Vice President Kamala Harris will be joined on the campaign trail by former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney on Thursday, according to a senior Harris campaign official.
The event in Ripon, Wis.—the town in which the Republican Party was formed in 1854—will be aimed at increasing support for Harris among disenchanted Republicans. It comes less than a month after Cheney, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, endorsed Harris’ presidential bid and called on her fellow Republicans to prioritize the Constitution and accountability in the upcoming election. Harris has said that she was “honored” to have her endorsement.
The event will mark Cheney’s first appearance with Harris on the campaign trail. During her remarks, Harris plans to deliver a message that champions patriotism and the importance of putting country over party, the campaign official says, appealing to both Republican and independent voters who may feel alienated by Trump.
Harris will also highlight the historical significance of Ripon and the roots of the traditional GOP, emphasizing that while there may be differences in policy, her dedication to upholding the Constitution and fundamental American principles remains steadfast, according to the official. She also plans to denounce any calls to undermine the Constitution, asserting that those who threaten its integrity should be barred from holding office.
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Cheney, who represented Wyoming in Congress for six years before she lost in the GOP primary to a Trump-backed candidate, has emerged as one of the most prominent anti-Trump Republicans in the country, positioning herself as a leader of a growing faction of Republicans who reject Trump’s approach and seek to restore traditional conservative values. While in Congress, she co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, drawing Trump’s ire and straining her relationship with the far-right wing of her party.
“I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney said last month to students in North Carolina. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Her father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, announced he would also be supporting Harris, calling it a duty to “put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.”
Their support for Harris is echoed by a number of other Republicans who have chosen to endorse Harris over Trump, including former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and more than 200 people who worked for President George W. Bush, former Arizona Sen. John McCain, and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence have said they will not be voting for Trump.
SWANAGE has been named one of the best caravanning spots in the country thanks to its Blue Flag beach, colourful beach huts and steam railway.
Known as The Caravanning Mummy, travel expert, and mum-of-two, Rachel shares travel tips and destination guides on Instagram, including the best places to go on a caravan holiday in the UK.
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A caravan expert has named Swanage as their favourite caravan spot in the southwestCredit: Alamy
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Rachel, who is known as the Caravanning Mummy, has been going on caravan holidays for the last five yearsCredit: THE CARAVANNING MUMMY
Rachel purchased her caravan back in 2019, with her family spending the school holidays and weekends exploring the UK in their Bailey Of Bristol Phoenix 650 caravan.
The mum-of-two started holidaying in Dorset in the 1990s with her parents and has spent the last few years returning to her childhood haunts with her own kids.
And she recently named Swanage as her favourite caravanning destination in the southwest.
She told Sun Online Travel: “Swanage is the quintessential British seaside town. It’s got Punch and Judy shows, colourful beach huts, Blue Flag Beaches and Corfe Castle. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
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“Swanage is such a brilliant staycation location because it takes adults back to their childhood visits with old-timey beach attractions.
“I just think it’s a brilliant little place. While it’s not necessarily unknown, it is just a very special place.”
One of the top attractions in the coastal town is the Swanage Railway – a full-size steam train that ferries passengers from Norden to Swanage, passing sites like Corfe Castle.
Swanage Railway runs themed experiences throughout the year, including a Polar Express service and a Spooky service.
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Adult return tickets start from £18, with children’s tickets coming in at £9 for a return.
There are several beaches in and around Swanage for holidaymakers to visit like the Blue Flag Swanage Beach, which is known for its fine sand, cleanliness and amenities.
Best of British: The Sun’s Travel Editor Lisa Minot reveals her favourite caravan cooking tips
Other nearby beaches include Studland Beach.
Back by a wildlife reserve, Studland Beach is regarded as one of the finest beaches in the country.
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There’s also Chapman’s Pool, a small cove that’s similar to Lulworth Cove, and Sandbanks Beach.
Located in Poole, Sandbanks Beach has held its Blue Flag status for the last 35 years and is known for its golden sand and crystal-clear waters.
