USA ESTA Travel Pass News

While wildfires are spreading in various places due to the heatwave that has continued for a week in the Southwest, a tropical storm is developing in the Southeast, threatening residents.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on the 9th, the wildfire that broke out on the 5th in the Running Springs area of San Bernardino County, adjacent to the east of Los Angeles (LA), has continued for four days and is causing further damage.

As of 11 am on the same day, 21,203 acres (approximately 85.8㎢), about 19 times the size of Yeouido (4.5㎢), have burned. Currently, 1,708 firefighters are fighting on the scene, but the fire suppression rate is only about 3%. Authorities said the fire threatened 36,328 structures.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County, and federal assistance was provided to quickly deploy resources to respond to the fire. Authorities said the area’s vegetation remains “vegetation remains very dry,” and that “the hot, dry weather continues due to the heat wave, which could further fuel the fire in low-lying areas.”

Areas such as inland Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County are currently under heat advisories as temperatures have soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) for a week.

San Bernardino in particular saw the fire spread rapidly as highs soared above 40 degrees last Friday and over the weekend. The area is a mountainous area around Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake, tourist destinations in Southern California, and residents and tourists were evacuated as the fire spread last weekend.

A wildfire broke out in the Angeles National Forest in northeastern Los Angeles County the previous afternoon, burning 1,255 acres (5.1 km2) overnight. A fire broke out in the Clear Lake area, 117 km north of San Francisco, the previous afternoon, burning 76 acres (0.3 km2), burning 30 buildings and 40 vehicles. A large-scale wildfire also broke out in Washoe County, outside Reno, Nevada, bordering California, and Governor Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency the previous day. The area affected by the wildfire exceeded 26 km2, about 20,000 residents were evacuated, and about 6,000 households lost power.

The fire is also growing due to the hot, dry weather and strong winds, making it difficult for fire authorities to put it out. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Francine is developing and gaining strength over the Gulf of Mexico in the southeastern United States this morning.

Francine is expected to gradually move northward, approach the southern Gulf Coast of Texas, and then be upgraded to a hurricane and make landfall on the Louisiana coast in about two days. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued hurricane and tropical storm watches for the entire southeastern Louisiana region today.

As Francine brings strong winds, there is a high possibility of causing tidal waves in the coastal areas of southern Mississippi and southeastern Texas, including Louisiana, and flash flooding may occur in some areas, the NWS warned. CNN reported that the full-blown hurricane season appears to have begun in the southeastern United States, where storms were relatively quiet last month compared to the average year.

CNN meteorologists recently pointed out that the time it takes for tropical storms to become hurricanes is getting shorter as global warming increases water temperatures, which is fueling the development of low pressure.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, said on the 29th regarding in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment for infertile couples, “We will require the government to pay for all the costs of IVF treatment or your insurance company to pay.”

During a campaign rally in Porterville, Michigan, a northern battleground state, the former President said, “We are pro-family.” He said, “IVF is expensive and not easy for many people to get.” He added, “If you talk to them (Democrats), they’ll say I hate it, but the opposite is true. I’ve been for IVF from the beginning.” He also said, “We will allow new parents to deduct major expenses related to their newborns from their taxes.”

Former President Trump, who lives in Florida, hinted in an interview with NBC before his rally that day that he might vote against Florida’s abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy in the November election. Florida bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy by law, and a vote will be held in November to add the right to abortion to the state constitution to repeal the ban. In the interview, former President Trump said, “I think six weeks is too short. We need more time,” and “I will vote for more than six weeks.” Former President Trump has previously called Florida’s abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy a “terrible mistake.”

Former President Trump’s distancing himself from his party’s ultra-conservative voters on the issue of IVF and abortion is interpreted as a move to capture women and moderate voters who could have a major impact on the outcome of the swing state. Former President Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his presidency and played a role in the Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion rights rulings, but he is taking a low-key approach to the abortion issue in this election. He was initially expected to pledge to ban abortion nationwide, but he only expressed his position that “each state should decide.”

Meanwhile, former President Trump said regarding energy issues during his campaign on this day, “In order to rapidly reduce energy costs, I will declare a national emergency to dramatically increase energy production, generation, and supply,” and “On my first day in office, I will allow new drilling, new refineries, new power plants, and new nuclear reactors.” Regarding the issue of illegal immigration, he said, “Nobody wants them,” and “I will eliminate the deadly (illegal immigrant) sanctuary cities in Michigan and across the country.” Regarding the fact that he violated park regulations by taking photos and videos while holding a political event at Arlington National Park on the 26th, the third anniversary of the Kabul Airport bombing in Afghanistan, former President Trump emphasized that he visited the park at the request of the families of the victims of the terror attack and took photos at their request. He then expressed his discomfort, saying, “They are criticizing me for taking pictures with my family in front of a cemetery.”

