Emergency services attending scenes after receiving multiple reports of an explosion, according to US media
A fire broke out at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery, California governor Gavin Newsom’s press office said, with a county official adding that the flames had been confined to one area.
The cause of the blaze was not clear, the Los Angeles Times reported, while CBS said firefighters were called to the refinery in Los Angeles county after reports of an explosion.
Continue reading...The Trump administration ultimately gave the King a replica sword on the president’s recent state visit
The Eisenhower Presidential Library’s director has exited his position after advocating against giving a sword from the collection to King Charles as a gift during Donald Trump’s recent state visit, according to US media reports on Thursday.
Todd Arrington left his post on Monday after being told to “resign or be fired”, he told CBS News, which did not specify who had relayed the message to the historian.
Continue reading...Abortion rights supporters hail win for evidence-backed medicine as Evita Solutions’ generic version of mifepristone given approval
In a move that has left anti-abortion advocates reeling, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly approved a request to manufacture a new abortion pill earlier this week.
Thanks to the approval, a company called Evita Solutions will be able to manufacture its generic version of mifepristone, one of two drugs typically used in most US medication abortions. A generic version of mifepristone, which was first approved as a brand-name drug in 2000, is already available on the market.
Continue reading...Valuables were being transported in 1715 from American colonies when a hurricane wrecked a Spanish fleet
Hidden beneath the turquoise waters off a stretch of Florida known as the “treasure coast”, a team of divers from a shipwreck salvage company have uncovered exactly that – a load of long-lost Spanish treasure they estimate is worth $1m.
More than 1,000 silver and gold coins thought to be minted in the Spanish colonies where Bolivia, Mexico and Peru now sit were uncovered this summer off Florida’s Atlantic coast, 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC announced this week.
Continue reading...According to one report, each week of shutdown could cost up to $7bn, with another suggesting a $15bn loss in GDP
Senior officials inside Donald Trump’s administration have acknowledged the federal government shutdown, without an end in sight, could hurt the US economy. The damage could be worth billions of dollars each week, according to analysts.
“This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP,” Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told the CNBC financial news network. “We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth and a hit to working America.”
Continue reading...Resurfaced clip from Dead End: Paranormal Park led Musk to encourage his followers to cancel their subscriptions
Elon Musk, the multibillionaire and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, has in recent days trained his attention on getting people to cancel their Netflix subscriptions in protest of what he claims is the company’s “woke bias” and inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters.
Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth of approximately $500bn, has repeatedly encouraged his 227 million followers on X, the platform he controls, to cancel their Netflix subscriptions. In the past three days alone, he has posted or reposted calls to cancel Netflix for its content at least 26 times.
Continue reading...During speech in Sochi, Russian president also strikes conciliatory note towards Donald Trump
Vladimir Putin has vowed to quickly retaliate against Europe’s “escalating militarisation”, while dismissing as “nonsense” western fears that Moscow plans to attack Nato.
During a wide-ranging speech in Sochi on Thursday, the Russian president said: “We are closely monitoring the escalating militarisation of Europe … We simply cannot ignore what is happening. We have no right to do so for reasons of our own security.”
Continue reading...Former One Direction members to reunite for docuseries set on the road in US after death of bandmate Liam Payne
Former One Direction members Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson are set to reunite for a Netflix road trip series.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the docuseries will follow the pair as they travel across the US. The show will be directed by Nicola Marsh, who was also behind the Demi Lovato documentary Child Star.
Continue reading...Ábrego, who was deported to El Salvador in March before being returned to the US, has 30 days to appeal ruling
An immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum on Thursday, but he has 30 days to appeal.
Ábrego’s case has drawn national attention since the 30-year-old was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. The Salvadorian national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the US without proper documentation as a teenager.
Continue reading...Historic US company also offering ‘12-month lease’ – an annual supply – of pre-ground coffee for under $40
Housing in the US has become so unaffordable that a coffee company has based a viral marketing campaign on the idea that almost nobody can afford to buy a house.
Maxwell House coffee, a 133-year-old brand, recently launched a marketing campaign rebranding themselves as “Maxwell Apartment Coffee”.
Continue reading...Text appears meant to assure the Qataris following Israel’s surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders
Donald Trump has signed an executive order vowing to use all measures including US military action to defend the energy-rich nation of Qatar – though it remains unclear just what weight the pledge will carry.
