California struck by magnitude 5.2 earthquake shaking buildings in Los Angeles

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Americas

Published: 07 August 2024

Hits: 675

LOS ANGELES, USA - Southern California was struck by a “very strong” 5.2-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday evening, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The epicenter of the quake was about 15 miles southwest of Lamont, Kern County. It struck at around 9.10pm PT, with people in Fresno, Bakersfield, Santa Clarita and as far afield as Los Angeles reportedly feeling its tremors.

A survey initially measured the earthquake at 5.3 on the Richter scale, before it was later downgraded to 5.2. Dozens of aftershocks registering as high as 4.5 magnitude began just 45 seconds after the initial quake.

The shaking at the point closest to the epicenter felt “very strong,” as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale.

The USGS, which is assessing the impact of the quake, said there is a low likelihood of damages and casualties – neither of which have been reported. There is also “no tsunami danger,” according to the National Weather Service.

Approximately 60 aftershocks were recorded over the following hour, according to the California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones.

Jones, who is based in Pasadena, noted that “we are seeing a robust aftershock sequence,” she wrote on X late on Tuesday.

The seismologist added that the quake took place near the White Wolf fault in Kern County, where an earthquake registering 7.5 on the Richter scale killed 12 people in 1952. “It does not appear to be on the same fault as that earthquake,” she confirmed.

A large boulder the size of an SUV was reportedly blocking lanes on Interstate 5 near Grapevine Road two minutes after the quake struck, according to the California Highway Patrol.

It is not clear whether the boulder has been removed.

An emergency alert was sent out to many Southern Californians’ mobile phones from the USGS’ ShockAlert early warning system seconds before the shaking began.

“Earthquake Detected! Drop, Cover, Hold On. Protect Yourself. -USGS ShakeAlert,” the notification read.

Los Angeles Fire Department deployed helicopters and sent employees from stations to assess whether any injuries or structural damage had occurred in the city, which is about 88 miles from the epicenter.

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, the city’s mayor Karen Bass confirmed there were “no damages or injuries in the City of Los Angeles.”

LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Jose Gomez said he did not feel any tremors on his drive into work in the neighboring city of Santa Clarita, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Earthquakes with magnitudes between 5.0 and 6.0 occur five times per year across California and Nevada, according to a three-year data sample.

Every year Southern California experiences up to 10,000 earthquakes, with most of them registering low on the Richter scale and causing little to no damage or injuries.

The most recent significant earthquake (above a 6.0 on the Richter scale) in the state was the 6.4 magnitude quake that occurred in Ferndale, Humboldt County, in December 2022, in which two people were killed and 17 injured.

Kamala Harris picks Minnesota governor for vice president

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Americas

Published: 06 August 2024

Hits: 517

By Andrea Shalal, Jarrett Renshaw, Nandita Bose and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive policy champion and a plain speaker from America's heartland to help win over rural, white voters.

Harris announced the selection in a text message to supporters.

"I’m pleased to share that I’ve made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate," she said. "Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president."

Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, said he was honoured to join Harris on the ticket.

"I'm all in," Walz said on X, formerly Twitter. "Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what's possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school."

Walz was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018.

As governor, Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.

He has long advocated for women's reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the U.S. House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights.

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is adding a popular Midwestern politician whose home state votes reliably for Democrats in presidential elections but is close to Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial battlegrounds.

Such states are seen as critical in deciding the Nov. 5 election, and Walz is widely seen as skilled at connecting with white, rural voters who in recent years have voted broadly for Republican Donald Trump, Harris' rival for the White House.

Harris chose Walz over Josh Shapiro, the popular governor of Pennsylvania, who had been seen as helpful to delivering his crucial battleground state.

Harris, 59, became the Democratic Party's standard bearer after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign under party pressure last month. Since then, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and recast the race against Trump with a boost of energy from her party's base.

Harris was expected to appear with Walz at an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. They will face Trump and his running mate JD Vance, also a military veteran from the Midwest, in the November election.

THE GEORGE FLOYD FACTOR IN WALZ'S TENURE

Walz's tenure as governor was marked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder. Images of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of an African American, who then died, exposed deeper grievances and gave rise to protests over strained race relations in the U.S. and abroad.

Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of National Action Network, said Walz had heard calls for justice for Floyd by tapping the state's attorney general to lead the prosecution in the case. The officer was convicted of murder and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

"I learned then that he was a man who will listen and do what is right by those he represents," Sharpton said in a statement. "We can count on Governor Walz to take that same kind of open approach as Kamala Harris’ vice president."

Trump campaign officials and surrogates quickly went to work trying to define Walz as a hardcore leftist whose values are out of touch with most Americans.

They criticized his handling of violent riots in Minneapolis following Floyd's death.

"It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State," the Trump campaign said in a statement, a reference to California, Harris' home state.

WALZ ON THE ATTACK

Walz has attacked Trump and Vance as "weird," a catchy insult that has been picked up by the Harris campaign, social media and Democratic activists.

Walz gave the nascent Harris campaign the new attack line in a late July interview: "These are weird people on the other side: They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room," referring to book bans and women's reproductive consultations with doctors.