In addition, regarding President Joe Biden’s stay at a beach house in Delaware, he said, “He came back from California and should have gone to the White House, but he went to Delaware,” and “He’s lying on the beach and sleeping all day.” He continued, “Who wants to sleep in a public place?” and said, “Do you think Xi Jinping would sleep on the beach? Do you think Kim Jong-un of North Korea, which has nuclear weapons everywhere, would sleep? They don’t sleep that much.”

The number of people who have died from food poisoning after eating contaminated deli meat manufactured in Virginia has increased to 9, and the number of patients is expected to increase.

According to an announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the 28th of last month, since the listeria alert was issued for processed meat products from Boar’s Head in July, at least 9 people have died from food poisoning in 18 states across the U.S. and at least 57 patients have been treated in hospitals.

Boar’s Head’s Virginia manufacturing plant is in Jarratt, a small town about 58 miles south of Richmond, and the products made there were found to have been manufactured in unsanitary conditions that did not meet the standards of the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The factory in question was found to have continued to produce products without any improvements made to the violations, with a total of 69 violations detected over a period of approximately one year from August 1st of last year to July 27th.

According to the data, investigators who visited the site found the following violations inside the factory: Discolored chunks of meat found; Large pieces of meat scattered on the floor and meat flesh stuck to the walls; Black mold growing on the ceiling; Meat blood pooling on the floor; Foul odors coming from the cooler.

Listeria bacteria can multiply on floors, walls, drains, cracks, and parts of food processing equipment that are difficult to clean.

This food poisoning incident is the largest in the United States in 13 years, and the factory in question will reportedly be closed until it is proven that it can manufacture products normally.

The headquarters relocation of X (formerly Twitter), a social media (SNS) owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is in the final stages.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 25th, X plans to complete the relocation of its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, Texas within the next few weeks.

The last employees remaining in the San Francisco headquarters will move to offices in Palo Alto and San Jose in the Silicon Valley area. This is the first time in 18 years since the company was founded in San Francisco in 2006.

The relocation of X’s headquarters has been in progress since Musk announced on his X account on the 16th of last month that he would move X’s headquarters along with his space company SpaceX.

At the time, Musk cited the ‘AB1955’ law related to LGBT students signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom as the reason for the headquarters relocation.

David Chu, the city’s legal director who supported Twitter’s tax incentives at the time, said, “I agree with the people of San Francisco,” and “(the X move) was a good decision.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed also said she had met Musk once a few months ago and exchanged texts with him but did not ask X to stay.

The reason the city of San Francisco is not trying to stop X from moving its headquarters is because Twitter, which has changed to X, has changed its status significantly since a decade ago.

At the time, Twitter was expected to create thousands of jobs and revitalize the stagnant local economy near the city center.

In fact, Twitter became a symbol of San Francisco, growing from a few hundred employees to over 7,000.

However, since COVID-19, many employees have been working from home, and the building has become empty, and Twitter’s status has shrunk, especially since Musk acquired it in October 2022.

About two-thirds of the total employees have left the company due to layoffs and other reasons, and sales have decreased significantly, so it has not had much of a positive impact on the area.

“X is already so small that it wouldn’t be a huge deal for the city’s finances,” said Ted Egan, the city’s chief economist. “(X) has already become irrelevant in many ways.”

The Hawaii Korean Association held a traditional Korean art, Minhwa workshop from July 16 to 19, and had a time to introduce the colors and culture of traditional Korean painting styles.

On this day, Korean folk painting experts Lee Jeong-rim and Kim Kyung-joo were invited as instructors to introduce the world of traditional Korean folk painting to residents and compatriots.

Korean folk painting, which developed in the late Joseon Dynasty, depicts auspicious symbols such as peonies, peaches, ten longevity symbols, and stones, which are used by people from the royal family to the common people, in vivid colors using bunchae and bongchae on sunji, a type of Korean paper.

Artist Lee Jeong-rim said that the love of the Korean Wave among people around the world is now spreading to K-art, and that interest in folk painting is increasing among Koreans as well as people around the world. She expressed her joy at introducing folk painting to residents and the compatriot community in Hawaii, the ancestral home of Korean immigrants to the Americas.

Artist Kim Kyung-joo said, “Minhwa started as a court painting in the late Joseon Dynasty and became popular among the common people. The auspicious meaning of each painting’s subject matter has recently led to the growing interest in Minhwa among modern people, as it has been applied to various items such as decorations for living spaces, fashion, and daily necessities.”

Hawaii Korean Association Holds Minhwa Workshop Successfully

This workshop was attended by students majoring in art at the University of Hawaii with their instructors, and the participants’ response exceeded expectations, raising expectations for continued Minhwa classes.

