World
Magnitude 6.4 quake shakes northern California, leaves 2 dead, thousands without power
A powerful magnitude 6.4 earthquake jolted the extreme northern coast of California before dawn on Tuesday, crumpling homes and roads, rupturing utility lines and leaving thousands of residents without running water and electricity, Reuters reported.
At least a dozen people were injured, and two others died from "medical emergencies" that occurred during or just after the quake, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.
According to Reuters the tremor, which struck at 2:30 a.m. PST and was followed by about 80 aftershocks, was centered 215 miles (350 km) north of San Francisco offshore of Humboldt County, a largely rural area known for its redwood forests, local seafood, lumber industry and dairy farms.
The region also is known for relatively frequent seismic activity, although the latest quake appeared to cause more disruption than others in recent years.
Tuesday's temblor set off one structure fire - by severing the gas line of a hot-water heater - and caused at least two other buildings to collapse, authorities said. The blaze was quickly extinguished, and fire crews rescued a resident briefly trapped in the home, according to fire officials.
About two dozen houses were so heavily damaged as to be "red-tagged," declared unsafe for habitation. Most were in Rio Dell, a town of about 3,400 residents that bore the brunt of the quake, read the report.
Water service to the entire community was knocked out, and City Manager Kyle Knopp said he expected 100 to 150 residents would likely end up displaced once housing inspectors had assessed all the structural damage there.
Some 79,000 homes and businesses countywide were without power in the quake's immediate aftermath, according to the electric grid tracking website PowerOutage.us.
Fire officials said dispatchers fielded roughly 70 emergency calls after the quake, read the report.
Details of casualties were sketchy. The two fatalities involved individuals, one aged 72, the other 83, who suffered medical emergencies that coincided with the quake, preventing rescue teams from reaching them in time to render life-saving care, said Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal.
Most of the 12 survivors known to have sought medical care got themselves to hospitals and sustained relatively minor injuries, many from fallen objects. Two of the most serious cases were a head injury and a broken hip, officials said.
Authorities reported at least four Humboldt County roads shut down due to earthquake damage.
California's earthquake early warning system sent electronic alerts to the mobile devices of some 3 million northern California residents 10 seconds before the first shaking was even felt, said state emergency chief Mark Ghilarducci.
While earthquakes are routine in California, tremors at a magnitude 6.4 are less common and potentially dangerous.
Shaking from Tuesday's quake was felt as far away as the San Francisco Bay area, the US Geological Survey reported. The biggest aftershock registered a magnitude 4.6, Reuters reported.
World
Trump sworn in as 47th US president
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump’s biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.
Donald Trump sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday at the Capitol Rotunda by Chief Justice John Roberts.
At the ceremony, Trump vowed to make America "greater, stronger and more exceptional" than ever before.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Tech tycoon and Trump's biggest supporter Elon Musk also attended the ceremony.
The inauguration ceremony took place indoors due to the cold temperatures in Washington, DC, unprecedented in decades.
In the meantime, Trump signed a barrage of executive orders following the ceremony.
The new orders include tougher anti-immigration measures as well as pardons for people convicted for their role in the Capitol Hill attack on January 6, 2021.
Ahead of his inauguration, Trump met at the White House with the outgoing president Joe Biden – a courtesy the Republican had denied his Democratic successor in 2021.
Earlier, Trump had attended a church service. Alongside, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai and Apple's Tim Cook, some of the most powerful tech moguls in the world, attended the service.
Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president.
World
Trump promises harsh immigration crackdown on inauguration eve
Trump repeated his campaign pledge to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, which would remove millions of immigrants
Donald Trump told thousands of roaring supporters he would impose severe limits on immigration on his first day in office, vowing to swiftly fulfill the central promise of his presidential campaign at a rally on Sunday inside a packed Washington arena a day before he returns to power.
"By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt," he said to cheers at a "Make America Great Again Victory Rally" at the Capital One Arena.
Trump repeated his campaign pledge to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, which would remove millions of immigrants. An operation of that scale, however, would likely take years and be hugely costly, Reuters reported.
The rally resembled the free-wheeling campaign speeches that have been a Trump staple since his first serious White House run in 2016, with the former and future president delivering a mix of boasts, false claims and sweeping promises to the delight of the crowd.
"This is the greatest political movement in American history, and 75 days ago, we achieved the most epic political victory our country has ever seen," he said. "Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed of strength and fix every single crisis facing our country."
The event marked his first major address in Washington since his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of his supporters.
Trump has said he will pardon many of the more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the attack.
Trump's rally, along with his inaugural address on Monday, could preview the tone he plans to adopt during his second White House term.
In recent weeks, Trump has bewildered foreign allies by musing aloud about taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal and turning Canada into a U.S. state.
He vowed to repeal "every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration" within hours of assuming the presidency at noon.
A source familiar with the planning said Trump will take more than 200 executive actions on Monday.
Border security will figure prominently in Trump's first executive orders, another source said, including classifying drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and moving toward reinstatement of the "Remain in Mexico" policy that forces non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court dates.
Trump's deportation plans have unsettled immigrants subject to removal, including some who immigrant advocates say are law-abiding, long-term residents with U.S.-citizen spouses and children.
Trump said he would "get radical woke ideologies the hell out of our military" and order the military to construct a missile defense shield over the U.S., though he has yet to offer details on how to carry it out.
He also pledged to release classified documents relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., both in 1968.
World
Fuel tanker truck blast kills at least 70 in Nigeria
The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state last October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Nigeria, Reuters reported.
At least 70 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a petrol tanker truck overturned, spilling fuel that exploded, the country's national emergency agency said.
The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state last October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Nigeria, Reuters reported.
"As of this report, over 70 bodies have been recovered, 56 individuals are injured, and more than 15 shops have been destroyed," the National Emergency Management Authority said in a statement.
"The injured have been transported to hospitals for treatment, while recovery efforts for the deceased are ongoing."
A Reuters witness said residents and officials were digging graves with a view to bury the victims on Saturday night in accordance with Islamic rites. Niger is a largely Muslim state in Africa's most populous nation.
Earlier, Kumar Tsukwam, the Federal Road Safety Corps sector commander for Niger state, said most of the victims were impoverished local residents who had rushed to scoop up the spilled petrol after the truck overturned.
"Large crowd of people gathered to scoop fuel despite concerted efforts to stop them," Tsukwam said in a statement.
Tsukwam said firefighters had managed to put out the fire.
Such accidents have become common in Africa's largest oil producer, killing dozens of people in the country grappling with its worst cost of living crisis in a generation, read the report.
The price of petrol in Nigeria has soared more than 400% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a decades-old subsidy when he came into office in May 2023.
Bologi Ibrahim, spokesperson to Niger state governor, said residents should give priority to their safety when petrol tanker trucks are involved in accidents.
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