A powerful storm doused California with heavy rain on Friday, prompting evacuation warnings as the state braced for the potential of floods, mudslides, thunderstorms and even the chance of a tornado over the weekend.
More than 4in of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara county as the storm moved south toward Los Angeles, according to the National Weather Service.
Communities in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties – especially those near burn scars where there are higher risks for mudslides and debris flows – could be in for a dangerously wet weekend, with two surges of rainfall expected through Sunday.
As communities prepared for Saturday’s expected storm surge, evacuation warnings were issued through Sunday morning in areas affected by recent wildfires, including those by the major blazes in Los Angeles in January.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned that roads and highways would likely see flooding along with debris flows that could block thoroughfares and damage infrastructure. “In creeks and rivers, the flows will be heavy with anyone in or near those channels at risk of being swept away,” officials wrote in a Friday morning update.
The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled Friday.
An Israeli settler arson attack on a mosque in the occupied West Bank has drawn international condemnation, as a wave of intensified violence against Palestinians continues unabated across the area.
Thick fog has enabled Russian troops to move further into the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
More than a thousand Starbucks workers have commenced a strike in more than 40 cities across the US on Thursday amid stagnant negotiations with the world’s largest coffee chain over a first union contract.
Seven people detained at California’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center have sued the US government, alleging they have been denied essential medications, frequently go hungry and are housed in a “decrepit” facility.
The US state department has announced that it will designate four European self-described anti-fascist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, as the Trump administration broadens its campaign against what it portrays as an international wave of leftist violence.
