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The huge Fawn Fire north of Redding, California continued to spread on Saturday. It has scorched more than 7,000 acres, according to Cal Fire, and forced hundreds of evacuations.

A 30-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze, which as of Saturday was only 10% contained.

Fire crews struggled to protect neighborhoods as high winds pushed flames into homes, burning at least 100 structures and threatening thousands more. Thousands of people remain under mandatory evacuation orders and warnings. 

Flames consume a house near Old Oregon Trail as the Fawn Fire burns about 10 miles north of Redding in Shasta County, California on September 23, 2021.

Ethan Swope/AP


Further south, crews held back another wildfire burning in Sequoia National Park, Jonathan Vigliotti reported for “CBS Saturday Morning.” The world’s largest trees, some now wrapped in flame-repelling foil, were once considered naturally fireproof thanks to their two feet-thick bark. But today’s megafires, fueled by climate change, are burning hotter than the giants can withstand on their own.

“What more evidence do you need of a world that’s heating up?” asked California Governor Gavin Newsom. “Our kids are going to inherit a world with eight degree higher temperatures than they have today. We’re on that path.”

Newsom visited the sequoias, where he announced a $15 billion climate package to help fund fire prevention and water sustainability programs. 

The historic move comes as more than 9,000 crews struggle to extinguish 10 major fires across the state.

What hasn’t been burned by flames has been spoiled by smoke — turning daylight in Los Angeles into a neon night.


“Bring Your Own Brigade”

02:00:22

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fawn-fire-redding-california-evacuations/

El ciclón está frente República Dominicana y Haití. Se aproxima a Cuba y se espera que llegue a La Florida, Estados Unidos, en la madrugada del domingo.

Siga el paso del huracán Irma.

El paso del huracán Irma comenzó a causar inundaciones y a dejar heridos en el noreste de Haití, indicaron los servicios de protección civil del país.

En la comunidad de Ouanaminthe, fronteriza con República Dominicana, las aguas subieron unos 30 centímetros, según imágenes recibidas por AFP.

Mientras que dos personas resultaron heridas por la caída de un árbol sobre su casa en una localidad cerca de Cabo Haitiano, según precisó la protección civil.

Según las últimas previsiones, el huracán Irma, de categoría cinco, la máxima posible, pasará un poco más al norte de Haití de lo inicialmente estimado, lo que podría disminuir su impacto sobre el país caribeño, ubicado entre los más pobres del mundo.

Vea también: 

Huracán Irma pisa suelo de isla Barbuda y causa destrucción de un 90%…

Irma será “realmente devastador” en Estados Unidos | Noticias Caracol

 

Source Article from https://noticias.caracoltv.com/mundo/siga-en-vivo-la-trayectoria-del-huracan-irma

Dr. Scott Atlas, a special adviser the novel coronavirus to President Trump, tweeted to his almost 90,000 followers on Sunday that citizens should rise up against new Michigan COVID-19 restrictions.

He tweeted Sunday night: “The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp”

He later followed up with a tweet to state he didn’t condone violence: “Hey. I NEVER was talking at all about violence. People vote, people peacefully protest. NEVER would I endorse or incite violence. NEVER!!”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration on Sunday ordered high schools and colleges to stop in-person classes, closed restaurants to indoor dining and suspended organized sports — including the football playoffs — in a bid to curb the state’s spiking coronavirus cases.

The restrictions will begin Wednesday and last three weeks. They are not as sweeping as when the Democratic governor issued a stay-at-home order last spring but are extensive. They were announced as Michigan faces surging COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations statewide and rising deaths.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

“The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action,” Whitmer said at an evening news conference. ”

An order written by the state health department prohibits high schools, colleges and universities from offering in-person instruction. K-8 schools can continue with on-site classes, though — as before — it is not required. Restaurants, now operating at 50% capacity, must halt dine-in service inside.

