Category: Security

Fans of the “Great British Baking Show” should be relieved to hear that filming for the next season of the much-loved baking competition show won’t be delayed due to the mystery “health issues” of one of its hosts, comedian Noel Fielding.

A spokesperson for Fielding, a popular British TV personality and stand-up performer, has hit back at speculation that he would be leaving the series, which streams on Netflix, or causing production for its 16th season to be delayed.

“There has been absolutely no discussion about Noel stepping down from ‘Bake Off,’” Fielding’s spokesperson said, according to Deadline. In the U.K., the show is known as “The Great British Bake Off.” “We can confirm he will be returning to co-host the next (season) of ‘Bake Off.”

Concerns about the immediate future of the “Baking Show” grew last week, following reports that Fielding did not turn up for work after the Christmas break for his other series, the Apple TV+ comedy, “The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.”

The U.K. tabloid The Sun reported that Fielding’s disappearance from “Dick Turpin” led to uncertainty over his participation on the “Great British Baking Show,” alongside co-host Alison Hammond and judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.

With the “Great British Baking Show” due to start filming, The Sun reported Fielding’s agents were in “crisis talks” about his future on the show. A source told The Sun: “Time is of the essence because bosses need a degree of certainty about who will be fronting ‘Bake Off.’ So much has to be put in place long before the cameras start rolling and producers are already geared up, ready to go.”

His spokesperson had acknowledged to the Times UK that Fielding was not well enough to continue filming “Dick Turpin,” citing “a private and confidential matter regarding our client’s health.”

Fielding’s health issues forced producers to scrap “Dick Turpin,” even though the production was within weeks of wrapping up, Deadline reported. Fielding doesn’t just star in “Dick Turpin,” he also is the show’s co-writer and executive producer.

Some 100 members of “Dick Turpin’s” cast and crew expressed frustration about the decision to shut down production. Someone close to the production told the Times UK: “Noel has said that he can’t film anymore and so there was no choice but to stop. It’s not a decision that was taken lightly and they wouldn’t have got to this extreme result if every possible solution hadn’t been exhausted.”

“People have been very concerned about Noel’s well-being and (have) given him time to recover but there are also significant repercussions. Some people are furious,” the source told the Times.

Americans probably are most familiar with Fielding through his hosting gig on the “Great British Baking Show,” which he joined in 2017. In the U.K., he’s also known for his surrealist comedy and his appearance in the BBC comedy, “The Mighty Boosh.”

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A new fire exploded Wednesday north of Castaic, quickly charring more than 9,400 acres and forcing thousands to flee their homes amid a month of extreme fire conditions that have plagued Southern California.

The Hughes fire started off Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. and quickly prompted evacuations orders in and around Castaic Lake, which by afternoon extended toward Ventura County to the west and near Sandberg to the north. More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate and another 20,000 were in areas where evacuation warnings were issued.

The fire was initially reported at 50 acres but grew to 5,000 acres in the first two hours, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. By 5 p.m. it had surpassed 9,000 acres with 0% containment, said L.A. County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone.

A stretch of Interstate 5 was closed for several hours, snarling traffic. It reopened in both directions around 6 p.m., while the off-ramps at Lake Hughes Road and Parker Road remained closed, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Air quality was in the unhealthy range in the area of the Hughes fire, according to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. An alert was issued Wednesday afternoon for Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oxnard, Piru, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura.

A smoke advisory was also issued for a wide swath of northwestern L.A. County from the Santa Monica and Malibu coastline to the south up through the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita and into the Castaic Lake area.

More than 4,000 firefighting personnel are assigned to the incident, and so far there have been no reports of structures damaged, Marrone said.

Traffic was snarled out of Castaic as residents in hillside communities rushed to escape the advancing flames. On Wednesday afternoon, the blaze forced officials to close the 5 Freeway in both directions through the Grapevine. The highway was closed southbound at Grapevine Road in southern Kern County and northbound at California 126.

Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, said during a livestream Wednesday that the predicted winds in the evening could drive the fire into Ventura County.

“This is not a good place to have a fire under northeast winds, because there is an almost contiguous, very dense fuel bed all in this region,” Swain said.

Moments after the Hughes fire exploded, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said he raced out of the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster and drove back to Santa Clarita, where hundreds of kids were being evacuated from West Creek Academy as the sky overhead darkened with smoke.

