​ Rescuers blame weather and ‘underprepared skiers’ for rise in Alps avalanche deaths. Just now. James WaterhouseEurope correspondent, Val Thorens in the French Alps. BBC. From the vantage point of our helicopter above the Alps, you can make out scars and dimples from recent avalanches.. More than 100 people have died across the mountains this season so far, according to the European Avalanche Warning Services – a ballpark figure not seen for eight years.. As our pilot throws his rescue helicopter over one of the jagged ridges below us, we see ant-like skiers queueing at lifts or weaving down various pistes.. There is an enthralling beauty about the dense snow that sits atop the Tarentaise, an imposing network of valleys here in the heart of the French Alps.. “As with all around the world, the climate is changing,” says Frédéric Bonnevie, our guide and a mountain patroller for 32 years.. He points to shorter winters, and the best powder now being found at a higher altitude.. And although thick, this season’s snow covering has been unstable, contributing to a steep rise in the number of people killed by alpine avalanches.. Bonnevie explains they can control the conditions on the pistes, but not off them, and that’s where skiers have been getting into perilous difficulties.. BBC/Paul Pradier. “A lot of the victims are skiers who come here often, are technically skilled, but aren’t necessarily connoisseurs of the mountain environment,” suggests Stéphane Bornet, the director of Anena, a French snow safety association.. Several, he says, didn’t have safety kits, such as a transceiver to reveal their location or a shovel. Bornet claims they also didn’t carry out basic research on the routes they wanted to take.. The statistics are sobering; if you’re carrying a transceiver there is a 70% chance you’ll survive an avalanche, according to emergency crews. The first 16 minutes after being buried are seen as crucial.. If you don’t have one, the rescue operation can take longer, needing dozens of people and more equipment, and the survival rate drops to 20%.. “Most of the time when we’re coming, it can be too late,” says Pierre Boulonnais, who has patrolled the slopes of Val Thorens for 17 years. With his weathered face, he is a man of the mountain, and knows his snow.. “That’s why you need to have all the rescue equipment on you, and to be in a group, but sometimes you can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he adds.. We talk as he digs a small hole off-piste. Our short journey there is exhausting, as you have to keep moving to not sink into the soft powder.. After patiently waiting for me to get my breath back, Boulonnais explains the difference between wet and dry snow.. He runs a metal ruler through 60cm (2ft) of the soft upper layer, before hitting the dense, compressed snow underneath. It’s invisible to the eye.. “If you are trapped under just 50cm of snow of this density, you already have more than a quarter of a tonne on top of you,” ex  

​ Charges dropped against Georgia teens whose teacher died during toilet paper prank. 4 hours ago. Nardine Saad. CBS News. The five Georgia teens whose teacher died during a fatal practical joke will not be prosecuted in the educator’s death, the district attorney has said.. The teen driver faced homicide and trespassing charges after Jason Hughes, 40, was inadvertently run over during a toilet paper prank at his home. The four others faced lesser misdemeanour charges.. The teacher’s family had asked for the charges to be dropped to “prevent a separate tragedy from occurring, ruining the lives of these students”.. An attorney for the driver thanked the family for their compassion and forgiveness, saying he is determined “to live a life that would make Jason Hughes proud”, according to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.. US teacher killed after toilet paper prank goes wrong. The maths teacher had known the students were going to prank him and emerged from his home hoping to catch them in the act and surprise them as they tossed toilet papers over trees during their senior prank, police said.. But Hughes tripped and fell on the ground which was slick from rain. As the students tried to flee in two separate cars, he was inadvertently run over by the driver of one of the cars, police said.. Jayden Ryan Wallace,18, the student who was driving a pickup truck that hit Hughes, and two others stopped to try to help Hughes before emergency responders arrived and took him to hospital, the sheriff’s office said.. Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh confirmed to BBC News on Friday that the charges had been dismissed the charges but declined to further comment.. Officials, according to CBS News, said charges had not been formally filed.. Laura Hughes, Jason Hughes’ wife, an instructor at the same secondary school, had previously said that she fully supported having all charges against the students dropped.. She also that her husband and father of two was beloved by the students, knew about the prank and “was excited and waiting to catch them in the act”.. “This is a terrible tragedy, and our family is determined to prevent a separate tragedy from occurring, ruining the lives of these students,” she told the New York Times. “This would be counter to Jason’s lifelong dedication of investing in the lives of these children.”. She also said that they are thankful for the outpouring of prayers and support as they grieve the loss.. “We ask that you continue to pray for our family and also for the students involved in the accident along with their families,” the family said in a statement to CBS. “Please join us in extending grace and mercy to them as Christ has done for us,” the family said.. Wallace’s attorney told CBS that the teen is “still grieving deeply” but is “determined to move forward eventually to live a life that would make Jason Hughes proud”.. “I pledge to live out the remainder of my life in a manner that honors the memory of Coach Hughes by exemplify  

