By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

(CNN) — Nearly 40% of nonorganic fruits and vegetables grown in California contain traces of pesticides that are also PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” according to a new investigation.

California supplies nearly half of the vegetables and more than three-quarters of the fruits and nuts eaten in the United States.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are called “forever chemicals” because their strong carbon to fluoride molecular bonds can take years to decades — even centuries— to completely break down in the environment. It’s estimated there are nearly 15,000 types of fluorinated chemicals, or PFAS, in existence today.

“The PFAS pesticide is the active ingredient in these products because it’s effective at killing things — which is the very reason why it’s so concerning to public health and the environment at large,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California operations for the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a health advocacy organization that produced the report published Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, there’s no way to contain the harm,” Del Chiaro said. “We can’t just harm the mold spores or insects on a peach and not potentially harm the little kid that eats the peach. The fact that we’re intentionally spraying forever chemicals on the produce we’re buying at the grocery store is a real eye-opener.”

Manufactured since the 1940s to make products nonstick, stain-resistant and water-repellent, legacy PFAS have been linked to cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage, hormone disruption and damage to the immune system, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Several of these chemicals can cause harm at levels of a billionth of a gram.

Newer PFAS pesticides also show worrisome impacts on human cells and animal reproductive and nervous systems, although levels of exposure are hard to determine. For example, fludioxonil, which is added to produce after harvest to stop mold and mildew, has killed human cells and damaged DNA in laboratory tests.

“Because there’s not going to be any rain to wash that PFAS pesticide off, it does get a little worrisome,” said Nathan Donley, the environmental health science director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy nonprofit dedicated to preserving endangered species based in Tucson, Arizona.

“Thes are the foods that actually give us nutrition and what we feed our children, so this is the last place you’d want to see that type of contamination,” said Donley, who was not involved in the EWG analysis. “And I think most people don’t have a clue this is happening.”

The EWG report found the highest levels of fludioxonil on lemons, at over 1 part per million, followed by peaches, nectarines, pears, plums, blueberries and apricots. In addition, fludioxonil was found on 90% of the tested samples of nectarines, peaches and plums.

“The European Food Safety Authority also considers fludioxonil to be an endocrine-disr

CNN

By CNN meteorologists Mary Gilbert, Chris Dolce and Briana Waxman

(CNN) — Dangerous storms with tornadoes and hail are tracking across the central US Tuesday evening. This threat of notably strong tornadoes has prompted the highest severe thunderstorm risk in months to be issued in parts of the Midwest.

It’s all part of a more widespread potential outbreak of powerful storms across the Central US on Tuesday as a new storm system strengthens over the region.

Storms are ongoing in portions of Texas and Oklahoma as well as northward into Illinois. A tornado tracked through the Kankakee, Illinois, area Tuesday evening and hail greater than tennis-ball size was also reported with this supercell thunderstorm.

In response, the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office activated its Emergency Operations Center and filed an emergency declaration with Illinois. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths, the sheriff’s office said.

“I want to remind area residents to check on their neighbors and loved ones but to avoid unnecessary travel, if at all possible,” Sheriff Mike Downey said.

Early Tuesday evening, a tornado briefly touched down near Pontiac, Illinois, and hail up to 5 inches in diameter fell near Buckingham, Illinois, which could be a new state record.

Thunderstorms also impacted Chicago, where half-dollar size hail fell. The Kansas City metro area reported hail up to 3.5 inches in diameter.

Farther south, a tornado was observed near Dudley, Texas, and baseball-sized hail was reported in Buffalo Gap, Texas.

Five tornado watches are in effect as of late Tuesday evening. These include portions of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Tornado watches stretch from the Mexican border north to Michigan.

A Level 4 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms is in place for more than 2 million people in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, including Peoria and Bloomington, Illinois.

Although last week’s outbreak had multiple deadly tornadoes, this is the first time a forecast for severe storms has been at this high of a level since July 28, 2025.

This Level 4 of 5 risk zone is where “multiple strong to intense tornadoes (EF2 to EF3)” could strike this evening, the Storm Prediction Center said. Tornadoes this strong can destroy entire stories of well-constructed homes and do significant damage to large buildings.

