Por Uriel Blanco, CNN en Español

Paulette Abdallah responde la videollamada y se toma unos minutos para hablar desde el refugio en el Distrito Metropolitano de Caracas en el que colabora ese día como voluntaria luego de los terremotos del pasado 24 de junio. Acomoda el celular para que la imagen sea la más adecuada. El encuadre la muestra a ella, con una banda que le despeja el largo cabello rizado de la frente y con una playera negra que dice en mayúsculas “RULOS”.

Los rulos —palabra que se refiere a los rizos en el cabello— llevaron a Paulette a realizar labores sociales de cuidado del cabello en refugios y hospitales tras los sismos.

Sin embargo, esta labor social nació desde hace más de seis años, cuenta Paulette a CNN, tiempo en el que abrió su salón de belleza en Caracas y ha asistido a más de ocho comunidades venezolanas para dar un mensaje de amor propio e identidad, al tiempo que enseña a mujeres, niñas, niños y hombres cómo cuidar su cabello rizado.

Paulette es la fundadora de Rulos de Venezuela, un salón de belleza y tienda que se especializa en el cabello texturizado en Venezuela desde hace seis años, que surgió en el marco de la pandemia de covid-19, cuando ella regresó al país luego de vivir unos años en Argentina y Brasil.

A la par, también creó Rulos Social, la contraparte que se centra en acciones sociales y culturales en favor de las personas afrodescendientes, poblaciones que históricamente han sido víctimas de discriminación tanto por su color de piel como por su aspecto físico. Son miles de personas en Venezuela en este grupo: 181.144 venezolanos se reconocieron como afrodescendiente y 755.626 dijeron reconocerse como negro/negra, según los últimos datos oficiales disponibles.

Rulos de Venezuela surgió “en vista de las necesidades de la comunidad venezolana sobre todo rizada o afrodescendiente”, dice Paulette. Su iniciativa va desde el amor propia hasta la higiene.

“Un discurso principalmente de higiene, identidad, amor propio y cuidado del cabello texturizado en todas sus categorías… sobre todo a las niñas, a las mamás, saber cuál es su tipo de cabello y entonces qué significa bello o un cabello bello para su realidad”, explica Paulette.

Así, Rulos es un negocio estético, pero también un proyecto social que la ha llevado a ayudar a cientos de personas en los últimos años.

“He ido a más de ocho comunidades, hemos atendido en estas jornadas sociales unas 300 o 400 personas”, señala. “El foco siempre ha sido el amor propio, la identidad y todo lo que conlleva tener un cabello rizado como venezolano, como mujeres, hombres, como latinos, como afrodescendientes y todas esas capas. Y luego que aprendieran a cuidarlo. Aquí en la costa (de Venezuela), sobre todo, hay muchos problemas capilares, muchos prejuicios, mucha discriminación estética”.

La idea de ayudar nació luego de los terremotos que azotaron Venezuela. Paulette dice que “lo primero que pensé fue: ‘me voy a los refugios’”.

“Conozco cómo es en ese tipo de espacios donde hay muchos niños juntos, donde no están las condiciones idóneas, cuáles son los problemas capilares que se están necesitando”, añade.

No se dirigió enseguida a los refugios. Decidió esperar varios días, mientras autoridades y rescatistas llevaban a cabo labores de búsqueda para salvar personas atrapadas bajo los escombros.

Los días pasaron. Los hospitales comenzaron a llenarse de heridos. Y entonces las necesidades de ayuda se multiplicaron. Es ahí cu

By Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — Bipartisan senators announced an agreement with the Trump administration on Friday to move ahead with an updated Russia sanctions package, but it remains unclear if President Donald Trump will directly back the bill’s passage.

The package would allow Trump to place heavy tariffs on imports from nations that import Russian oil, uranium and natural gas, with possible exceptions for countries that contribute to the Ukrainian war effort. Last summer, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal were pushing for the package. Trump signaled he was open to the idea and expressed disappointment in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attitude toward negotiations, but the administration did not come out in support of the bill.

Graham and Blumenthal, who have been leading the push for this bill for years, released a statement on Friday alongside Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker and Senate Foreign Relations Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen stating, “We are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement with the Trump Administration to move our updated Russia sanctions legislation forward. We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect to roll out the legislation very soon.”

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Graham visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in Kyiv.

“Right now, it is important to strengthen our long-range sanction pressure on Russia with new sanction steps from our partners. Lindsey informed me about the work in Congress on the relevant bill,” Zelensky said in a social media post after the meeting.

Graham and Blumenthal have long had vast bipartisan support for Russia sanctions, including a package with over 80 Senate cosponsors from both parties. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has maintained the Senate will follow the White House’s lead on the issue and won’t bring the sanctions bill to the floor until they are certain of the administration’s backing, despite previous comments by Graham that the administration approves of the bill.

CNN has reached out to Thune’s office for comment.

The calendar is also a factor; the Senate is staring down several must-pass pieces of legislation, including the annual defense policy package and another government funding deadline, with only a handful of weeks in session between now and the midterm elections.