Facilities at the beach include toilets, showers, a beach cafe, a mini golf course and a beach volleyball net.
Swanage Pier is another popular attraction in the seaside town.
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The pier is popular with divers because it’s one of the few sheltered sea diving sites on the south coast.
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Rachel likes the sense of nostalgia in Swanage with its colourful beach huts and Punch and Judy showsCredit: Alamy
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Swanage Railway Line is a top attraction in the townCredit: Alamy
Entry onto the pier costs £2 for an adult, with a £5 charge for any adult who wants to dive under the wooden structure.
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Holidaymakers can hire equipment from Divers Down – the oldest diving school in the UK.
Other attractions include Swanage Museum, Prince Albert Gardens and the chalk hills on Purbeck Heritage Coast.
Even though it’s a village in its own right, Corfe Castle is another must for holidaymakers visiting Swanage, with Rachel adding: “Corfe Castle is brilliant for my boys – and kids in general – because they can run around the ruins of a castle and pretend to be knights.”
Located halfway between Wareham and Swanage, the skyline of the Dorset village is dominated by the remains of Corfe Castle.
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Built by William the Conqueror and partially demolished in 1646 during the English Civil War, Corfe Castle attracts visitors from all over the world.
Managed by the National Trust, entry costs £12 for an adult and £6 for a child.
There are loads of places to grab fish and chips in Swanage, including the Village Inn, the Fish Plaice, which has been running since the 1970s, Harlees Fish and Chips Swanage and the Hungry Shark, to name a few.
Swanage has plenty of pubs too like the Black Swan Inn, the White Horse Inn Swanage and the Ship Inn.
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Later this month, Rachel will be sharing more Dorset caravanning tips at the Motorhome & Caravan Show at the NEC in Birmingham.
Rachel’s Favourite Campsites in Swanage
IN THE last five years, Rachel and her family have stayed at three campsites in Swanage – here’s what they’re like…
Haycraft Club Campsite Located near Harmans Cross Train Station, holidaymakers can board a train on the Swanage Railway line to reach Swanage. The site is currently closed for refurbishment but is set to reopen in March. Touring pitches start from £17 per pitch.
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Hunter’s Moon Club Campsite Set in Wareham, Hunter’s Moon Club Campsite is slightly further afield with holidaymakers needing to drive to reach the seaside. Touring pitches start from £15.60 per night.
Norden Farm Campsite The family-run campsite is Rachel’s favourite place to bag a pitch in Dorset because it is also a working farm, adding a touch of rural and rustic charm. Located on the Wareham-Swanage Road just outside of Corfe Castle, the campsite is close to famous beaches like Studland and Sandbanks. The site is open until October 31 – depending on the weather. Touring pitches start from £23.
FT Weekend editor Janine Gibson. Picture: Financial Times
When Press Gazette suggested we take FT Weekend editor Janine Gibson to our local Wetherspoons for a “Lunch with the FT”-style interview – emphasising she could have free range on the menu – we were met with a polite counterproposal from the press office.
There are two rules for Lunch with the FT: the guest chooses the restaurant and the FT pays the bill. Perhaps, in the spirit of the now 30-year-old format, we might allow Gibson to choose the venue?
Her choice was The Quality Chop House, a charming, wood-panelled Victorian restaurant in Clerkenwell, north London.
“It used to be such a dump around here,” she says, recalling her days working at the old Guardian offices around the corner, but says the Chop House was always a bright spot. “It’s one of the few restaurants that, when it changes hands, it’s still a really nice thing.”
Lunch with the FT is published on the weekend, which makes it Gibson’s responsibility, and during her tenure the paper has carried lunch interviews with the likes of Elon Musk, Liz Truss and Anna Wintour.
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The waitress asks whether we’d like anything to drink. There is a pause.
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I’m cautious here: I have work to do after this, for one thing, but more importantly I don’t want to make an arse out of myself in front of someone with a Wikipedia page. I respectfully place the ball in Gibson’s court.
