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Heavy rains, flash floods leave Southern California homes caked in mud

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Three days of heavy downpours that spawned flash flooding and mudslides across Southern California subsided on Friday, as residents of homes in the hard-hit mountain resort of Wrightwood began digging out mud and assessing damage.

The holiday storm drenched the greater Los Angeles basin with up to 6 inches of rain by Friday, with 12 inches or more measured in lower-elevation mountains east of the city, according to the National Weather Service, Reuters reported.

The deluge, which began around Christmas Eve, was spawned by the region’s latest atmospheric river storm, a vast airborne stream of dense moisture siphoned from the Pacific and carried inland.

The torrential rains were accompanied by strong, gusty winds that toppled trees and power lines across the region, causing power outages. Heavy snow fell in upper mountain areas.

Even before the storm hit, authorities were issuing evacuation warnings to neighborhoods considered vulnerable to flash floods and debris flows, especially near hillsides previously ravaged by wildfires. Motorists were urged to avoid travel whenever possible.

Although rainfall was tapering off on Friday, a flood watch remained in effect for much of Southern California.

HOMES SWALLOWED IN MUD

In Wrightwood, a town of about 5,000 residents that bore the brunt of the storm in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, county safety inspectors began initial assessments of property losses.

Several dozen homes were heavily damaged by rivers of mud that poured through the town on Wednesday, and officials were on standby for additional debris flows that might occur, San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesman Ryan Beckers said.

“Evacuation warnings for Wrightwood are still in effect, and all the roads in the area are closed, except to residents,” he said.

Misty Cheng, 49, an accountant who owns a vacation home in Wrightwood, said she learned the property was being swallowed by a mudslide from a neighbor who sent her video footage.

“My house is buried in over 5 feet of mud,” said Cheng, speaking to Reuters by cellphone from her primary residence in nearby Upland, where she was staying when the slide occurred.

A stream of mud had forced its way into the house through a crushed wall of the attached garage, filling the living room. By the time she ventured back to the property herself to see the damage first-hand and salvage some belongings, the mud had hardened into a mound solid enough for her to stand on.

“I was able to get a truckload of personal items” out of the house, mostly from the second floor, which was left untouched, she said. Without flood insurance, Cheng said she started a GoFundMe page to raise money for repairs.

Aerial video footage posted online by the fire department showed clusters of homes and vehicles in the town caked in walls of mud as crews in front-loaders began clearing clogged roadways.

Beckers said emergency teams rescued a couple of dozen people who were trapped by high water and debris flows in their vehicles or homes over the holidays, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported in Wrightwood.

The Weather Service said Southern California was expected to dry out over the weekend, while across the country a major winter storm threatened to begin dumping record levels of snow over parts of New York state starting on Friday night.

World

Trump says Israeli PM Netanyahu will visit US next week

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President Donald Trump said ​on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‌Netanyahu will visit the U.S. next week.

Trump’s comments came in his speech at the White House ​Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Friday, while he was ​falsely casting U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer as ⁠Palestinian, Reuters reported.

“I am going to send him (Schumer) a ​beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow, so he can ​greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week,” Trump said.

“He turned Palestinian,” Trump said of Schumer, ​who is Jewish, while also joking that ​sharia law was Schumer’s “new founding.”

U.S. Muslim and Jewish advocacy ‌groups ⁠have previously criticized Trump for calling Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, a Palestinian, with the rights groups saying Trump uses the term disrepectfully as ​a slur and ​as an ⁠insult.

Netanyahu’s office said earlier that he will travel to Washington on ​Monday and will meet with Trump ​on ⁠Tuesday. Netanyahu will also attend deceased U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, his office said.

The Trump-Netanyahu meeting ⁠will ​come as the U.S.-Israeli ​war on Iran completes five months.

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Trump vows to punish Iran for Houthi attacks in Red Sea; oil surges over $100

After the Houthis ​said they had struck the two tankers on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.

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U.S. President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies on Thursday after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, ​extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint.

Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the ‌war. Brent crude rose more than 6%, breaking through $100 a barrel for the first time since May, Reuters reported.

Two weeks since the effective collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the U.S. military launched air strikes on Iran overnight into Thursday, prompting Iran to fire at neighbouring Arab countries that host U.S. bases. The U.S. military fired another round of missiles at Iran late Thursday and early Friday in the 13th consecutive night of attacks.

Iranian state media said on both nights that missiles struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz, the virtually closed ​waterway that has become the focal point in a war well into its fifth month that has already killed thousands and raised fears of a global economic downturn.

TRUMP: IRAN HASN’T ‘RECEIVED ENOUGH PAIN YET’

After the Houthis ​said they had struck the two tankers on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.

The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, said this ⁠week they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day by pipeline to the Red Sea to get around Iran’s blockade of Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

“If ​they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” Trump wrote on social media.

​He told news outlet Axios he was considering relaunching major combat operations in Iran and was close to a decision. “They haven’t received enough pain yet,” Axios quoted Trump as saying.