The deal for a sanctions package would come on the heels of an announcement by Trump allowing Ukraine to build Patriot defense missile batteries, something the country desperately needs as Russia continues its attacks.

The announcement came as a surprise on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey this week, even though Ukraine has been working on the issue for years, and there were some indications a deal could be close. Sat next to Trump during the announcement, Zelensky at times looked like he almost couldn’t believe his luck. The two men share a rocky relationship and the flareup in the war in Iran appeared to have put Trump into a foul mood just before his meeti

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – Both lanes of Highway 154 are closed north of San Antonio Creek Road after a head-on collision Friday.

According to the California Department of Transportation, the collision occurred just north of San Antonio Creek Road and drivers are advised to take an alternative route.

This is an evolving emergency response and more information will be added to this article as it is received.

The post Both Lanes of Highway 154, North of San Antonio Creek Road, Closed Due to Head-On Collision appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Lisa Eadicicco, Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, alleging the AI company has stolen the iPhone maker’s trade secrets to develop its own yet-to-be-unveiled AI gadgets.

In the suit, filed in the District Court of Northern California, Apple accuses OpenAI of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract.

OpenAI last year announced it has been working with Jony Ive, who served as Apple’s design chief until 2019, on a hush-hush project to build devices meant to bring smartphone users into the age of AI.

The device is expected to be unveiled later this year – but the lawsuit could throw a wrench into those plans. The suit could also complicate OpenAI’s plans to go public soon in a massive, hotly anticipated IPO.

The suit names OpenAi; OpenAI’s Chang Liu, a former Apple engineer, and OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan, who previously led iPhone and Apple Watch product design; and io Products, the company founded by Ive, as defendants. (Ive himself is not named as a defendant.)

Liu and Tan played a critical role in the theft, Apple alleges. Liu left Apple to join OpenAI in January 2026 and did not respond to Apple’s attempts to ensure that he signed the company’s confidentiality reminder, schedule an exit interview and confirm that he returned his company devices, Apple claimed in the suit. The lawsuit says he failed to return a work-issued laptop and also gained access to a former colleague’s work computer after leaving the company.

Liu accessed and downloaded “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files, including voluminous, detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data,” the lawsuit says.

Apple alleges that Tan used confidential company information when recruiting candidates, including instructing them to bring Apple parts during the interview process. It also alleges Tan and OpenAI coached Apple employees on how to leave the company.

The company also says it found evidence that other former Apple employees had taken confidential information with them upon leaving to work for OpenAI.

“At Apple, our teams are constantly developing breakthrough technologies to create the best products and services in the world, and protecting their work and intellectual property is something we take very seriously,” Apple said in a statement.

In the lawsuit, Apple said it contacted OpenAI to raise its concerns when the investigation was in its early stages but that it never received a response.

The lawsuit also represents a breakdown in the relationship between the two companies, which in 2024 announced a partnership to start integrating ChatGPT into Apple products. But in May, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was considering legal action against Apple, potentially alleging breach of contract over claims that Apple had not sufficiently integrated and promoted OpenAI’s products across its devices.

OpenAI has aggressively poached top current and former Apple leadership and engineering talent, primarily to build a dedicated hardware division.

According to a CNN count of LinkedIn profiles, OpenAI has recently hired at least ten engineers who joined the AI company directly from Apple.

This story is developing.

The-CNN-Wire
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Below is a press release from CalTrans regarding a construction project that will cause lane reductions and ramp closures in the city of Santa Maria.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – Construction crews will begin a pavement preservation project along Highway 101 through Santa Maria beginning overnight Sunday, July 12.

Travelers on Highway 101 through Santa Maria will encounter lane reductions and ramp closures heading both northbound and southbound from just north of the Betteravia Road Overcrossing to the Santa Maria River Bridge.

Work will take place overnight Sunday from 9pm to 6am and Monday through Thursday from 7 pm to 6 am in areas near Stowell Road, Main Street, Donovan Road, and the Highway 135/Broadway interchange.

Message and directional signs will alert drivers of any closures. Travelers are advised to plan accordingly and anticipate possible delays of up to 10 minutes.

The purpose of the project is to preserve the existing pavement surface, improve lane delineation/visibility, improve signage, and provide a refreshed roadway surface for the traveling public.

This project is expected to be completed by end of September 2026. The contractor for this approximately $1.6 million project is Intermountain Slurry Seal, Inc. of Watsonville, CA.

Road information and updates can also be found on Caltrans District 5 Social Media platforms: Twitter at: @CaltransD5, Facebook at: Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) and Instagram/Threads at: @Caltrans_D5.

The Latest Breaking News, Weather Alerts, Sports and More Anytime On Our Mobile Apps. Keep Up With the Latest Articles by Signing Up for the News Channel 3-12 Newsletter.

The post Hwy 101 Pavement Preservation Project Through Santa Maria to Begin July 12th appeared first on News Channel 3-12.