“I can’t say ‘no, you can’t drink’ because I always moan when people are too boring,” she says. “Our recurring beef is that people are too sensible now to have a glass of wine.”
We order a glass each of the second cheapest white wine on the menu: a bright, juicy 2020 Dominio de Punctum Lagasca Viognier.
“The business lunch is back,” Gibson pronounces. “People are starting to realise, in this highly automated age, that business lunches form bonds and relationships.
“Like, we’re pals now – it’d be very hard for us to just stitch one another up in print.”
Much of the most recent issue, she says, “is taken up with the rituals, benefits and terrible, terrible downsides of drinking at lunchtime.”
People don’t have to drink for Lunch with the FT, of course, but Gibson says “part of the charm and joy is those moments when people lose inhibition”.
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Gibson refers, as an example, to an infamously negroni-propelled lunch the FT had with the poet Gavin Ewart in 1995.
Ewart’s wife rang his FT interviewer Nigel Spivey the following day, telling him: “There are two things you need to know. The first is that Gavin came home yesterday happier than I have seen him in a long time. The second – and you are not to feel bad about this – is that he died this morning.”
Gibson says: “It’s obviously childish to think that’s cool and funny. Obviously very reprehensible and terrible. Awful!
“And yet it is kind of cool and funny.”
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How to write a Lunch with the FT
I ask Gibson whether she has any advice for me about conducting this lunch.
“Well obviously, in this situation, you don’t need to make much of an effort at all,” she says. “We’ll just have a lovely chat and you should just write some nice things about the FT.”
But she’s good enough to offer some specifics anyway. “It’s a good idea to have three check-ins through the piece about the restaurant”, for example, as well as another two about the food itself. “You must write about the food or the readers will kick off.”
Do not, however, “be mean about anyone that works here”.
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A perfect Lunch with the FT guest has had “three acts” to their career, Gibson says. Those very few people who have had two FT lunches – she mentions Henry Kissinger and Christine Lagarde – “had a whole other act” after their first encounter with the paper.
She says she’s “wary” of lunches with serving chief executives or senior politicians.
“If you have somebody that’s too powerful they’re so limited in what they can say. If they speak too often, it’s very hard to get something new out of them.”
The ideal, she says, “is somebody who has just left or is just about to leave a very significant job”.
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The waitress returns for our order. We both go for the set menu, which that week comprises a sweetcorn soup with bacon and maple syrup, Cotswold Gold chicken with chasseur sauce and a salted caramel brownie with clotted cream. We add bread to accompany the soup and, on Gibson’s recommendation, sides of cod roe and confit potatoes.
“I’d been very, very nervous. I read like three books about them” – although in the event, she says, “they were so kind!”
I have not, regrettably, read three books about Janine Gibson – although she comes up frequently in “Breaking News”, a half-autobiographical book that I have read by her former boss at The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger.
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Gibson edited The Guardian in the US as it reported its Pulitzer-winning stories about whistlebower Edward Snowden and surveillance by the NSA, an episode that figures prominently in Rusbridger’s book.
“I haven’t read that,” she says. “I think it’s really bad manners to read your former boss’s book, because all you do is go ‘that’s not what happened’ and then there would be dispute. It’s his story, let him write it!”
The Snowden affair, she says, was “enough attention for a lifetime”.
I ask if Gibson would ever write a book and get a flat, repeated no.
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“Honestly, my main goal is to get out of journalism without causing any further scandal.”
Gibson says the best Lunches with the FT feel “like a real conversation”.
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“I really love it when the readers say ‘I felt like I was there.’
“I don’t mind when they say: ‘Why on Earth have you had lunch with this one?’, because I take that as a compliment that they think it’s such an honour to bestow.”
The readers “feel a lot of ownership” over Lunch with the FT, Gibson says, but “I never think ‘how dare you’ – I always think ‘how lovely that you care’”. Some readers, particularly those who get FT Weekend in print, tell her they spend a week with the interview.
