Thousands evacuated as wildfires ravage homes near Los Angeles
Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate from a wildfire northwest of Los Angeles as fierce seasonal winds blew flames into ranches and neighbourhoods, destroying dozens of homes. The wildfire has destroyed 132 structures in less than two days, fire officials said on Thursday. Firefighters and police cleared residents from neighbourhoods near Camarillo before homes were set ablaze by embers blown 3.2km (2 miles) from the firefront, Ventura County Fire Department Captain Tony McHale said. “It’s like trying to put out a blowtorch with a squirt gun,” said McHale of the fire, which started in a hillside canyon on Wednesday and tore west, driven by Santa Ana winds. Fuelled by abundant grass and scrub, with wind gusts up to 130km/h (80 mph), the blaze had burned more than 8,094 hectares (20,000 acres) by Thursday evening, authorities said. Several civilians were injured and a “significant” number of homes, businesses and other structures were destroyed, McHale added. Ventura County fire department officials said they were throwing resources at the blaze in an area that is home to 30,000 people, but that changing wind patterns meant there was hope the fire could die down in the coming days. At least 400 homes had been evacuated, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said, adding that 250 residents had chosen to stay behind. “I urge everyone to stay out of the areas that are impacted. The fire is still very dangerous,” he said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but meteorologists had raised a Red Flag Warning and a rare Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) warning in the area, indicating dangerous fire conditions. They said two years of above-average rainfall had led to the abundant growth of vegetation, which was now all bone-dry after a long, hot summer. Electricity companies had cut power to tens of thousands of customers in the area – a common strategy in California during high winds in a bid to reduce the risk of new fires from toppled power lines. The United States is experiencing a strong wildfire year with 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) burned to date, compared with an annual, full-year average of about 2.8 million hectares (7 million acres) over the last decade, according to National Interagency Fire Center data. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Forgive me if…’: Justice DY Chandrachud’s final message as Chief Justice of India
Justice Chandrachud stepped into the shoes of his illustrious father Y V Chandrachud, who served as the longest CJI between 1978 and 1985, on November 9, 2022 and will be demitting office on November 10, a Sunday.
Where do Trump’s legal cases stand after massive election win?
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it is seeking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his second term. With two other cases outstanding and the legal jeopardy expected to diminish in the months ahead, here’s a timeline of Trump’s legal troubles after his first departure from the Oval Office. Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts in June 2023 on charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. Trump’s team initially requested a partial pause in light of the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States, wherein the court held that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts. JONATHAN TURLEY: TRUMP’S VICTORY PUTS AN END TO DEMOCRAT ATTACKS ON ONE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT Judge Aileen Cannon eventually dismissed the case against Trump in July, finding that Smith was improperly appointed to the special counsel role under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The Appointments Clause states, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” Smith was never confirmed by the Senate. Smith appealed the decision in August, with the filing reading, “The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded.” Smith filed another indictment in connection to his investigation against Trump in August 2023. He was indicted on four federal charges stemming out of the probe, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued he should be immune from prosecution from official acts done as president of the United States. In July this year, the Supreme Court in its ruling on presidential immunity sent the matter back to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. TRUMP SUES CBS NEWS FOR $10 BILLION ALLEGING ‘DECEPTIVE DOCTORING’ OF HARRIS’ ’60 MINUTES’ INTERVIEW Trump was indicted a second time in August. The new indictment maintained the previous criminal charges but narrowed the allegations after the Supreme Court ruling, clarifying Trump’s role as a current candidate and making clear the allegations regarding his conversations with then-Vice President Mike Pence in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate. The 165-page filing submitted by Smith, in which he laid out the case and alleged evidence he would use in an eventual trial against the president-elect, was unsealed in early October. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered more documents to be open to the public later that month, just weeks before the presidential election. Trump’s team moved to dismiss Smith from the case in late October, arguing he was unlawfully appointed. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump in 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree relating to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Bragg alleged Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.” Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. The president-elect was later found guilty on all counts, making him the first former president of the United States to be convicted of a crime. He appealed the decision. His sentencing date was initially set for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention where he was set to be formally nominated as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. Judge Juan Merchan delayed the sentencing to Sept. 18 and once again to Nov. 26, after the presidential election. Trump’s team requested the case be removed to federal court in October this year, citing the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling and thus arguing he cannot be prosecuted for official acts he performed as president. Merchan is also scheduled to make a decision on Nov. 12 on Trump’s motion to vacate the case. Trump was indicted in Georgia in August 2023 after a yearslong criminal investigation led by state prosecutors into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. In early 2023, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying District Attorney Fani Willis failed to allege sufficient detail. It was then thrown into disarray when it was revealed Willis reportedly had an “improper affair” with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade was later removed. The Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceeding in June until it heard the case to disqualify Willis. The court also said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5, a month after the election. When reached by Fox News Digital for comment on the state of the president-elect’s legal cases on Thursday, the Trump campaign said, “The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again.” “It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, so we can, as President Trump said in his historic speech yesterday, unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. Fox News’ Brooke Singman, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Trump’s promise to unravel Biden’s climate policies could take years to fulfill
The president-elect has pledged to weaken air pollution regulations, reverse efforts to slow climate change and continue to boost oil and gas production.
