Tourists find safety after floods close Death Valley roads
Hundreds of hotel guests trapped by flash flooding at Death Valley National Park were able to drive out after crews cleared a path for them. But roads choked with rocks and mud or damaged by floodwaters remained closed. The National Park Service says its conducting aerial searches in remote areas for stranded vehicles, but had found none. No injuries are reported from the torrential rains Friday. The park near the California-Nevada state line weathered 1.46 inches of rain. That’s about 75% of what the area typically gets in a year. About 500 visitors had been stuck inside the park. Officials say park employees also stranded by the closed roads were continuing to shelter in place, except for emergencies.
Musk says Twitter deal could move ahead with ‘bot’ info
Elon Musk said Saturday his planned $44 billion takeover of Twitter should move forward if the company can confirm some details about how it measures whether user accounts are ‘spam bots’ or real people. The billionaire and Tesla CEO has been trying to back out of his April agreement to buy the social media company, leading Twitter to sue him last month to complete the acquisition. Musk countersued, accusing Twitter of misleading his team about the true size of its user base and other problems he said amounted to fraud and breach of contract. Both sides are headed toward an October trial in a Delaware court.
There’s just one drug to treat monkeypox. Good luck getting it.
The only drug available to treat monkeypox is so difficult to access that just a fraction of the nearly 7,000 patients in the U.S. have been given it. Health officials have designated tecovirimat, also called Tpoxx, an “investigational drug,” which they say means it cannot be released from the strategic national stockpile without a series of convoluted bureaucratic steps. But there is no law preventing federal officials from making the drug more widely available. The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday declared monkeypox a national health emergency, but Secretary Xavier Becerra did not take an additional step that would have allowed the FDA to grant emergency use authorization.
Biden tests negative for coronavirus but will keep isolating
President Joe Biden finally tested negative for the coronavirus Saturday, a week after his rebound case emerged, but the White House physician, Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor, said the president would remain in isolation “in an abundance of caution” until a second negative test. Biden has been staying away from the Oval Office since he tested positive again July 30, though he has tried to maintain a public presence through appearances by video from the White House residence. The recurrence of the virus has kept him off the road for political events and delayed summer vacation plans as well.
Tribe: California wildfire near Oregon causes fish deaths
The Karuk Tribe says a massive wildfire burning in a remote area just south of Oregon appears to have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Klamath River fish. Tribal fisheries biologists believe a flash flood caused by heavy rains over the burn area caused a massive debris flow that entered the river and sent oxygen levels plummeting to zero. The Karuk are working with the Yurok, another Northern California tribe, and state and federal agencies to fully to understand what happened. They say the damage is likely limited to 10 or 20 miles of river.
Fighting around Ukrainian nuclear plant heightens safety fears
Fighting raged on Saturday near a sprawling nuclear power plant in the south of Ukraine, despite warnings from nuclear-safety watchdogs that conditions there were posing risks and “out of control.” The Russian military has been using the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest, as a base to assault the Ukrainian-controlled town of Nikopol across the river. On Saturday, it fired Grad rockets that damaged 11 apartment buildings and 36 privately owned houses, and wounded three people, the Ukrainian military said. The assault also knocked out electricity, water and natural gas supplies in the town, where residents have been fleeing from the artillery attacks and attendant risk of radiation, the military said.
17 missing, 121 hurt, 1 dead in fire at Cuban oil facility
Cuban authorities say a fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility is raging uncontrolled in the city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured 121 people and left 17 firefighters missing. An unidentified body was found late Saturday. Officials say firefighters and other specialists are still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, where the fire began during a thunderstorm Friday night. Officials say lightning set one tank on fire and the blaze spread to a second tank. The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. A nearby neighborhood was evacuated.
Taiwan says China military drills appear to simulate attack
Taiwan says China’s military drills appear to simulate an attack on the self-ruled island after Chinese warships and aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said Saturday that its armed forces issued an alert, dispatched air and naval patrols around the island and activated land-based missile systems in response to the situation. Taiwan’s army also detected four unmanned aerial vehicles flying in the vicinity of the offshore county of Kinmen close to mainland China and responded with warning flares. Pelosi’s trip to Taipei infuriated Beijing, which cut defense and climate talks with the U.S. Taiwan also reported massive cyberattacks on its official websites.
By wire sources
