California
Trump says US government is behind California during visit to fire-stricken state
U.S. President Donald Trump said the federal government is standing behind California 100% in the aftermath of devastating wildfires and said during a visit to the state on Friday that he would come back as much as needed.
“The first lady and I are in California to express a great love for the people of California,” Trump told a gathering of local leaders at a fire station in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
The neighborhood was one of the worst hit by the recent fires, with rows of homes left in ashes. Trump participated in a walking tour of the area earlier in the day and also surveyed recovery efforts from a helicopter as firefighters in the Los Angeles area continued to confront multiple blazes amid high winds and dry conditions.
“I don’t think you can realize how rough it is, how devastating it is, until you see it,” Trump said after the tour.
The Palisades Fire is about 77% contained and has burned through nearly 9,500 hectares of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Trump has criticized California leaders for water policies that he says have exacerbated the recent wildfires. He said before traveling to California that he would “take a look at a fire that could have been put out if they let the water flow, but they didn’t let the water flow.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom has rejected the president’s assertion, and other state legislators have said the fierce wildfires placed extreme demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes.
Newsom greeted Trump as he arrived on the tarmac in Los Angeles on Friday. The two were cordial and shook hands.
“I have all the expectations we’re going to be able to work together,” Newsom said.
Trump responded: “We’re going to get it fixed.”
During the gathering with community leaders, Trump said that Los Angeles residents who lost homes should be allowed back onto their properties immediately, challenging Mayor Karen Bass to speed up the cleanup process.
“People are willing to get a dumpster and do it themselves and clean it up. There is not that much left, it is all incinerated,” Trump said.
Bass said, “the most important thing is for people to be safe,” but promised residents should be able to return home within the week.
Trump promised that federal permits to rebuild would be granted promptly and urged local officials to do the same.
Before visiting California, Trump first visited North Carolina, where he was briefed on monthslong recovery efforts of the damage caused by Hurricane Helene.
Speaking to reporters at Asheville Regional Airport, Trump said FEMA “has been a very big disappointment” and said he is considering “getting rid” of the agency.
FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency that has been responding to disasters in both California and North Carolina.
“It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow,” Trump said of the agency.
Trump continued to express dissatisfaction with FEMA while in California, calling it a “big disappointment.”
Trump, a Republican, has broached using federal disaster assistance as a bargaining chip during unrelated legislative negotiations over government borrowing, or as leverage to push California to alter its water policies.
“Playing politics with people’s livelihoods is unacceptable and a slap in the face to the southern California wildfire victims and to our brave first responders,” Representative Young Kim, a Republican from Orange County, south of Los Angeles, said in a recent statement.
Trump has also suggested putting more responsibility on individual states to respond to disasters.
“I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he said in a Wednesday interview with Fox News. “FEMA is getting in the way of everything.”
Michael A. Coen Jr., who served as chief of staff at FEMA during the Biden administration, said Trump has been “misinformed” about the agency, and he took exception to what he characterized as Trump’s inclination to play politics with disaster relief.
Ahead of Trump’s visit to southern California, firefighters continued to fight multiple fires in the Los Angeles region.
The second-largest fire, known as the Eaton Fire, is now 95% contained after burning through more than 5,600 hectares of land, according to Cal Fire.
The Hughes Fire in the mountains northwest of Los Angeles near Castaic Lake started Wednesday, prompting evacuation orders for more than 50,000 people. Health advisories for smoke and windblown dust and ash have been issued for surrounding areas.
“Smoke and ash can harm everyone, even those who are healthy,” Dr. Muntu Davis, Los Angeles County’s health officer, said in a statement.
Firefighters received help fighting the Hughes Fire overnight with aerial water drops from helicopters. The fire is now 56% contained and has burned more than 4,200 hectares of land, according to the Cal Fire.
The Laguna Fire in Ventura County initially prompted evacuation orders for California State University Channel Islands and University Glen, but the orders were downgraded to warnings Thursday afternoon.
That fire is 70% contained after charring nearly 40 hectares of land, according to Cal Fire.
The U.S. Storm Prediction Center said high winds, low humidity and dry conditions continued to cause “elevated” fire weather conditions on Friday.
There is a chance for some relief in the coming days. The National Weather Service said rain is expected in the area beginning Saturday.
