Elections

Traffic was at a standstill for hours on a portion of I-15 near Baker, Calif., after a truck carrying lithium batteries overturned and caught fire.Drivers were stuck in traffic in 109-degree heat on a California highway on Saturday for hours as the authorities struggled to extinguish a fire involving a truck carrying lithium ion batteries that had overturned on Friday.Emergency services received calls around 6:30 a.m. local time about a truck that had crashed near Baker, Calif., in the northbound lanes of I-15, a major highway that leads travelers to Las Vegas.The northbound lanes were closed beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the southbound lanes at 9 a.m. The southbound lanes reopened shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the California Highway Patrol.The northbound lanes remained closed as of 5 p.m. on Saturday, according to the California Department of Transportation.The California Highway Patrol said it had cleared the backlog of stuck vehicles on the closed highway by rerouting them to I-40. But that, in turn, had caused “extremely heavy” traffic on that highway, which the agency described as “the only alternative” because of the location of the closure on I-15.“Multiple attempts were made to move the container from the freeway shoulder to open land using heavy equipment,” the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District said on social media on Saturday. “However, the container’s weight, exceeding 75,000 pounds, has made these efforts unsuccessful so far.”The fire district said it was monitoring the air quality “due to the hazardous materials and chemicals involved.”Emergency responders were checking for hydrogen cyanide, chlorine and sulfur dioxide, the district said, adding, “These chemicals pose significant health risks at elevated levels, with hydrogen cyanide and chlorine being particularly dangerous even at low concentrations.”Lithium ion batteries, which are used in many electronic devices, including e-bikes and electric cars, contain highly flammable materials. If ignited, the batteries burn hot and are very difficult to put out.The fire district noted on social media that lithium ion battery fires “can escalate to thermal runaway, needing massive amounts of water to extinguish.”Videos posted on social media from drivers on the highway traveling in the opposite direction showed long lines of vehicles at a complete stop.The California Highway Patrol did not provide an estimate of how long drivers had been stuck on I-15, noting that travel patterns vary, nor was it clear how many drivers had been stranded.But some on social media said they had been stopped in traffic for six hours and expressed concern about running out of gas or electric cars running out of charge.“The closure of the northbound side was moved further south,” the California Highway Patrol said in an email, adding that this move “allowed motorists to utilize alternate routes.”Saturday was an exceptionally hot day in Baker, with temperatures reaching the triple digits.The fire district, which could not be immediately reached for comment, advised people to travel with plenty of water and to “ensure you have enough supplies, fuel and charge in your vehicle.” More

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has waded into one of the thorniest issues facing U.S. politics: deepfake videos.On Friday night, Mr. Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, reposted an edited campaign video for Vice President Kamala Harris that appears to have been digitally manipulated to change the spot’s voice-over in a deceptive manner.The video mimics Ms. Harris’s voice, but instead of using her words from the original ad, it has the vice president saying that President Biden is senile, that she does not “know the first thing about running the country” and that, as a woman and a person of color, she is the “ultimate diversity hire.”In addition, the clip was edited to remove images of former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, and to add images of Mr. Biden. The original, unaltered ad, which the Harris campaign released on Thursday, is titled “We Choose Freedom.”The version posted on X does not contain a disclaimer, though the account that first uploaded it Friday morning, @MrReaganUSA, noted in its post that the video was a “parody.” When Mr. Musk reposted the video on his own account eight hours later, he made no such disclosure, stating only, “This is amazing,” followed by a laughing emoji.Mr. Musk’s post, which has since been viewed 98 million times, would seem to run afoul of X’s policies, which prohibit sharing “synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

In a potential audition to be Kamala Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota on Saturday cast former President Donald J. Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, as a dangerous combination before their campaign visit to the state later in the day.“The fascists depend on us going back, but we’re not afraid of weird people,” Mr. Walz said during an event organized by the Harris campaign. “We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”Speaking to a crowd of about 200 people packed into the Saint Paul Labor Center, an energetic Mr. Walz mocked Mr. Trump’s selection of Mr. Vance as his running mate.“They went out, you know — because he’s a TV guy — they go out and try to do this central casting: ‘Oh, we’ll get this guy who wrote a book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” you know,’” he said, referring to Mr. Vance’s best-selling memoir, “because all my hillbilly relatives went to Yale and became, you know, venture capitalists.”The rally, which also featured Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Betty McCollum, both Democrats of Minnesota, took place just hours before Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance were scheduled to headline their own rally in St. Cloud, a city of about 70,000 that narrowly went for Mr. Trump in 2016 but that President Biden won by a comfortable margin in 2020.“The nation found out what we’ve all known in Minnesota: These guys are just weird,” Mr. Walz said of the Republican ticket, echoing a message he debuted on MSNBC this week and that the Harris campaign itself has begun to test drive.Polling before Mr. Biden’s exit from the race six days ago had given Republican organizers hope that Minnesota, which has not supported a Republican nominee since Richard Nixon in 1972, could be in play in November. Mr. Walz and the other speakers sought to tamp down that notion on Saturday by focusing on two polls released on Friday that showed Ms. Harris leading Mr. Trump in the state.“He’s here today, in the state of hockey, to complete his trifecta,” Mr. Walz said of Mr. Trump. “He lost in ’16. He lost in ’20. He loses in ’24.”Asked about a report from Bloomberg News suggesting that he was among three finalists being considered to be Ms. Harris’s running mate, Mr. Walz told reporters that he was “honored to be in this conversation” and that he was excited by the energy that Ms. Harris’s choice was bringing to the Democratic Party.“I love them all,” he said of the other vice-presidential contenders. “But this is the vice president’s pick. And I tell you what, I trust her judgment.” More

