kill

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered the formation of a panel to come up with safety regulations for the state’s artificial intelligence companies, including the development of a possible “kill switch” for AI programs that go rogue.

Newsom issued an executive order to convene “a group of world-leading experts” to provide a “guide” for the state to bolster its laws around AI security, according to statement from the governor’s office.

The panel could put consider proposals for independent third parties to write safety plans or for companies to develop an emergency shutoff.

Newsom, who is considering a 2028 run for president, two years ago vetoed a state bill that would have mandated a kill switch.

Some Democratic and Republican leaders around the country are scrambling to come up with safety proposals after employees at AI companies recently warned that the technology could create catastrophe, including ending humanity.

A researcher for AI company Anthropic said he left the company over concerns that AI companies, including OpenAI, are “gambling with our lives” as they race ahead to improve AI that could surpass human intelligence.

The researcher, Jacob Coxon, said in a social media post: “People building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

State Sen. Chris Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento), who chairs the state committee overseeing technology issues, told the Times he’ll hold hearings on artificial intelligence this fall. Those meetings were planned before the recent warnings about AI’s dangers, but will be informed by the events of the last few weeks, he said.

He said the state’s rules around AI don’t go far enough.

“We regulate your barber or your sandwich shop more than we regulate [a company] telling us that they may be ending humanity,” he said.

Any new laws could have a disproportionate effect on the global tech industry because many top AI companies are based in California.

A proposed law in 2024 by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would have required tech firms to be able to turn off the AI models they directly control if things go awry.

Newsom, in his veto message at the time, cited concerns about stifling innovation. He also expressed concern that smaller AI models, which would have been exempt from the law, could also be dangerous.

An artificial intelligence “kill switch” which can be checked by a third-party may need to be mandatory for companies, a co-founder of one of the world’s largest AI firms has said.

Jack Clark, one of seven founders of Anthropic, said a way of shutting off AI software completely if it gets too dangerous was the kind of thing society “might want to eventually pass rules around”.

Clark said “most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug”, including Anthropic, but said policymakers may need to enforce having one.

The rapid development of AI and fears over the risks that the technology poses to humanity have been thrust into the spotlight by a series of warnings from executives and staff at AI firms.

Some have said publicly there is a chance that the technology could, if unchecked, kill all humans.

Anthropic head Dario Amodei over the weekend called for the pace of AI development to slow and be more closely monitored, as the company has done before, though some have questioned the motivations behind this.

Amodei did not say how exactly how AI development could be slowed down and said any action to reign in AI development should be done “without sacrificing commercial advantage”.

Clark told the BBC that specifics around “kill switch” requirements and verification should be part of “the larger policy conversation” taking place around AI.

“Should you mandate for companies to definitely have a kill switch? Is that kill switch verifiable by a third party?” he asked.

“I think that’s the kind of thing society is going to want to know and might want to eventually pass rules around.”

Anthropic, which was formed in 2021 by a group of former employees of its rival OpenAI, is currently at the centre of a debate around AI safety.

Last week, a post from an artificial intelligence researcher who quit Anthropic over concerns AI could wipe out humanity went viral.

In response, Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger said he personally thought the possibility of human extinction from AI was “>10% within the next decade”.

Computer scientist and Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI”, told the BBC on Friday that a 10% chance of AI killing all humans was “not unreasonable”, external.

Asked what percentage he would put on all humans being killed by AI, Clark said: “I don’t think these statistics are that useful”, but added that allowing AI to continue as a “totally unregulated industry” was a bad idea.

“We are rolling dice with immense risks,” Clark said. “And the point is, we have to change the course of this industry.”

The Ukrainian Navy is claiming one of its uncrewed surface vessels (USV) sank a Russian USV, marking the first time one of these weapons, also known as drone boats, destroyed another. The engagement is the latest iteration in the use of combat drone boats, which Ukraine has employed to devastating effect against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet vessels and facilities, forcing the general evacuation of Russian naval assets from occupied Crimea to bases in Russia proper. The use of weaponized USVs is now proliferating around the globe at an increasing rate.

The incident took place somewhere in the Black Sea, said the Ukrainian Navy, which provided no details about when it happened or exactly where. TWZ cannot independently verify this claim; however, we cannot find any evidence of a drone boat killing another drone boat in the past.