​ Los Angeles asks for investigation into LA28 Olympics chief over Epstein ties. 6 hours ago. Sareen HabeshianLos Angeles, California. Getty Images. The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously approved a measure urging the Olympics committee to investigate LA 2028 chief Casey Wasserman over ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.. Wasserman is facing mounting calls to leave the post after disclosures surfaced showing that he flew on Epstein’s jet and exchanged flirtatious emails with the late financier’s jailed associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2003.. The resolution, while not enforceable and largely symbolic, displays the simmering discomfort in the Summer Games’ next host city over Wasserman.. The sports and entertainment executive has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and has expressed regret for the exchanges, which are from decades ago.. Casey Wasserman to sell talent agency after Epstein fallout. The city council’s resolution, adopted in a 12-0 vote, expresses “concern regarding the potential conflict between the Olympic movement’s values and Casey Wasserman’s association with the Epstein files”.. It calls for a “thorough and transparent” examination of Wasserman’s involvement with Epstein.. The LA28 executive committee announced last month that Wasserman would remain in his post after it hired an outside counsel to review any potential misconduct by Wasserman.. “We found Mr Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the committee said at the time.. After the city council vote on Friday, the board told the BBC in a statement that it had already made it’s decision on Wasserman’s future and was instead focused on moving forward with the Games.. “With the Board’s position on leadership established, LA28’s focus remains on delivering a fiscally responsible, privately funded Games that protects taxpayers and benefits Los Angeles,” the statement reads. “We are on track to deliver a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.”. The vote came amid a litany of calls for his ousting, ranging from celebrities to politicians, including the city’s mayor Karen Bass. An array of musicians and athletes represented by Wasserman’s talent firm announced they would be splitting with the agency.. In response, Wasserman announced he started the process of selling the major LA-based agency, noting he had “become a distraction”.. “I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort,” Wasserman wrote to the agency’s 4,000 employees in the email, which was obtained by the BBC.. He continued: “It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the clients and partners we represent so vigorously and care so deeply about.”. Wasserman, who is one of many prominent figures included in the millions of Epstein documents, has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein’s victims. The appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity of any kind. The BBC has c  

​ More US Marines and warships to be moved to Middle East, reports say. 8 hours ago. James Chater. EPA. More US Marines and warships are expected to be deployed to the Middle East, two officials confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.. The officials said the reinforcements were to come from an amphibious ready group and its Marine expeditionary unit, with one official adding that the group would be led by the Japan-based USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship.. The unit headed by the USS Tripoli typically consists of around 5,000 sailors and Marines distributed across several warships.. The development comes as President Donald Trump said US forces had “totally obliterated” Iranian military infrastructure on Kharg Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil shipping.. Follow live updates. Iranians react to new supreme leader’s first address. Mission accomplished? The 2003 boast that haunts today’s Iran conflict. Retaliatory Iranian strikes targeting Israel and US military bases across the Middle East have disrupted major hubs for international air travel and caused the price of oil to soar.. Asked when the US Navy would start escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told reporters on Friday: “It will happen soon.”. The movement of US personnel was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.. It also reported that the request for reinforcements was made by US Central Command, the part of the US military responsible for the Middle East, and approved by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.. The BBC has approached the US military and the Pentagon for comment, though future troop movements are usually not confirmed publicly.. The US is also relocating parts of a missile defence system installed in South Korea to the Middle East, according to officials cited by the Washington Post and South Korean news outlets.. Trump earlier said Iran would be hit “very hard” over the next week, adding that the war with Iran would be over when “I feel it in my bones”.. Hegseth also said the US military would show “no mercy for our enemies”.. The Pentagon this week said it had struck 6,000 Iranian targets over two weeks of conflict, which began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.. Iran’s new supreme leader – and son of the former leader – 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei said Tehran would continue to block the Strait of Hormuz in his first public address on Thursday.. In a statement read out by a newsreader on Iranian state TV, he vowed to “avenge the blood” of Iranians killed in the war with the US and Israel, and warned neighbouring countries to stop hosting US bases.. Middle East. Iran. US Armed Forces. United States. Iran war  

​ Family of Michigan synagogue suspect killed in Lebanon airstrike, officials say. 9 hours ago. Helena HumphreyWest Bloomfield, Michigan. Nardine Saad. The man who rammed his truck into a synagogue in Michigan on Thursday had recently lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, officials say.. Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said that the suspect, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, recently suffered “devastating and personal losses overseas” but that it was “not an excuse” for the attack.. On Friday, the FBI said Ghazali died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head during a gunfight with police.. They also said he had large quantities of commercial-grade fireworks and several jugs of flammable liquid in the bed of his truck, which ignited during the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, near Detroit.. No staff or children at the synagogue and its attached school were hurt. A security guard was being treated for injuries and was expected to recover, law enforcement said, and officers are being treated for smoke inhalation.. Ghazali, who had no criminal history or registered weapons, waited in his truck for about two hours before the attack, and fired at security guards through his windshield, the FBI told reporters in a Friday evening press conference.. The FBI is investigating the incident at Temple Israel as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.. Although a motive remains unclear, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said earlier in the day that the attack was antisemitism and “hate, plain and simple”.. Rabbi Jen Lader, of Temple Israel, who was at a nearby community centre moments after the incident, described the moments after the attack as “sheer terror”.. “American Judaism is such these days that every synagogue is a target. Every synagogue is aware that we need to take precautions to keep our people safe,” she told the BBC, adding that the temple had trained in preparation for similar incidents.. “It’s a nightmare that we have to have an armed full-time security team in order for people to feel safe coming to synagogue,” she said.. Ghazali was a resident of Dearborn Heights, adjacent to the first Arab-majority city in the US.. Mayor Baydoun said his actions “do not reflect our values as a city. This is not who we are. There is never an excuse for violence, especially violence directed at a sacred space”.. The BBC’s US media partner, CBS News, reported that Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalised US citizen who was born in Lebanon and came to the US in 2011, lost two brothers, and his niece and nephew in the strike in early March.. Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit field office, said on Friday evening that “it would be irresponsible to speculate about his motive at this time” because the active investigation is only 30 hours old.. Runyan confirmed that there are no new known threats to the communities and that the incident has no connection to a shooting at Old Dominion University in the state if Vir