Indoor residential gatherings, which were capped at 10 people, can include no more than two households. Outdoor gatherings are limited to a maximum of 25 people. Entertainment facilities such as theaters, bowling alleys and indoor water parks must close again. Gyms and pools can stay open but not offer group classes.

Whitmer urged the public to “double down” with precautions such as wearing a mask and keeping distance to avoid a second stay-at-home order.

Robert Gordon, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, noted that the order “focuses on indoor gatherings and the settings where groups gather and where the virus can thrive.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-adviser-encourages-citizens-to-rise-up-against-michigan-covid

The ballroom address, coupled with a private speech to GOP activists a few miles away, were designed to buttress his support in Florida, highlight his popularity among conservative Jewish voters and pay homage to Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and megadonor to Trump. The president regularly mentioned Adelson throughout his remarks. “How did that happen, Sheldon?” Trump said at one point, with Adelson offstage. Adelson is a regular adviser to the president and a major supporter of the GOP.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/07/trump-touts-accomplishments-address-meant-woo-jewish-voters-bolster-support-florida/

Typically, doctors space out treatments to measure a patient’s response. Some drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, are most effective if they’re administered early in the course of an infection. Others, such as remdesivir, are most effective when they’re given later, after a patient has become critically ill. But Trump’s doctors threw everything they could at the virus all at once. His condition appeared to stabilize somewhat as the day wore on, but his doctors, still fearing he might need to go on a ventilator, decided to move him to the hospital. It was too risky at that point to stay at the White House.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/24/nightmare-scenario-book-excerpt/

Elon Musk took Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ attack on billionaires in stride, urging the outspoken Congresswoman to “stop hitting on me.”

“Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special,” AOC said in a Friday posting.

Musk wasn’t named in the tweet but was quick to respond.

“Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy,” he wrote, adding a smiling emoji. The line appears to be a reference to when AOC said her Republican critics on the platform just wanted to date her.

“I was talking about Zuckerberg but ok,” AOC shot back at Musk before deleting the response about a minute later.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez responded, but quickly deleted her comeback.
Getty Images

The Tesla billionaire and world’s richest man has sent shockwaves around the platform this week after striking a deal with the company’s board to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. Musk has inflamed liberals by promising to loosen censorship on the platform and embrace more free expression.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/04/30/elon-musk-tells-aoc-to-stop-hitting-on-me/

São Paulo – The collection of Museu Imperial (the Imperial Museum), in the city of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, includes precious keepsakes of Brazil’s ties with the Arab world in its empire days: the diaries of emperor Dom Pedro II’s travels through Brazil and the world, including Arab countries. The notepads contain accounts of the monarch’s trips to Egypt, in 1871, and then to Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Egypt again, in 1876.

M. Delie & E. Bechard – Back to Light

Dom Pedro II (3rd, right to left) travelled to Egypt

“He is fascinated with Egypt. He made that clear in his writings on several occasions,” says the Imperial Museum‘s director Maurício Vicente Ferreira Júnior. He also highlights Dom Pedro II’s enthusiasm about the trip to Palestine. Júnior lists characteristics of the emperor that show through in his diaries – he was curious, easily moved and sarcastic, which becomes evident from his critical, light-hearted remarks about things.

“After sitting a mass at the Franciscanos church, which can only be reached by foot because of these streets akin to ant galleries, I went to the Pyramids of Giza. The path is almost entirely flanked by Acacias, a very many of which intertwine their crowns of the most splendid green, a worthy locale to such venerable monuments,” wrote Pedro II during his first trip to Egypt.

The accounts of his first trip to Egypt are basically about visits to landmark sites, interspersed with a few alternately endearing and high-spirited remarks about the people he met and the places he saw.

The museum’s director notes that the emperor’s Middle East travels were personal affairs rather than official missions. Proof of this is the fact that Dom Pedro II made a point of checking in at hotels as Pedro de Alcântara, and not as the Brazilian emperor. Júnior explains that the monarch took his first trip abroad in 1871, already a middle-aged man who had read a lot about different countries and studied different languages.