“You had some parents crying. You had younger kids … they were crying. You could see the smoke from the school. Everybody is kind of on edge,” said Hatami, whose children are 8 and 10.

The veteran prosecutor, whose wife is a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who had been dispatched to help with evacuations, said his entire family is experiencing “fire fatigue” after more than two weeks spent waiting for wind-driven flames to threaten their home. Their home is in an evacuation warning zone, and Hatami said he has bags ready by the door.

“Everybody is on edge. It’s a lot. I love California. I love Los Angeles, but this is definitely stressful,” he said. “It’s hard to go to work when you’re worried your house could burn down and your kids are at school, and your wife is out there, and you don’t know what’s going to happen with her.”

Along Pine Crest Place in Castaic, residents rushed to load belongings into their cars to flee as winds continued to push the fire south. One man told KTLA-TV he was planning to stick around as long as possible and was preparing to use a garden hose to spray down his roof to protect it from flying embers.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles County Sheriff Department patrol car drove through the neighborhood announcing evacuations orders over a loudspeaker.

“I’m just praying our house doesn’t burn down,” another resident told the station.

An employee who picked up the phone at Pilot Travel Center just after noon said they were working to close the truck stop off the 5 Freeway on Castaic Road.

“The sky is black and we’re getting everyone out of the shop,” she said.

Lake Hills Community Church Pastor David Cummings coordinated with his congregants over the phone, helping them find lodging and praying with them as they left their homes. Of the 140 church members who attend Lake Hills Community Church, about half of them live in the area where evacuations have been issued, he said.

He could see the fire and smoke on remote security camera footage from the church that overlooks Castaic Lake.

“We’re keeping in touch with them and people are going over to help them get their needed goods,” Cummings said from his home in Valencia. “We’re providing homes to the other half of congregation. Some are going to their families, but we’re making sure they have a place to stay and all their needs are being met.”

The fire was burning about five miles north of the county’s Castaic jail complex, forcing deputies at one point to move inmates from a barracks-style facility at the complex to a brick facility located at the same complex. The jail was listed in the evacuation zone by the afternoon.

It’s unclear how jail officials would carry out evacuations. For years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has struggled with a shortage of inmate transport buses, due to an aging fleet that has become increasingly difficult to repair.

By late last year, officials told The Times that only 20 of the department’s 82 buses were operational.

Though the county approved funding for 20 new buses in September 2023, the first did not arrive until December of last year. The remaining buses are slated to arrive every few weeks until the order is expected to be completed in August.

On Wednesday, a department spokeswoman said that jail officials could potentially use state and other local resources, but it was not immediately clear what resources that would entail.

Elsewhere, Castaic Union School District principals who were at a training meeting when the Hughes brush fire broke out were told to immediately return to their schools.

Northlake Hills Elementary received an evacuation order while the principals returned to their schools and assisted parents and guardians who arrived to pick up their children. Students from Castaic Middle School and Castaic Elementary School were evacuated to a Ralphs parking lot at Hasley Canyon to wait for their parents, according to the California Highway Patrol.

As many as eight helicopters were dropping water on the fire to slow the spread of the flames. Strike teams were also mobilizing to protect homes in the path of the fire. CalFire has deployed 20 prepositioned engines, four hand crews, four bulldozers and aircraft to support the response to the Hughes fire, according to the agency.

“There are lots of hillsides,” L.A. County Fire Capt. Sheila Kelliher Berkoh said. “It’s very rugged terrain.”

But strong winds in the area proved to be a challenge for firefighters. Wind gusts reached 31 mph Wednesday afternoon in Castaic and were expected to increase over the next several hours, said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Forecasts show that gusts could reach up to 40 mph in the evening and even faster overnight, according to the weather service.

As classes were letting out at Valencia High on Wednesday afternoon, sheriff’s deputies and campus security personnel began readying the school’s gym as an evacuation center. A few hours later, the evacuation center moved to Hart High School in Santa Clarita after the campus in Valencia ended up in an evacuation zone.

Taylor Lincoln and her mother, Danielle, arrived at the campus in Valencia at 1 p.m. Wednesday with their two dogs, Dakota and Finn, and their cat, Lily, after being told to leave their home just an hour earlier. Neither had a bag packed and instead fled with a few important papers and the clothes on their backs.

