Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted the sentences of 548 condemned California prisoners, described as the nation's largest act of mass clemency, in a state that has not executed anyone since 2006. District attorneys in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties say they will keep seeking death sentences, while a pending case alleging racial bias could halt them.
A CalMatters investigation found that the California DMV did not suspend or revoke licenses for unsafe commercial drivers, including some after they killed someone; nearly half retained valid licenses after vehicular manslaughter charges. The report centers on Jenny Chow, who died in 2022 when a speeding semitruck struck her family's SUV near Fresno.
The FBI says North Korean state-sponsored hackers stole over $400 million in cryptocurrency via fake video calls, with more than 900 victims in 18 months. Authorities say imposter Zoom, Teams and Google Meet links installed malware; the account follows a $6.3bn Binance hack attributed to North Korea-linked actors, which Pyongyang denies.
Robert Pattinson has reportedly become the frontrunner to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond, according to Puck's Matthew Belloni. Belloni reports that Pattinson's test deal covered three films and a larger unspecified fee than other shortlisted actors, who were asked to commit to four.
Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly described CFO Colette Kress, who is now interim chief executive, as "a deer in the headlights" in a summer presentation, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an anonymous source. Huang resigned Thursday after reports of extramarital affairs, and Nvidia is searching for a permanent CEO while investigating a possible Chinese espionage plot.
The Navy recently removed several senior officers without its usual public announcements, prompting two Democratic lawmakers to complain that Congress was not informed. Reps. Joe Courtney and Adam Smith said the USS South Dakota submarine's leadership was dismissed after a seabed collision.
Eight people, including two children, died after a three-story apartment building in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood collapsed into an excavation site, with 18 others injured. New York City officials ended search and rescue operations Thursday and are investigating the developer, whose site records show earlier safety violations.
Amy Pope, the U.N. migration agency's director general, warned at COP31 in Antalya that without action climate change could displace more than 200 million people. She said adaptation estimated at about $310 billion has drawn only roughly $30 billion, while nearly 30 million were displaced in 2025.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was frustrated that the Commerce Department had delayed adding Megaspeed to an export control list, noting that President Trump wanted China barred from receiving Nvidia chips above H100s. The public rebuke came as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick faced scrutiny over Nvidia ties, according to a New York Times report.
Democrats including Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico are floating proposals designed to draw President Trump into bipartisan deals, such as universal healthcare marketed as “TrumpCare” and honors comparing him to Lyndon B. Johnson. The AP reports Trump says he is willing to negotiate on healthcare and drug prices, though his selection of Stephen Miller as chief of staff may hinder cooperation.
A study led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists, drawing on over 30 years of atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide measurements, finds the ocean's carbon uptake has grown since 1990 while the net land sink has not. Land ecosystems showed no notable long-term growth and have generally declined since peaking in the decade centered on 2009, a result the authors say conflicts with many land-carbon models used for climate projections.
A global synthesis of nitrogen-addition experiments in forests and grasslands found soil respiration is stimulated in the short term and then suppressed over time, with the decline slowing. High-rate additions reduced respiration by roughly 11%, while low-rate additions had no significant overall effect.
The FAA grounded all U.S. flights Friday afternoon, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety after communication problems affected multiple air route traffic control centers. It attributed the disruption to an equipment outage, said inbound international flights would be handled case by case, and the Homeland Security secretary reported no indication yet of a nefarious act.
Eight people, including two children, died when a Brooklyn apartment building collapsed beside a construction site, and survivors and community leaders met Friday to demand answers. New York officials said they are investigating the cause and ordered inspections at more than 160 sites tied to six entities linked to the adjacent project.
After learning that a man accused of killing a Brooklyn jogger had worked as a paraprofessional despite documented mental health concerns, New York City's education department said it will examine how it hires staff. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the Law Department will carry out an independent review and make recommendations.
A tanker collided with a New Orleans river cruise boat carrying 129 passengers on Friday, partially submerging the vessel on the Mississippi River. Rescue operations were underway, and authorities had not immediately said whether anyone was injured or killed.
Democrat Eileen Laubacher, a former Navy rear admiral, unseated three-term Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado's 4th Congressional District race. Boebert, a prominent conservative media figure, acknowledged broad Republican losses and said the party had collectively failed in this Congress.
A federal appeals court ruled that the Transportation Department acted arbitrarily and contrary to law in withholding nearly $74 million in highway funds from New York over its refusal to revoke about 33,000 immigrant commercial driver's licenses. The court found the state could not be faulted for not canceling licenses when federal cancellation rules were not yet in place.
After a Brooklyn building collapse killed eight people and injured 18, three structural engineers who reviewed city-approved excavation plans said they were surprised the adjacent structure lacked extra bracing. Buildings officials defended the design as standard practice, and the city expanded its investigation.
The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for U.S. airports on Friday, citing a communication issue affecting air route traffic control centers, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports advised travelers to confirm flight status with their airlines.
Microsoft said access to Microsoft 365 services such as Outlook, Teams and Copilot 365 was recovering gradually after a broad outage disrupted organizations worldwide. The company said the incident stemmed from a network capacity upgrade issue rather than a cyberattack, had addressed the underlying problem and planned a full post-incident report.
A U.S.-wide flight ground stop attributed by the FAA to a temporary telecommunications outage is causing delays to U.S.-bound and some international departures at Vancouver International Airport. The airport advises travellers to check flight status with their airline.
Germany’s Bundestag approved a broad intelligence overhaul that lets the BND conduct cyber operations abroad and the BfV disrupt data traffic domestically. The law also permits AI dataset analysis and biometric matching, with oversight by an expanded Independent Control Council.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Nvidia should be held accountable for AI chips that may have reached China and questioned whether the company vetted its customers. Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer that bought more than $4bn of chips, has denied diverting them, and Nvidia says it banned sales to the firm in June 2025.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined at a Friday news conference to endorse Sen. Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, saying voters sought change. Sen. Chris Van Hollen has announced he will challenge Schumer for the post, and Schumer says he has the votes to remain leader.