“Units of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) detected the target,” the Ukrainian Navy stated on Telegram. “The Ukrainian Navy’s ‘Sargan 3000’ unmanned boat, equipped with a remotely operated weapon station (RWS) Protector 12.7 mm, successfully destroyed it. This is the first naval battle in history between unmanned boats.”

An 81-second video released by the Ukrainian Navy opens with a view from the Sargan 3000’s onboard camera. It shows the Ukrainian USV acquiring, then engaging the Russian USV with its machine gun. It then cuts to a closer view of the Protector gun system firing at the Russian drone boat. At about the 30-second mark, the view switches to a feed from an aerial platform, though it is unclear if it is piloted or a drone. The video continues with the Sargan 3000 raking the Russian USV with its heavy machine gun until pieces start flying off and it eventually sinks, stern first.

The Sargan 3000 (the name means needlefish in Ukrainian) was first introduced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in April as a “multi-purpose platform that has undergone testing and entered service with the Ukrainian Navy. These uncrewed vessels are highly maneuverable and capable of carrying out strike missions.”

Though initially designed as a kamikaze weapon, it evolved into a platform for remote-controlled weapons, according to the Russian AmalNews outlet.

“The maritime drone features a specialized low-profile hull with distinctive hydrodynamic lines and is constructed from materials that reduce its radar signature,” the publication explained. “The Sargan-3000 USV is equipped with a waterjet propulsion system (presumably powered by a diesel or hybrid engine to ensure a long operational range).”

AmalNews states that the Sargan 3000 is 6.9 meters (about 22.6 feet) long, 2.2 meters (about 7.2 feet) wide, with an operational radius of up to 1,600 km (about 994 miles) and can carry a payload of 450 kg (about 992 pounds). It travels at an estimated speed range of 40-55 knots.

During operations, the Sargan 3000 connects to Ukraine’s Delta situational awareness system, “enabling the real-time transmission of target data, video feeds, and telemetry to operators,” AmalNews noted. “It features multi-channel control capabilities, including redundant satellite communication terminals (utilizing secure Western commercial networks and NATO military networks).”

It is also equipped with “an autonomous inertial and optical navigation system to ensure operation in the event of GPS jamming, and it incorporates electronic countermeasures (ECM) modules.”

There are several variants of this USV. They include those equipped with machine guns; rockets; FPV drones; an electronic warfare version and one that lays mines, the publication added.

The Sargan 3000’s Protector remote weapon station is made by Kongsberg.

The drone boat’s first publicly known combat engagement took place in July, when one “destroyed the Russian Federation’s FSB border guard ship Izumrud,” the Ukrainian Navy stated at the time.

“Ukrainian naval sailors sank the border guard ship of the 2nd rank with the Sargan-3000 maritime unmanned complex near Novorossiysk,” the Ukrainian Navy claimed on Facebook. “Among the crew of the ship are dead and wounded.”

It is unclear whether the USV acted as a kamikaze vessel or a weapons platform, although the former is most likely.

“It was Izumrud that on November 25, 2018, participated in the attack on the ships of the Ukrainian Navy in the Kerch Strait,” the service added. “Revenge is inevitable.”

One sea drone killing another is a notable development given the damage these systems can inflict and the challenge of locating and destroying them on open waters. Being able to operate on the water over long distances and timeframes, they can be used to hunt down other drone boats, as what appears to have taken place in this engagement, or serve as a picket line of sorts to protect harbors, vessels and other targets that have been attacked by USVs in the past.

The Russian drone boat, which is not identified, did not appear to be armed.

The Houthi rebels of Yemen actually pioneered the operational use of kamikaze USVs years ago. We first reported about this capability in January 2017, when an explosive-laden Houthi USV struck a Saudi frigate. Before that, Iran developed various crude kamikaze USVs and those capabilities soon migrated to its Houthi proxies, which put them to use in the Red Sea for the first time.

Ukraine has led the way in advancements of these systems, first employing them as kamikaze weapons, but then adding machine guns and rockets and later missiles, which were used to shoot down Russian helicopters and jets. Ukraine has also used these to launch FPV and bomber drone attacks as well as deliver uncrewed ground vehicles (UGV) into enemy territory.

You can see that delivery in the following video.