“What this shows me is to be ready next time,” Danielle said. “To be more prepared. It’s reality now.”

It is not clear what sparked the fire. The blaze is burning in the same area that was charred in the Route fire in 2022. That fire, which ignited during a heat wave in late August, burned 5,200 acres and forced evacuations in Castaic.

The Hughes fire was one of two that began Wednesday amid persistent red flag conditions in the region.

In San Diego County, a fire that broke out near Rancho Bernardo and grew to roughly four acres and briefly triggered evacuations before its forward progress was stopped.

Red flag fire weather warnings — which began Monday morning across Southern California — will continue through much of Southern California through Friday morning, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

A storm expected to arrive this weekend is forecast to bring some moisture to Southern California’s parched landscape. But forecasters have warned it will not end the fire season.

Because the rain is expected to be light, the risk of debris flows in burned areas is low. There’s a chance a thunderstorm could emerge directly over a recently burned area — creating a risk of landslides — but it’s not likely, Kittell said.

Still, Los Angeles city and county officials have started preparing for the rain. Public works in the coming days will install barriers, remove debris and divert runoff from the stormwater system into the sewer system, where it can be treated. Crews are also clearing drains and roadways, placing sandbags to shore up vulnerable infrastructure and preparing debris basins for the incoming storm, officials said Wednesday.

The Palisades fire, which ignited more than two weeks ago, leveled a huge swath of Pacific Palisades burning more than 23,400 acres and destroying at least 6,662 structures, according to Cal Fire. The blaze was 68% contained as of Wednesday.

The Eaton fire, which charred a devastating path through the Altadena and Pasadena areas, destroying 9,418 structures, was 91% contained as of Wednesday.

“Rains are in the forecast and the threat of mud and debris flow in our fire impacted communities is real,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said during a news conference Wednesday. “We have to be prepared.”

For recently burned areas, Kittell said, the rain could serve as a practice run in preparing for risks that are likely to remain for the next one to two years, after which the risk of debris flows and other landslide risks is substantially lowered.

Rainfall rates need to be at around half an inch per hour or more to start causing debris flows of significance, Kittell said. Rates that are lower — like a quarter of an inch per hour — are less significant, “maybe some muddy water moving over some roads,” he said.

Although meteorologists say the risk of debris flows in the burn areas is low, it’s also very unlikely the rain will snuff out the fire season.

“If we get one more little dry spell, it’ll pretty much negate any benefit from this rain,” Kittell said.

That dry spell may be just around the corner. The longer-term outlook suggests that, on the heels of this storm, there could be more weeks of dry weather going into early February.

There is also a 10% to 20% chance of thunderstorms and, with it, the chance of isolated but brief, heavy rain. With a thunderstorm, “heavy downpours, with rates maybe approaching a half-inch per hour” are possible, Kittell said.

“The vast majority of areas will not see this kind of situation,” he added, but if there are thunderstorms, “most likely we’ll see a spot — or two or three — that do get conditions like this.”

Residents whose homes back up to charred hillsides can request the county assess their property and the condition of the slope and advise whether any mitigation needs to be done, said Mark Pestrella, the Los Angeles County Public Works director.

He emphasized that Angelenos in burn-scarred areas should use caution during upcoming rain events.

“Let me be clear, if you live in an area and you’re in the home, and there is a slope behind your home that is burned, and it’s maybe 20 feet or more in height, and it is adjacent to the property in any direction, your best bet is not to be in that home when it rains,” Pestrella said.

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© 2025 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A reportedly suicidal suspect and a 4-year-old girl were killed, and an officer was critically wounded, after the suspect opened fire Wednesday on two cops who tried to help him, Ohio authorities said.

The incident unfolded just after 2 p.m. when cops in St. Clair Township were called about a possibly suicidal man, police said in a statement. As the officers located the man walking down St. Clair Ave. and attempted to speak to him, he pulled out a gun and began shooting, prompting police to return fire.

“In the shootout, one St. Clair Township police officer was shot in the head,” police said. Bullets also struck a 4-year-old girl who was “at a nearby private business.”

While the wounded officer was responsive, he was flown to a Pittsburgh-area hospital in critical condition, the statement said. He underwent surgery Wednesday evening and was said to be in stable condition as of 8:30 p.m. His identity had not been released.

The child was flown to another hospital, where she later died. She was shot in the head while in a dentist office, a police spokesman told WFMJ.