“At close to ¼ past 7 I was in Al- Eizariya (Bethany). Not many Arabs there. I crossed the village to go to Lazarus grave, where I arrived after almost lying down flat on my stomach to go through a hole that opens up to the hall from whence one walks down 5 steps, after having walked down another 27,” the emperor described on November 27th, 1876, already in his second trip to the Arab world, about his visit to the grave site of Lazarus, a biblical character who supposedly resurrected. The grave is located in what is now the occupied West Bank.

In the diaries from his second trip to Arab countries, the emperor takes his time to write about the landmarks he visits, displaying vast knowledge about them and making remarks at times analytical and at others funny. “Since I started sailing the Nile, above and near Aswan, I have heard nothing but the exclamation – look, a crocodile! – a beast I was unable to see and could only glimpse at, on three occasions, stuffed,” he writes of his second time in Egypt, in 1876.

The Museum’s archive holds a total of 47 notepads. Some of them also contain sketches, such as the one written in Egypt; The written material is not on display at the Museum to prevent wear and tear on the paper, but the contents are available online (see the link below). The travel logs have been the subject of a book and a CD produced by Museu Imperial in the 1990s, which are out of print, and were also featured in exhibitions. One of them was titled “O Imperador Viajante” (The Travelling Emperor) and travelled to 12 localities throughout Brazil that were visited by emperor Dom Pedro II.

Júnior explains that within the next two years, new materials based on the travel logs are set to be published, and that the museum is planning another exhibition. The items on showcase at the museum include a few keepsakes, but these are mostly from the emperor’s trip through Brazil, integrated into different rooms within the house, with no labelling to connect them to specific trips.

Press Release

The Imperial Museum houses items from the monarchy period

Museu Imperial was founded in 1940, in emperor Dom Pedro II’s former summer palace. The site was formerly a farm named Fazenda do Córrego (Creek’s Farm), which Dom Pedro I purchased to create a shorter route from Rio to Minas Gerais, bypassing São Paulo. Dom Pedro I dreamed of building a summer retreat there and name it Palácio da Concórdia (the Palace of Concord), but never did. After receiving the farm as inheritance, Dom Pedro II proceeded to fulfil his father’s dream by building the villa.

Afterwards, the city of Petrópolis was erected around the palace. After the Proclamation of the Republic, the estate was bought by government and converted into a school. During his administration, president Getúlio Vargas worked for the appreciation of all things national, therefore the villa was converted into a museum to hold items dating back from the monarchy period. Some of the items came from various organizations, but most are from the personal collection of Pedro de Orléans e Bragança, Dom Pedro II’s grandson.

The body of documentation of the emperor’s travels through Brazil and the world was nominated last year for the International Register of the Memory of the World Program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

All quotes from: Museu Imperial/Ibram/Brazilian Ministry of Culture

Service:

Dom Pedro II Travel Diaries
Access the Museu Imperial archives
http://www.museuimperial.gov.br/component/content/article/134-arquivo-historico-pt/4349-instrumentos-de-pesquisa.html (in Portuguese)

*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum

Source Article from http://www2.anba.com.br/noticia/21865760/arts/museum-holds-diaries-of-emperors-trips-to-the-east/

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, considered by many to be a rising star in the Republican Party, will have a prime-time speaking spot next week when the GOP holds its presidential nominating convention, according to reports.

Stefanik, 36, represents the state’s 21st Congressional District, far north of New York City — a region known as the “North Country.”

She said she will use her air time to attack what she described as Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s “47-year failed record of far-left policies.”

THE 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION: WHAT TO KNOW

Her remarks also will include a defense of what she called President Trump’s “record of results,” the Albany Times Union reported.

Stefanik announced her selection to speak at the convention in a Twitter message on Friday.

“Honored to be invited to speak by @realDonaldTrump at #RNCConvention #RNC2020 next week,” she wrote.