In the wake of the Ukrainian success with these weapons, Russia developed its own drone boats, and in August 2025, launched its first attack on a Ukrainian vessel.

The U.S. used drone boats as kamikaze weapons for the first time in July, during an attack “on a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on X at the time.

Regardless, it looks like history was made with this incident in the Black Sea. But this involved a sea drone hunting down and destroying another that couldn’t fight back. Given the rapid pace of weapons development by both sides in the Ukraine war, it seems inevitable that a duel between two armed drones boats could soon follow.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Second day of strikes on fuel stations suggest a new campaign focused on civilian areas in the Ukrainian capital.

Russian drone attacks on two fuel stations in Kyiv have killed two people and injured others, as Moscow continues to target civilian areas.

They were struck early on Friday within ten minutes of each other in the capital’s Obolonskyi and Dniprovskyi districts, shortly after emergency sirens rang out, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement.

Russia also targeted fuel stations in Kyiv on Thursday, suggesting a new campaign focused on civilian areas in the capital. Ukrainian authorities have warned people to avoid filling up when air raid sirens sound.

One person died at the scene of one of the attacks, Klitschko said, while the other died in hospital. Six people required hospital treatment.

While fuel stations near the eastern and southern battle lines have been hit regularly for months, authorities have long warned that the attacks could extend to the capital as an intimidation strategy.

Russia and Ukraine both deny targeting civilians as the conflict – started with Moscow’s invasion in February 2022 – has developed into a series of daily attacks with missiles and drones.

Other Russian drone strikes overnight hit near a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, leaving five dead and 67 injured, while a mother and son were injured in Zaporizhzhia when a drone hit an apartment building and a mall.

Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, declared Friday a day of mourning.

On Thursday, he condemned Russia for attacking civilian areas in a bid to sow fear.

“Russia is systematically attacking places where it knows people will be spending their time going about their daily lives, seeking to maximise casualties, spread fear and put pressure on Ukrainian society,” he stated.

Ukraine unleashed its own large-scale drone attack through the night, with Russia’s Ministry of Defence reporting that its forces shot down 777 drones in 16 regions.

Two people were killed and three injured in Tula, to the south of Moscow, local authorities reported.

Ukraine launches one of its deepest strikes to date, targeting gas plants in Russia’s Arctic region.

Russian forces have launched attacks across Ukraine, killing at least seven people, according to Ukrainian officials, as Kyiv claimed responsibility for a drone attack that set off a fire at a natural gas plant deep in Russia’s Arctic region.

Four people were killed in a Russian attack in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight on Thursday, while three were killed in a drone attack on a shopping centre in the northeastern city of Sumy, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Heorhii ⁠Reshetilov, the acting governor of the Mykolaiv region, said the Russian strikes there hit both civilian and industrial infrastructure, killing two men and two women. At least 19 others were wounded, he said on Telegram.

The attack in Sumy left at least 14 people wounded, according to Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration. Three of the victims were children, he said on Telegram.

The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed the attack in Mykolaiv, but said it targeted a drone warehouse. The ministry said it also hit the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk and two vessels near Odesa on the Black Sea.

The targets of the strikes were being used for military purposes, the ministry claimed.

The attacks came after Russian authorities said Ukrainian forces had launched a drone attack on the country’s Yamal-Nenets region, which is located some 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Dmitry Artyukhov, the region’s governor, said the attack targeted an industrial facility in Novy Urengoy. The attack was repelled, but falling debris from the drone caused a fire, he said on Telegram.

“The main thing is that there were no deaths or injuries. The extent and nature of the damage are being determined,” he added.

Artem Zhoga, the Kremlin’s envoy to the Urals, said Wednesday’s strike was the first ever to hit the Arctic part of the region.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) confirmed the attack in a series of posts on X.

“For the first time! Deepest strike of the war: Ukrainian SOF hit critical russian plants more than 3,000 km away,” it said. “Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces carried out the deepest strike inside russia since the beginning of the full-scale war.”

In the posts, the Ukrainian force claimed it “successfully struck” two gas plants, Novy Urengoy and Purovsky.

“Until today, the area was considered a safe rear zone for the aggressor,” it added.

The Ukrainian force said the facilities play a key role in Russia’s gas industry, processing large volumes of condensate from gas fields across the Yamal region, processing millions of tonnes of condensate per year.