Former President Donald Trump, who has been criticized for his excessive personal attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and his own goals, has focused his attacks on economic issues, unlike usual. It seems that he has listened to some of the Republican Party’s urging to focus his campaign message on policy, as his characteristically foul language and cross-the-line slander have had the opposite effect rather than dampening Vice President Harris’s recent rise.

In a campaign speech held in Asheville, North Carolina on the 14th, former President Trump devoted a significant portion of his speech to criticizing the issue of inflation and the economic policies of the Biden-Harris administration. Prices and the economy are the most important issues that voters consider to be the biggest weaknesses of the current administration, but former President Trump has not focused on them so far. Before starting his full-fledged speech, former President Trump told the audience that this campaign would be an “intellectual speech” that would deal with the economy, unlike usual, and that “we are all intellectuals today.” He repeatedly stated, “They say this is the most important topic. I’m not sure, but they say this is the most important.”

Recently, key figures in the Republican Party have been urging former President Trump to refrain from personal attacks that only cause negative controversy and to focus on policies that the Republican Party is in favor of, such as the economy and border issues. This was a criticism that came out when former President Trump, who was comfortably ahead when President Biden was a presidential candidate, made unreasonable personal attacks targeting Vice President Harris’s racial identity and other issues, and showed a lack of direction by obsessing over the size of campaigns that were unrelated to the situation.

On this day, former President Trump explained his plans to lower prices. He announced that on his first day in office, he would sign an executive order instructing all Cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies to use all available authority to lower prices. He also promised to develop America’s oil and gas resources and cut energy costs, including electricity rates, by more than half. He claimed that Vice President Harris would ban fracking, a method of drilling for shale gas and abandon oil and gas energy, and said, “She can’t win Pennsylvania.”

Vice President Harris had promised to ban fracking, a controversial shale gas drilling technique that causes environmental destruction, during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but withdrew it during this election. In Pennsylvania, which relies on the natural gas industry for its economy, whether to allow fracking is a sensitive issue. Former President Trump criticized Vice President Harris for not controlling prices for the past three and a half years, saying, “Her desk is ten steps from the Oval Office.”

He attacked Vice President Harris for copying his promise to eliminate tipping taxes, saying that Vice President Harris’s economic plan, which will be released on the 16th, “will be a copy of my plan.” Former President Trump also said during his campaign speech that day that he would impose “tariffs of 10% to 20%” on foreign countries. In previous media interviews, he had said that he would impose a 10% tariff on goods imported from all countries, but this time he mentioned up to 20%.

Although he focused on economic issues for once, he was unable to completely refrain from personal attacks. Former President Trump even mocked the way Vice President Harris laughs, saying, “That’s a crazy person’s laugh. She’s crazy.” He also repeatedly criticized Vice President Harris while discussing the economy, claiming that the reason Vice President Harris hasn’t done a media interview since her candidacy is “because she’s not smart.”

Following home insurance, auto insurance premiums are also expected to skyrocket. This year, auto insurance premiums are expected to skyrocket by 54 percent compared to last year. It is predicted that skyrocketing auto insurance premiums will continue to rise this year, skyrocketing by a whopping 54 percent compared to last year. This is the result of the policy pricing report of insurance company Insu pay. The company analyzed the premiums of beneficiaries with deductibles of $1,000 and no accidents for two years and came up with this forecast.

California is expected to see the third-largest premium increase in the country this year. The region with the largest expected increase in auto insurance premiums is Minnesota, with a 61 percent increase. Missouri is next with a 55 percent increase.

Following California, Maryland recorded the fourth-largest premium increase in the country with a 41 percent increase. On the other hand, New York and New Hampshire had the lowest auto insurance premium increases in the country at 4 percent, followed by Maine at 6 percent and Michigan at 8 percent. California’s auto insurance premiums were $1,741 last year, lower than the national average of $2,024. However, if the forecast goes as planned, car insurance premiums in California this year will be $2,681, higher than the national average of $2,460.

The states predicted to have the highest premiums are Maryland at $3,748, South Carolina at $3,687, Nevada at $3,531, New York at $3,484, Florida at $3,444, and Texas at $2,915. The companies claim that the reasons for the premium increases are due to careless driving habits, damage caused by natural disasters, and many claims related to repair costs for newer vehicles. They also added that California had been prohibited from raising premiums during the coronavirus pandemic, and that is why California auto insurance premiums have been increasing sharply since last year.

According to the insurance company in town, in the case of Southern California, theft, car-related incidents and accidents are constantly occurring, and in the case of new cars, it is difficult to procure repair parts when they are damaged, so the insurance premium increase is inevitable.

