Broken water main spawns sinkhole in Los Feliz, traps Spectrum van

Staff Writer Oct. 19, 2026 12:50 PM PT As fires and high tides batter Malibu, Nicolas Cage is working to rescue his oceanfront home from a different threat: a sinkhole. The actor has secured four permits to repair damage caused by a massive, expanding sinkhole the opened up Sept. 8 outside his home on Sea Level Drive, city records show. The repair work calls for excavation to retrieve a soil sample, as well as debris removal and sandbags to protect the property from strong waves and coastal erosion. The permits, which cost $3,158 in total, were four of 14 granted to Sea Level Drive residents over the last two months as neighbors try to prevent further damage after high tides and rain from Tropical Storm Marie. After the 25-foot-deep hole swallowed Cage’s driveway, the city of Malibu red-tagged 31 homes on the street, forcing evacuations since the damage blocks the only route in and out of the beach side neighborhood. It’s unclear when those evacuation orders will be lifted. It might be a while. According to Malibu.fm, the original contractor handling the repairs was terminated, and a new contractor came on board in early October.

PARIS (AP) — Paris returned to calm on Tuesday after its first quiet night since a weekend marred by France’s most destructive rioting in years, as authorities imposed curfews in several cities in an effort to prevent another round of rioting and looting. At least 2,400 people were arrested after rioters in cities across France on Saturday clashed with police, set cars on fire, stormed public buildings and engulfed a historic city hall in flames, during nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. On Sunday evening, small groups set fire to trash bins, bicycles and other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities. In the capital, a curfew ran from 11 p.m. on Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, and a police helicopter circled over Place de la République overnight, a central point in the weekend clashes, sweeping the square with a searchlight to check that the order was being respected.

The Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable informs the public that Highway 25, including the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, will be closed toward Montreal during this weekend.…

Seven years ago, in the pages of The New Yorker, Haruki Murakami published an essay so odd, so vulnerable, so personal that it burrowed into my psyche and changed the way I view a favorite author forever. That essay, “Abandoning a Cat,” has since been expanded into a slim, small, beautiful hardcover book that will appear in the U. S. this month. If you’re considering buying the book for a cat lover in your life, however, think again. An anecdote involving a cat that Murakami and his father abandoned is merely a portal onto a painful and perplexing history: personal, familial, cultural, national, and ultimately universal. The story that emerges is quietly devastating, all the more powerful for the restraint and epistemological humility with which Murakami presents it. “Abandoning a Cat” begins with deceptively casual ease: “Of course I have lots of memories of my father. It’s only natural.” Soon, however, the potentially comforting abundance of memory turns cold comfort: these visions of the past are often fragmentary, lack context, or impossible to interpret. The memory of abandoning the cat is epitomizing.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union laid out a plan on Tuesday to increase its footprint in the Arctic as global warming, conflict and competition for energy resources and critical minerals pose fresh challenges. The EU move comes after threats from U. S. President Donald Trump to take control of Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, and after he left Iceland uneasy by posting a map with the colors of the American flag over both islands. Other pressures are mounting as the Arctic warms about four times faster than the global average. New shipping routes are opening, China is doing more trade through the Arctic region, and a Russian military buildup is also heightening security concerns. “When we see that sovereignty, territorial integrity and the rules that have underpinned stability in the region can no longer be taken for granted, we have to act and change our strategic posture,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. The EU wants to help set up a cable center to monitor, protect and repair undersea communications cables in the North Atlantic and Arctic. Russian submarines are suspected of planning to sabotage some marine infrastructure there.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A former OpenAI engineer charged with secretly installing a recording device in a conference room to glean company details had been "mere days" away from absconding to Saudi Arabia before his arrest last week, federal prosecutors revealed in new court filings. Abdulrahman Alfozan's wife and young son also left the country the day after the 35-year-old Saudi national's arrest, traveling on a one-way ticket booked and paid for by a Saudi military official, prosecutors said in a memo Sunday seeking his continued detention. "Ultimately, the defendant has little incentive to remain in the United States to see this case through," federal prosecutors wrote. "He has ample resources —including his significant compensation from a decade of high-tech employment in the Bay Area and at least two bank accounts in Saudi Arabia — and what appears to be considerable support from a foreign government. "A federal judge in San Francisco sided with prosecutors Monday, denying a request by Alfozan's lawyers to release him to home confinement. His next court date is Nov. Alfozan's lawyer William Pernik argued in court that his client had strong ties to the U. S.