Afternoon Briefing: What Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done as health secretary
Good afternoon, Chicago.
A fourth person has died after a suspicious fire erupted at an apartment building in the Austin neighborhood yesterday morning, the Chicago Fire Department said today.
The body of the fourth victim, who hasn't been identified, was recovered Friday among the rubble at the building in the 5200 block of West North Avenue, according to Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford. Three others — two adults and one child — also died in the blaze that broke out shortly before 2 a.m.
Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit chicagotribune.com/latest-headlines and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices.
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Yesterday evening marked Stray Kids' Wrigley Field debut, as well as the stadium's first time hosting a K-pop group in its history. Fans from across the Midwest gathered in Chicago for the group's 12th and final U.S. show in its 2024-25 'dominATE' world tour. Read more here.
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Global shares were mostly higher today as the week was winding down with the Israel-Iran ceasefire still in place and signs of progress on a China-U.S. trade deal. Read more here.
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The Cubs (48-33) and White Sox (25-66) have officially passed the halfway point of the season. Here's a guide for the next 81 games for both teams, including key series and a list of each ballpark's theme nights. Read more here.
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History is not just a study of the past, but a conversation between where we've been, where we're at and where we're going. And no record label understands it as intimately as Numero Group. Read more here.
More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories:
The Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy has taken unprecedented steps to change how vaccines are evaluated, approved and recommended — sometimes in ways that run counter to established scientific consensus. Read more here.
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Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Notorious Iranian prison boss flees minutes before Israeli airstrikes after secret warning
EXCLUSIVE – The notorious director of Tehran's brutal Evin Prison, Hedayatollah Farzadi, escaped the compound ahead of Israeli strikes following threats to his life – and an alleged exchange between Jerusalem and his adult son. Israeli authorities reportedly contacted Amir Husseini Farzadi, telling him that if he convinced his father to release political prisoners, his life would be spared in the impending attack. According to a series of WhatsApp messages shared with Fox News Digital by an Israeli intel source, an agent instructed Amir to tell his father to open the prison's doors, warning that an attack would occur within "a few minutes." Amir asked whether something had already happened to his father, and the Israeli agent replied that it wouldn't – if he passed the message along. The source told Fox News Digitial that after receiving the message, Amir contacted his uncle, who then drove to the prison to get his father, Farzadi. The two were seen speeding away from the area moments before the airstrikes began. Farzadi has not been heard from since, according to the source. Farzadi, who has been the director of Evin Prison since 2022, has been accused of committing egregious human rights violations, including the torture and murder of inmates, many of whom are political dissidents. Allegations against him include beatings, starvation, sexual violence against female prisoners and murder. He has been sanctioned by both the U.S. and the European Union. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated Farzadi under the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, which prohibits U.S. entities and individuals from dealing with him. "Numerous protesters have been sent to Evin Prison during the latest round of protests where they have been subjected to torture and other forms of physical abuse," the Treasury Department wrote in a statement. Prior to his time at Evin Prison, Farzadi spent 10 years working at Dizel Abad Prison, where he "was known to organize public amputations of criminals convicted of petty crimes," the Treasury Department wrote. The department also noted that during his time as director of the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, also known as Fashafouyeh Prison, Farzadi "oversaw the torture and maltreatment" of inmates. In its April 2025 announcement of sanctions against Ferzadi, as well as other entities and individuals, the EU condemned "the use of the judiciary as a tool for arbitrary detention" in Iran. The EU also noted that Iran saw a "dramatic increase in the number of executions" in 2024, which included women, minorities and European citizens. However, the EU did not specify how many of those executed were political dissidents. "Freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of religion or belief, as well as freedom of assembly have been increasingly restricted, and threatening measures have been taken against human rights defenders, journalists and political dissidents," the EU wrote.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Flaw in Edison's equipment in Sylmar sparked two major wildfires in last six years, lawyers say
Southern California Edison's admission that its equipment may have ignited the Hurst fire in the San Fernando Valley on Jan. 7 is being seized on by lawyers suing the utility company for another fire in the same area nearly six years earlier. Both the Saddleridge fire in 2019 and the Hurst fire this year started beneath an Edison high-voltage transmission line in Sylmar. The lawyers say faulty equipment on the line ignited both blazes in the same way. 'The evidence will show that five separate fires ignited at five separate SCE transmission tower bases in the same exact manner as the fire that started the Saddleridge fire,' the lawyers wrote of the Hurst fire in a June 9 filing in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawyers said the January wildfire is 'further evidence' that a transmission pylon known as Tower 2-5 'is improperly grounded.' Edison told the state Public Utilities Commission in February that 'absent additional evidence, SCE believes its equipment may be associated with the ignition of the Hurst Fire.' But the company denies claims that its equipment sparked the 2019 fire, which tore through Sylmar, Porter Ranch and Granada Hills — all suburbs of Los Angeles — burning 8,799 acres. 