“The 4-year-old girl has tragically passed away from her injuries,” police said in an update. “Please pray for her and her family.”

Just before 7 p.m., police updated to say that the gunman too had died.

“The suspect, 30-year-old Joseph Como, has died from his injuries,” the St. Clair Township Police Department said. “Our prayers are with his family.”

Police were still trying to make sense of it all on Wednesday night. They had not released the little girl’s identity.

“We’re trying to gather information as fast as we can so we can update the community,” Police Chief Brian McKenzie told WKBN. “Right now, we need the community to pray for our officer and the child who were shot.”

The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, the union representing officers in the state, launched a funding drive for the officer and the girl before learning of her death.

“Our thoughts are with the St. Clair Township Police Department in Columbiana County and the people of that community today after a tragic officer-involved shooting,” President Jay McDonald said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “The child is just 4 years old and was an innocent bystander in this incident.”

Upon learning of her death, the union said it would continue to raise funds for her family.

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© 2025 New York Daily News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

China has executed a man for killing at least 35 people with his car at a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai following a marital breakdown last November, along with a man who stabbed eight to death in a school in Wuxi after failing his final exams.

Fan Weiqiu, 62, was executed by the Zhuhai Intermediate People’s Court on Jan. 20 “in accordance with the execution order issued by the Supreme People’s Court,” state news agency Xinhua reported, adding that the execution was supervised by officials from the state prosecutor’s office.

At least 35 people were killed and 43 injured when Fan rammed his car into a crowd at a stadium in Zhuhai city, prompting a rare call from President Xi Jinping for an investigation, and for the perpetrator to be punished.

The sentences come as the ruling Communist Party counts the cost of a growing number of “social revenge” attacks on members of the public, including the Zhuhai car attack.

Since then, further violence has been making the headlines, including the fatal stabbing of eight people at a vocational college in Wuxi by 21-year-old Xu Jiajin, who was also executed on Monday.

Two rulings

Fan was sentenced to death on Dec. 27, 2024 for “endangering public security by dangerous means,” and accepted the sentence, the agency reported. Police said he had carried out the attack because he was unhappy with his divorce settlement.

“After review by the Guangdong Higher People’s Court, the case was submitted to the Supreme People’s Court for approval,” it said.

The Wuxi Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu executed Xu Jiajin on Jan. 20, after allowing him a meeting with his family beforehand, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Xu, 21, was handed a death sentence by the court on Dec. 17, 2024, after the court found him guilty of the “intentional homicide” of eight people and the injury of 17 more on the campus of his vocational school in Wuxi on Nov. 16, 2024.

“This was an extremely serious crime, the circumstances and consequences of which were particularly serious,” the report said.

Police said Xu had failed his exams and been unable to graduate, and was dissatisfied with his low pay at an internship.

New security measures

The “revenge” attacks have sparked new security measures, with authorities in Guangdong sending local officials and volunteers to intervene in people’s marital troubles and to mediate disputes between neighbors in the wake of the Zhuhai attack.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party is also stepping up the use of big data to predict people’s behavior in a bid to identify “social risks” and prevent violent attacks on members of the public.

Local officials are being encouraged to set up systems that analyse huge amounts of big data to warn them of potential social tensions and disgruntlement, so they can try to intervene before such crimes are committed.

But analysts have warned that further state-backed intervention in people’s lives could further distort social cohesion and fuel disputes between people.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

Vietnamese authorities have arrested a Protestant pastor known for his criticism of the government on Facebook on charges of “anti-state propaganda,” according to his son.

Pastor Nguyen Manh Hung, 71, is the first person to be arrested on the charges since the beginning of the year, and the second since former Minister of Public Security To Lam became Vietnam’s general secretary in August 2024. The charges carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Nguyen Manh Hung was at his home in Ho Chi Minh City on Jan. 16 when the electricity was suddenly cut off, his son, Nguyen Tran Hien, told RFA Vietnamese.

Around 10 minutes later, someone knocked on the door, asking that the pastor let him in to “check for fire risks.” When Nguyen Manh Hung opened the door, police rushed in and handcuffed him, his son said.

Nguyen Tran Hien said the police showed him an arrest warrant for “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, which also stated that his father would be “temporarily detained for four months.”

“They then read a house search warrant and confiscated some of my father’s documents, two mobile phones, and a laptop,” he said. “They also took my mobile phone and laptop.”