Lime-sized or larger hail could also drop from supercell storms that flourish in this corridor — large enough to dent cars and damage roofs.

These severe thunderstorms will track east overnight and spread into more of the Great Lakes, but they will lose some of their punch by the morning.

Wind damage, destructive hail and tornadoes are all threats from Texas to Michigan, in

By Associated Press

Miami (AP) — It’s Wilt, then Bam.

Bam Adebayo had a night for all time on Tuesday, with a point total second to only Wilt Chamberlain in the NBA record books. Adebayo scored 83 points, setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards.

“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter and never stopped rolling. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.

His final numbers: 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range. It was a stat line unlike any other in NBA history, and a night like none other for Adebayo.

He was in tears as he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.

“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”

Adebayo’s dunk with 22 seconds left in the third quarter gave him 62 points for the game, breaking the Heat single-game record of 61 set by LeBron James on March 3, 2014.

The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.

He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 — a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.

Until now.

And Adebayo only needed the first half to set a career high, too.

Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.

He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.

Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.

31-point quarter

Adebayo had the NBA’s highest-scoring quarter — any quarter — since Karl-Anthony Towns had 32 for Minnesota in the third quarter of a game at San Antonio on March 14, 2022.

Besides Towns and now Adebayo, only three other players in the last 30 seasons had at least 31 points in a quarter.

— Klay Thompson had an NBA record for any quarter with 37 for Golden State against Sacramento in the third quarter on Jan. 23, 2015.

— Kevin Love had 34 for Cleveland against Portland in the first quarter on Nov. 23, 2016.

— Carmelo Anthony had 33 for Denver against Minnesota in the third quarter on Dec. 10, 2008.

The previous Heat record for points in a first quarter was 25, done by James at Cleveland on March 18, 2014. James had the only other 25-point quarter in Heat history, part of his team-record, 61-point game against Charlotte.

Before Tuesday, Adebayo had never scored more than 19 points in a quarter.

43-point half

Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the last 30 seasons —

Por Allegra Goodwin, Gianluca Mezzofiore y Thomas Bordeaux, CNN

Los restos de misiles que funcionarios iraníes afirman haber recuperado tras los mortales ataques que impactaron una escuela primaria en el sur de Irán el 28 de febrero parecen ser de un misil de crucero Tomahawk estadounidense, según un análisis de CNN.

Cuatro fotografías de los fragmentos fueron compartidas en Telegram por la emisora estatal de Irán, IRIB, con una leyenda que afirmaba que eran restos del ataque a la escuela Shajareh Tayyiba en Minab, donde los medios estatales dicen que al menos 168 niñas y 14 maestros murieron.

No fue posible confirmar si los fragmentos, que se muestran en una mesa frente al edificio escolar destruido, provenían del ataque a la escuela, de un ataque a una base naval vecina del Cuerpo de la Guardia Revolucionaria Islámica (IRGC, por sus siglas en inglés) o de otro lugar. Sin embargo, parecen coincidir con un misil de crucero Tomahawk fabricado en Estados Unidos, según una revisión de CNN y el análisis de expertos. Se utilizó un misil Tomahawk en al menos un ataque a la base del IRGC junto a la escuela, de acuerdo con un análisis de CNN de un video que lo captó impactando un edificio. El Pentágono clasifica los misiles como municiones guiadas de precisión. Varias edificaciones de la base parecen haber sido alcanzadas por misiles de precisión.

Las fotografías son la última prueba de un creciente conjunto de evidencias que apunta a la responsabilidad de Estados Unidos en el ataque y parece contradecir las afirmaciones del presidente Donald Trump al respecto. La semana pasada, el presidente culpó a Irán, y reiteró el lunes al afirmar que el país tenía misiles Tomahawk en su arsenal, cosa que no es cierta, según expertos.

Este martes, la Casa Blanca dijo que el Pentágono publicaría su investigación sobre el ataque a la escuela.

En una de las imágenes, se observa un remanente marcado con “Made in USA” y el nombre del fabricante de municiones Globe Motors, con sede en Ohio, una empresa que ha recibido millones de dólares en contratos del Departamento de Defensa para fabricar componentes de misiles, el más reciente en 2025, según datos públicos disponibles.