“Insurance companies used to help beneficiaries who needed rental cars during the repair period at low prices, but now they have no choice but to raise the prices.” They added that the cheapest car insurance starts at $200 per month, which is not enough for insurance companies to resolve the beneficiaries’ accident claims. “Insurance premiums are cheaper the more driving experience you have, but it is not the case that insurance premiums are getting cheaper at the moment.” “There is no prospect of the skyrocketing car insurance premiums falling.”

For young people who have just graduated from college and are looking for jobs in the LA area, the skyrocketing apartment rents, car prices, and skyrocketing car insurance premiums are making it financially burdensome to rent an apartment and drive a car in LA.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, on the 11th after she pledged to exempt tips from taxes, saying, “She has no ideas, she can only steal my ideas.”

In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, the former President said, “Harris, who is struggling in the polls after her honeymoon (with the media, etc.), copied my ‘no tax on tips’ policy.” He said, “The difference (with me) is that she won’t implement it (tax exemption on tips),” and “Remember, Harris proposed the largest tax increase in history.” The Trump presidential campaign also released a statement that day, criticizing that “copycat Harris plagiarized former President Trump’s tip exemption policy.” They continued, “This case contradicts the radical Biden-Harris administration’s desire to collect more taxes on tips,” and argued that “the Biden administration implemented a new program through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last year to collect more taxes on tips.” They then asked, “If you want to eliminate the tip tax, why don’t you do it now as part of this administration?”

Former President Trump previously pledged to “eliminate tips” during a campaign rally in Nevada in June. Vice President Harris also proposed the same policy as a campaign pledge during a campaign rally in Nevada the day before. Nevada, a southern battleground state, is home to cities such as Las Vegas and is an important place for service industry voters.

The tip tax exemption policy is a priority for Nevada’s influential Culinary Workers Union, the New York Times reported. However, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a bipartisan organization, said in June that if the tip tax exemption is implemented, government revenue could decrease by $150 billion to $250 billion over 10 years starting in fiscal year 2026.

If the tax exemption policy is implemented, the amount included in nontaxable tips by employers and employees instead of taxable wages could increase the decrease in government revenue, the CRFB said.

In relation to this, the Harris presidential campaign said on this day, “If Vice President Harris is elected, she will work with Congress to create a (policy) proposal with an income limit,” and “she will also prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their wages in a way that exploits this policy.”

President Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, will speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. NBC reported on the 11th, citing a source familiar with the Democratic convention plans, that several prominent Democratic figures will speak at the convention, which will be held as a launching ceremony for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, will also speak, and former President Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 on October 1 of this year, will be unable to attend due to health issues, so his grandson Jason Carter will speak in his stead, NBC reported.

Previously, Vice President Harris, who had been pressured to withdraw her candidacy due to the controversy over “age risk,” ran for president with the support of President Biden after he withdrew from the presidential candidacy on the 21st of last month. She was officially elected as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the delegate roll call vote held from the 1st to the 5th and is scheduled to give an acceptance speech for the presidential nomination at this convention.

Vice President Harris nominated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and vice-presidential candidate, and they have been campaigning together since the 6th.

Due to concerns about an economic downturn, the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is continuing its downward trend. According to the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase on the 4th, at 3:31 PM Eastern Time (1:31 PM Pacific Time), the price of one Bitcoin was trading at $59,286, down 2.07% from 24 hours ago.

At one point on this day, Bitcoin plummeted to $57,100, threatening the $57,000 mark. Bitcoin has fallen by about 15% over the past six days since touching the $70,000 mark on the 29th of last month, returning to the level before the ‘Trump effect’.

Bitcoin had been trading below the $60,000 mark but has been rising sharply since the 13th of last month. After former President Donald Trump, who pledged to become a “pro-Bitcoin president” who actively fosters the virtual currency industry, was ‘shot’, expectations for his victory in the November presidential election have grown, and Bitcoin has also begun to rise, reaching the $70,000 mark.

Meanwhile, at the same time on the same day, the price of Ethereum, the second largest market cap, plummeted by 5.35% to $2,756. This is the lowest level since February. Following Bitcoin, Ethereum began trading in physical exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US on the 23rd of last month, but amid the virtual currency slump, the decline has been greater than that of Bitcoin.

The weakness of cryptocurrencies is interpreted because of the weakening investment sentiment toward risky assets amid growing concerns about an economic downturn due to worsening economic indicators, such as the US unemployment rate hitting its highest level in about three years in July.

Other reasons for the decline include heightened geopolitical instability in the Middle East and increased supply due to the redemption of Bitcoin by Mt. Gox, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange that went bankrupt 10 years ago. CoinDesk, a specialized coin media outlet, reported that “some investors are warning that Bitcoin could fall to the $55,000 level due to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the weakening sentiment toward risky assets such as technology stocks.”