Walz has also assailed claims by Trump and Vance of having middle class credentials.
"They keep talking about the middle class. A robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don't know who we are," Walz said in an MSNBC interview.

That approach has struck a chord with the young voters Harris needs to reengage. David Hogg, the co-founder of the gun safety group March for Our Lives, described him as a "great communicator."

The Harris campaign hopes Walz's extensive National Guard career, coupled with a successful run as a high school football coach, and his Dad joke videos, opens new tab will attract rural voters who are not yet dedicated to a second Trump term in the White House.

Walz was a relative unknown nationally until the Harris "veepstakes" heated up, but his profile has since surged. A popular member of Congress, he reportedly had the backing of powerful former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in persuading Biden to leave the race.

In the 2016 election, Trump won 59% of rural voters; in 2020 that number rose to 65% even though Trump lost the election, according to Pew Research.

In the 2022 governor's race, Walz won with 52.27% to his Republican opponent's 44.61%, although swaths of rural Minnesota voted for the opponent.

While Walz has supported Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues ranging from legalized abortion and same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, he also racked up a centrist voting record during his congressional career.

He was a staunch defender of government support for farmers and military veterans, as well as gun-owner rights that won praise from the National Rifle Association, according to The Almanac of American Politics.

He subsequently registered a failing grade with the NRA after supporting gun-control measures during his first campaign for governor.

Walz's shift from a centrist representing a single rural district in Congress to a more progressive politician as governor may have been in response to the demands of voters in major cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul.

"He runs the risk of reinforcing some of the worst fears people have of Kamala Harris being a San Francisco liberal," said Ryan Dawkins, a political science professor at Minnesota's Carleton College.

Walz has a ready counter-attack.

"What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn and women are making their own healthcare decisions," Walz said in a July CNN interview. "So if that's where they want to label me, I'm more than happy to take the label."

As the state's top executive, Walz mandated the use of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic and signed a law making marital rape illegal. He presided over several years of budget surpluses in Minnesota on the road to his 2022 reelection.

During that campaign, Walz touted the backing of several influential labor unions, including the state AFL-CIO, firefighters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), teachers and others.

US has sent Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs since Oct. 7

Details

Written by Super User

Category: Americas

Published: 30 June 2024

Hits: 723

By Humeyra Pamuk and Mike Stone

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration has sent to Israel large numbers of munitions, including more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles, since the start of the war in Gaza, said two U.S. officials briefed on an updated list of weapons shipments.

Between the war's start last October and recent days, the United States has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions, according to the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

While the officials didn't give a timeline for the shipments, the totals suggest there has been no significant drop-off in U.S. military support for its ally, despite international calls to limit weapons supplies and a recent administration decision to pause a shipment of powerful bombs.

Experts said the contents of the shipments appear consistent with what Israel would need to replenish supplies used in this eight-month intense military campaign in Gaza, which it launched after the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

"While these numbers could be expended relatively quickly in a major conflict, this list clearly reflects a substantial level of support from the United States for our Israeli allies," said Tom Karako, a weapons expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the listed munitions were the type Israel would use in its fight against Hamas or in a potential conflict with Hezbollah.

The delivery numbers, which have not been previously reported, provide the most up-to-date and extensive tally of munitions shipped to Israel since the Gaza war began.

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire since the start of the Gaza war, and concern is rising that an all-out war could break out between the two sides.

The White House declined to comment. Israel's Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shipments are part of a bigger list of weapons sent to Israel since the Gaza conflict began, one of the U.S. officials said. A senior Biden administration official on Wednesday told reporters that Washington has since Oct. 7 sent $6.5 billion worth of security assistance to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks claimed that Washington was withholding weapons, a suggestion U.S. officials have repeatedly denied even though they acknowledged some "bottlenecks".

The Biden administration has paused one shipment of the 2,000-pound bomb, citing concern over the impact it could have in densely populated areas in Gaza, but U.S. officials insist that all other arms deliveries continue as normal. One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the United States is discussing with Israel the release of a shipment of large bombs that was suspended in May over worries about the military operation in Rafah.

International scrutiny of Israel's military operation in Gaza has intensified as the Palestinian death toll from the war has exceeded 37,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the coastal enclave in ruins.

Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to its longtime ally. While Biden has warned that he would place conditions on military aid if Israel fails to protect civilians and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, he has not done so beyond delaying the May shipment.

Biden's support for Israel in its war against Hamas has emerged as a political liability, particularly among young Democrats, as he runs for re-election this year.

It fueled a wave of "uncommitted" protest votes in primaries and has driven pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. universities.

While the United States provides detailed descriptions and quantities of military aid sent to Ukraine as it fights a full-scale invasion of Russia, the administration has revealed few details about the full extent of U.S. weapons and munitions sent to Israel.
The shipments are also hard to track because some of the weapons are shipped as part of arms sales approved by Congress years ago but only now being fulfilled.

One of the U.S. officials said the Pentagon has sufficient quantities of weapons in its own stocks and had been liaising with U.S. industry partners who make the weapons, such as Boeing Co (BA.N), and General Dynamics (GD.N), as the companies work to manufacture more.

(This story has been corrected to fix the reference to $6.5 billion worth of US 'security assistance' to Israel instead of 'weapons' in paragraph 9)