Gazprom used ⁠to export gas from Yamal as far as Western Europe ⁠until relations broke ⁠down following the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2022.

It estimated the region’s gas resources at ‌26.5 trillion cubic metres as of 2020, enough to cover global demand for more than ‌six ‌years.

Ukraine has escalated its long-range strikes on Russia in recent months, in retaliation for daily Russian bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s drones would make Russian airspace “completely unsafe” for the duration of the war.

ARAB SALIM: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks, which killed at least seven people on Sunday despite a truce and a framework deal aimed at halting the violence.

Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah operatives and sites in response to a drone attack a day earlier by the Iran-backed group on its troops in the vicinity of a strategic south Lebanon ridge.

It reported no casualties but accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation.”

Israel this week said it had captured the Nabatieh-area Ali Al-Taher ridge, which it considers part of its self-declared “security zone” in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which has not claimed any attacks for weeks, has not commented on Israel’s declaration of control over the site.

Aoun said Sunday’s strikes, which damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were “a dangerous escalation… reaching Lebanese state institutions” and health facilities.

He called on the international community — particularly the United States, which has sponsored direct Israel-Lebanon talks and a framework agreement between the sides in June — “to urgently act to stop these violations.”

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed in strikes on south Lebanon’s Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, with two women also killed in nearby Arab Salim.

It said 20 other people including several women and three children were wounded there, as well as in the city of Nabatieh and town of Kfar Rumman.

The ministry later reported that a strike on a parking lot near Nabatieh killed three more people.

Hospital hit

The ministry said one of the strikes in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa “totally destroyed” the out-of-service Ghandour hospital, decrying “another grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

Israel’s army said it targeted Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, including “weapons storage facilities and terrorist structures,” as well as “a Hezbollah command center that had been established inside a building previously used as a hospital.”

It had earlier issued its first evacuation notice in Lebanon in a month, warning residents near a building it called a Hezbollah facility in Arab Salim to leave ahead of an attack on the site.

It did not issue warnings for other areas where strikes were reported.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that after the Israeli warning for Arab Salim, “enemy warplanes launched a strike on another house, destroying it” and killing the two women.

It said the Israeli military subsequently carried out a strike on the building threatened in the evacuation warning.

At the scene of the second strike, an AFP correspondent saw the ruins of a devastated villa, with large decorative columns laying on their side next to stairs littered with rubble.

Haidar Haidar, the brother of the building’s owner, told AFP that nobody had been living inside.

At the other site in Arab Salim where the two women were killed, a mattress, furniture and other items including a Hezbollah flag were strewn among the rubble, while neighboring buildings were also damaged.

‘Take action’

The NNA also reported a strike on a motorcycle in the Nabatieh area, and said that another in the city itself targeted a historical building and damaged offices belonging to finance and agriculture authorities.

An AFP correspondent there saw rubble and extensive damage to adjacent buildings, shops and vehicles, as heavy machinery cleared the road. Dust and debris covered chairs and desks in the regional ministry offices.

Nabatieh Mayor Abbas Fakhreddine said “the Lebanese government must take action… and at the least defend its institutions,” adding that it was the second time the official buildings had been damaged by strikes.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war in March after Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion of Lebanon that Beirut says have killed more than 4,300 people.

Violence has decreased since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader regional conflict in June and the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement later that month.

Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border.

Authorities say seven people are still missing after deadly explosions at a facility storing pyrotechnic material.

Two explosions at a military facility in the Bolivian city of Viacha have killed at least 10 people and injured dozens of others, authorities said.

The blasts occurred on Friday in an area used to store pyrotechnic material, about 30km (18 miles) from the administrative capital, La Paz, Bolivia’s Ministry of Defence said.

Viacha health director Rita Nebraska told a local television station that between 10 and 15 people were believed to have been killed and 62 others were injured.

She said 14 of the wounded were transferred to hospitals in La Paz, including a girl with third-degree burns.

Fireworks were stored at the military facility, but the cause of the explosions remains under investigation, police spokesman Roger Roca said. He added that seven people were still missing.

Firefighters warned that a heat source remained at the site, Nebraska said, urging residents to stay at least 150 metres away because of the risk of another explosion.

