Wednesday morning news - July 7, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Elsa bears down on Florida » Elsa is roaring into Florida today, bending palm trees along the Gulf Coast with strong winds and sideways rain.

Philippe Papin with the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday that Tropical Storm Elsa was intensifying.

PAPIN: We are forecasting it now to be a minimal hurricane - or 75 mile per hour maximum sustained winds by landfall.

In addition to damaging winds and heavy rains, forecasters warned of life-threatening storm surges, flooding and isolated tornadoes.

The National Hurricane Center on Tuesday issued a Hurricane warning for a long stretch of coastline from the mouth of Tampa Bay up through Florida's Big Bend area.

The storm sideswiped the Tampa Bay area late last night on its way up the Florida coast.

Elsa is expected to push into Georgia later today, then into the Carolinas, likely as a tropical depression.

Death toll rises with no signs of life in rubble of Fla. condo collapse » Meantime in South Florida, the death toll from a condo collapse in Surfside rose once more. Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Lavine Cava…

CAVA: Through the team’s ongoing efforts, we have recovered four additional victims. The number of confirmed deaths is now 32.

More than a hundred people are still missing. And officials overseeing the search sound increasingly somber.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said as search crews gain access to new parts of the wreckage, they’re finding no new signs of life.

COMINSKY: The key things we were looking for all throughout in regard to void space, livable spaces, you know, we're not coming across that.

Crews in yellow helmets and blue jumpsuits dug through the rubble for a 13th day. Some could be seen lugging pickaxes and power saws through piles of concrete.

Wind and rain from the outer bands of Elsa complicated search efforts, but did not interfere as greatly as originally feared.

Company at center of ransomware attack speaks out » The Miami-based company Kaseya is speaking out after hackers exploited its software in the biggest ransomware attack on record. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The company said so far it appears that between 800 and 1,500 mostly small businesses were compromised. Those were customers of companies that use Kaseya’s software to manage IT infrastructure.

But some cybersecurity experts note that victims are still being identified and could total more than 1,500.

The Russia-linked REvil gang is suspected in the attack carried out on Friday night before the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The attack hit a broad array of businesses around the world, including in financial services, travel and leisure, and the public sector.

President Biden said he ordered a “deep dive” by U.S. intelligence into the attack and that the U.S. would respond if it determines the Kremlin is involved.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Biden urges Americans to get vaccinated as variant spreads » Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, President Biden delivered remarks on the COVID-19 pandemic after vaccinations fell short of his July 4th target.

The president again urged those who are not already vaccinated to get the shots.

BIDEN: Millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected. And because of that their communities are at risk. Their friends are at risk. The people they care about are at risk. This is an even bigger concern because of the delta variant.

He added that the variant is already responsible for more than half of all cases in some parts of the United States. And that share is on the rise.

Back in May, the White House announced its goal to have 70 percent of U.S. adults vaccinated by the Fourth of July.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the self-imposed deadline has passed but the 70 percent threshold is in sight.

PSAKI: We’re continuing to press to reach it and we will in the next couple of weeks for adults over the age of 18. But the work doesn’t stop there, and we are going to continue to press to get 12 to 18 year olds vaccinated.

Abou 67 percent of adults have received at least one shot, with less than 60 percent fully vaccinated.

Russian plane crashes, killing 28 » A Russian passenger plane crashed on Tuesday, killing nearly 30 people. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The A-N-26 propeller carrying 22 passengers and six crew members when it went down shortly before its expected landing in the Russian Far East region of Kamchatka.

The plane was only about six miles away from the airport when it disappeared from radar. No word yet on the cause of the crash.

The airplane has been in operation since 1992. The plane’s owner, Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise, says it was in good shape and technically sound.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the crash.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I'm Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org.

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