Vice President Kamala Harris warned a crowd of supporters on Saturday that former President Donald J. Trump held the advantage in their contest for the White House given the short window until Election Day.“We got a fight ahead of us, and we are the underdogs in this race, OK?” Ms. Harris said in Pittsfield, Mass., at her first fund-raiser since President Biden dropped his re-election bid six days ago. “Level set, we’re the underdogs in this race. But this is a people-powered campaign, and we have momentum.”Polls have shown the vice president catching up to Mr. Trump — welcome news for Democrats after Mr. Biden had fallen significantly behind. The Harris campaign has also shown new strength in fund-raising and in the number of new volunteers, with the election roughly three months away.Since announcing her candidacy for the Democratic nomination and receiving Mr. Biden’s endorsement, Ms. Harris has deployed a sharpened message against Mr. Trump. On Saturday, she suggested he would restrict Americans’ “most fundamental rights,” including reproductive freedoms, and called him a “bully.”“What other freedoms could be on the table for the taking?” she said during her remarks, repeating her stark warnings of the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. “It’s serious business.”She also leaned into a new Democratic attack on the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, saying that some of the swipes the men had taken against her were “just plain weird.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Jorge Armando Contreras used his position at a school district in Orange County to fund a luxurious lifestyle, prosecutors said.A former California public school official who embezzled more than $16 million from a school district and used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle was sentenced to nearly six years in prison this week, according to the Justice Department.A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Jorge Armando Contreras, 53, who worked for the Magnolia School District in Orange County, to 70 months and ordered him to pay $16,694,942 in restitution. Mr. Contreras, of Yorba Linda, Calif., had pleaded guilty in March to one count of embezzlement, theft and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal funds, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement that “instead of using his job at a public school district to help socioeconomically disadvantaged children,” Mr. Contreras had embezzled millions of dollars in a scheme that fraudulently created for him a life of opulence.He used the money to buy a range of luxurious products like Louis Vuitton bags and $2,000 tequila bottles, according to the Justice Department. About $7.7 million in personal and real property traced to the scheme have been seized, officials said.Mr. Contreras’s lawyer, Ronald D. Hedding, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.Court documents show that Mr. Contreras’s embezzling scheme appeared to have begun in 2016 and lasted until July 2023. During that period, he worked as the director and senior director of fiscal services at the school district, which serves students from preschool through sixth grade in Anaheim and Stanton, cities about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles. About 81 percent of those students classify as socioeconomically disadvantaged, prosecutors said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday night, former President Donald J. Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again.“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”Mr. Trump, who never made a particular display of religious observance before entering politics, continued: “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”Mr. Trump’s comments came at the end of a nearly hourlong speech in which he appealed to religious conservatives by promising to defend them from perceived threats from the left. Earlier in his remarks, he lamented that conservative Christians do not vote in large numbers, a complaint he had made repeatedly on the trail.“They don’t vote like they should,” Mr. Trump said of Christians. “They’re not big voters.”Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Christians would not have to vote again if he is elected quickly spread across social media. Some argued that it was a threat that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last if he were to win and claimed it was further evidence of an authoritarian, anti-democratic bent he has displayed throughout his political candidacy.The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment to clarify Mr. Trump’s intent.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The U.S. secretary of state pressed China’s top foreign policy official on Beijing’s support for Russia’s efforts to rebuild its military industries during the Ukraine war.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken pressed his Chinese counterpart Saturday on areas of sharp disagreement between the two nations, including China’s support of Russia’s military industrial sector, the State Department said in a statement. Mr. Blinken met with the Chinese official, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of an annual international conference of Southeast Asian nations in the Laotian capital of Vientiane. Also in attendance was Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, who at one group session blamed the United States for provoking Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Mr. Blinken.In their meeting, Mr. Wang listened to Mr. Blinken’s criticisms, but pointed out that China has not sent weapons to Russia, said the State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe diplomatic talks.President Biden and his aides have recently accused China of helping Russia rebuild its defense industrial sector, mainly through the export to Russia by Chinese companies of machine tools and microelectronics that have helped the Russian army persist in its war in Ukraine.Mr. Blinken told Mr. Wang that defending Ukraine against Russia’s aggression was a “core interest” of the United States, using a term that Chinese officials often deploy to signal their own national priorities, the State Department official said. The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on more than 300 Chinese entities as a result, but the Chinese government still has not curbed the exports, the official said. He added that Mr. Blinken presented specific examples of the exports, though the official declined to go into detail on that part of the conversation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The order affected part of southern Gaza, while farther north, the Israeli military struck the grounds of a school it said was being used by Hamas, killing more than 30 people, Gaza officials said.The Israeli army ordered the evacuation of several neighborhoods in southern Gaza on Saturday, the latest in a series of such directives recently that have forced tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians to relocate yet again.The decision affects an area around the city of Khan Younis that Israel had previously designated a “humanitarian zone” for Palestinian civilians, who are weary from nearly a year of unrelenting war and a daily struggle to avoid disease and find enough food and clean water to survive.“People aren’t being regarded as people,” said Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the main United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza. “They’re being treated as pinballs and chess pieces.”The Israeli military said its recent evacuations and operations in Khan Younis have targeted a renewed Hamas insurgency and accused Hamas of installing weapons infrastructure in the area under the latest evacuation order on Saturday.Over the past week, amid new evacuation orders, more than 190,000 people have fled the places where they were sheltering in southern and central Gaza, the United Nations said on Friday.Dozens of people have been killed in fighting in the area, according to both Israel and Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military said on Friday that its forces had killed more than 100 militants in Khan Younis in recent days, while Palestinian health officials have said that at least some casualties arriving at local hospitals with severe blast wounds have been women and children.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More