California

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook said it will ban groups that openly support QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that paints President Donald Trump as a secret warrior against a supposed child-trafficking ring run by celebrities and “deep state” government officials.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The staggering scale of California’s wildfires reached another milestone Monday: A single fire surpassed 1 million acres.

The new mark for the August Complex in the Coast Range between San Francisco and the Oregon border came a day after the total area of land burned by California wildfires this year passed 4 million acres, more than double the previous record.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the amount of land scorched by the August Complex is larger than all of the recorded fires in California between 1932 and 1999.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a year that has already brought apocalyptic skies and smothering smoke to the West Coast, California set a grim new record Sunday when officials announced that the wildfires of 2020 have now scorched a record 4 million acres — in a fire season that is far from over.

The unprecedented figure — an area larger than the state of Connecticut — is more than double the previous record for the most land burned in a single year in California.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” went political with a parody of this week’s presidential debate, Chris Rock’s jab at President Donald Trump and Megan Thee Stallion’s message supporting Black people during her performance.

The NBC late-night sketch series on Saturday night jumped into the reenactment of the recent debate between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The series opened its 46th season, returning to the studio this week after the coronavirus pandemic halted production.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvey Weinstein was charged Friday with the rapes of two more women and now faces 11 sexual assault counts involving five women in California as the former movie mogul serves prison time in New York, prosecutors said.

Weinstein was charged with three new counts of rape and three new counts of forcible oral copulation involving two women, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California is poised to hit a fearsome milestone: 4 million acres burned this year by wildfires that have killed 30 people and incinerated hundreds of homes in what is already the worst fire season on record.

Flames have scorched an area larger than Connecticut and fire crews at a blaze in the northern wine country were on high alert as forecasters warned of red flag conditions of extreme fire danger into Saturday morning.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors charged a 36-year-old man Wednesday with a brazen ambush of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies earlier this month, an apparently unprovoked shooting as they sat in a squad car outside a rail station.

The deputies suffered head wounds in the Sept. 12 attack and have since been released from the hospital. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said their recoveries will be a long process and include further reconstructive surgeries.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Donald Trump appears to be ignoring a deadline to establish how many refugees will be allowed into the United States next year, raising uncertainty about the future of the 40-year-old resettlement program that has been dwindling under his administration.

The 1980 Refugee Act requires presidents to issue their determination before Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year. With only hours to go Wednesday, the Trump administration had not scheduled consultations with Congress that are required before setting the annual figure.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Nikki and Kevin Conant returned to their home in Northern California wine country Wednesday to find only the charred remains of their home and burned pieces of the wine barrels they used to repurpose into custom-made art and furniture.

“It was like a part of me is gone, burned up in the fire. Everything we built here, everything we made here is gone,” Nikki Conant said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it would start replacing the direct messaging service within Instagram with a version of its Messenger app, the first major step in its plan to tie together messaging across its suite of apps.

The move enables users of each service to find, message and hold video calls with contacts on the other without needing to download both apps.