The text of the order, available Wednesday on the White House’s website but dated Monday, appears to be another measure by Trump to assure the Qataris following Israel’s surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders as they weighed accepting a ceasefire with Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Continue reading...Brendan Carr, who appeared to pressure broadcasters to take show off air, set to go before commerce committee
Brendan Carr, the pro-Trump chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has agreed to testify before the Senate commerce committee following Disney’s decision to take talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel off air temporarily, according to multiple reports.
Carr agreed to testify after speaking to committee chair Ted Cruz, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter on Wednesday, adding the date of the hearing has not been set but was expected after November. Semafor was the first to report on the hearing.
Continue reading...Spencer Elden, who was photographed as a baby and put on the cover of the 1991 album, has attempted to sue the band twice, claiming it constituted child sexual abuse
A federal judge again threw out a lawsuit by a man who accused grunge rock band Nirvana of distributing child sexual abuse images by using a photograph of him as a naked, swimming baby on the cover of its breakthrough 1991 album Nevermind.
US District Judge Fernando Olguin tossed out the lawsuit filed by plaintiff Spencer Elden for a second time after finding that no reasonable jury would consider the picture pornographic.
Continue reading...US-born Leo Garcia Venegas says ‘I just want to work in peace’ after agents in Alabama said his ID card was fake
An Alabama construction worker and US citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.
The class-action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Leo Garcia Venegas, a concrete worker, demands an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics”.
Continue reading...First shutdown in nearly seven years as Republicans accused of ‘risking America’s healthcare’ in spending bill
The US government shut down on Wednesday, after congressional Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments unless they won a series of concessions centered on healthcare.
The GOP, which controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, repudiated their demands, setting off a legislative scramble that lasted into the hours before funding lapsed at midnight, when the Senate failed to advance both parties’ bills to keep funding going.
Continue reading...‘Unreasonable delays’ in giving permits violates residents’ second amendment rights, claims justice department
The US Department of Justice sued the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department on Tuesday, alleging it violated the constitution by moving too slowly to process gun licenses for people who want to carry concealed weapons.
The sheriff’s department’s “unreasonable delays” in granting licenses violates California residents’ second amendment right to bear arms outside the home, the justice department’s civil rights division said in a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Continue reading...Brown bear’s nearly 100,000 votes leads him to victory despite suffering for most of season with broken jaw
“The merely chubby have been winnowed away,” a naturalist intoned. “We are left with a clash of titans.”
After a record-breaking week of public voting, Katmai national park and preserve in Alaska has announced the winner of its “biggest Fat Bear Week yet”.
Continue reading...Former PM seems a perfect fit for Trump’s new era but his track record in the Middle East is not reassuring
The emergence of Tony Blair as a potential Gaza interim consul and member of Donald Trump’s “board of peace” marks his latest reinvention as a would-be power broker in the Middle East.
As a key architect of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, a promoter of a simplistic interpretation of Islamist extremism as the world’s main security challenge and a figure who has been accused of intertwining his own business interests with his political advocacy, he is in some ways a perfect fit for the new Trump era.
Continue reading...New Zealand destroyed pistols the FBI director gifted to security chiefs after finding the guns potentially operable
On a visit to New Zealand, Kash Patel gave the country’s police and spy bosses gifts of inoperable pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws and had to be destroyed, New Zealand law enforcement agencies told the Associated Press.
The plastic 3D-printed replica pistols formed part of display stands the FBI director presented to at least three senior New Zealand security officials in July. Patel, the most senior Trump administration official to visit the country so far, was in Wellington to open the FBI’s first standalone office in New Zealand.
Continue reading...Study finds prosecutors targeting low-income women mainly in US south – and figure likely to be an undercount
In the first two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, prosecutors in 16 states charged more than 400 people with pregnancy-related crimes, new research released on Tuesday found.
Of the 412 cases tracked by Pregnancy Justice, the vast majority took place in the US south, targeted low-income women and involved allegations that women broke laws against child abuse, endangerment or neglect, according to the research, which was compiled by the reproductive justice group. About 300 prosecutions took place in Alabama and Oklahoma. In 16 cases, law enforcement charged women with homicide.
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