“One of them cost the FT a fortune and the other one – Henry is so clearly very drunk…
“I think if you read those two carefully, you can see everything that you need to know about how to do a Lunch with the FT. They are” – she mimes doing a chef’s kiss.
Scott Thomas, she says, “so obviously terrifies” Mance, while she enjoyed the Wintour interview “because Anna was so on brand that she managed to take a format which has only two rules and ignore both of them”. (Wintour procured the table for the interview, at London’s Ritz hotel, and ate nothing, opting instead for a bottle of San Pellegrino.)
Often, Gibson says, they come up with interviewees by asking FT staff to identify “the most interesting person on their patch”.
“That’s how you get the right mix of politically relevant [and] culturally fun.”
The whole Lunches archive is yet to surface: Gibson says they are “quite hard to find” in the old clippings. The Lunch that saw off poet Ewart in 1995, for example, does not appear to be available online.
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‘You can’t say it’s all very good. What do you think of the combination of flavours?’
The soup arrives, along with the still-warm bread and cod roe. Gibson instructs that I need to “put in a bit of colour about the food” and I ramble a note for later toward the dictaphone, mentioning that it’s “all very good”.
“You can’t say it’s all very good, Bron. What do you think of the combination of flavours?”
(Surprising: I’ve not had a sweetcorn soup before, let alone a soup that features maple syrup, but the sweetness is punctuated nicely by the bacon lardons.)
“Yes, and you notice that I’ve eaten all of mine very quickly.”
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I ask who the FT is still chasing for lunch. They’ve had a few US presidents, she says, but not Obama yet. She’d like to do Rupert Murdoch – or indeed any Murdoch: “I just really think that he would like to talk with us and we’re available at any time.”
She adds that “personally – for me, just for me, as a little treat before I die – I want to do Jeremy Clarkson.
“He’s fascinating and incredibly talented and misunderstood and also very well-understood. I find the body of work extraordinary and almost unique and, I think, under-appreciated. That’s my most controversial opinion.”
There are others she wants to do, Gibson adds, but “I’m not going to tell because of the number of imitations – pallid imitations! – that there are out there”.
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Around the time the chicken lands the waitress asks if we would like more wine. We again stare at each other in silence. This time I take the initiative: yes, we will. The chicken is accompanied by the crisp confit potatoes which, true to Gibson’s recommendation, steal the bird’s scene somewhat.
‘I think print will outlast me and you’
The print version of the FT has come up several times over this lunch, and I ask whether Gibson believes in the longevity of the medium – and indeed whether a long-form interview format like Lunch with the FT will survive the consumption changes heralded by the likes of Tiktok and Instagram. FT Weekend sells around 60,000 copies per week at £5.10 each and the Financial Times in general boasts more than one million paying digital subscribers.
“I think print will outlast me and you,” she says. “If you look at your Enders Analysis or whatever they’ll tell you the same thing.”
She says weekly print products, specifically, have room to run.
“Ten, 15 years ago, people would say all the time: ‘Oh, I worry so much for access to quality information in the digital era and all the good stuff will be behind expensive journals at The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times or whatever.
“But actually new things pop up all the time. That’s the way the communications industry is – if everything gets too closed up, then something new will pop up for the young people, like Buzzfeed or Vice or whatever in their heyday.” This point is perhaps somewhat undermined by the sign of the cross Gibson makes following her mention of Buzzfeed: she was editor of Buzzfeed News in the UK from 2015 to 2019, helping it win a clutch of awards before it closed in 2023.
The real threat to Lunch with the FT, she says, “is this thorny question of drinking at lunchtime”.
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‘This interview is a disaster’
As I just about see away the generously-portioned brownie dessert it comes time to pay.
The FT press office had suggested the bill be split down the middle – Gibson, however, is having none of that and springs for the reader with her company card. The rule is, to be fair, that the FT pays, but I am nonetheless presently in contact with the PRs about Monzo-ing them £60.
The waitress leaves us two cubes of fudge as a parting treat: I eat mine, Gibson leaves hers.
Gibson mentions in an off-hand comment that, after five years there, she is “relatively new to the FT”.
