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New fire breaks out near Hollywood Hills as Los Angeles deals with several other fires

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. – A new fire broke out near the Hollywood Hills as Los Angeles County dealt with at least four fires that required residents to evacuate.

SkyFOX was over the area as the fire began spreading near Hollywood Hills and West Hollywood on Wednesday, January 8. The fire was first reported out of the 2300 block of North Solar Drive, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

At last check, the fire is believed to have stretched to about 10 acres.

The news of the Hollywood Hills fire comes as crews in Southern California are in the middle of taking down several other incidents across LA County. The Palisades Fire has devastated homes and businesses in the Malibu and Pacific Palisades areas, in addition to posing serious threats to Santa Monica, Brentwood and West Los Angeles. The Eaton Fire torched the Pasadena and Altadena areas and the Hurst Fire has burned parts of the San Fernando Valley. A fourth fire – the Woodley Fire – was reported near the Sepulveda Basin on January 8. So far, no evacuations have been ordered for areas impacted by the Woodley Fire.

A recent blaze, the Lidia Fire, was reported near the Antelope Valley, forcing people in Acton to evacuate.

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OpenAI boss Sam Altman has denied allegations of sexual abuse against her sister

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman’s sister, Ann Altman, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he regularly sexually abused her between 1997 and 2006.

The lawsuit, which was filed on 6 January in a US District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse started when she was three and Mr Altman was 12.

In a joint statement on X, with his mother and two brothers, Mr Altman denied the allegations, saying “all of these claims are utterly untrue.”

“Caring for a family member who faces mental health challenges is incredibly difficult,” the statement added.

“This situation causes immense pain to our entire family.”

In the filing, which has been seen by the BBC, Ms Altman alleged that the abuse, which took place over many years, included rape.

The lawsuit added the last instance of the alleged abuse took place when Mr Altman was an adult but she was still a minor.

The lawsuit requested a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000 (£60,100).

Ms Altman has previously made similar allegations against her brother on social media platforms such as X.

Mr Altman is one of the technology world’s most high profile figures.

In late 2022, OpenAI launched the ChatGPT generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

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All but 1 of Arizona’s members of Congress supported the Laken Riley Act. Who voted no?

On Jan. 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill named for Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student killed in February by a man who was in the country illegally.

The Laken Riley Act would require U.S. immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrants who are charged with theft-related crimes. It also includes a provision that would empower state attorneys general to sue the federal government over harms caused by illegal immigration.

Riley’s case drew national attention as part of the discussion about immigration, a major campaign issue in last year’s presidential race.

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Forty-eight House Democrats joined Republicans to pass the bill by a margin of 264-159. The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate. It will need a handful of Democratic votes in order to pass.

How did Arizona’s representatives vote on the bill?
All but two of Arizona’s House members voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act.

The state’s six Republican representatives voted to pass the bill, as did Rep. Greg Stanton, a Democrat. Freshman Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a progressive Democrat from Arizona, voted against the measure.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, another progressive, did not vote. Grijalva has been in and out of Congress after his cancer treatment.

The last time the Laken Riley Act came up for a vote was in March 2024. At that time, all of Arizona’s U.S. House members voted in favor of it, except for Grijalva and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who did not vote.

The Laken Riley Act: Who voted no?
The only “no” vote from Arizona, Ansari wrote that the bill would serve as “a license to discriminate against our immigrant communities, including DREAMers.”

“The murder of Laken Riley was a horrific tragedy. But the anti-immigrant bill being pushed by House Republicans will do nothing to prevent this kind of violence or reform our broken immigration system,” she said in a written statement released after the vote.

“Under this legislation, someone charged — just charged, not found guilty — could be immediately deported. This is a gross miscarriage of justice, and I voted no.”

Republicans, meanwhile, celebrated the bill as an overdue action to address crime committed by migrants.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., wrote that he voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act “to honor her memory and ensure bad actors here illegally are detained to prevent innocent lives from being lost to the crisis.”

Reps. Eli Crane and Andy Biggs, both immigration hawks, criticized Democrats for voting against the bill. Crane called it “appalling” that “159 Democrats sided with criminal aliens by voting against this commonsense measure.”

Delivering remarks on the House floor, Biggs listed statistics and recent examples of crimes committed by people who are in the country illegally.

“You can stand up and say, ‘We’re not bringing meaningful legislation.’ You can stand up and say that you feel real bad for Laken Riley and her family. And how about all the other victims of illegal aliens who have committed crimes,” Biggs said. “But you know the first thing they did that was illegal? They entered our country. You want to protect them.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: All but 1 of Arizona’s members of Congress supported the Laken Riley Act. Who voted no?

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The president-elect will use military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, the reason he is so interested in the world’s largest island

Trump also vowed to use “economic force” when asked if he would attempt to annex Canada and called their shared border an “artificially drawn line”.

The boundary is the world’s longest between two countries and it was established in treaties dating back to the founding of the US in the late 1700s.

The president-elect said the US spends billions of dollars protecting Canada, and he criticised imports of Canadian cars, lumber and dairy products.

“They should be a state,” he told reporters.

But outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there isn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell” of the two countries merging.

The news conference was initially billed as an economic development announcement to unveil Dubai developer Damac Properties’ $20bn investment to build data centres in the US.

But the president-elect went on to criticise environmental regulations, the US election system, the various legal cases against him, and President Joe Biden.

Among a variety of other things, he suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and restated his opposition to wind power, saying wind turbines are “driving the whales crazy”.

His remarks came as his son, Donald Trump Jr, was visiting Greenland.

Before arriving in the capital Nuuk, Trump Jr said he was going on a “personal day trip” to talk to people, and had no meetings planned with government officials.

When asked about Trump Jr’s visit to Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” and that only the local population could determine their future.

She agreed that “Greenland is not for sale”, but stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US, a Nato ally.

Greenland lies on the shortest route from North America to Europe and is home to a large American space facility. It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.

Trump suggested the island is crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.

“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he told reporters.

Since winning re-election Trump has repeatedly returned to the idea of US territorial expansion – including taking back the Panama Canal.

During the news conference, Trump said the canal “is vital to our country” and claimed “it’s being operated by China”.

He previously accused Panama of overcharging US ships to use the waterway, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has rejected Trump’s claims and said there is “absolutely no Chinese interference” in the canal.

A Hong Kong-based company, CK Hutchison Holdings, manages two ports at the canal’s entrances.

The canal was built in the early 1900s and the US maintained control over the canal zone until 1977, when treaties negotiated under President Jimmy Carter gradually ceded the land back to Panama.

“Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake,” Trump said. “Look, [Carter] was a good man… But that was a big mistake.”

It’s unclear how serious the president-elect is about adding to the territory of the US, particularly when it comes to Canada, a country of 41 million people and the second-largest nation by area in the world.

During the news conference, Trump also repeated a number of falsehoods and odd conspiracy theories, including suggesting that Hezbollah, the Islamist militant group, was involved in the US Capitol riot of 2021.

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Which two Girl Scout flavored cookies will be withdrawn from the market after the 2025 sales season

Jan. 7 (UPI) — As Girl Scout cookie-selling season gets underway, two flavors of the sought-after treats will be retired later this year.

Girl Scout “S’mores” and “Toast-Yay!” cookies will be available for the last time through April, before they are gone forever.

“Discontinuing Toast-Yay! and Girl Scout S’mores may lead to something new and delicious,” a Girl Scouts of the USA spokesperson teased without revealing a reason for the retirements.

This is not the first time GSUSA has retired a cookie flavor in its 112-year history. Two years ago “Raspberry Rally” was discontinued right before an online frenzy revealed its popularity with boxes being resold on eBay for as much as $30 a piece.

No word on whether S’mores or Toast-Yay could enjoy the same popularity resurgence as the Girl Scout organization looks to refresh its offerings.

Boxes of Girl Scout cookies, including the popular Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs, typically cost $7 each, depending on the flavor and location. The price has gone up a dollar a box over the last two years.

S’mores cookies — the “crunchy graham sandwich cookies with chocolate and marshmallow filling” — were first introduced in 2017.

“This is the last season you’ll be able to get your hands on Toast-Yay! And Girl Scout S’mores. Yep, you heard that right — they’re going out with a bang, and you’ll want to stock up before they’re gone for good,” GSUSA wrote Tuesday.

“These sweet staples have been fan favorites for years, and now’s your chance to say goodbye in the most delicious way possible.”

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Can President-elect Donald Trump change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America”?

President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” a name he said has a “beautiful ring to it.”

It’s his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st State,” demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal.

Here’s a look at his comment and what goes into a name.

Why is Trump talking about renaming the Gulf of Mexico?
Since his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed then to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The U.S. ultimately constructed or refurbished about 450 miles of wall during his first term.

The Gulf of Mexico is often referred to as the United States’ “Third Coast” due to its coastline across five southeastern states. Mexicans use a Spanish version of the same name for the gulf: “El Golfo de México.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

Can Trump change the name of the Gulf of Mexico?
Maybe, but it’s not a unilateral decision, and other countries don’t have to go along.

The International Hydrographic Organization — of which both the United States and Mexico are members — works to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation.

It can be easier when a landmark or body of water is within a country’s boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order from the Department of Interior to rename Mount McKinley — the highest peak in North America — to Denali, a move that Trump has also said he wants to reverse.

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Just after Trump’s comments on Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said during an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson that she would direct her staff to draft legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, a move she said would take care of funding for new maps and administrative policy materials throughout the federal government.

How did the Gulf of Mexico get its name?
The body of water has been depicted with that name for more than four centuries, an original determination believed to have been taken from a Native American city of “Mexico.”

Has renaming the Gulf of Mexico come up before?
Yes. In 2012, a member of the Mississippi Legislature proposed a bill to rename portions of the gulf that touch that state’s beaches “Gulf of America,” a move the bill author later referred to as a “joke.” That bill, which was referred to a committee, did not pass.

Two years earlier, comedian Stephen Colbert had joked on his show that, following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it should be renamed “Gulf of America” because, “We broke it, we bought it.”