How “wildly successful” anti-trans ads fired up Texas voters for Republicans
The barrage of ads focused on trans kids playing youth sports motivated the Republican base as Democrats struggled to respond.
New York Dem warns ‘vilifying voters of color as white supremacists’ pushes ‘them further into Trump’s camp’
As the political left reflects on the 2024 election results, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., warned that “vilifying voters of color as white supremacists” will only push them further toward President-elect Trump. “Popular explanations for the outcome of the election seem to include white supremacy, patriarchy, misogyny…” Torres noted in a post on X. “I am going to state the obvious here: vilifying voters of color as white supremacists will not attract them back to the Democratic Party. It will drive them further into Trump’s camp. The purpose of politics is not to repel but to attract. Condescension is the most powerful repellant in politics. Voters viscerally resent condescension and will punish you for it at the ballot box,” he added. NEW YORK DEMOCRAT RIPS ‘FAR LEFT’ FOR TRUMP VICTORY: ‘IVORY-TOWERED NONSENSE’ Trump soundly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday to win the 2024 White House contest. Torres has suggested that signs of the impending drubbing were clear. “The signs of a decisive defeat were staring us in the face all along. We were simply in denial about them or willfully blind to them, substituting magical thinking for actual analysis,” he declared in a tweet. BERNIE SANDERS EXCORIATES DEMOCRATIC PARTY, CALLS CAMPAIGN ‘DISASTROUS’ AFTER TRUMP VICTORY “In recent history, there’s no precedent for an incumbent party winning a presidential election when the percentage of Americans who think the country is on the right track or headed in the right direction is in the 20s. The structural challenge was simply insurmountable,” he added. Torres, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2021 and won another term in office during the 2024 election, has accused the “far left” of alienating people from the Democratic Party. “Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” the congressman opined in a post on X. REP. RITCHIE TORRES CALLS OUT NY TIMES ‘BIAS’ FOR NOT INTERVIEWING HIM FOR STORY ABOUT HIS ANTI-ISRAEL CRITICS “There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling,” he added. The lawmaker has also suggested that his side of the political aisle should not push the idea that they suffer from a “messaging problem.” “We should expunge from our vocabulary the words: we have a ‘messaging problem,’” Torres wrote on X. “When over 70% of Americans think we are on the wrong track or headed in the wrong direction, that is not a messaging problem. That is reality problem. “Inflation and immigration are not ‘messaging problems.’ These are realities that produced discontent widespread enough to hand Donald Trump the presidency. We ignore the real-world messages that these realities send at our own peril,” he warned.