Police then told Nguyen Tran Hien to go to the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute for Criminal Sciences, where authorities interrogated him “for hours” about his father’s activities, including bank transactions.

He said he was released at midnight after assuring police that he didn’t know anything about his father’s activities.

Soldier-turned-pastor

Nguyen Manh Hung, whose hometown is Hai Phong City, is a former soldier of the Northern Vietnam Army who fought in the Vietnam War. After his military service, he briefly worked as a manager before entering a monastery.

He became a pastor in 2011 and formerly served as administrator of Chuong Bo Protestant Church under the independent Mennonite Church. He is currently a member of the Interfaith Council of Vietnam, which advocates for religious freedom.

He has been repeatedly harassed by Vietnamese authorities, including in an incident in 2014 when police forcibly entered his home and beat him up.

In 2015, he participated in a hearing before the Human Rights Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee.

The hearing was about Vietnam’s crackdowns on independent religious groups, including the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, some independent Protestant churches, the Cao Dai Chon Truyen sect and the Pure Hoa Hao Buddhist Church.

Nguyen Manh Hung was also highly active and vocal on Facebook, where he condemned Vietnam’s government over human rights violations, corruption, and the confiscation of land from residents without fair compensation. He also voiced strong support for political dissidents and prisoners of conscience.

His most recent post, dated Jan. 14, noted that Vietnam’s Communist Party once referred to those who bought land as “cruel landlords,” while these days, “those who abuse power to acquire land are called ‘outstanding cadres.’”

“Interest groups that exploit residents must be eradicated,” he wrote. “The fight for democracy will be passed on to [and inspire] future generations.”

Lam Dong connection

Nguyen Tran Hien said that the police who arrested his father were from Lam Dong province, where Nguyen Manh Hung had been living for the past two years with a woman known as N.T.T.

The police officers didn’t leave any documents related to the arrest and house search, he said.

Nguyen Tran Hien told RFA that he had since tried unsuccessfully to contact N.T.T. and suspects that she may have also been arrested.

RFA called the Lam Dong Provincial Police to verify information about Nguyen Manh Hung’s arrest, but staff who answered the phone refused to comment.

To date, state media have not reported the pastor’s arrest.

Human Rights Council membership

Josef Benedict, advocacy expert for civil space in Asia-Pacific for the global civil society alliance CIVICUS, said that Nguyen Manh Hung’s arrest “highlights the repressive environment in Vietnam, including for those belonging to the religious community.”

“He has been targeted for bravely speaking out in a country where freedom of expression is under systematic attack and his arrest makes a mockery of Vietnam’s membership of the UN Human Rights Council,” Benedict said.

He also called on the Vietnamese government to drop all charges against Nguyen Manh Hung and release him immediately and unconditionally.

Just one day after Nguyen Manh Hung’s arrest, Dong Nai Provincial Police detained Pham Xuan Thoi and Dao Cong Hieu on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.

The two allegedly posted information on Facebook that “distorted the Party’s policies and the State’s laws” and “abused their rights to file complaints and denunciations to distort, defame, and undermine the reputation of the Party, the State, and officials at all levels,” according to state media.

In its 2025 annual global report, released just hours after the pastor’s arrest, Human Rights Watch said that Vietnam’s new leadership had intensified repression since former Minister of Public Security To Lam assumed the role of General Secretary, the highest position in the one-party state.

In early December 2024, the group claimed that Vietnam was holding more than 170 political prisoners, which Hanoi denies.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of red dye No. 3 from the country’s food supply, citing studies that have found the dye to cause cancer in rats.

Often called erythrosine or FD&C Red No. 3 or Red 3, red dye No. 3 was barred from use in cosmetics over three decades ago.

The move was praised by many of the country’s notable public health officials, and the director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Dr. Peter Lurie, called the “the unsustainable double standard in which Red 3 was banned from lipstick but permitted in candy” a “welcome, but long overdue, action from the FDA.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former presidential candidate nominated by incoming President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, listed getting rid of items like red dye No. 3 as one of his top priorities.

“The first thing I’d do isn’t going to cost you anything because I’m just gonna tell the cereal companies, take all the dyes out of their food,” Kennedy said in October when asked what actions he would take if he was appointed a position.

Banning the substance follows Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, or MAHA.

