As wildfires continue to blaze across Los Angeles County, authorities are sounding the alarm on another potential threat to the public: scams relating to the disaster. Multiple law enforcement officials have warned of bad actors scheming to take advantage of charitable people looking to chip in and give to those in need due to the fires. “We have people with big hearts who want to help, they want to donate, they want to support the victims,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press conference Saturday. “We also see scammers who are taking advantage of that goodness and that generosity and scamming and defrauding those individuals.” Bonta urged the public to beware of fraudulent organizations falsely claiming to be charities or nonprofits aiding fire victims. A group of young
Author Archives: The Esbec Team
Jan
Watch: ‘Homes razed to the ground’ on Malibu iconic coastal road Weather forecasters in California are warning fierce winds which fuelled the infernos around Los Angeles are expected to pick up again this week, as fire crews on the ground race to make progress controlling three wildfires. Officials warned that after a weekend of relatively calm winds, the notoriously dry Santa Ana winds would pick up again from Sunday night until Wednesday, reaching speeds of up to 60mph (96km/h). Ahead of the wind’s uptick, some progress has been made in stopping the spread of the deadly Palisades and Eaton fires, which are burning on opposite ends of the city. Local firefighters are being assisted by crews from eight other states, as well as Canada and Mexico, who continue to arrive.
Jan
Upstate New York winters are no joke. Up where I live, we started getting bombed with January- and February-style cold weather as early as Thanksgiving, sending the high temperatures down into the low 30s most days if we were lucky. There are lots of ways to deal with this. One method I highly recommend is to invest in some high-quality wool socks; an even better idea is to get a plane ticket to somewhere warmer. But if you’re an electric vehicle owner and you need to leave your car alone for a few weeks at a time, and you know it’s going to be parked somewhere very cold, what sort of range can you expect when you return? We know that cold temperatures in particular are the enemy of lithium-ion
Dr. Shay Har-Zvi discusses what Trump’s return means for US economic and foreign policy, especially in the Middle East and the question of Iran. By PELED ARBELI JANUARY 12, 2025 09:54 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed the Abraham Accords in 2020. (photo credit: TOM BRENNER/REUTERS) “[President-elect Donald] Trump’s return to the White House will inevitably lead to significant shifts in US policy, both internationally and regionally, due to his contrasting worldview and leadership style compared to Biden,” US policy expert and a senior researcher at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Reichman University, Dr. Shay Har-Zvi told Maariv on Sunday. “This time, Trump seems more prepared and focused. He understands the governmental system more deeply and is aware that this may be his last
Watch: Doorbell camera captures moment Palisades fire burns home At least 16 people are dead as the two largest wildfires ripping across the Los Angeles area remain mostly uncontained. Firefighters are winning the battle against two other wildfires in the nation’s second-largest city. Cadaver dogs and search crews are scouring the scorched rubble of neighbourhoods after the most destructive wildfire in the city’s history. Residents have been told to stay out of the water on beaches across a swathe of the coastline because of contamination from the fires. What’s the latest? The largest fire in the Palisades is now more than 20,000 acres, although firefighters have made modest progress in increasing containment. The fire is moving east, threatening the exclusive neighbourhood of Brentwood, home to the Getty Center, a world-famous
Street photography in the Old City is a unique experience. Its winding alleys and ancient walls are not just backdrops but part of the narrative. By JAY GARFINKEL JANUARY 11, 2025 22:07 An alley in the Old City of Jerusalem. (photo credit: ISTOCK) While Jerusalem’s Old City has its landmark marvels – the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – we’re not here for the postcard-perfect shots every tourist takes. Today, we’re focusing on its people: a kaleidoscope of clothing, faces, and interactions that tell the real story of this ancient crossroads. Street photography in the Old City is a unique experience. Its winding alleys and ancient walls are not just backdrops but part of the narrative. Life here pulses through the Jewish
As deadly wildfires burn through Southern California, President-elect Donald Trump has spent the week attacking Democratic officials and continuing a pattern of spreading misinformation about natural disasters. “I think that Gavin is largely incompetent, and I think the mayor is largely incompetent, and probably both of them are just stone-cold incompetent,” Trump said on Thursday night while hosting Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Since the fires broke out, Trump has pointed fingers at Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden, spreading false claims about California’s water policy and federal assistance. For example, Trump blamed Biden as he falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “no money” to help California despite Congress recently passing a disaster relief supplemental totaling $29 billion. The president-elect also pushed exaggerated claims as
German authorities have said an oil tanker stuck in German waters belongs to Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which Berlin says is used to avoid sanctions. Germany’s maritime authorities (CCME) said on Friday that the Panamanian-flagged ship, known as Eventin, had lost power and steering, meaning tugboats were deployed to secure the vessel. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock blamed Moscow, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of “circumventing” sanctions and threatening European security by “ruthlessly deploying a fleet of rusty tankers”. Russia, which previously declined to respond to accusations that it uses a shadow fleet, has not yet commented on this incident. The US, UK and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil industry following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In its first report of the tanker drifting in German
