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Iconic Joshua trees burned by massive York Fire in Mojave Desert

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

By Nouran Salahieh and Mary Gilbert | CNNA massive fire burning through the desert in California and southern Nevada has scorched tens of thousands of acres in a biodiverse national preserve and torched its iconic Joshua trees. The York Fire – already California’s largest fire of the year – has burned more than 82,000 acres as of Wednesday morning, fire officials said. It began Friday in the New York Mountains of California’s Mojave National Preserve and crossed state lines into Nevada on Sunday.The fire is burning through and threatening groves of Joshua trees – the branching, spiky plants of the Mojave Desert that can live more than 150 years.Some of the trees have already fallen victim to the flames and burned, Marc Peebles, a spokesperson for California’s incident management team for the fire, confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.The Mojave National Preserve is a significant hotspot for biodiversity, with one conservationist calling it the “crown jewel” of the deserts of Southern Calif...

Donald Trump set to return to Washington for monumental court date – but a national catharsis is unlikely

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday is expected to return to the epicenter of his alleged bid to overthrow the 2020 election to answer historic charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.Trump will be arraigned after being indicted over a series of alleged schemes to thwart President Joe Biden’s victory and his conduct following the mob attack on the US Capitol, behavior that was described by his own attorney general, Bill Barr, as “nauseating” and “despicable” in an exclusive CNN interview on Wednesday.Although this will not be the ex-president’s first trip back to the capital after snubbing Biden’s inauguration, the sight of his motorcade winding its way through Washington, DC, may trigger trauma still felt by residents over a dark day in history 31 months ago.The hearing will be the latest twist in an extraordinary and historic saga surrounding an ex-president and front-runner for a major party nomination in 2024, who has so far been indicted in thre...

2 arrested in connection to shooting, illegal firearms found in SF

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

(KRON) -- Two people were arrested in connection to a shooting investigation and possession of illegal firearms, according to the San Francisco Police Department.The police department’s Crime Gun Investigations Center obtained a search warrant for Adir Mullen-Johnson, 19, and his residence on Dakota Street. Adir and three other people were detained by SFPD on July 27 in the area of Dakota Street, according to police. Mountain lion spotted in Petaluma Adir was found to have a loaded firearm with a high-capacity magazine along with a second loaded magazine at the time of the detainment. According to police, officers seized three illegal firearms, firearm accessories, ammunition and other evidence related to the investigation at his residence. Adir was taken into custody. Asad Mullen-Johnson, 19, was also placed under arrest after probable cause was developed. Both Adir and Asad were transported to the San Francisco County Jail. The shooting investigation remains open and active...

Oakland police seeing uptick in ATM robberies

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

(KRON) -- The Oakland Police Department is seeing an increase in ATM robberies throughout the city. In several recent occurrences, people have been approached by an armed individual(s) and robbed of their belongings after making a transaction at an ATM, police said. Following the robberies, the armed individual(s) would leave the area in a waiting car. Mountain lion spotted in Petaluma The ATM robberies have occurred in Uptown, Fruitvale, Chinatown and Montclair, OPD said. Oakland police continues to investigate each of the robberies. Anyone with information is asked to contact OPD at 510-238-3326.

Private Equity Billionaire Tied to Jeffrey Epstein Led Industry Backing for Kyrsten Sinema

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s close relationship with the titans of the private equity industry, whose agenda she has relentlessly championed in Congress, continues to bedevil her reelection campaign. In 2018, the first year she was elected to the Senate, she was backed by powerful private equity executives. Leon Black, then the CEO of Apollo Global Management, one of the largest such firms in the world, was one of them. Now Black is back in the headlines, this time accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in the home of Jeffrey Epstein, a serial sex trafficker Black financed with more than $150 million.Black’s support of Sinema is a window into the devil’s bargain the one-time radical leftist cut in order to rise through the ranks. Wall Street financing enabled her rise, even as it has forced her into politically unpopular positions, defending indefensible private equity giveaways in the tax codes, and linked her to unsavory characters always at risk of becoming a public relations liabili...