According to the MAHA Alliance super PAC, launched in 2024 to spur former Kennedy supporters to vote for Donald Trump in the presidential election, MAHA seeks to “to dismantle the corporate stranglehold on our government agencies that has led to widespread chronic disease, environmental degradation and rampant public distrust.”

The PAC went on to say its goals include “prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats and eliminating toxins from our food, water and air.”

As America moves toward a possibly more “healthy” future, other seemingly innocuous substances may be removed from our favorite grocery store products.

Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide is a chemical used in U.S. foods, often as a color additive. A U.S. Department of Agriculture database found the substance in over 12,000 brand-name products. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, it is likely that number is much higher as many companies will just refer to titanium dioxide as an “artificial color.”

A safety evaluation conducted by the European Food Safety Authority found the substance is “no longer considered safe.” According to the study, when humans ingest food-grade titanium dioxide, small particles can accumulate in the body, causing genetic damage. It can also lead to damage in the immune and nervous systems.

Public health groups, including the Environmental Working Group, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, have petitioned the FDA to ban the substance’s use in food.

Despite warnings, titanium dioxide can still be found in many of the products Georgians use in large group dinners, including Banquet-brand Country Sausage Gravy and Kraft Reduced-Fat Cheese, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture database.

rBST

Recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, is a synthetic hormone created to increase milk production in dairy cows is found in almost all U.S. dairy products unless marked otherwise.

According to Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, this substance is also found in many items that use milk in their formation, including yogurt, ice cream, cheese and a Southern food favorite, butter.

Not permitted in the European Union, Canada and many other countries, some research compiled by Breast Cancer Prevention Partners has found that rBST can stimulate the growth of human breast cancer cells.

Other research has found an increased risk of premenopausal breast cancer in women with higher levels of rBST in their blood.

Propylparaben

China, the EU and California have all banned use of propylparaben, a preservative used in cosmetics, food and drugs.

Often found in sweet favorites like cake mixes or some prepackaged cinnamon rolls, propylparaben can alter the expression of genes, including those in breast cancer cells, according to the Environmental Working Group, which said the preservative “should not be used in personal care or cosmetic products.”

Trichloroethylene

Trichloroethylene, a substance used in the production of decaffeinated coffee, spices and hops for beer, was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency last year, after years of pushing for it. However, the FDA has continued to allow TCE use.

In 2014, the EPA identified cancer risks for people who had worked at places that used trichloroethylene-based solvents, and according to the National Toxicology Program, TCE is officially a carcinogen.

A National Library of Medicine report found traces of the substance in foods ranging from butter to apple pie, coleslaw with dressing to cream cheese, all foods you would be hard-pressed to find a Southern barbecue without.

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© 2025 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

About 18,000 Costco workers will go on strike beginning Feb. 1 if their union doesn’t reach a deal with the warehouse retailer, the union announced Sunday.

The Teamsters represent Costco workers in 56 warehouses across five states, CNN reported. The 18,000-person strike would represent about 8% of Costco’s nationwide workforce.

A contract for the unionized workers expires on Jan. 31, and 85% of union members voted in favor of a strike after that deadline, according to the Teamsters.

“Our members have spoken loud and clear — Costco must deliver a fair contract, or they’ll be held accountable,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said. “From day one, we’ve told Costco that our members won’t work a day past Jan. 31 without a historic, industry-leading agreement.”

Costco has not publicly responded to the strike threat. The company has previously been lauded for its treatment of employees, but the union members said Costco leaders haven’t lived up to their public-facing ideals.

“Costco’s greedy executives have less than two weeks to do the right thing,” O’Brien said. “If they refuse, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves when our members go on strike.”

Strike authorization votes are a common union tactic ahead of contract expiration dates. Back in 2023, an overwhelming majority of Teamsters-represented UPS workers voted to authorize a strike, but the work stoppage never happened because a deal was reached late in the process.

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© 2025 New York Daily News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) and Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) reintroduced the bipartisan, bicameral Aviator Cancers Examination Study (ACES) Act. If passed, this bill would direct the Secretary of the VA to study cancer incidences and mortality rates among aviators and aircrew who served in the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

This legislation is critical as it would improve our understanding of the link between military service and cancer risks among Veteran aviators. By better understanding the correlation between aviator service and cancer, we can better assist our military and provide more adequate care for our veterans, a news release said.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), both veterans and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, championed the Senate version of the bill last session and will do so again this Congress.