On Thursday evening, Trump said on social media that “any and all damages done” to cargo ships would be paid for with “Iranian Money,” referring to frozen Iranian assets held by the U.S., but he did not say how this would work.

Sources in Iran and Yemen told Reuters that Iran had flown Revolutionary Guard commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen days ​before the Houthis announced their blockade. The Houthis dismissed the report.

The Houthis said their forces had carried out missile and drone strikes on Saudi oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla.

A maritime security source said the Encelia had transmitted a distress ​call reporting it had been struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea just north of Yemen late on Wednesday. Saudi state news agency SPA said the strike had caused a fire at the bow.

Reuters could not ‌immediately confirm the ⁠attack on the Layla, or other battlefield accounts, but Trump mentioned two attacks on Saudi tankers.

The insurance cost of shipping goods through the southern Red Sea doubled for some companies on Thursday, after the reported attacks, sources said.

Houthi attacks could close the strait known as the Bab el-Mandeb or “Gate of Tears” which controls access from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, the second most important route for energy shipments after the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.

In the days since they announced their blockade in the Red Sea, several tankers have changed course to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb, heading north instead through the Suez Canal, potentially using a much longer and more expensive route to reach Asian customers by sailing ​around Africa.

IRAN REPORTS STRIKES ON JORDAN, KUWAIT

Iran said it attacked ​U.S. missile systems, weapons and fuel storage sites in ⁠Jordan, as well as U.S. military posts in Kuwait.

Jordan’s army said it engaged four Iranian missiles and six drones in the past day, intercepting all but one missile, which fell in an uninhabited area.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it struck a U.S. electronic warfare unit at Al-Adiri base in Kuwait, causing unspecified casualties, in response to an overnight strike on Iran’s ​Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.

Neither the U.S. nor Kuwait has reported casualties at the base.

Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Iran would keep retaliating as long ​as the U.S. continued to attack ⁠its infrastructure and coastal areas, Iranian state TV reported.

Since the U.S. and Israel began the war in February, Iran has demonstrated that it can hit U.S. targets in the region, despite Trump having said early on that the U.S. had wiped out Iranian military capabilities.

Four people familiar with U.S. intelligence said Iranian strikes on CIA targets in the Gulf earlier in the war had prompted U.S. intelligence to investigate whether Russia was assisting Iran with targeting information or drone technology.

CONGRESS

High oil prices are stoking inflation globally, and ⁠have put Trump’s ​Republican allies under pressure ahead of congressional elections in November.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives backed legislation on Thursday directing Trump to halt U.S. ​military action against Iran, the latest rebuke of the Republican president from Congress, which the U.S. Constitution grants the exclusive power to “declare War.”

Lawmakers have passed similar resolutions repeatedly in recent months, but they have not led to cessation of the war. The Senate voted hours later to block a ​separate, similar measure.

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Trump links Saudi nuclear deal to Israel normalization through Abraham Accords

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a newly agreed civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia will only move forward if the kingdom normalizes relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords.

In a post on social media, Trump said the agreement does not permit uranium enrichment and stressed that approval of the deal is contingent on Saudi Arabia signing the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements that established diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states.

“The agreement will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote, adding that the United States supports only civilian nuclear facilities that do not involve uranium enrichment.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly stated that it will not normalize relations with Israel without a clear pathway toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Palestinian statehood, arguing it would pose unacceptable security risks to Israel.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.

Netanyahu’s office welcomed the prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, describing it as a “historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East,” but did not address the nuclear agreement.

The civilian nuclear agreement, announced on Wednesday, is expected to run for 30 years and involve U.S. companies in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear energy sector. According to U.S. officials familiar with the agreement, it could eventually allow for the construction of a uranium

enrichment facility following a joint U.S.-Saudi feasibility study, although Trump has insisted the final arrangement will not include uranium enrichment.

The agreement will be submitted to the U.S. Congress for review.

The Saudi Energy Ministry said the deal would help diversify the kingdom’s energy sources, promote advanced technologies and expand investment opportunities between the two countries.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the agreement during a visit to Manila, saying it would ensure Saudi Arabia partners with American companies rather than competitors such as China, Russia, France or South Korea in developing its civilian nuclear program.

“We’re not the only show in town, but we’re the best show in town,” Rubio told reporters.

The agreement has already drawn scrutiny from members of Congress and nuclear non-proliferation experts, who have raised concerns over reports that it does not include the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, which provides for expanded inspections and verification measures.

Some lawmakers have also questioned whether Congress should have greater oversight of any nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, reviving debate over legislation first proposed in 2018 that would require congressional approval before such agreements take effect.

The Trump administration has made expanding the Abraham Accords a key foreign policy objective during the president’s second term, viewing Saudi Arabia’s participation as a major step toward broader regional normalization despite ongoing tensions stemming from the conflicts in Gaza and Iran.

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