“It’s a great opportunity for the North Country to have a national audience,” she added, using a quote she gave to the Daily Gazette of Schenectady, N.Y.

Stefanik told the Daily Gazette she learned of her speaking spot only recently.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE GOP CONVENTION COVERAGE

“The planning for the convention, given how unprecedented this year has been, has been updated throughout given the challenges,” Stefanik told the newspaper in a phone interview, referring to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The GOP convention was initially scheduled to be held in Charlotte, N.C., but concerns over the virus prompted the party to plan a split between North Carolina and Jacksonville, Fla.

Now further logistical updates will have most speakers, including President Trump, addressing the nation from Washington, the Times Union reported.

Other speakers are expected to include U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Tim Scott of South Carolina; Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence; Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a former governor of South Carolina; Andrew Pollack, the father of a Parkland, Fla., massacre victim; Abby Johnson, a pro-life activist; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Pennsylvania U.S. House candidate Sean Parnell.

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Nick Sandmann, a Kentucky high school student who successfully sued media organizations after a confrontation in Washington last year, and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, St. Louis gun owners who used their weapons to defend their home from rioters, also are scheduled to appear, according to reports.

Stefanik will be seeking her fourth term in the House when she competes against Democrat Tedra Cobb in November, the Daily Gazette reported.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-elise-stefanik-to-target-bidens-failed-record-in-prime-time-gop-convention-speech-reports

“Simply cracking down on homelessness without providing the housing that people need is not a real solution and will likely only make the situation worse,” said Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, whose city has been an object of the president’s scorn.

An estimated 59,000 homeless people live in Los Angeles County, according to a count conducted this year by the county, about a 12 percent increase over 2018. Of those, an estimated 44,000, or 75 percent, were unsheltered. Within the city of Los Angeles, which is distinct from the county, there were 36,000 homeless, including 27,000 who were unsheltered, according to that same count.

Los Angeles’s mayor, Eric M. Garcetti, and other political leaders faced intense scrutiny this summer after the release of the results of the 2019 count, which also showed that the number of homeless had increased 16 percent in the city. The surge was especially shocking because the government spent hundreds of millions of dollars in 2018 to address the problem.

Voters approved two high-profile initiatives in recent years to fund homeless services in the region, including a 2016 city bond that earmarked $1.2 billion to build housing for the homeless and a 2017 county quarter-cent sales tax increase to raise about $355 million annually for 10 years. The mayor’s defenders and city officials have pointed out that the city housed nearly 22,000 people in 2018, a record number for the government and an increase of 23 percent from 2017. But even amid those efforts, the high cost of housing in Los Angeles, one of the priciest rental markets in the country, has continued to push more individuals and families out of their homes.

While Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles has often been a focal point for national conversations about homelessness, the high rate of unsheltered people has become a source of friction across the state, in cities including Eureka, Oakland and San Francisco. With nowhere else to go, the homeless often set up encampments on sidewalks and beneath highway overpasses. Increasingly, encampments are nestling against wild lands, raising concerns amid increasingly intense and volatile wildfire seasons.

But while the displeasure of middle-class urban residents often receives attention, the homeless themselves — many of whom have full-time jobs but cannot afford California’s high rents — have the most to be frustrated about. Safety is a huge concern: An analysis published earlier this year by Kaiser Health News found that a record 918 homeless people died last year in Los Angeles County.

The administration has discussed refurbishing homeless facilities or building new ones, The Post reported. An administration official said that while those ideas have been discussed, nothing has been settled.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/us/politics/trump-homelessness-california.html

In response to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases and concerns over the omicron variant, the Los Angeles Unified School District will be requiring students and staff to get tested for coronavirus before returning to school after winter break next week, officials announced Monday.

Testing will be mandated regardless of vaccination status, and students and staff will be required to show proof of a negative test in order to return to school.

Testing will be available starting Monday, officials said.

The spring semester for the nation’s second-largest school district is now set to start Jan. 10, though students won’t be back on campus until the following day.

