‘Environmental catastrophe’ after massive oil spill in waters off California

Published

3 years ago

October 3, 2021

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An emergency clean-up effort is under way in Huntington Beach, California, after a massive oil spill described by the city’s mayor as an “environmental catastrophe”.

More than 572,000 litres – 3,000 barrels – of heavy crude spilled into the Pacific Ocean between Huntington Beach Pier and Newport Beach, a distance of more than five miles.

Booms – floating barriers – were deployed on the ocean surface to contain the oil, while divers investigated the source of the leak.

Dead birds and fish were strewn across the sand and rescuers were searching for other animals harmed by the oil.

The area is known as a home to threatened and endangered species including humpback whales and a bird called the snowy plover.

Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley said the oil had caused “significant damage” in the ecological reserve of Talbert Marsh.

The spill, thought to have been caused by a leak in an underwater pipeline, covers about 13 square miles and was reported on Saturday.

Operations at three off-shore platforms owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp were shut down on Saturday night.

The affected beaches, which would usually be busy with swimmers and surfers, are likely to remain closed for weeks or even months, according to Huntington Beach mayor Kim Carr.

Officials had to cancel the final day of a popular air show that would usually attract tens of thousands of people.

“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades.

“We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.

“In the coming days and weeks we challenge the responsible parties to do everything possible to rectify this environmental catastrophe.”

Huntington Beach resident David Rapchun told The Associated Press: “For the amount of oil these things produce I don’t think it’s worth the risk.

He asked whether oil drilling was a good idea so close to some of Southern California’s most beautiful beaches, adding: “We need oil, but there’s always a question: Do we need it there?”

Jacqueline Savitz, chief policy officer at conservation group Oceana, said: “This is just the latest tragedy of the oil industry.

“It’s well past time to prevent future oil spills by permanently protecting our coasts from offshore drilling.”

US

US Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho

Published

4 hours ago

June 27, 2024

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US Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho

The US Supreme Court has ruled that emergency abortions in Idaho can go ahead.

When a patient’s health is at serious risk, hospitals in the northwestern state will be allowed to perform emergency abortions to protect their health.

This comes two years after the landmark overturning of Roe v Wade, when Idaho was among 14 states that outlawed abortion at all stages of pregnancy with incredibly limited exceptions.

The US justices found that the court pre-emptively got involved in the case, and a 6-3 majority reinstated a lower court order that had allowed hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions to protect a patient’s health.

The opinion means the Idaho case will continue to play out in lower courts, and could end up before the Supreme Court again.

So the same justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right to abortion could soon be again considering when doctors can provide abortion in medical emergencies – meaning the issue is still far from settled.

The Supreme Court previously allowed the ban, which does permit abortion to save a pregnant patient’s life, to go into effect.

But since, several women have needed medical air lifts out of state in cases where abortion is routine treatment to avoid infection, haemorrhage and other dire health risks, Idaho doctors have said.

It was previously reported by Bloomberg that the Supreme Court briefly posted the opinion on the court’s website, before taking it down.

The Supreme Court acknowledged that a document was inadvertently posted on Wednesday before the decision was confirmed Thursday.

President Joe Biden, in a statement, said: “Today’s Supreme Court order ensures that women in Idaho can access the emergency medical care they need while this case returns to the lower courts.

“No woman should be denied care, made to wait until she’s near death, or forced to flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs.

“This should never happen in America. Yet, this is exactly what is happening in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”

The court ruling is expected to have a significant effect on emergency care in other states with strict abortion bans.

However, the procedural ruling has left key questions unanswered and it does not resolve the issues at the heart of the case.

Most Republican-controlled states began enforcing abortion restrictions two years ago – in the aftermath of the constitutional ruling.

Already there have been an increase in reports of pregnant women being turned away from US emergency rooms following the high court’s 2022 ruling.

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US

Ruja Ignatova: FBI offers £4m reward in hunt for fugitive ‘Cryptoqueen’

Published

6 hours ago

June 27, 2024

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Ruja Ignatova: FBI offers £4m reward in hunt for fugitive 'Cryptoqueen'

A $5m (£4m) reward is being offered in the hunt for the fugitive “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.