Otro fragmento en las fotos está marcado como “SDL ANTENNA”, que significa “antena de enlace de datos por satélite”, un componente de la unidad de comunicaciones utilizada en las variantes más nuevas de Tomahawk. El nombre de otra empresa, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., con sede en Colorado y adquirida por la firma británica BAE Systems en 2024, está grabado en la pieza del misil.

Las imágenes coinciden con fotos de partes de misiles Tomahawk recuperadas de conflictos pasados y archivadas en la base de datos de fragmentos de armas del Open Source Munitions Portal. Esto incluye el componente de Globe Motors, un ejemplo del cual fue recuperado de un ataque en Yemen el año pasado, según una entrada en la base de datos.

Markus Schiller, experto en cohetes e investigador sénior asociado en el Instituto Internacional de Estudios para la Paz de Estocolmo, identificó una de las piezas en las imágenes como un motor accionador de Globe Motors y confirmó el análisis de CNN de que el fragmento era coincidente con un Tomahawk. Los actuadores son responsables de mover las aletas de un misil, permitiéndole volar y girar mientras atraviesa el cielo. Por separado, identificó otro remanente que parecía ser parte del motor a reacción del misil.

Trevor Ball, exmiembro sénior del

Análisis de Aaron Blake, CNN

Los republicanos en el Congreso han pasado años alimentando las afirmaciones infundadas del presidente Donald Trump sobre inmigrantes indocumentados y votación ilegal.

Y aunque a menudo no han repetido sus afirmaciones más controvertidas, han sugerido que se trata de un problema lo suficientemente grave como para requerir legislación federal, pese a que ya es ilegal que los no ciudadanos voten y existe escasa evidencia de que esté ocurriendo.

Sin embargo, a medida que se acercan las elecciones intermedias de 2026, cada vez parece más probable que los republicanos terminen lamentando haber alimentado este tema.

El partido parece atrapado entre la espada y la pared cuando se trata de la legislación que el Partido Republicano ha denominado la “SAVE America Act” para abordar este supuesto problema.

La roca son las crecientes demandas, cada vez más apocalípticas, de una base electoral y de un presidente que parecen insistir en aprobar esta legislación; la pared es el hecho de que los republicanos del Senado no parecen tener una forma clara de aprobarla como lo hizo la Cámara de Representantes.

Y Trump está acorralando aún más a su partido con cada día que pasa.

El problema para los republicanos es que ya están muy rezagados frente a los demócratas en entusiasmo de cara a las elecciones de 2026. Y no cumplir con esta demanda podría agravar su riesgo político, especialmente considerando cuánto Trump y sus aliados están elevando la importancia de este tema.

Quizá la manifestación más clara de la pasión conservadora detrás de esta legislación se puede encontrar en las respuestas a las publicaciones en X del líder de la mayoría del Senado, John Thune. Parece que, sin importar sobre qué tema publique el republicano de Dakota del Sur, recibe un coro de demandas para aprobar el “SAVE America Act”.

El fervor también se ha extendido cada vez más a algunos legisladores republicanos que exigen un enfoque de “lo que sea necesario”. Están presionando incluso para eliminar el filibuster y su umbral de 60 votos para aprobar legislación en el Senado, algo que algunos temen que, a la larga, podría beneficiar más a los demócratas, si recuperan el control de la cámara, que a los propios republicanos.

Y el propio Trump ha intensificado la presión.

En los últimos días, incluso ha insinuado que podría retener su respaldo al senador John Cornyn en su segunda vuelta en las primarias contra el fiscal general de Texas, Ken Paxton, un respaldo que el liderazgo republicano desea ver, hasta que el Senado apruebe el proyecto de ley electoral.

“Voy a tomar una decisión muy pronto, pero quiero y siento con mucha fuerza que tenemos que tener la ‘SAVE America Act’ completa y total, ¿de acuerdo? Quiero la SAVE America Act. Es más importante que todo lo demás en lo que estamos trabajando, aparte de la guerra”, dijo Trump a Dana Bash de CNN el viernes.

El presidente también ha dicho que no firmará ninguna otra legislación si no se aprueba la medida sobre votación, salvo un proyecto para poner fin al cierre del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional. (Cabe señ