‘Yesssss!’: Israel reacts to Donald Trump’s return to power in US election
Even before the US presidential election polls had closed on Tuesday night, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had taken to Twitter, posting “Yesssss” in English, while adding emojis of a flexing bicep and images of the Israeli and American flags. Yesssss 💪🏻🇮🇱🇺🇸 https://t.co/kPqkYI3PDP — איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) November 6, 2024 Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was only slightly slower in congratulating Trump on his triumph in the US presidential election, becoming the first world leader to do so and framing Trump’s victory as a “powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America”. Dear Donald and Melania Trump, Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback! Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory! In true friendship,… pic.twitter.com/B54NSo2BMA — Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) November 6, 2024 Two days before this week’s election, which saw former US President Donald Trump stage one of the wildest political comebacks in recent history, leading the Republican Party to a landslide victory, polls in Israeli media showed Trump had already won the hearts and minds of many in Israel. Asked who they would like to see in the White House, almost 65 percent of respondents said they preferred Trump over his rival, Kamala Harris. Among those who identified themselves as Jewish, the difference was even more marked, with 72 percent of those polled telling the Israel Democracy Institute they felt Israel’s interests would be better served by a Trump presidency. This is a further lurch towards the Republicans. A similar poll conducted by the same body in 2020 showed that 63 percent of Israelis favoured Trump over the eventual victor, Joe Biden. For Vice President Kamala Harris, who polls showed took a beating for her administration’s unflinching, if occasionally critical, support of Israel’s war on Gaza and its refusal to halt military aid, celebrations of Trump’s win in Israel likely come as another twist of the knife in her defeat. Donald Trump shakes hands with Benjamin Netanyahu as they pose for a photo during their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, in Palm Beach, Florida on July 26, 2024 [Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images] A ‘watershed moment’ “People are celebrating now,” pollster and former political aide to, among others, Netanyahu, Mitchell Barak told Al Jazeera from Jerusalem. “I mean, you’ve seen the polls, people see this as a win for Israel, and for Netanyahu. He [Netanyahu] gambled on this, reckoning that he just had to hold on till November and a Trump victory, and that gamble turned out to be right. “Within Israel, people see this as being a watershed moment,” he said. In the build-up to the 2020 election, Trump had told US voters in a bid to win the Jewish vote that “the Jewish state has never had a better friend in the White House than your president, Donald J Trump”. In this, unlike many of the former US president’s statements, he appeared factually correct. In his first term as president, Trump defied international norms and recognised the occupied Golan Heights – Syrian territory, two-thirds of which is occupied by Israel – as Israeli territory, accepted Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, subsequently moving the US embassy and installed its pro-settler ambassador there. Consolidating Israel’s position within the region, the US president also embarked on what he termed the Abraham Accords, leading to the normalisation of relations between Israel and four Arab states; Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan, in return for US concessions and, in many cases, access to Israel’s cutting edge intelligence and weapons technology. More recently, Trump emphasised his wish to re-establish the warm relationship he enjoyed with Netanyahu during his first presidency in July this year when he welcomed the Israeli prime minister to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. In contrast, the Biden administration’s relations with Netanyahu, while strong, have cooled through the course of 13 months of war on Gaza. First, there were the repeated US “concerns” over the Israeli campaign on Gaza that has so far killed 43,391 people – mostly women and children – and with many thousands more lost and presumed dead under the rubble. Then there were Biden’s red lines on Israel’s subsequent invasion of Rafah. And finally, the US government’s recent requests that aid be allowed into northern Gaza, which aid agencies have said sits upon the brink of famine. All this appears to have jarred with the Israeli prime minister who, in March this year, went so far as to say that US President Biden – whose unflinching military and diplomatic support has underpinned Israel’s war on Gaza – was “wrong” in his criticism of Israel. Given the pressure that Netanyahu faces both at home – from people who want a Gaza ceasefire deal to be done to secure some chance of retrieving the remaining Israeli captives there – and abroad, where many countries are appalled by the levels of violence seen in Gaza – Netanyahu needs an American ally that is uncritical, analysts have said. Demonstrators in front of the Ministry of Defence building in Tel Aviv, Israel, carry banners and posters criticising the government and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and a swap deal for the captives held in Gaza on November 2, 2024 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images] End of the two-state solution? As well as being more likely to give Netanyahu free rein over his actions in Gaza and the West Bank – as is feared by Palestinians in the wake of the election – Trump may also be the catalyst to putting paid to any notion of a two-state solution. “People often accuse the Israeli right of never looking too far forward,” independent Israeli analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said of Netanyahu and his cabinet. “And they’re often right. However, with Trump, they’ve recognised that his election probably marks an end to the two-state solution and Gaza, as we’ve known it.” In the US, despite its unflinching