Donald Trump Jnr, the son of the incoming US president, and his companions are reported to have recruited people in Greenland with the prospect of a free lunch in an expensive hotel to portray them as Trump supporters in videos. The Danish radio station DR reported that it had heard from several sources that the videos, made during the group’s short trip to Greenland, showed homeless people and others who often hang around in front of a supermarket next to the hotel. “These are homeless and old people who could suddenly eat in a restaurant they have never been to before,” a long-time resident of the capital Nuuk was quoted as saying by the broadcaster. All they had to do to be part of it was put on “Make America
Jan
Chinese companies made their presence felt at the tech industry’s annual flagship event CES 2025 , in terms of the number of participants and their smart products ranging from robotics and smart glasses to electric vehicles (EVs) and home appliances. Chinese companies made up about a quarter of the 4,500-odd exhibitors at the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas. That is in line with the attendance in 2024 and up from 493 in 2023 when China’s lifting of Covid-19 restrictions came too late for many firms. Artificial intelligence (AI) was a dominant theme, as more practical applications were on display across almost all segments of consumer electronics. The market will only get bigger in 2025, according to the Consumer Technology Association, which organises the CES. Global sales of consumer
Liverpool’s English striker #76 Jayden Danns celebrates scoring the team’s third goal during the English FA Cup third round football match between Liverpool and Accrington Stanley at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on January 11, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunning strike lit up Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Accrington Stanley to cruise into the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday as Chelsea thrashed Morecambe 5-0. Brentford were the only Premier League side to fall to lower league opposition as Plymouth, who sit bottom of the Championship, stunned the Bees 1-0 thanks to Morgan Whittaker’s late winner. There was never any hint of an upset at Anfield despite Arne Slot making eight changes for Liverpool. Alexander-Arnold was named captain in the absence of Virgil van Dijk
Experts and lawmakers have urged airlines operating in Hong Kong to ensure in-flight meals are safely prepared in accordance with industry standards, after two food poisoning incidents affected dozens of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers. They also appealed to travellers to be more watchful of the meals they were served during flights and to check the temperature, freshness and smell of the food items before eating them. Health authorities earlier this week launched an investigation into the two cases involving 36 passengers on two separate flights going from Nepal’s Kathmandu to Hong Kong. The Centre for Health Protection said on Friday that it believed the two food poisoning clusters were epidemiologically linked. The latest cluster involved 20 people who arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday on flight CX640, while the other
Narrativa is among a crop of startups seizing on the artificial intelligence boom to enthusiastically automate writing tasks that would once have fallen to humans. From penning regulatory documentation for Pfizer to zhuzhing up marketing copy for insurance and e-commerce firms and helping generate breaking news articles for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles-based Narrativa boasts roughly 50 clients in various industries. But one of its core focus areas, comprising a quarter of its business, is a little more polarizing than the rest: gambling . Working with major industry players like 888 and Betway, Narrativa uses large language models to pump out everything from automated summaries of sports games to SEO-friendly reviews of online casino games and promotional social media posts. With no humans required, the 20-person company’s AI
Jan
By JACOB GURVIS/JTA JANUARY 11, 2025 06:41 VANCOUVER, CANADA – JANUARY 3: Ozzy Wiesblatt skates with the puck during during a solo lap during the pre-game warm-up prior to his first game in the NHL against the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 3, 2025, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. (photo credit: Rich Lam/Getty Images) (JTA) — This article was originally created as a newsletter. Sign up for the weekly Jewish Sport Report here. Good morning and happy Friday! Today’s Jewish Sport Report comes to you from my hotel room in Anaheim, California, where my fiancée, our cat and I arrived late Wednesday night after evacuating our apartment in Los Angeles due to the catastrophic wildfires. At the moment, our neighborhood is safe. To any fellow Angelenos, or those with friends
Decades after the liberalisation of Vietnam ’s banking sector, private banks remain tightly controlled by a handful of owners, many of whom use their banks to funnel cheap loans into their other businesses. This practice, which dates back to the early 1990s, was laid bare by the case of Truong My Lan, who became the first private businessperson in Vietnam to face capital punishment for embezzlement after she was convicted of siphoning billions from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and leaving it – and Vietnam’s financial system – in a precarious position. On December 3, an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld a death sentence for Lan, the majority owner of SCB and former chairwoman of the property developer Van Thinh Phat Group. For almost a decade, Lan treated