“As a former fighter pilot, I know first-hand the risks that airmen and women take every day when they step into the cockpit. After putting their lives on the line in the line of duty for their country, airmen and women deserve assurances that their health will be properly taken care of,” said Congressman Pfluger. “The bipartisan ACES Act will ensure that the VA takes necessary steps to completely understand any links between aviation and cancer incidences to properly care for and treat our service members.”

“We have a responsibility to fully understand the health risks facing our aviators in defense of our nation,” said Congressman Panetta. “I’m proud to co-lead this bipartisan legislation to ensure that we uncover the full scope of service-linked cancer diagnoses among our airmen and women as we continue our work to improve care for our servicemembers and veterans. This study is essential to equipping our military and veteran health care providers with the critical knowledge they need to deliver the top-tier care our aviators and aircrew so rightly deserve for their service to our nation.”

“We owe it to past, present, and future aviators in the armed forces to study the prevalence of cancer among this group of veterans. Our legislation will make the necessary commitments to protect our men and women in uniform long after their service has ended,” said Senator Cotton.

“As a former Navy pilot, I understand the sacrifices aviators make every day, but the fact is we need to improve our understanding on some of the unseen risks facing aircrews,” said Senator Kelly. “This bipartisan legislation will boost our knowledge to better address this terrible disease among veterans and recognize what needs to be corrected to help mitigate the threat among current service members.”

The bill is co-sponsored in the House by Representatives Rob Wittman (VA-7), Jake Ellzey (TX-06), Seth Moulton (MA-6), Daniel Webster (FL-11), Pat Ryan (NY-18), Beth Van Duyne (TX-24), Don Davis (NC-01), David Valadao (CA-22), Marianette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Susie Lee (NV-03), Mike Simpson (ID-02), and Scott Franklin (FL-18).

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© 2025 the Odessa American 

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on January 23 that he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately to secure an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“From what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll leave as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Everyday we don’t meet, soldiers are being killed in the battlefield.”

Trump added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had told him he was ready to make a deal to end the war.

Earlier on January 23, Trump told the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, over video link that he would like to be able to meet with Putin soon. He added that U.S. efforts to secure a peace settlement were under way but gave no details.

During last year’s presidential campaign Trump said repeatedly that he would quickly end the war, even within days of his inauguration. He now says it could take months but has mentioned ending the war multiple times.

Zelenskiy also spoke at the WEF, telling the gathering that a 200,000-strong European peacekeeping force would be necessary to secure any cease-fire in the conflict in Ukraine, but he insisted U.S. leadership in any such a venture would be crucial to its success.

Zelenskiy said during a January 22 panel discussion that such a contingent would be only a part of overall security guarantees Kyiv would need should cease-fire talks ever begin with Putin.

Separately, Zelenskiy told Bloomberg News that for any peace force to be effective, it must include U.S. troops.

“It can’t be without the United States,” he told Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.

“First of all, no one will take risks without the United States. Second, it can divide NATO, divide the United States, and the European Union,” he said. “It’s Putin’s dream to split this alliance.”

A peacekeeping force of 200,000 would be an unprecedented effort for Europe. The NATO-led international mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina peaked in 1996 at 60,000 troops, about a third from the United States.

Zelenskiy said such a massive international force would be required given Russia’s military numbered more than 1.5 million personnel while Ukraine had only half that figure.

The deployment of a foreign military contingent in Ukraine was being discussed with countries that might be willing to participate, Zelenskiy said during a news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on January 16.

The British press also reported that Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed sending soldiers to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force after any deal to end the war.

Zelenskiy also echoed remarks by Trump that Chinese leader Xi Jinping could help “push” Russia to make peace.

“But not without us — this is important,” he added, referring to any peace settlement.

The new U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke by phone on January 23 with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and discussed the importance of ending the war in Ukraine. The State Department said Rubio also reinforced the U.S. commitment to NATO after Trump said he was “not sure” the United States should be spending anything on the alliance while pressing other member countries to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.

Zelenskiy said his team was “currently in the process” of setting up a face-to-face meeting with Trump, who resumed the U.S. presidency on January 20.

Zelenskiy’s comments follow three days of some of the most critical public remarks made by Trump against Putin, who he has often spoken of in admiration.

