USA

HAMBURG, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire pushed by gusty winds from a thunderstorm raced through national forest land near California’s border with Oregon, prompting evacuations in the rural area.

The blaze in Siskiyou County, dubbed the Head Fire, was one of at least 19 fires — most of them tiny — that erupted in the Klamath National Forest as thunderstorms rolling through the area brought lightning and downdrafts that drove the flames through timber and rural lands. Estimates late Tuesday placed the fire at 4.7 to 6.3 square miles (12.2 to 16.2 square kilometers) in size.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are deeply divided along party lines in their views of President Donald Trump’s actions in the most recent criminal cases brought against him, a new poll shows, with about half saying his alleged attempt to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 vote count was illegal.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said Tuesday that there has been no change to the US’s approach to Iran after the nations struck a tentative prisoner swap deal last week, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The agreement that we’re pursuing to bring home those who are wrongfully detained in Iran is an entirely separate matter that we want to bring to a successful conclusion,” Blinken told reporters at the State Department.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. payments giant PayPal announced Monday that its senior Intuit executive Alex Chriss will become the new president and CEO, replacing current CEO Dan Schulman.

The members of PayPal's board shared the appointment, effective on Sept. 27, 2023, in a press release.

Chriss joined Intuit 19 years ago. Since January 2019, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Intuit's Small Business and Self-Employed Group.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- UN peacekeepers are speeding their withdrawal from the Ber base near Timbuktu, Mali, because of a deteriorating security situation, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the peacekeepers from the mission known as MINUSMA notified the Malian authorities they were leaving a day early because of risks to the safety and security of UN personnel.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The number of deaths caused by the Maui wildfires stood at 99 Monday, a figure that is likely to increase as search crews comb neighborhoods where flames moved as fast as a mile a minute.

The blazes that consumed most of the historic town of Lahaina are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. The cause was under investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States, Japan and South Korea are expected to announce plans for expanded military cooperation on ballistic missile defenses and technology development in the face of growing concern about North Korea’s nuclear program when the countries’ leaders gather at Camp David for a summit Friday, according to two senior Biden administration officials.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a show of preemptive counterprogramming, President Joe Biden on Tuesday travels to Wisconsin to highlight his economic policies in a state critical to his reelection fortunes, just a week before Republicans descend on Milwaukee for the party’s first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.

His trip comes on the eve of the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, major economic legislation that he signed into law with great ceremony — although polls show most people know little about it or what it does.

ATLANTA (AP) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened her investigation into Donald Trump after the release of a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

Trump suggested during the call that Raffensperger, a Republican and the state’s top elections official, could help “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.