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Is that not quite a long time?
“I think we’re a cradle-to-grave employer.”
Asked whether she would stay at the FT until the end of her career, she laughs that “it’s very indelicate to refer to a lady’s age, Bron”.
She will remain at the FT, she says, “as long as they will have me. It’s a wonderful publication and a real privilege to have a bit of time at it.
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“I genuinely think I have the best job in journalism. I try to keep it very quiet – this interview is a disaster.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Ghana will exit a debt default after the west African nation completed a restructuring of $13bn in US dollar bonds, paving the way for a return to global capital markets almost two years after an economic crisis forced it to suspend debt repayments.
Almost all bondholders voted to exchange their bonds for new debt worth $4.7bn less, lowering Ghana’s debt bill by more than $4bn in the next two years, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
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“Today, our economy has turned a corner,” President Nana Akufo-Addo, who is stepping down in the elections after two terms, said in a statement. “We’ve accomplished what everyone said was impossible — we decisively resolved Ghana’s debt overhang problem.”
Ghana is the latest country to finish a debt restructuring this year as investors and governments come to the end of a series of often protracted talks to resolve a wave of sovereign defaults that followed the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ukraine finalised a wartime restructuring of $20bn in debt in September after just four months of talks. But Zambia, which like Ghana used a G20-endorsed “common framework” for poor countries to deal with creditors, had to wait four years for lenders to finally agree terms this year.
Last month Sri Lanka reached a deal in principle for bondholders to restructure nearly $13bn of bonds just before elections, more than two years after it defaulted. Ethiopia has also launched creditor talks.
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Ghana’s bond exchange finalises a deal agreed in principle in June, and means the country will be out of default before general elections in December.
Rampant inflation and the Ghanaian cedi’s collapse against the US dollar after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine led Ghana into a $3bn IMF bailout that required talks with its major creditors to reduce the debt.
As a result of the economic crisis, the gold and oil producer that was once one of the continent’s fastest-growing countries was overtaken by Ivory Coast as west Africa’s second-biggest economy after Nigeria.
The IMF has projected that Ghana’s gross public debt will fall below 80 per cent of GDP next year, down from nearly 100 per cent in 2022. Ghanaians were still battling annual inflation of more than 21 per cent as of last month.
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The legacy of the financial turmoil will be a key factor in the December elections, which will pit Akufo-Addo’s vice-president Mahamudu Bawumia against John Mahama, a former president.
Ethiopia is the next big G20 common framework case to be negotiated after Ghana. But talks to restructure a $1bn bond that fell into default last year have quickly become acrimonious.
On Thursday a bondholder committee said that an 18 per cent haircut on the bond that Ethiopia’s government floated with investors this week was “wholly inconsistent” with economic fundamentals.
The committee also criticised what it said was “the lack of transparency” over Ethiopia’s dealings with official creditors.
Now sellers using the marketplace can take home more money when they flog secondhand items including CDs, books, toys and furniture.
Before the change, private sellers had to pay an enormous fee of 13.22% when selling items on eBay.
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These included a 12.8% “final value” fee plus 30p per order and 0.42% “regulatory operating” fee.
For a seller listing a chest of drawers worth £20 the change would save them £2.94 in fees.
Top tips for selling on eBay
NEW to eBay? It’s head of secondhand, Emma Grant, reveals how to optimise your listings:
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Use key words – eBay automatically filters listing titles for key words, so it’s crucial to use the terminology people search for – especially brand and product names.
Choose the right category for your product – It might sound obvious but it’s important to always choose the most specific category to sell in.
Pictures are important – Most users will not bid on items they cannot see. For best results, take photos in natural light against a neutral background and be honest about any scratches or damage to the item.
Be as detailed as possible – Be honest about the condition of the product and be sure to note any wear and tear.
Look at past sold items– eBay has a function that allows you to search for the item you want to sell and then filter the results by sold items. Here, you can view the price the item has sold for and get insight into how others have listed it.
