Another wildfire in California Due to dry conditions and strong wind, a wildfire rapidly burned through a hospital and hundreds of homes in the town of Paradise in Northern California town. According to Butte County Fire Chief Darren Read, 27,000 residents fled the flames with babies, children and pets in cars and on foot. There have been reports of several deaths, though none yet confirmed. The blaze adds to what is already one of the worst fire years ever in California. Flames have already destroyed 621,743 acres (251,610 hectares), nearly twice the amount during the same period of 2017 and nearly triple the five-year average. The next town threatened in the fire's path is Chico.
Another Massacre An ex-Marine, 28-year-old Ian David Long, shot dead 12 college students at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, a suburb 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Los Angeles, C.A. Ian Long was found dead of a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted. The town has normally been considered one of the safest and most peaceful in America. The public has reacted with no surprise. Although the incident may reinflame the debate over gun control, it is unlikely to result in changes to legislation.
Questions over US half-term election results Two days after the vote, elections in Georgia, Florida and Arizona remained unresolved, with the prospect of legal challenges, recounts and ballot reviews setting the stage for possible weeks of uncertainty.
Asylum denied to refugees who enter the US without papers or visas The Trump administration announced new laws to bar asylum to people who cross the U.S. southern border illegally. These laws copy those introduced by Australia to prevent deaths at sea of boat people arriving via people smugglers. The laws are contrary to United Nations rules on the humanitarian rights of refugees.
Migrant-refugees from Venezuela reach 3 million One in 12 of the population have joined the exodus, driven by violence, hyperinflation (equivalent to the Depression in Germany in 1933) and shortages of food.
Trump agrees to continue supplying Saudi Arabia with arms The Saudis back one side of a civil war in Yemen. They have blockaded the port so that international relief agencies cannot get medical supplies or food to the millions of Yemenites who are dying of starvation and disease.
(Elsewhere in the world other things, just as significant, are happening in other countries, and to the environment.)
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