SAN FRANCISCO: Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened widespread flooding and knocked out power to more than 100,000 people.
The storm was expected to dump up to 6 inches of rain in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area where most of the region would remain under flood warnings into late Thursday night. In Southern California, the storm was expected to peak in intensity overnight into early Thursday morning with Santa Barbara and Ventura counties likely to see the most rain, forecasters said.
“We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, the new director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at a news conference that the city was “preparing for a war.” Crews cleared clogged storm drains, tried to move homeless people into shelters and passed out emergency supplies and ponchos to those who refused to go.
The city distributed so many sandbags to residents that supplies temporarily ran out.
Powerful winds gusting to 136 kmh or more forced the cancellation of more than 70 flights at San Francisco International Airport and downed trees and power lines. Firefighters rescued a family after a tree fell onto their car. The fire department reported “large pieces of glass” fell off the Fox Plaza tower near the Civic Center, although no injuries were reported. It was “highly possible” the damage to the skyscraper was wind-related, the department tweeted.
The new storm left more than 100,000 customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast without power.
The storm is one of three so-called atmospheric river storms in the last week to reach the drought-stricken state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency to allow for a quick response and to aid in cleanup from another powerful storm that hit just days earlier.
In Southern California, evacuations were ordered for those living in areas burned by three recent wildfires in Santa Barbara County, where heavy rain forecast for overnight could cause widespread flooding and unleash debris flows.
County officials did not have a firm number for how many people were under evacuation orders, but Susan Klein-Rothschild, a spokesperson in the county’s emergency operations center, said sheriff’s deputies went door-to-door and contacted at least 480 people.
Among the towns ordered to evacuate was Montecito, where five years ago huge boulders, mud and debris swept down mountains through the town to the shoreline, killing 23 people and destroying more than 100 homes. The town is home to many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan.
“What we’re talking about here is a lot of water coming off the top of the hills, coming down into the creeks and streams and as it comes down, it gains momentum and that’s what the initial danger is,” Montecito Fire Department Chief Kevin Taylor said.
Elsewhere, a 72 Km stretch of the coastal Highway 1 running through Big Sur was closed Wednesday evening in anticipation of flooding and rock falls. Further north, a 40 Km stretch of Highway 101 was closed due to several downed trees.
Drivers were urged to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary, especially with heavy snow expected in the mountains.
The storm came days after a New Year’s Eve downpour led to the evacuations of people in rural Northern California communities and the rescue of several motorists from flooded roads. A few levees south of Sacramento were damaged.
On Wednesday, authorities in south Sacramento County found a body in a submerged car — one of at least four victims of flooding from that storm.
Evacuation orders were in place in Santa Cruz County’s Paradise Park along the swiftly moving San Lorenzo River, as well as in areas along the Pajaro River. Residents who fled wildfires in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2020 were packing their bags as the towns of Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond and Felton were all warned they should be prepared to evacuate.
Sonoma County authorities issued an evacuation warning for a string of towns along the Russian River, which was expected to reach flood stage on Thursday.
The storms won’t be enough to officially end the state’s ongoing drought, now entering its fourth year. The US Drought Monitor showed that most of California is in severe to extreme drought. Since the state’s major reservoirs are low, they have plenty of room to fill with more water from the storm, officials said.
Trees already stressed from years of limited rain are more likely to fall now that the ground is suddenly saturated and winds are heavy. That could cause widespread power outages or create flood hazards, said Karla Nemeth, director of the state’s Department of Water Resources.
“We are in the middle of a flood emergency and also in the middle of a drought emergency,” she said during an emergency briefing.
Storms also took a toll elsewhere in the US In the Midwest, ice and heavy snow this week closed schools in Minnesota and western Wisconsin and caused a jet to go off an icy taxiway after landing in a snowstorm in Minneapolis. No passengers were injured, Delta airlines said.
In the South, a possible tornado damaged homes, downed trees and flipped a vehicle on its side in Montgomery, Alabama, early Wednesday.
In Illinois, staff from the National Weather Service’s Chicago office planned to survey storm damage on Wednesday following at least six tornadoes, the largest number of rare January tornadoes recorded in the state since 1989.
Evacuations ordered as California storm knocks out power
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Evacuations ordered as California storm knocks out power
- Hundreds of people have been told to evacuate in part of Santa Barbara County where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018
Elon Musk-led group proposes buying OpenAI for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO says ‘no thank you’
- Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018
A group of investors led by Elon Musk is offering about $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI, escalating a legal dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Musk helped found.
Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to take control of the ChatGPT maker and revert it to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, according to Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the deal on Musk’s social platform X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the startup’s direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, Toberoff has said.
Musk and OpenAI lawyers faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed Musk’s request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers hasn’t yet ruled on Musk’s request but in the courtroom said it was a “stretch” for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesn’t intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned for-profit transition.
But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she wouldn’t stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.
“It is plausible that what Mr. Musk is saying is true. We’ll find out. He’ll sit on the stand,” she said.