Trump on January 22 called out his Russian counterpart by name, warning Moscow it faces new “high” tariffs, taxes, and sanctions if it doesn’t quickly end its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A day earlier, he suggested he would hit Russia with additional sanctions if Putin didn’t accept peace talks to end the war.

And on January 20 said Putin was “destroying” Russia by refusing to make a deal to end the war.

“I think Russia’s going to be in big trouble…. Most people thought that war would have been over in one week,. Trump said.”

Russia has burned through hundreds of billions of dollars on the war, suffered an estimated 700,000 casualties, and angered its neighbors, while also sacrificing the lucrative European gas market and access to Western financial markets as the ruble has tumbled in value.

The Kremlin is spending about 40 percent of its budget on the military and is struggling to contain inflation even with interest rates above 20 percent.

The war in Ukraine started in 2014 with the Kremlin’s seizure and illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and intensified with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

China has seen nearly 3 million restaurants, cafes and other catering outlets shut down in the past year, according to industry website Hongcan, with many going bankrupt and even hugely popular chains slashing costs by shutting down hundreds of stores.

In early December, top Taiwanese chicken house Zhenghao Da Da went viral on Weibo after it announced it would shutter all its stores in China, starting with the flagship outlet in Shanghai’s New World City Plaza mall.

But the announcement was just “the tip of the iceberg,” according to a Jan. 21 analysis published on Hongcan’s website.

“‘Contraction’ and ‘stores closing’ were the new buzzwords for the catering industry in 2024,” the article said. “The negative news just kept on coming, and the sense of chill was overwhelming.”

The closures have been seen across all sectors of the industry, from fine dining to cafes, bakeries and hot pot chains to snacks and fast food.

Even high-end Western fine-dining outlets have been hit by bankruptcy, absconding owners and unpaid wages, “in an extremely embarrassing manner,” the article said, citing the closure of Beijing-based Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Opera BOMBANA, which shut down in April 2024 while still owing its staff wages and suppliers money.

L’Atelier 18, a French restaurant on the Bund in Shanghai with a three-Michelin-star chef shut down after only six months in operation, while Paul Pairet at Roodoodoo also shut its doors less than a year after its opening, according to a list of high-profile closures compiled by Redcan.

Tea shops hit hard

Snacks, baked goods and beverages have been equally hard hit, though, with milk tea store Taigai, Jixu Fresh Fruit Coffee and Thank You Tea all shuttering multiple stores through the year, the list showed.

Tea chain Cuonei Village slashed its stores from nearly 500 across more than 80 Chinese cities to less than 50 stores by early December, while Fu Xiaotao and Yuan Zhenzhen Milk Tea have dropped from more than 300 stores apiece to just a handful.

Diners who once piled the shrimp high at Xiamen’s fancy seafood buffet chain Haidinghui have been left out in the cold, while Japan’s Mos Burger exited the Chinese market, closing six outlets in June.

Hotpot chains Just Thai, Xianhezhuang and Panda Lao Zao have all slashed the number of their outlets.

The report cited “more rational” behavior from consumers, increasing global uncertainty and the “shrinking assets of the middle classes” as the driving force behind the mass closures.

Flagging economy to blame

A current affairs commentator from the eastern province of Zhejiang who gave only the surname Lu for fear of reprisals said the industry has been hit from all directions.

“On the demand side, there has been weak domestic economic recovery since the ending of pandemic restrictions,” Lu said. “The assets of the middle classes are shrinking, civil servants are owed wages, and a lot of ordinary people are unemployed.”

“This means consumption has become more rational and focused on value for money and demand more rigid, while high-end catering and internet celebrity restaurants have been hit hard,” he said. Internet celebrity restaurants are eateries that are popular online and attract customers through mass exposure.

A resident of the eastern city of Taizhou who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals said the impact on the street is highly visible where he lives.

“A lot of restaurants in Taizhou have shut their doors, including a lot of long-established ones,” he said.

“Some that were open for only four or five years have also closed.”

The outlets that are still booming are those frequented by government officials and departments, according to Wang.

Online commentator Lao Zhou said the sector has also been hit by rising rents and prices for raw materials.

But mostly, it’s about the flagging economy.

“The closure of restaurants shows us that ordinary people have no money in their pockets,” Lao Zhou said. “Who’s going to go eat in a restaurant if they have no money?”