Selling Sundays – Get the timing right. The busiest time for buyers is Sunday evenings, so schedule your listings to end around that time. Opt for seven-day auctions to ensure the max number of bids. The longer your item is listed, the more chance of people seeing it, so unless it’s time-sensitive, pick seven days. December is the busiest month on eBay.
Be realistic with pricing – Try searching for similar items on eBay, to make sure you’re going for the right price and always ask yourself “would I pay this price for this item?”
Donate to charity – When listing your item, consider donating a percentage of the sale to a cause of your choice – from 10% to 100% – you can donate the funds raised from your item straight from the platform.
They will now take home the full £20 instead of the previous £17.06.
For items worth just one or two pounds the fee changes will have an even greater impact.
This is because previously there was a fixed 30p element to how the final value fee was calculated.
On a £3 transaction, this would be equal to 10% of the seller’s total profit, without including the other elements of the fees.
It comesjust months after eBay slashed fees to sell secondhand clothes on its website in a bid to compete with other platforms including Vinted and Depop.
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Here are Joseph’s top tips for making money on eBay.
Do your research
The eBay king recommends carefully researching the product you are selling – and taking a simple screenshot can mean bagging a buyer willing to pay more.
He said: “Try to find the highest original Recommended Retail Price (RRP) online, take a screenshot of this, and add it to the eBay photos.
The RRP is the price a manufacturer suggests a retailer should sell a product for, but in some cases they can charge higher or lower.
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Joesph said by showing customers the highest RRP they can see how much they are saving if they bought it somewhere else.
Cause a stir
To make sure your product stands out Joseph said to list your items as “Buy it Now/Best Offer”’.
By listing your product as “Buy it Now” it means customers can snap it up immediately for a fixed price that you as the seller have decided on.
Alternatively, you can list it as “Best Offer” which allows sellers to invite buyers to negotiate the price of an item.
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For example, you can list an item for £60 but be open to offers either higher or lower.
“This allows customers to quickly purchase your product, rather than waiting for an auction to end, which they might forget to bid on,” he said.
You can set your preferences to automatically accept or decline offers of a certain amount, and use the counteroffer feature to negotiate with prospective buyers.
The counteroffer allows sellers to come back with a different price than the buyer offered.
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For example, if someone offers £40 for an item you can go back and suggest they pay £50.
The buyer has 48 hours to accept the new offer from the seller.
Ensure your item is looking the best
Joseph said it is important to know your audience and provide lots of pictures of the item you’re selling to ensure you make a sale.
He said: “Take the maximum number of photos you can upload and a video if necessary, so the customer can see all angles.”
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The pro also said sellers should describe any defects to demonstrate that “you’re an honest seller, and provide a clear and engaging description”.
He added: “Understand the product and the type of customer it will attract – listings for a piece of art should be more detailed than those for an IKEA chair.”
Use keywords
When listing an item sellers should also consider using keywords to make their product stand out.
“The eBay title is crucial, especially the first four words, as they affect the algorithm,” Joesph said.
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“Make sure to use relevant keywords first and use the entire space available for the title.”
When doing this sellers should pick three to five keywords that relate closely to their item.
Ask yourself what words people are likely to use in a search engine when looking for what you’re selling.
For example, if you are selling a dress from a specific brand make sure you use that in your title.
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Once you have these keywords, use them appropriately in your listing title and item description.
You should make sure that you do not make any typos in keywords or listing titles as this can stop customers from finding your product.
eBay is not the only platform you can sell your goods on.
The Sun recently shared top tricks and tips for how to make your items stand out on Vinted.
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You can read more about this by clicking the link here.
Nancy Berry tried to rescue her family mementos from the floods – but much of it was lost
Days after a tropical storm inundated parts of North Carolina with catastrophic flooding, leaving scores dead and hundreds more missing, entire communities are beginning to come to terms with devastating losses and, for some, narrow escapes.
For over 40 years, Nancy Berry’s trailer in the town of Boone was her mountain oasis and her family’s homestead.
