The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil and gas drilling off California’s and Florida’s coasts, setting the stage for a political showdown – including with Sunshine state Republicans who have largely opposed petroleum development in the Gulf of Mexico.
This announcement comes as the US petroleum industry, despite contending with low crude prices, has been pushing for an entree to additional offshore drilling areas. The industry’s move for increased access also marks an effort to increase jobs and US energy independence, according to the Associated Press.
The federal government has prohibited offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which extends from Florida shores to portions of Alabama, since 1995. The ban stemmed from worries about potential oil spills.
While California does have some offshore oil development, there have not been new leases in federal waters for nearly 30 years, the AP said.
A proposed schedule for petroleum leasing in federal waters includes up to 34 auctions from 2026 to 2031; these auctions include up to six sales off California’s coastline, 21 off of Alaska’s coastline, and two in the Gulf of Mexico’s eastern portion, Politico said. The sales in Alaska would reportedly include a region that has never had oil drilling.
A federal judge on Thursday halted for now Donald Trump’s deployment of national guard troops to Washington DC, dealing the president a temporary legal setback to his efforts to send the military to US cities over the objections of local leaders.
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who participated in protests at Columbia University and was detained by Ice earlier this year, has filed a lawsuit demanding the Trump administration release its communications with anti-Palestinian groups he says contributed to his March arrest and efforts to detain him.
Cases of infant botulism tied to the ByHeart infant formula recall have nearly tripled across 15 states since the recall was first announced less than a month ago.
The Israeli military carried out one of the deadliest attacks on Gaza since the “ceasefire” took effect last month, killing over 30 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, and wounding dozens more in a series of airstrikes late Wednesday and early Thursday. The dead and wounded arrived at hospitals in an endless stream, children were covered in dust and blood, men carried small bodies wrapped in shrouds, and wails of grief rose in the air
The U.S. Coast Guard will reportedly no longer consider swastikas, nooses, or the Confederate flag to be hate symbols, according to forthcoming guidelines obtained by The Washington Post, though the service branch denies changing its stance towards such imagery.
A fire forced an evacuation at the South American Brazilian venue for the COP30 climate summit, on Thursday, Nov. 20, but so far no one in attendance has been injured, according to multiple reports.
At least 25 Palestinians were killed in four Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday, in a part of Gaza under Hamas control since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, the local Health Ministry said.