Police said dozens of nearby homes were damaged and that many civilians were injured by shattered glass.

About 50 civilians and six military personnel injured in the explosions “have been treated … by the different medical centres of Viacha”, Deputy Minister of Defence Ernesto Justiniano Urenda said in a statement.

An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the explosions, how the pyrotechnic material was stored and whether anyone was responsible, he added.

Footage posted on social media showed one of the explosions shattering windows in nearby buildings and sending debris into the air as thick black smoke rose from the facility.

Israeli forces bar Israeli and Palestinian activists from delivering food and medicine to homes besieged by settlers.

Israeli police have killed a Palestinian man in Jerusalem and the Israeli army has blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching an occupied West Bank village besieged by settlers for weeks.

Officers opened fire on a 33-year-old Palestinian near Damascus gate in Jerusalem on Friday. Israeli police said its border guard “neutralised” the man, claiming he was attempting to stab one of them.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency identified the man as Ibrahim al-Hendi from East Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighbourhood. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Following the incident, Israeli forces deployed around Damascus Gate and the surrounding area of Jerusalem’s Old City, Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera.

Separately, the Israeli army said that it arrested Palestinians in the town of Qabatiya in the West Bank, alleging they were “planning to carry out an attack” against Israelis and security forces.

Ten other Palestinians were arrested during a 48-hour Israeli army operation in Nablus in the West Bank. The Israeli army said it seized more than “30 weapon production machines used to manufacture weapons” during the operation.

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers and soldiers carried out attacks across the occupied West Bank on Friday, Wafa reported. Settlers stormed the Khirbet al-Hamra community in the northern Jordan Valley and assaulted one resident.

Israeli settlers, accompanied by soldiers, also attacked Khalet a-Nahlah in southern Bethlehem. Israeli forces also fired tear gas and concussion grenades at a crowd of Palestinians who gathered to resist the attacks.

Blocking access to Qusra

As violence and harassment of Palestinians continues across the occupied territory, the Israeli army on Friday also prevented around 100 peace activists from delivering food and medicine to Palestinians who have been under siege in the town of Qusra for 28 days.

Since August 9, Israeli settlers have besieged three Palestinian homes in the northern occupied West Bank village, while the Israeli army has also prevented the families from entering or leaving them, claiming the area is a “closed military zone”.

“Day 28 of the blockade on Qusra. About 100 activists arrived to deliver supplies to the besieged families,” the Israeli Peace Now movement said in a post on X.

“The army blocked us at first, claiming Qusra was a ‘closed military zone.’ Then let us in but on the way back detained us for ‘violating a closed military zone’,” it added.

Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi also told the state-run Turkish Anadolu news agency that the Israeli army has been “preventing the delivery of basic necessities to three families trapped on Mount Ras al-Ain”.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Friday that settler violence against Palestinians is “damaging the image of Israel as a nation and a people, warning that Israel “needs all the friends it can get” and “doesn’t need more enemies”.

Around 750,000 Israeli settlers live in 156 illegal settlements and 360 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and carry out attacks aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians, according to Palestinian figures.

Sept. 3 (UPI) — Federal authorities on Thursday morning arrested a former Christian podcaster on allegations of issuing threats against President Donald Trump‘s life on social media.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted pictures online of Secret Service agents and other members of law enforcement arresting Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, of Los Angeles, Calif.

“Deadly threats like this are as vile as they are criminal — those responsible will be met by this FBI and law enforcement,” the FBI director said.

His arrest came a day after a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Southworth with one count each of threats against the president, cyberstalking and harassing telephone calls in interstate communications.

“As threats against President Trump’s life escalate, the Department of Justice will respond with the full force of the law,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

“We will hold perpetrators of violent threats accountable, and anyone who makes these threats online will not be allowed to hide behind their screens.”

The indictment alleges that Southworth, a former host of the pro-LGBTQ rights Christian podcast Yass, Jesus!, issued the threats via social media from January to May.

Federal prosecutors accused Southworth of expressing “his hatred toward President Trump and the President’s supporters” on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, which he allegedly used to encourage the abuse and harassment of, and threaten violence against, the commander in chief.

The court document references one video he posted to Instagram on March 31, criticizing the Supreme Court ruling that talk-based conversion therapy is speech protected by the First Amendment by saying, “I want to practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy of five years: Kill Donald Trump.”