It was where she created memories with family and friends, and where she preserved the memories of those lost. Her mother died in the same trailer.
But it took just a matter of hours for Hurricane Helene to wash it all away.
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Now, the 77-year-old is trying to salvage what remains. On her bed, still soaked from the floods, she’s placed mementos of who she was, and where she came from.
On top of the pile, her son’s death certificate from when he died of Covid three years ago.
“I grabbed it and laid it out,” she told the BBC. “I’ve got to protect my family’s history. A lot of it is lost though.”
Ms Berry’s trailer in Boone was washed away in a matter of hours
It was Ms Berry’s great-niece who saved her, helping her wade through three to four feet of water.
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“They kept calling me – thank God for the cell phones. You never know, a long time ago, what would have happened,” Ms Berry recalled.
When her great-niece arrived, she found Ms Berry trying to save some of her belongings by putting them up high.
“Aunt Nanny. Come on. Get out. Get out,” she called out.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Ms Berry replied. She grabbed her purse, handing it to her great-niece, who carried it over her head while helping Ms Berry to safety.
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“She’s strong and she was just pushing me, pulling and that water was – ,” Ms Berry, said, shuddering. “It was not a nice moment.”
As flood water levels rose, others on her street had to be rescued by boat.
Ms Berry’s hometown is a relatively quiet place tucked between the mountains, with a population of about 20,000.
Its landscape is marked by creeks and rivers that flow beneath towering green trees rising into the clouds.
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It’s also home to Appalachian State University, which has converted one of its facilities into an emergency shelter for the storm-stricken.
Ms Berry shows where floodwaters reached during the peak of the storm
Communities like this one can be fairly isolated – built off a dirt road on a mountainside. Such features add to Boone’s beauty – but also its vulnerability.
Two people are reported by local outlets to have died in the surrounding Watauga County.
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Western North Carolina, located more than 300 miles (482km) from the ocean, is no stranger to storms, said Kathie Dello, a climate expert at North Carolina State University.
Six people died when a tropical storm caused “catastrophic” flooding in nearby Carusoe – but nothing like this, she said. At least 180 people are now known to have died. More than 600 are still unaccounted for. Thousands are without power, and fresh water supplies are dwindling.
The government has deployed 6,000 National Guard members and 4,800 federal aid workers to the region, but many have criticised the response, saying that the bulk of rescue efforts have been left up to volunteers.
“We were cut off from [the outside world] for about three days,” said Kennie McFee, the fire chief for Green Valley.
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“Here, it was mainly neighbours helping neighbours.”
Ms Berry’s trailer park in Boone was almost entirely destroyed
The cities of Boone and Asheville were hard hit, but remote communities located deep within the Appalachian Mountains are also seriously struggling, Diello told the BBC.
Even before the storm, mobile reception and Wi-Fi was patchy. Poverty and rough, rural roads have added to the difficulties people have faced getting out.
“A lot of times people say ‘well, why didn’t they leave?’,” Diello said. “Well maybe you can’t afford a tank of gas, and how many nights in a hotel in a safer place? Maybe you know you can’t leave your family, maybe you can’t leave your job.”
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In Green Valley, a woman, who did not want the BBC to use her name, said that five days after the storm she still had no power and no communication with the outside world.
Her only functioning device was a battery powered antenna radio that she said was decades-old.
“If you’re raised in the mountains, you’ll cope,” she said.
While talking with the BBC, a car pulled up to bring her news of her family that lived down the road. She hadn’t seen or heard from them since the storm hit.
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“They were all okay, another thank you, Lord,” she said.
Although she recalled bad storms, the woman said she’d never seen anything like Helene.
Less than a five-minute walk from where she stood in her driveway, another house was completely flattened.
“God is getting people’s attention. He really is getting people’s attention, not just here, but it’s everywhere,” she said. “But I really think it’s just, it’s to let us know who’s in control.”
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A home located nearby the woman who told the BBC she only recently discovered her family was alive
Nicole Rojas, 25, moved to her remote home up the mountain in Vilas, North Carolina not long ago from nearby Tennessee, where she had lived, in her own words, “off grid”.