Iran’s top diplomat urges Pakistan to complete its part of a long-delayed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday urged Pakistan to complete its part of a much-delayed gas pipeline between the two countries, a multi-billion project that has been on hold since 2014. Washington has opposed the pipeline, saying it could violate sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who is on a three-day visit to Islamabad, spoke during a televised news conference with his Pakistani counterpart and host, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “We do believe that the completion of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is definitely going to serve the national interests of our two countries,” Amirabdollahian said.The project, launched in 2013, required Pakistan to finish the construction of the pipeline on its territory by the end of 2014. But the work stalled, upsetting Tehran, which has said it already invested $2 billion in the pipeline on its side of the border.The two foreign ministers also discussed a range of...

Grieving families confront Pittsburgh synagogue shooter at death penalty sentencing

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Grieving families confronted the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter at his sentencing hearing Thursday, one day after a jury determined that capital punishment was appropriate for the perpetrator of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.The hearing at the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh got underway, with some 22 witnesses — survivors of the 2018 massacre and relatives of the 11 people who were fatally shot — expected to deliver victim impact statements. U.S. District Judge Robert Colville was expected to formally sentence Robert Bowers to death later Thursday.“Mr. Bowers, you met my beloved husband in the kitchen. Your callous disregard for the person he was repulses me,” testified Peg Durachko, wife of 65-year-old Dr. Richard Gottfried, a dentist who was shot and killed. “Your hateful act took my soulmate from me.”Mark Simon, whose parents, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, were killed in the attack, testified he still has their bloodied prayer shawl. He sa...

Lizzo está “dolida” por la demanda en su contra presentada por sus exbailarines

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

(CNN) — Lizzo habló este jueves sobre una demanda en su contra presentada por tres de sus exbailarines.La denuncia, presentada este martes en el Tribunal Superior de Los Ángeles y obtenida por CNN a través de un abogado de los demandantes, alega que las tres mujeres fueron sometidas a un ambiente de trabajo hostil y acoso mientras trabajaban para la cantante ganadora del Grammy.La demanda también nombra a la productora de Lizzo, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. (BGBT), y a una persona descrita como “capitán del elenco de baile” como demandados.Este jueves, Lizzo respondió públicamente a la denuncia por primera vez en un comunicado en sus redes sociales verificadas.“Estos últimos días han sido desgarradoramente difíciles y abrumadoramente decepcionantes”, dice su declaración. “Mi ética de trabajo, moral y respeto han sido cuestionados. Por lo general, elijo no responder a las acusaciones falsas, pero son tan increíbles como suenan y demasiado escandalosas para no abordarlas”.Entre l...

Poland and Lithuania say they fear provocations from Russia and Belarus at NATO’s eastern flank

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish and Lithuanian leaders held an urgent meeting Thursday in a strategically sensitive area where their NATO nations border Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, warning that they are bracing for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in the area.The meeting came two days after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space, in what was viewed as a provocative move. Both nations on NATO’s eastern flank have increased their border security following the arrival of thousands of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries just across their borders in Belarus after an aborted mutiny in Russia in June.“Russia and Belarus are increasing the pressure on the borders, increasing the number of their provocations, and we must be aware that the number of these provocations will grow,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.The Belarusian Foreign Ministry ...

Woman’s escape from cinder block cell may have spared others from similar nightmare, FBI says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:27 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A woman who escaped her kidnapper by punching her way out of a cinder block cell at a home in southern Oregon may have spared other women from a similar fate by alerting authorities to a man they now suspect in sexual assaults in at least four more states., the FBI said.Negasi Zuberi posed as an undercover police officer when he kidnapped the woman in Seattle three weeks ago, drove hundreds of miles to his home in Klamath Falls and locked her in the garage cell until she bloodied her hands breaking through the door to escape, the FBI said Wednesday.Zuberi, 29, faces federal charges that include interstate kidnapping, and authorities said they are looking for other possible victims after linking him to the other assaults. Authorities have not yet said publicly in which states those attacks took place. “This woman was kidnapped, chained, sexually assaulted, and locked in a cinderblock cell,” Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Port...