Along with Musk and xAI, others backing the bid announced Monday include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund, Emanuel Capital Management and Eight Partners VC.
Toberoff said in a statement that if Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.”
Musk’s attorney also shared a letter he sent in early January to the attorneys general of California and Delaware.
“As both your offices must ensure any such transactional process relating to OpenAI’s charitable assets provides at least fair market value to protect the public’s beneficial interest, we assume you will provide a process for competitive bidding to actually determine that fair market value,” Toberoff wrote, asking for more information on the terms and timing of that bidding process.
Two flights carrying US deportees heading to Venezuela, alleged gang members aboard
- Some of the people on the flights are allegedly involved in illegal activities with the Tren de Aragua gang
- Trump envoy Richard Grenell met with Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 31, and left with six Americans who had been held by Venezuelan authorities
Two planes carrying Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States — the first since a January deal between the administration of US Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — are heading to Venezuela, the South American country’s government said on Monday.
The flights, run by Venezuelan airline Conviasa, are part of a plan to repatriate thousands of migrants who fled Venezuela “because of economic sanctions and the campaigns of psychological warfare against our country,” the government statement said.
Some of the people on the flights are allegedly involved in illegal activities with the Tren de Aragua gang, the statement said, and will be vigorously investigated for criminal ties.
Trump envoy Richard Grenell met with Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 31, where the two men discussed migration and sanctions, among other issues. Grenell left the South American country with six Americans who had been held by Venezuelan authorities.
The Trump administration has said it is a priority to deport members of Tren de Aragua from the US and Trump himself said after Grenell’s visit that Maduro agreed to receive all Venezuelan illegal migrants and provide for their transportation back home.
The Venezuelan government says it destroyed Tren de Aragua within its borders in 2023.
Trump’s administration has also moved to remove deportation protection from about 348,000 Venezuelans in the US, who could lose work permits and then be deported in April.
More than 7 million Venezuelan migrants have left their country in recent years amid a sustained economic and social collapse blamed by the government on sanctions by the United States and others.
Maduro and several allies have been indicted by the United States on drug trafficking charges and international observers and the country’s opposition say a July election which gave Maduro his third term was fraudulent.
USAID is stripped of its lease and staffers turned away from DC headquarters
- USAID’s eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk
WASHINGTON: Officials and federal officers turned away scores of US Agency for International Development staffers who showed up for work Monday at its Washington headquarters, after a court temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have pulled all but a fraction of workers off the job worldwide.
The Trump administration confirmed to The Associated Press that it had taken USAID off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades.
USAID’s eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk. Both have targeted agency spending that they call wasteful and accuse its work around the world of being out of line with Trump’s agenda.
A steady stream of agency staffers — dressed in business clothes or USAID sweatshirts or T-shirts — were told by a front desk officer Monday that he had a list of no more than 10 names of people allowed to enter the building. Tarps covered USAID’s interior signs.
A man who earlier identified himself as a USAID official took a harsher tone, telling staffers “just go” and “why are you here?”
USAID staff were denied entry to their offices to retrieve belongings and were told the lease had been turned over to the General Services Administration, which manages federal government buildings.
A GSA spokesperson confirmed that USAID had been removed from the lease and the building would be repurposed for other government uses.
Even as Trump and Musk, who runs what is billed as a cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have taken aim at other government agencies, USAID has been hit hardest so far.
The president signed an executive order freezing foreign assistance, forcing US-funded aid and development programs worldwide to shut down and lay off staff. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had sought to mitigate the damage by issuing a waiver to exempt emergency food aid and “life-saving” programs.
Despite the waiver, neither funding nor staffing has resumed to get even the most essential programs rolling again, USAID officials and aid groups say.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest humanitarian groups, called the US cutoff the most devastating in its 79-year history and said Monday that it will have to suspend programs serving hundreds of thousands of people in 20 countries.
“The impact of this will be felt severely by the most vulnerable, from deeply neglected Burkina Faso, where we are the only organization supplying clean water to the 300,000 trapped in the blockaded city of Djibo, to war-torn Sudan, where we support nearly 500 bakeries in Darfur providing daily subsidized bread to hundreds of thousands of hunger-stricken people,” the group said in a statement.
In an interview aired Sunday with Fox News host Bret Baier ahead of the Super Bowl, Trump suggested that he might allow a handful of aid and development programs to resume under Rubio’s oversight.
“Let him take care of the few good ones,” Trump said. Aid organizations say the damage that has been done to programs would make it impossible to restart many operations without additional substantial investment.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have put thousands of USAID staffers on administrative leave that day and given those abroad 30 days to get back to the United States at government expense.
The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit by two groups representing federal workers, and another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
While the judge ordered the administration to restore agency email access for staffers, the order said nothing about reopening USAID headquarters. Some staffers and contractors reported having their agency email restored by Monday, while others said they did not.
Some staffers said they came to the USAID offices because they were confused by conflicting agency emails and notices over the weekend about whether they should go in. Others expected they would be turned away but went anyway.