Forecasters expect up to a centimeter of rain across much of the Los Angeles area, while localized thunderstorms could bring even more rain in limited locations. The potential for those storms has prompted concerns about the possibility of mudslides, with debris flowing down hilly areas that have been scorched by several weeks of wildfires.
The fires that broke out in southern California on Jan. 7 have killed at least 28 people and destroyed an estimated 16,000 buildings. The death toll is expected to climb as emergency workers comb through the ashes.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
A California man was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts and exploiting minors through online platforms.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as Edward “Eddie” Alessandro Zarate, 20, of Santa Maria.
On May 28, authorities began investigating Zarate over allegations that he was communicating with underage girls online and exchanging sexually explicit material with them.
Detectives later learned that Zarate allegedly communicated with minor victims through mobile phone apps such as Whipd, Purp, Wizz and Snapchat, along with exchanging text messages.
Zarate’s profiles appeared to portray him as a juvenile.
“Once he established communication with minors, he would often encourage them to move conversations off the platform and continue communicating via text message,” the sheriff’s department said. “During these conversations, Zarate would disclose his true age and identity.”
So far, authorities are aware of two female juveniles who have met with Zarate in person and reportedly engaged in lewd acts.
He is accused of communicating with minors in multiple states including California, Florida and Illinois. In California alone, detectives believe Zarate contacted minors from Los Angeles, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Paso Robles, Nipomo, Arroyo Grande and San Francisco.
“Based on the scope of the investigation, detectives believe there may be additional survivors who have not yet been identified,” authorities said.
On June 10, Zarate was arrested and booked on multiple felony charges including oral copulation with a person under 18 years of age, unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, sending harmful matter to a minor, and two counts of possession of obscene material depicting a minor.
Anyone who may be a victim, has communicated with Zarate online or through text or has information on the case is asked to call Sheriff’s Detectives at 805-681-4150. Anonymous tips can be provided to the SBSD’s tipline at 805-681-4171 or online at SBSheriff.org.
Top universities reject Trump’s ‘compact’ over academic freedom
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Southern California rejected Trump’s “compact.”
To the surprise of perhaps no Californians, several California universities appeared in the top rankings of the world’s best universities in the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings released on June 16.
Of the more than 2,250 worldwide research institutions that U.S. News & World Report evaluated for this list, six California universities ranked in the top 50 globally, with an even split among Northern and Southern California institutions.
The 2026 list includes universities from more than 100 countries, with the following countries receiving the most schools in the overall rankings:
- China: 409
- United States: 275
- India: 123
- United Kingdom: 93
- Japan: 86
Did your California alma mater appear among the top global universities?
U.S. News and World Report methodology
When determining a university’s placement on the list, U.S. News & World Report considered factors more relevant to research-oriented institutions than to undergraduate-focused metrics like bachelor’s degree graduation rates.
It focused on aspects like academic institutions’ research and reputation, number of publications, the quality of publications and citations. It considers other factors, including location, campus culture, the strength of particular programs, and cost, which are also very important.
“For students seeking universities with strong academic excellence and global recognition, the Best Global Universities rankings offer an essential comparative resource,” said LaMont Jones, Ed.D., managing editor for Education at U.S. News.
“Our methodology focuses on a school’s research mission and scholarly impact, helping students identify institutions that are truly at the forefront of global knowledge creation.”
Out of the top 10 global universities, two California institutions made the list:
- Harvard University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Stanford University
- University of Oxford
- University of Cambridge
- Tsinghua University
- University of California Berkeley
- Yale University
- University College London
- Columbia University
How did California colleges rank in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Global Universities 2026 list?
Outside of the top 10 universities, California saw a handful of other institutions rank highly on U.S. News & World Report list.
Notably, the University of California – Los Angeles just missed the top 10 list, ultimately ranking as the 11th-best global university and the second-best public institution on the list. It was beaten out as the best public institution by its academic counterpart, the University of California, Berkeley, which was ranked the 7th-best global university.
Additionally, a number of University of California schools made the top of the list, ultimately reaffirming the quality of the institutions’ public campuses across the state.
“Research from the University of California is vital to work that benefits all Americans, from breakthroughs in the treatment of Parkinson’s to the science behind previously unimagined successes in fighting cancer and the development of quantum computers that will enable the critical advances of the 21st century,” the University of California said in a press release about its rankings.