'We will continue to focus on facts and evidence — not on preposterous and sensational theories that only serve to harm the real victims,' said Edison spokesman David Eisenhauer. He declined further comment on the case. The Saddleridge wildfire destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes and other structures, according to Cal Fire, and caused at least one death when resident Aiman El Sabbagh suffered a cardiac arrest. Edison is being sued by insurance companies, including State Farm and USAA, to recoup the cost of damages paid to their policyholders. Homeowners and other victims are also seeking damages. A jury trial for the consolidated cases is set for Nov. 4. In their June 9 filing, the plaintiffs' lawyers also claimed Edison wasn't transparent with officials looking into the cause of the 2019 fire. One fire official characterized the utility's action as 'deceptive,' the filing said. Edison discovered a fault on its system at 8:57 p.m. — just three minutes before the blaze at the base of its transmission tower was reported to the Fire Department by Sylmar resident Robert Delgado, according to the court filing. But Edison didn't tell the Los Angeles city Fire Department about the fault it recorded, the filing said. Instead the fire department's investigation team discovered the failure on Edison's transmission lines through dash cam footage recorded by a motorist driving on the 210 Freeway nearby, the filing said. When Timothy Halloran, a city Fire Department investigator, went to the location of the flash shown on the motorist's camera, he found 'evidence of a failure on SCE's equipment,' the filing said. Halloran said in a deposition that employees of the business located where the evidence was found told him that Edison employees 'attempted to purchase' footage from the company's security camera on the night of the fire, the filing said. 'The video footage shows a large flash emanating from the direction of SCE Transmission Tower 5-2,' the filing said. Halloran testified in his deposition that he believed Edison was trying to be 'deceptive' for attempting to purchase the security camera footage and not reporting the system fault to the Fire Department, the lawyers said. Halloran didn't respond to requests for comment. Edison's maintenance of its transmission lines is now being scrutinized as it faces dozens of lawsuits from victims of the devastating Eaton fire, which also ignited on Jan. 7. Videos showed that fire, which killed 18 people and destroyed thousands of homes, starting under a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon. The investigation into the cause of the fire is continuing. Victims of the 2019 fire say they've become disheartened as Edison has repeatedly asked for delays in the court case. 'Many plaintiffs have not yet been able to rebuild their homes' because of the delays, wrote Mara Burnett, a lawyer representing the family of the man who died. Burnett noted that Aiman El Sabbagh was 54 when he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest during the incident. His children, Tala and Adnan El Sabbagh, 'feel they were robbed of things they treasured and worked hard for with no apparent recompense in sight.' Both the Saddleridge and Hurst fires included a similar chain of events where a failure of equipment on one tower resulted in two or more fires igniting under different towers elsewhere on the line, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs. Edison designed and constructed the towers that run through Sylmar in 1970. They hold up two transmission lines: the Gould-Sylmar 220 kV circuit and the Eagle Rock-Sylmar 220 kV circuit. In the case of the Saddleridge fire, investigators from the Los Angeles Fire Department and the California Public Utilities Commission found that at 8:57 pm on Oct. 10, 2019, a Y-shaped steel part holding up a transmission line failed, causing the line to fall on a steel arm. The failure caused a massive electrical fault, lawyers for the plaintiffs say, that sparked fires at two transmission towers that were more than two miles away. State and city fire investigators say the Saddleridge fire began under one of those towers. And they found unusual burning at the footing of the other tower, according to a report by an investigator at the utilities commission. The utilities commission investigator said in the report that he found that Edison had violated five state regulations by not properly maintaining or designing its transmission equipment. This year's Hurst fire ignited not far away on Jan. 7 at 10:10 p.m. It also began under one of Edison's transmission towers. According to Edison's Feb. 6 report to the utilities commission, the company found that its hardware failed, resulting in equipment falling to the ground at the base of a tower. The lawyers for the plaintiffs say that they now have more evidence of the fire's start. They say that investigators found that the hardware failure set off an event — similar to the 2019 fire — that resulted in five fires at five separate transmission tower bases on the same line. One of those fires spread in high winds to become the Hurst fire. Officials ordered 44,000 people to evacuate. Air tankers and 300 firefighters contained the fire before it reached any homes.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
After Israeli Attacks, Iran Hunts Enemies From Within
Ever since Israel's attack, the Iranian authorities have asked citizens to alert them to anyone carrying bags, wearing sunglasses at night or even donning hats — an uncommon accessory in Iran. They have urged the public to report stolen license plates, pickup trucks with covered beds, or vans traveling at odd hours. All of these, they warn, could be the telltale signs of enemies operating from within. Reeling from the scope and scale of the Israeli strikes this month, Iran is conducting an intensive manhunt for suspected infiltrators and spies, and enlisting the public in the campaign. As authorities have swept up hundreds of people, the government has sped up trials and executions of alleged spies, and fast-tracked a law to broaden the use of the death penalty for anyone convicted of espionage. Given the scale of the arrest campaign even after this past week's cease-fire, some in Iran fear this could become another crackdown on political opponents by a government with a long history of repressing dissent. 'Like a wounded animal, the Islamic Republic is going after every perceived threat in the country with deadly force,' Hadi Ghaemi, the director for the Center for Human Rights in Iran, said in a statement on Thursday. Iranian officials are not simply paranoid. Israel has a history of successfully infiltrating Iran to gather intelligence and carry out assassinations and sabotage. Officials on both sides say that in the recent war, Israel flaunted its ability to build networks and launch widespread attacks from within Iran. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