A USAID email sent Sunday night, saying it was “From the office of the administrator,” told employees that what it called “the former USAID headquarters” and other USAID offices in the Washington area were closed until further notice. It told workers to telework unless they are instructed otherwise.
UN experts condemn US sanctions on International Criminal Court and call for reversal
- The sanctions, authorized in an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump, sparked a wave of global concern for the future of international justice
- ‘The order is an attack on global rule of law and strikes at the very heart of the international criminal justice system,’ the experts warn
NEW YORK CITY: Independent experts at the UN on Monday strongly condemned recent US sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court, its personnel and any individuals or entities who cooperate with it.
The sanctions, authorized in an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on Feb. 6, sparked a wave of global concern for the future of international justice.
The ICC, the world’s top war-crimes court, issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.
The court said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant intentionally targeted civilians during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, and used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting deliveries of humanitarian aid to the territory. At the time of the ICC action, the death toll from Israel’s assault on Gaza had surpassed 44,000.
Criticizing the US sanctions against the court, the UN experts said: “The order is an attack on global rule of law and strikes at the very heart of the international criminal justice system.
“The financial restrictions will undermine the ICC and its investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity across the world, including those committed against women and children.”
Trump’s executive order declares that “any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute protected persons” is a “threat to the national security and foreign policy” of the US. It declares a national emergency in response, demanding that America and its allies oppose any actions by the ICC against the US, Israel or any other nation that has not consented to the court’s jurisdiction.
The UN experts denounced these actions, describing them as a dangerous backward step in the fight for international justice.
The experts included Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on human rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories; Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism, and George Katrougalos, an independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. Their statement was endorsed by several other experts.
“The jurisdiction of the ICC has been clearly defined by the Court itself and recognized through international law,” the experts stated. “By sanctioning the ICC, the United States is undermining the ‘never again’ legacy established after Nuremberg, which has been a cornerstone of evolving international criminal law since 1945.”
The ICC was established in 2002 as the court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities worldwide, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.
The 125 member states of the court include Palestine, Ukraine, Canada, the UK and every country in the EU, but dozens of countries do not accept its jurisdiction, including Israel, the US, Russia and China.
The experts said the US executive order empowers war criminals and will deny justice to thousands of victims around the world, particularly women and children. It also mocks the global quest to “place law above force” and prevent atrocities, they added.
A core principle of the ICC is its commitment to holding the perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression accountable, regardless of nationality. The experts stressed the importance of maintaining a judicial system in which justice applies equally to all.
“Upholding international law is a shared responsibility that strengthens, rather than undermines, global security, including that of the United States,” they said.
They welcomed the expressions of solidarity from UN member states who have reaffirmed their support for the crucial role the court plays in ensuring the principals of accountability and justice around the globe.
Imposing sanctions on ICC personnel is seen as a violation of the basic principles of judicial independence, said the experts, who pointed out that such action stands as a direct contradiction to human rights protections, specifically the fundamental right of individuals to carry out their professional duties without fear of retribution.
Any attempt to impede or intimidate an official of the ICC is punishable under Article 70 of the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the court. The US sanctions could be viewed as a violation of this provision, which seeks to protect officials from potential retaliation as a result of their work to administer justice.
The UN experts said they have shared their concerns with US authorities and called for a reevaluation of the sanctions.
Special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. They are independent experts who work on a voluntary basis, are not members of UN staff and are not paid for their work.
Tunisian accused says cannot remember 2020 France church killings
PARIS: A Tunisian man went on trial Monday accused of stabbing to death three people in a church in the southern French city of Nice in 2020, but his insistence that he had no recollection of the events provoked anger among relatives of the victims.
Brahim Aouissaoui, 25, is being tried at a special court in Paris and faces life in jail if convicted. The murderous rampage on Oct. 29, 2020 was one of a number of deadly incidents in France blamed on extremists since 2015.
He has insisted he has no memory of the attack and told the court: “I don’t remember the facts. I have nothing to say because I don’t remember anything.”
A cry of rage and despair sounded from court benches reserved for the relatives of victims and their lawyers.
Presiding judge Christophe Petiteau told gendarmes to expel one man who shouted abuse at Aouissaoui.
Aouissaoui has also said he does not know the name of his lawyer.
“When I talk to him, I have the impression — but again I’m not a doctor or an expert — I have the impression that he doesn’t understand the issues of this trial, that he doesn’t understand the stakes of this case,” his lawyer Martin Mechin told reporters outside the court.
According to prosecutors, armed with a kitchen knife, Aouissaoui almost decapitated Nadine Vincent, a 60-year-old worshipper, stabbed 44-year-old Franco Brazilian mother Simone Barreto Silva 24 times and slit the throat of the sacristan Vincent Loques, 55, a father of two daughters.
Seriously injured by police after the attack, Aouissaoui has always insisted that he does not remember anything.