In a second video posted to Instagram on April 8, Southworth is allegedly depicted teleporting into the White House Oval Office behind Trump and raising a knife to the president’s head before cutting to black, after which an advertisement for Southworth’s website appears.

He also allegedly posted a video to his YouTube account following the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in late April when an armed man was arrested while trying to storm the event. In the video, Southworth allegedly states, “I’m outraged that Donald Trump isn’t dead,” according to the indictment.

The federal cyberstalking charge stems from allegations that he posted on TikTok the home address of a former personal lawyer to Trump along with the lawyer’s photo and a photo of the residence. He is also accused of leaving the son of Trump’s former personal lawyer harassing messages and voicemails as well as making what the Justice Department called harassing telephone calls to the lawyer’s wife.

If convicted, Southworth faces a statutory maximum penalty of five years in prison for each charge of threatening Trump’s life and cyberstalking as well as a statutory maximum sentence of two years in federal prison for telephonic harassment.

Southworth was to make his initial court appearance Thursday in Los Angeles.

Legislation that would have helped wildfire victims receive compensation more quickly, but that utilities said didn’t do enough to reduce their financial risks, died in Sacramento on Tuesday after the Assembly declined to vote on it.

The failure of Senate Bill 492 disappointed wildfire victims and lawmakers who had negotiated the language in a last-minute deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“It is unfortunate that SB 492 was not given a vote,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara). “Thousands of survivors made their voices clear — they needed reform to ensure the next wildfire does not continue to cause the mental and financial stress that recent disasters have placed on Californians.”

The bill’s failure was a win for the state’s three biggest for-profit utilities. Lawmakers say they will now continue working on reforms that Newsom had been pushing for, including limiting how much utilities have to pay for fires sparked by their equipment.

Share prices of Edison International and Pacific Gas & Electric had plummeted Monday after their investors learned that SB 492 did not include transferring more of the cost of utility-sparked fires to property insurers, a measure Newsom had proposed.

Insurers had warned the proposal could raise premiums by as much as 50%.

On Tuesday, with the failure of SB 492, the two companies’ stock recovered. Edison’s share price climbed nearly 9% to close at $58.80. PG&E’s shares rose 6% to $14.06.

The top executives of the two companies had written to legislative leaders Monday, calling on them to do more. The executives said their companies needed additional protection from wildfire costs because utility investors faced higher financial risks from such disasters in California than in other states.

“Faced with those risks, investors demand a higher return or invest elsewhere,” they wrote.

The companies had asked Newsom to strengthen a framework that he and lawmakers created in 2019 to protect utilities from bankruptcy after their equipment ignites a catastrophic fire.

With the help of those protections, even though investigators found Edison’s equipment sparked last year’s deadly Eaton fire, the company’s profit in 2025 soared by more than 200% — from $1.3 billion in 2024 to $4.5 billion

Some wildfire victims and consumer groups said Tuesday they were angry that lawmakers had backed away from the bill.

“If Wall Street does not trust Edison and PG&E to stop causing catastrophic fires, California should not solve that problem with another bailout,” said Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, and Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, in a statement. “Edison and PG&E should solve it by stopping the fires.”

The three utilities have caused at least seven of California’s 20 most destructive fires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) told reporters Tuesday that the final proposal had “some half measures” and “Californians expect a lot more than half measures.”

He said that Newsom didn’t ask him to abandon the bill.

“We’re going to tackle this issue in the best interest of our state, of residents, but certainly wildfire victims that expect a lot more from us,” Rivas said.

Newsom’s office declined to say Tuesday whether the governor would call a special session this year to debate the issue.

“The reforms in this bill, while important, did not address the underlying structural problems driving this crisis, as the initial market reaction this week demonstrates,” Newsom said in a statement. “Simply put, this measure did not meet the gravity of this moment. The only solution is to return to fix the entire problem, not part of it.”

Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) said that the Legislature plans to hold a series of hearings this fall on how to deal with wildfire costs.

She acknowledged the rushed process of the last-minute proposal.

“It should come as no surprise to anybody that sometimes when policies get written at 6 a.m. perhaps we can do better,” Petrie-Norris said.

Democratic state Sen. Ben Allen, who represents the Pacific Palisades fire zone, said that he would have voted for the bill if it had cleared the Assembly.