Bulgarian-born Ignatova, who has German citizenship, has been on the FBI’s most-wanted list since 2022 for fraud and money laundering.

The 43-year-old is accused of defrauding investors out of $4bn (£3.3bn) by selling a fake cryptocurrency called OneCoin, founded in Sofia in 2014.

The US agency, which has called OneCoin “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history”, previously offered a $100,000 (£82,463) reward for her capture.

However, that has now been raised to £4m.

“Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance,” states her FBI wanted poster.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria‘s chief prosecutor said on Wednesday he would press charges against Ignatova, who disappeared in late 2017.

“She will also be charged in absentia in our country, which will allow the start of a procedure for the confiscation of her illegally acquired property,” he said.

The FBI believes she could be using a German passport to travel to countries such as the UAE, Russia, Greece and Eastern Europe.

Ignatova’s last known movements were taking a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens on 25 October 2017.

She fled after bugging a flat belonging to her American boyfriend and learning he was cooperating with the FBI, according to prosecutors.

When it added her to the most-wanted list, the FBI said it believed she escaped with a “tremendous amount of cash” – enough to “buy a lot of friends”.

There has also been speculation she may have been murdered on the orders of the ‘Godfather’ of the Bulgarian mafia.

OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in US prison last year and ordered to pay back $300m (£237m).

The fake cryptocurrency raked in huge amounts using a pyramid scheme model that offered commissions for members to entice others to get involved.

US

US presidential debate: Live event might expose ageing Biden while lack of audience could stump Trump

Published

18 hours ago

June 27, 2024

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US presidential debate: Live event might expose ageing Biden while lack of audience could stump Trump

Joe Biden’s age is written on his resting face, the one that stares into camera like it’s your fault.

It’s the look of his 81 years and it doesn’t look great on a debate stage – more ready for bed than for a second term.

It matters in Atlanta.

Biden enters the TV face-off ridiculed by opponents as mentally unfit for the job.

It’s a perception embedded in the public consciousness, fed by high-profile episodes of supposed “brain freeze” – this, despite a robust rejection of frailty by the White House.

A CBS/YouGov poll earlier this month found that only about a third of voters thought Biden had the cognitive ability to serve as president, compared with half for Trump.

How Biden performs in the hostile environment of a no-notes, live TV debate could be an occasion to confirm or confound age concern.

He needs to avoid reinforcing the notion of weakness.

If this occasion is pivotal in the presidential race, that’s where the pivot point lies.

Millions will watch the debate from start to finish but millions won’t – they’ll consume it via the social media breakdown and base their judgements accordingly.

Ninety minutes of television will come down, largely, to viral “moments”, cut and pasted as campaign touchstones to drive fundraising and political ads.

In the modern era, they are the moments that can define a political campaign and the difference between success and failure – a TV contest, and so more, could be lost on a momentary lapse.

Biden ‘shadow-boxing’ ahead of main event

The president and his team have been shadow-boxing through mock debates at his Camp David retreat. Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer has been playing the role of Trump.

Faking it in the Maryland hills will be in stark contrast to the real thing in Atlanta.

Presidential advisers who micro-manage their man and his environment will be throwing him solo into a situation uncontrolled and unpredictable.

They will settle for “State of the Union” Biden. In addressing America’s political establishment in March, his performance was suitably presidential.

As Democrats sighed relief, Trump growled resentment, accusing Biden of being “all jacked up” on cocaine.

He’s at it again, suggesting that the president will take a “shot in the ass” as a chemical booster ahead of the TV debate – in doing so, he’s laying the ground for a strong Biden performance, having previously written him off.

Trump’s less structured preparations

Donald Trump’s preparations have been less structured than Biden’s. Advisers have told him to focus on subject matter with which he scores best with voters – inflation, immigration and crime among them.

The two men haven’t been in the same room together since they last debated before the 2020 election.

Four years on, the conditions are different. There will be no studio audience for punchline response and reassurance, only a penetrating silence that will sharpen scrutiny – from the moderators and from each other.