Are there other international disputes over the names of places?
There’s a long-running dispute over the name of the Sea of Japan among Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, with South Korea arguing that the current name wasn’t commonly used until Korea was under Japanese rule. At an International Hydrographic Organization meeting in 2020, member states agreed on a plan to replace names with numerical identifiers and develop a new digital standard for modern geographic information systems.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps.

There have been other conversations about bodies of water, including from Trump’s 2016 opponent. According to materials revealed by WikiLeaks in a hack of her campaign chairman’s personal account, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2013 told an audience that, by China’s logic that it claimed nearly the entirety of the South China Sea, then the U.S. after World War II could have labeled the Pacific Ocean the “American Sea.”

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The Pacific Palisades Wildfire has forced 30,000 Los Angeles residents to evacuate. What should you know about the fire?

The Pacific Palisades, one of Los Angeles’ affluent residential neighborhoods, caught fire Tuesday morning in what has quickly expanded to a nearly 3,000-acre blaze, marking southern California’s first large wildfire threat this week as much of the region is under a red flag warning due to strong winds and low humidity.

The Palisades Fire began around 11 a.m. local time and has burned more than 2,900 acres at around 11 p.m. PST, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which issued evacuation orders for residents of the Palisades and for those living along a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway.

About 30,000 residents in the Palisades and nearby areas are under evacuation orders, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, as Cal Fire reported no fire containment as of around 5 p.m.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency as he urged residents to heed the evacuation order and said, “This is a highly dangerous windstorm creating extreme fire risk, and we’re not out of the woods.”

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning (warm temperatures, strong winds and low humidity) for Southern California that spans from Tuesday to Wednesday in the Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and from Tuesday to Thursday in the San Bernadino, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

The NWS expects wind gusts of 50 to 80 mph in parts of southern California and up to 100 mph gusts in mountains and foothills into Wednesday night, noting a potential for downed trees and power lines that could create “widespread power outages.”

Sporadic power outages have materialized in the San Fernando Valley, a highly populated area north of the Hollywood Hills, with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reporting a few thousand customers without power as of 5 p.m. PST.

Has The Fire Impacted Lax Flights?
Los Angeles International Airport, which is about 19 miles south of the Pacific Palisades, has not experienced significant flight delays or cancellations as of Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Where Might Fires Form In Southern California?
The National Weather Service’s fire outlook warns of elevated to critical fire weather Tuesday across much of southern California. The range of the critical fire weather alert will expand by 278 square miles Wednesday to a total of 5,035 square miles in the region. The NWS also issued an extreme fire weather alert—its highest designation for fire potential—from Wednesday to Thursday for a 1,463-square mile stretch of land that includes areas such as Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Altadena, Moorpark and Santa Paula.

The appearance of weather conditions suggestive of La Niña, a climate phenomenon linked to drier conditions and drought in southern parts of the U.S., have likely contributed to prime fire conditions across southern California. Los Angeles in particular has seen an underwhelming amount of rain in the last eight months alongside a dry winter. The last time the city recorded over a tenth of an inch of rainfall was last May, according to the Los Angeles Times, contributing to drought. The mix of dry conditions and strong winds are the main catalysts of Tuesday’s fires and also contributed to another fire in the Pacific Palisades in 2021 that burned more than 1,200 acres.

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What is “Hot Mic with Billy Bush”? It premieres on TuneIn on January 13 and is worth watching

TuneIn has announced the launch of a new show hosted by veteran entertainment journalist Billy Bush. Entitled “Hot Mics with Billy Bush,” the program promises bold insights into pressing issues across sports, politics, entertainment, technology and pop culture. With 24 years of experience, Bush aims to leverage his deep industry connections to bring diverse and influential voices to the fore, ranging from A-list celebrities to political figures and tech innovators.

The show, debuting on January 13, will feature candid, twice-weekly broadcasts where Bush will dissect cultural phenomena and offer unapologetic commentary on contemporary events. The inaugural episode will explain the origin of the show’s provocative name and feature television journalist Megyn Kelly as its first guest.

Billy Bush, whose career includes over a decade as a primary anchor on “Access Hollywood” and co-hosting roles on the “Today Show” and “EXTRA,” expressed enthusiasm about his new platform: “I’m excited to dive deep into culture-shaping moments and offer a raw, unfiltered take on today’s biggest stories,” Bush said. He emphasized his editorial independence, remarking, “The only person that can cancel me is me.”

The program is backed by a robust production team led by three-time Emmy award winner Rob K. Silverstein, who previously worked with Bush on “Access Hollywood,” and co-executive producer Steve Harding. Silverstein highlighted the unbridled nature of the new show: “There are no gatekeepers. No guard rails. The gloves are off. Be ready to see and hear Billy at his best.”

TuneIn CEO Rich Stern commented on the partnership: “Billy brings a wealth of on-air radio and entertainment experience that makes ‘Hot Mics’ a must-listen show. We are proud to provide a platform that reaches our engaged audience.”

“Hot Mics with Billy Bush” will air live every Monday and Wednesday at 5pm ET, with broadcasts available for on-demand listening across major podcast platforms and a full video version on YouTube.

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