Families can upload test results to a student’s “daily pass” account, and will be required to do so no later than Sunday.

Weekly coronavirus testing will continue through the month for all students and employees, officials said.

Information about testing sites is available here.

At-home rapid tests are also available for K-12 students. They can be picked up Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at any LAUSD grab-and-go sites. Each student can get two self tests. Information about the pick up sites can be found here.

Additionally, L.A. County is offering free at-home test kits via mail to residents who have experienced symptoms, or believe they may have been exposed.

Masking is still required for students at all times both indoors and outdoors, and last week, L.A. County health officials indicated school staff will be required to wear medical-grade masks and students will have to mask up outdoors when it’s crowded.

Officials are also encouraging eligible students to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19.

On Monday, the FDA expanded booster shots for children as young as 12, and the CDC is expected to make a final decision on the matter next week.

The new requirements come as the region is experiencing an explosion in coronavirus cases, largely due to the omicron variant.

Fresh off the holiday weekend, the county reported 16,269 new cases Monday.

In a news release, health officials urged parents and children to take precautions as pediatric hospitalizations increased by nearly 190% between Dec. 4 and Dec. 25.

“As students return to the classroom, we all need to follow the public health safety measures in place to ensure our schools can open safely after the winter break,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in the release. “Because higher community transmission creates additional challenges at our schools, everyone needs to do their part to slow the spread of the virus.”

Source Article from https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lausd-orders-mandatory-covid-testing-for-students-and-staff-before-school-resumes-this-month/

President Trump acknowledged Saturday a small contingent of U.S. troops will remain in Syria despite announcing last year his controversial decision to withdraw all American forces from the country.

“We’ll leave a small group of guys and gals, but we want to bring our people back home. We want to bring our people back home. It’s time,” Trump said during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. “We were going to be in Syria for four months. We ended up five years just fighting. They just like to fight.”

In Syria, specifically, the president said that as early as today 100 percent of the Islamic State’s caliphate in Syria and Iraq will be defeated by the U.S.-led coalition.

Trump in December ordered the 2,000 American service members in Syria to return home, saying on Twitter the Islamic State there had been defeated. But the president’s move was widely criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who disagreed with the withdrawal of troops.

The White House has since backed away from its initial plan to remove all U.S. forces from Syria. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced last month a “small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time.”

Trump frequently promises to bring American troops home from foreign conflicts and has criticized President Barack Obama for “fighting in endless wars.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-islamic-state-in-syria-near-100-percent-defeated

As a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package comes together on Capitol Hill, millions of additional direct payments to Americans could be in the works.

Legislation under discussion includes $1,400 stimulus checks that could bring the total direct payments sent to Americans in recent months to $2,000.

The $1,400 sums would go to adults, as well as children and adult dependents.

To qualify, individuals and families would have to have income within certain ranges.

Individuals with adjusted gross income of up to $75,000 and married couples with up to $150,000 stand to get full payments. Those with incomes above that level would see their payments reduced and ultimately phase out at $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 per couple.

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Unemployment benefits: What Democrats want in a stimulus package
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The thresholds for qualifying for the money have been hotly contested among both Democrats and Republicans.

Certain lawmakers from both parties have complained the thresholds are too high. One Republican proposal called for capping the payments at $50,000 in annual income for individuals and $100,000 for couples.

Still others, namely Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have objected to bringing the thresholds down that low.

“To say to a worker in Vermont or California or any place else, that if you’re making, you know, $52,000 a year, you are too rich to get this help, the full benefit, I think that that’s absurd,” Sanders recently said.

This week, the House Ways and Means Committee released its draft legislation, which included a phase-out rate of $50 for every $1,000 above the full-payment thresholds. While that rate is similar to previous checks, experts say the proposal will help limit how much higher earners, such as those with multiple children, receive, if anything.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/12/1400-stimulus-checks-heres-how-deciding-who-qualifies-could-change.html