“I kind of wish I would have stuck to my lifestyle a little bit, because I always had drinking water, showering water, food,” she told the BBC, while looking for supplies in Boone.
Now, she and her roommates, who include a 54-year-old woman named Karen, Karen’s 74-year-old mother and a family with young children, will likely be without power for weeks, she heard, with the only way in and out a single-lane, tree-strewn road.
“The only reason I was even able to step out was from the gentlemen in the community taking out their chainsaws and their tractors and moving all the trees,” she said.
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Ms Rojas had been at home on Friday, when the storm struck the mountain. On Sunday, after her neighbours spent all of Saturday clearing the road, she and Karen ventured out to town. Karen, who amid the chaos of the storm had suffered a life-threatening allergy attack after being stung by an insect, brought supplies back to their house.
Ms Rojas, meanwhile, stayed in Boone with friends, so that she could go to work at a local health store. She plans to return home, with more supplies, on Wednesday.
It was at work when it all finally hit her, after hearing the story of another customer.
“She had to drive by a truck that was picking up, that had like, dead bodies on there, and she started crying,” she recalled. “And that’s when I just broke down.”
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“You hear everyone’s horror stories about how, like, literally their entire house just slid down the mountain.”
“I feel like I just survived the apocalypse.”
Green Valley Fire Chief Kennie McFee says there almost no wifi or cell reception in his community
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Eurozone house prices have risen for the first time in more than a year, according to official statistics that suggest lower mortgage rates are fuelling a recovery in the region’s property market.
House prices in the currency union increased 1.3 per cent in the second quarter from the same period a year ago, according to datapublished by Eurostat on Thursday. The growth follows four consecutive quarters of annual contractions.
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Demand in the European property market plunged as the cost of home loans increased from early 2022. But mortgage rates have declined this year on expectations that the European Central Bank would cut interest rates. The ECB’s key deposit rate stands at 3.5 per cent after it reduced rates in June and September, with investors anticipating another quarter-point cut next month.
“Eurozone house prices are beginning to finally recover,” said Tomasz Wieladek, chief European economist at investment company T Rowe Price, adding that “mortgage affordability has improved significantly” as a result of a resilient labour market and a large rise in disposable income as energy prices have fallen.
Franziska Biehl, an economist at ING, said that in addition to lower mortgage rates, the residential property sector’s recovery was supported by higher salaries. Wages are growing at a faster rate than inflation, according to official statistics.
Separate figures released on Wednesday by the ECB showed that the average mortgage rate on new deals declined to 3.7 per cent in August from more than 4 per cent last November. The average was 1.3 per cent in January 2022.
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The ECB began raising rates from 2022 in response to a surge in inflation, pushing up mortgage costs. However, Eurozone inflation fell to 1.8 per cent in September, dropping below the ECB’s medium-term target of 2 per cent for the first time in three years and paving the way for more interest rate cuts.
Compared with the previous quarter, Eurozone property prices were up 1.8 per cent in the three months to June, the fastest quarterly increase in two years, Eurostat data showed. In the hard-hit German housing market, which has suffered seven quarters of contraction, house prices rose 1.3 per cent quarter on quarter. House prices in Europe’s largest economy are still 12 per cent from their 2022 peak despite the latest rebound, and fell 2.6 per cent from the same period a year ago.
Above-average annual price increases were reported in many markets, with the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal all reporting price growth near 8 per cent in the second quarter. Annual prices rose 10 per cent in Croatia, the currency bloc’s newest member.
House prices also returned to growth in Italy, where they have lagged behind the region’s average over the past five years.
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However, French house prices were 4.6 per cent below their levels a year ago.
Andrew Kenningham, economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said further price rises would be modest as lower ECB borrowing costs were already reflected in mortgage rates and the wider economic backdrop for the Eurozone was “poor”.
“We don’t expect house prices to surge,” he said. “Germany is struggling with declining competitiveness and France [is] facing a period of austerity.”
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