France slams Israel after gendarmes detained in occupied East Jerusalem
Officers freed after brief detention during visit by France’s top diplomat, with both sides trading blame over incident. France has accused Israel of harming bilateral ties after Israeli forces entered a holy site under French administration in occupied East Jerusalem and briefly detained two gendarmes with diplomatic status. The incident took place on Thursday as French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the compound of the Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives. The site, one of four administered by France in Jerusalem, is under Paris’s responsibility and deemed part of France. French diplomatic sources told the Reuters news agency that Israeli security had been told not to enter before Barrot’s visit. Barrot refused to enter the compound, called Eleona in French, while they were present. Two French security officials were then briefly detained, the sources said, adding that the Israelis were aware the two were from the consulate and had diplomatic status. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained that the security protocol for the visit had been “clarified” in advance, and the police said the French gendarmes had not identified themselves and had obstructed their work. The ministry said in a statement that an argument ensued between Israeli forces and the two French security guards. They were released immediately after they identified themselves as diplomats, it said. The AFP news agency reported that Israeli police surrounded the two French gendarmes, who were not in uniform, before pushing one of them to the ground. The gendarme identified himself and shouted, “Don’t touch me!” several times, according to AFP. Both gendarmes were then led into police cars. Troubled ties The dispute casts a shadow over diplomatic relations that are already strained over Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon. “This violation of the integrity of a site under French responsibility risks undermining the ties I had come to nurture with Israel at a time when we all need to move forward the region on the path to peace,” a visibly angry Barrot told reporters outside the building. Israel’s ambassador to France will be summoned in the coming days, the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Diplomatic relations between France and Israel have worsened since President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to supplying Israel with offensive weapons used in Gaza. The French government also banned Israeli weapons firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris and has become increasingly uneasy over Israel’s conduct in its offensives in Gaza and Lebanon. French officials have repeatedly said Paris is committed to Israel’s security and that its military helped defend Israel amid Iranian missile attacks earlier this year. Barrot’s trip had aimed to press Israel to engage diplomatically to end the conflicts in the region now that the presidential election in the United States is over. It was not the first time that tensions have arisen surrounding France’s historical holdings in the city. In 2020, Macron lost his temper when visiting the Church of St Anne, another site under French administration, demanding Israeli security personnel leave the Jerusalem basilica. In 1996, France’s then-President Jacques Chirac lost patience with Israeli security agents at the same church, telling one of them that his treatment was a “provocation” and threatened to get back on his plane. Adblock test (Why?)
More than 40 monkeys on the loose in US town after escaping lab
Police describe escapees, who are not carrying disease, as ‘harmless and a little skittish’, posing ‘almost no danger to public’. More than 40 monkeys escaped from a research lab in a small town in the United States after an employee failed to properly shut an enclosure. The 43 rhesus macaque monkeys fled from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, on Wednesday, according to a police statement issued the following day. Police said the monkeys were all females weighing about 3kgs (6.6 pounds), too small and young to be used for testing. “They are not infected with any disease whatsoever. They are harmless and a little skittish,” said Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander on Thursday, emphasising that they posed “almost no danger to the public”. Alpha Genesis set up traps and was using thermal imaging cameras to recapture the monkeys on the run. “The handlers know them well and usually can get them back with fruit or a little treat,” said Alexander. Police urged residents of the town, which has a population of about 2,000, to keep their doors and windows “securely closed”, report any sightings immediately and refrain from approaching the monkeys “under any circumstances”. Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, which provides primates for research worldwide, told CBS News he was “hoping for a happy ending” with the primates returning of their own volition. “It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go,” he said of their escape. However, this was not the first breakout from the lab. In 2018, federal officials fined Alpha Genesis $12,600 after dozens of primates escaped. There were other escapes in 2014 and 2016, with a total of 45 monkeys fleeing. The group Stop Animal Exploitation Now sent a letter to the US Department of Agriculture asking the agency to immediately send an inspector to the Alpha Genesis facility and to conduct a thorough investigation. “The clear carelessness which allowed these 40 monkeys to escape endangered not only the safety of the animals, but also put the residents of South Carolina at risk,” wrote Michael Budkie, the executive director of the group, in a letter. Adblock test (Why?)
Resolution on Article 370 restoration: PM Modi slams Congress-NC alliance, says ‘they started conspiracy against..’
The resolution opposing the revocation of Article 370 and restoring the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was passed on Wednesday by a voice vote, with all parties barring the BJP supporting it.