Here’s the list of California universities that made the top 100 list:
- 3. Stanford University
- 7. University of California Berkeley
- 11. University of California – Los Angeles
- 22. University of California – San Francisco
- 23. (Tied) California Institute of Technology
- 23. (Tied) University of California – San Diego
- 74. University of Southern California
- 95. University of California – Davis
- 99. University of California – Irvine
- 100. University of California – Santa Barbara
Noe Padilla is a Northern California Reporter for USA Today. Contact him at npadilla@usatodayco.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow us on Facebook at TODAY Californian.
The most significant seismic event in California’s history – an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude – occurred in 1857 and ruptured about 225 miles on the San Andreas Fault. That earthquake, dubbed the last “Big One,” killed two people and produced shaking that lasted between one and three minutes.
Since then, California has exploded in population and been has been rattled by many major earthquakes. But Californians have also grown familiar with the existential dread of another “Big One” looming.
Researchers have long warned there will be another massive earthquake in Southern California. They just don’t know when.
A recent study says warning signs continue to grow in 2026. The San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems have reached the highest stress levels seen in the past 1,000 years, according to a study conducted at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
The San Andreas fault runs throughout the state, passing through San Francisco and San Bernardino, while the San Jacinto fault is in Southern California and runs through Riverside, San Diego and Imperial Counties.
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Why the San Andreas Fault is so risky
Faults rupture on the San Andreas Fault approximately every 150 years, according to UCLA professor Jonathan Stewart, who studies earthquake engineering.
But it’s been over 300 years since the last “large rupture” occurred south of the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, Stewart said. “As far we know it didn’t produce a large rupture since around 1690. To the present that’s a lot more than 150 years, so there’s a lot of build-up. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen immediately, it just means there is more stress built-up.”
When the earthquake happens, it is likely to cause a lot of damage. One major concern is the state’s water systems.
“An earthquake like this would rupture most, if not all of the major aqueducts bringing water into Southern California,” Stewart said. “Most people will not be in a collapsed structure after this earthquake, but everybody’s going to be affected by water problems.”
Study highlights longstanding risk
To investigate the probability of an earthquake occurring, researchers built a physics-based simulation and fed it the earthquake history from the region. By doing so, they were able to estimate how much stress has built up along the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems.
The results suggest that catastrophe may be near.
“Right now, with stress at historically high levels across the region and more than 160 years elapsed since the last major rupture, the system is in a critically loaded state,” lead author Liliane Burkhard said.
Most importantly, the Cajon Pass, at the junction of the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, could facilitate a joint rupture of the two faults. This scenario, according to the study, would probably be “significantly more damaging” than a single-fault event.
How is earthquake safety considered?
Seismic hazard assessments are critical for the safety of the millions of residents in California’s densely-populated and earthquake-prone areas.
Seismic Hazard maps show the relative hazard associated with earthquakes using information on past faults, the behavior of seismic waves and the near-surface conditions of specific locations, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Larger values indicate a stronger level of earthquake shaking. A peak ground velocity of 269 cm/sec would correspond to extreme shaking and heavy damage. For reference, the largest ground velocity recorded in Taiwan’s 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake reached 318 cm/sec and had a magnitude of 6.7.
That earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and incurred approximately $14 billion in damage.
How do the fault lines rupture?
The San Andreas and San Jacinto faults are strike-slip faults, which typically cause horizontal displacement. Both faults comprise the geologic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate.
If a major earthquake occurs on the San Andreas fault, it is likely to produce surface rupture, which occurs when a fault breaks through to the surface. Most earthquakes, however, do not produce surface rupture, according to USGS.
In a major rupture, strong shaking could cause severe damage near the fault and in areas built on soft or water-saturated soils, which can amplify shaking. Rupture can directly offset roads, buildings, and other structures that span the fault trace.
Although the study helps explain the risk associated with the California fault lines, Burkhard emphasized that it shouldn’t serve as a forecast.
“This is not a prediction of when an earthquake will happen,” Burkhard said. “However, studies like this are important contributions to national and global earthquake hazard research in that we are using rigorous, quantitative science to better understand the risk facing millions of people.”
Contributing: Brandi D. Addison, USA TODAY NETWORK
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