1 California Pipeline Oil Spill Leaks Thousands Of Gallons Into The Pacific Ocean
An oil pipeline breach five miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, California dumped 3,000 barrels’ worth of oil into the Pacific Saturday morning. Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said yesterday “We’ve started to find dead birds and fish washing up on the shore,” and says the oil spill has had “significant impacts” on the wildlife in the Talbert Wetlands, saying it’s “completely destroyed.” The pipeline is owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy. The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Twitter that it’s sending investigators to the site to gather information about the breach. The oil sheen was first reported by Amplify Energy to the Coast Guard Saturday morning, but Foley said yesterday that “It’s probably been leaking longer than we know.” The spill is equal to around 126,000 of post-production crude; the Coast Guard says a total of 1,218 gallons of oily water mixture has been recovered from the spill in what they’re calling “a 24/7 operation” that will continue until officials “determine that the response to the crude oil spill is complete.”
2 Dr. Fauci Says Holiday Gathering COVID Safety Is Up In The Air
On “Face the Nation” yesterday, Chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said it was “just too soon to tell” if Americans would need to limit holiday gatherings this year due to the pandemic. Fauci said we should concentrate “to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months.” Last year the CDC recommended not traveling for Christmas due to the risk of spreading COVID-19. At the start of October 2020, the seven-day moving average of new cases was around 43,000 according to the CDC, while currently, the seven-day moving average is around 103,000. “Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down,” Fauci told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, adding “We can do it by people getting vaccinated” and by getting booster shots into the arms of people that are eligible.
3 Explosion Outside Kabul Mosque Kills Two
An explosion rocked central Kabul yesterday afternoon, killing two people and wounding at least four others. The blast went off around 3:30 p.m. outside the Eid Gah mosque during funerary prayers for the mother of a high-ranking Taliban official according to Qari Sayeed Khosti, a spokesman for the minister of interior. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion, but it follows a pattern of attacks carried out by the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan which has become more active since American troops left the country. The explosion was the first at a mosque in Kabul since the Taliban took control of the capital in August, and was the deadliest attack since an Islamic State suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 Afghan citizens during the evacuation of Kabul’s airport during the troop withdrawal.