects in this important continent,” Al-Jaber said, adding that the investment could lead to the generation of 15 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030. Africa’s current clean energy generation capacity is 56 gigawatts.

The initiative marks a positive development, according to Yemi Osinbajo, former vice president of Nigeria and now an advisor for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), a consortium that helps developing countries shift to clean energy.

Germany announced 450 million euros (about $481 million) of climate finance pledges, and and the US pledged $30 million to support climate resilient food security efforts across Africa. Hundreds of millions more were offered following an initiative to boost Africa’s carbon credit production 19-fold by 2030.

Carbon credits are used by companies to offset carbon emissions, and are usually generated by financing projects that aim to reduce carbon pollution in the atmosphere, such as tree planting, or reduce planet-heating pollution by promoting switching to renewable energy, especially in developing countries.

“Carbon credits could be a game-changer for Africa,” said Osinbajo. “They have the potential to unlock billions for the climate finance needs of African economies while expanding energy access, creating jobs, protecting biodiversity, and driving climate action.”

However, campaigners in Nairobi protested against this approach, arguing that carbon credits are flawed and allow wealthy countries and companies to continue to pollute.

A new framing

In the joint declaration, African leaders called upon the global community “to act with urgency in reducing emissions, fulfilling its obligations, keeping past promises, and supporting the continent in addressing climate change.”

They pointed to steps to achieve this, including accelerating efforts to reduce emissions, honoring the commitment to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance as promised at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, and upholding commitments to “a fair and accelerated process of phasing down coal, and abolishment of all fossil fuel subsidies.”

“Decarbonizing the global economy is also an opportunity to contribute to equality and shared prosperity,” the leaders said.

According to Osinbajo, the summit provided a “new framing” of Africa, not as victim, but as a key solution to the climate crisis. He said that “with its untapped renewable energy potential, the world’s youngest and fastest growing workforce, and critical minerals and resources, (Africa) has the fundamentals to become a cost-competitive green industrial hub, greening both African and global consumption and removing carbon from the air.”