California has created a program providing $3,000 trust accounts for foster youth and children who lost a caregiver to COVID-19. The pandemic hit Californians hard, killing about 98,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And the COVID Collaborative and Social Policy Analytics released a report estimating that 167,082 children in the United States...
US Objectives in Iran Have Not Changed, Hegseth Says
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the United States' objectives in the war against Iran have not changed since strikes started on February 28. The United States has carried out strikes against 7,000 targets inside Iran so far, and hit more than 40 Iranian mine-laying vessels and...
Energy Prices Surge as Iran Attack on Qatar LNG Plant Threatens Long-Term Exports
Energy prices surged on Thursday after Iran struck the world’s largest LNG complex, causing damage that Qatar said could take five years to repair, as the energy sector's worst fears about the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran came true. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters the...
Trump Says Israel, not US, Attacked Iran’s South Pars Gas Field
President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the United States and Qatar were not involved in what he said was an Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, even as he threatened to destroy the field if Iran persisted in striking Qatar’s energy facilities. Hours after the attack on...
Arias: No Legal Basis for $100M Claim Against City on Southwest Fresno Rezone
Despite a $100 million claim against the city that a 2018 rezone devalued two property owners' investments in southwest Fresno, community leaders say the city must stand by that decision and not let developers control policy. At a Wednesday news conference, Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said the city attorney's...
Iran Blames Israel for Gas Field Attack, Fires Missiles at Qatar and Saudi Energy Facilities
Iran accused Israel of striking its facilities in the huge South Pars gas field on Wednesday in a major escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war that sent oil prices shooting higher, and retaliated by vowing attacks on oil and gas targets throughout the Gulf, firing missiles at Qatar and Saudi Arabia....
Is Fresno’s Airport at Risk of Closing? Here’s What We Know
Some small U.S. airports could face temporary closures due to staffing shortages among Transportation Security Administration officers, but Fresno Yosemite International Airport is not currently at risk, according to airport officials. A senior Trump administration official warned Tuesday that continued absenteeism among TSA screeners during an ongoing government funding impasse...
Retired Belgian Diplomat, 93, Faces Trial Over 1961 Killing of Congolese Leader
LONDON — A 93-year-old retired Belgian diplomat has been ordered to stand trial for what prosecutors say is his role in the 1961 assassination of the first Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, a leader in the fight against colonial rule who became a martyr figure in Africa’s liberation movement. A...
Costa Rica Orders Cuban Embassy Closure as Cuba Blames US Pressure
Costa Rica's President Rodrigo Chaves on Wednesday said he rejected the legitimacy of Cuba's government and ordered the closure of its embassy, a move that Cuba blamed on U.S. pressure. Chaves, speaking at an event attended by the U.S. ambassador, said the decision was meant to protest poor living conditions...
‘Not Our War’: Europe Says No to Trump
For a self-described Transatlanticist like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the language has been unusually blunt. When President Donald Trump asked countries to join a global effort against Iran and deploy ships to prize open the Strait of Hormuz, whose near closure has held the global economy in a vice, he...