“This bill package had a lot of good in it,” Allen said, adding that he understands “why a lot of colleagues felt as though it didn’t go far enough.”

The three utilities had been lobbying Newsom and lawmakers to further shield them and their shareholders from wildfire liabilities ever since last year’s Eaton fire.

Government fire investigators said the fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, was caused by electrical arcing on Edison’s out-of-service transmission line in Eaton Canyon. Edison kept the line in place despite not using it since 1971.

More than 11,000 households have filed suit against the utility, claiming it acted negligently, which the company denies.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — A Haitian gang threatened Wednesday to kill more than 50 people abducted during an attack on the Kenscoff community if security forces continue their offensive after at least 47 people, including five children, were killed, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti said.

A gang leader known as Izo 2 posted a video on social media that showed nearly 20 hostages, including three children. The man said he was holding more people captive and directed his threat at Vladimir Paraison, acting director of the Haitian National Police.

“If one of my men or a soldier dies, these people will be killed,” the criminal leader said, according to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

Izo 2, also known as Didi, leads the armed group operating in Kenscoff in coordination with Johnson André, alias Izo, one of the most powerful leaders of the Viv Ansanm criminal coalition.

The attack began on the night of Aug. 23, when armed men stormed central Kenscoff and several surrounding communities. The attackers killed residents, abducted more than 50 people and set homes and vehicles on fire.

Twenty-two of those killed were reportedly executed inside a religious compound in which they had sought shelter, according to the United Nations.

“The relentless gang attacks against communities and the loss of life underscore the alarming security conditions in Haiti,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in an official statement.

The Haitian National Police deployed specialized units and opened an investigation to determine how the attackers entered central Kenscoff despite the presence of security forces. Paraison ordered investigators to determine whether there had been acts of complicity or negligence.

Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said the government would continue its operations against gangs despite the threats.

“Kenscoff will not be abandoned,” he said. “Government authority will be restored, without weakness and without delay.”

Kenscoff occupies a strategic position in the mountains above Port-au-Prince. Controlling the area would allow gangs to encircle Pétion-Ville and dominate alternative routes connecting the capital with southern Haiti, said María Fernanda Arocha, a researcher with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, or ACLED.

Security operations reduced violence in Kenscoff by 66% between January and August compared with the same period in 2025, according to ACLED.

However, the organization warned that gangs take advantage of the limited police presence in rural communities while authorities concentrate their resources in central Port-au-Prince.

The attack also highlights the difficulties of ensuring secure conditions before the general elections scheduled for Dec. 13, Haiti’s first in more than a decade.

Between April and June, at least 1,408 people were killed, 656 were injured, 796 were raped and 81 were abducted, according to the United Nations’ quarterly report.

The U.N., said the actual number of abductions is probably higher because many families negotiate directly with gangs and do not report them.

Netanyahu’s claim comes after US and Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader and four of his family members in a strike on Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Iran tried to kill one of his sons, but gave no details on when or where the alleged plot took place or which of his sons was targeted.

Netanyahu’s allegation on Monday came as his coalition trailed in opinion polls ahead of the general election in October, in the wake of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.

The war began with a joint US-Israeli strike on Tehran that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and four members of his family, including his daughter, Boshra, and his 14-month-old granddaughter, Zahra.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu made the claim about the alleged Iranian plot against his son during a phone interview with Channel 14, a conservative Israeli outlet known for favourable coverage of the government.

“This is an unbelievable case. Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to murder him, tried to murder one of my sons,” Netanyahu said.

He was responding to reports that one of Israel’s security agencies had declined to provide a security detail for Gadi Eisenkot, the former army chief who is running neck and neck with Netanyahu for the next prime minister ahead of elections.

Netanyahu voiced support for around-the-clock protection for Eisenkot, saying it was “not a luxury”.

“Without that, [the Iranians] will succeed,” he said.

Netanyahu has two sons and a daughter. Both of his sons and his wife were granted extended personal protection by Israeli authorities in July, according to The Jerusalem Post.

His elder son, Yair, 35, has spent extended periods in the US city of Miami since early 2024, drawing controversy in Israel over the cost to taxpayers of protecting him.

Iran, meanwhile, has promised revenge for the killings of Khamenei and his family.

Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, was named the new supreme leader a week after Ali Khamenei’s death.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since his appointment, but in a message published on the occasion of funeral ceremonies for his father, he pledged to “avenge the blood” of the former supreme leader.

Dramatic footage verified by the BBC shows the second drone hitting the already burning shopping centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia’s military has not commented.

Another 130 people – including 23 children – were injured in the attack on city’s biggest mall. More people are also reported to be trapped in the rubble.

Early on Saturday Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said the death toll had reached 16 after another body was retrieved from the rubble.

There are still nine people – including two children – reportedly missing in the shopping centre, Hanzha said on Telegram.

Earlier on Friday, Hanzha said that of the 130 people injured, 29 were in a serious condition. There are fears the death toll could rise further.

Rescue teams from four other Ukrainian regions are being urgently deployed to help search for survivors.

Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the Russian drones were flying at “extremely low altitudes”, describing the attackers as “animals”.

“There are missing people who are not responding to calls,” the mayor added.

In Kyiv, the city’s military administration said a fire had broke out in a warehouse in the capital’s Darnytskyi district early on Saturday.

“According to preliminary information, unfortunately, there is one person dead and several injured,” the administration said on Telegram.

In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone strike had killed at least one man and injured four people, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the regional military administration.

Israeli settlers fatally shot 17-year-old Karim Sanad Shalaldeh in Hebron, while Israeli forces killed 58-year-old Fathi Khazem in Jenin.

A Palestinian teenager in Hebron and a former colonel in Jenin have been shot and killed in separate incidents involving Israeli settlers and soldiers, as escalating attacks and the rapid expansion of illegal settlements drive a wave of forced displacement in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Friday that 17-year-old Karim Sanad Shalaldeh was fatally shot in an Israeli settler attack in Khirbet Hamroush.

Shalaldeh sustained a gunshot wound to the chest and was reported to be in critical condition before he was announced dead. A 70-year-old man was also shot and injured during the attack.

Local sources told the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, that large groups of armed Israeli settlers raided the Khirbet Hamroush area, opening fire at residents and setting Palestinian homes on fire.

In a separate incident on Friday morning, the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Health Ministry that 58-year-old Fathi Khazem was fatally shot by Israeli forces in Jenin. The Israeli military was raiding the home of retired colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces when the shooting occurred.

The Israeli army claimed Khazem attempted to stab Israeli troops during a military operation before the soldiers opened fire and killed him.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli army did not release the body to the victim’s family for burial, and Wafa reported that Israeli forces prevented emergency services from reaching the house after the shooting.

Earlier, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its crews treated a 14-year-old boy who was shot with live ammunition in the chest and back during an Israeli raid near Jenin. The boy was transferred to a hospital, it added.

The Israeli military also arrested six people during a separate raid on the city on Friday.

The ‘most immoral’ army

Amid new attacks and Israeli army raids across the occupied West Bank, in Qusra, south of Nablus, Israeli settlers continue to besiege three Palestinian homes for a 13th consecutive day under the protection of Israeli forces.

Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi said Israeli forces and settlers were preventing families in the Ras al-Ain area from entering or leaving their homes, while one of the houses had been seized and turned into a military post. The area has also been declared a closed military zone.

Wadi said the families were running short of food and medicine because Israeli forces were preventing supplies from reaching them, Wafa reported.

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, called the Israeli military “the MOST IMMORAL ARMY” in a post on X.

“In the West Bank, soldiers and settlers cut water pipes, while Qusra’s siege continues,” she wrote. “In Gaza the pulverization continues and so the massacres. Since the ceasefire Israel has killed 1,200+ people, including 300 children.”

A report by Human Rights Watch on Thursday found state-backed Israeli settler violence fully or partially displaced 107 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank since January 2023.

The US-based rights group said increased settler attacks, along with the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements that are illegal under international law, are driving a wave of forced displacement of Palestinians.

Israeli plans to build a major new illegal settlement under the E1 settlement project, which would cleave the occupied West Bank in two, have provoked widespread condemnation from around the world.

The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway on Thursday called Israel’s opening of construction tenders for more than 1,200 housing units under the project “unacceptable” and in violation of “the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories”.

“Not only will they take us further from peace, but they further undermine Israel’s international standing,” the statement said.