California Governor Gavin Newsom took urgent action yesterday (September 22) to mobilize state resources ahead of potential winter storms, destructive landslides, and severe flooding. The emerging climate phenomenon is already shattering global temperature records, with forecasters predicting it could easily become the strongest event in recorded history. 

Newsom’s office confirmed the declaration aims to streamline crucial measures, direct state agencies to protect vulnerable communities, and stage vital supplies early. Explaining the emergency action, Newsom said: "Giving communities the support they need, giving first responders the tools to do their jobs, and giving families the confidence that their state is ready."

Lois Kinder, 44, drank a coffee and ingested two gummies a day containing the Asian herb ashwagandha to 'promote her overall wellbeing' for a year. Supplements containing ashwagandha are often talked about on social media alongside claims they help with relaxation and ease the symptoms of perimenopause. 

Lois came across the supplement online and ended up being given samples to sell via social media. But in July, the mom-of-two, from Cheshire, UK, noticed her eyes and skin turn yellow and three days later was found collapsed on her couch. She was rushed to hospital by ambulance, where doctors discovered she had suffered acute liver failure. Lois Kinder ended up needing a liver transplant (SWNS)

'Serious health consequences' 

Luckily, a donor organ was found and she had a successful transplant surgery, but complications during the operation left her with brain damage. 

Doctors told her husband Ollie, 44, that they believe the liver failure was caused by the herbal supplement, which can also be bought from high street health chains. Lois is currently too ill to speak but Ollie is speaking out to raise awareness for people taking viral supplements. He said: "The thought of losing my wife, and of our children, Imogen and Jacob, losing their mom at just 44 years old, was unbearable. 

"Watching the person you love fight for their life is something no family can ever prepare for. "When the doctors ran tests, one of the first things they asked us was if she was taking pills containing ashwagandha, which they later said they believed had caused the liver problems. "They said there have only been 70 cases of livers failing following prolonged use of the pills. 

"I want to spread awareness and warn people that even if you think the supplement you are taking is safe, there can still be serious health consequences." Lois worked as a social media affiliate and had been taking and selling ashwagandha-based products for around 12 months. Ollie said there was 'no end' to pills containing the herb she would be sent by companies to sell on the social media platform. Lois' husband Ollie has spoken out on her behalf (SWNS) The pills are particularly popular with perimenopausal women, helping them with sleep issues and mood swings, according to The Better Menopause. But in the last couple of years, it has been linked to liver problems, according to clinical and liver researchers at LiverTox. Researchers say it is not clear what is causing the liver injuries. 

They can be bought for as little as $6 online and over the counter. Ollie said she took the supplement daily from July 2025, believing it to be a 'health benefit'. He said: "She would always say after taking them she felt better and was more relaxed." 

In early July, Ollie said his wife had visited her doctor thinking she had a stomach bug after being sick and noticing jaundice-like symptoms, including her eyes and skin turning yellow. According to the dad, the doctor said he wasn't 'unduly worried' and ordered a blood test and a liver scan. 

The start of an 'unimaginable battle' 

But on July 13, her daughter Imogen, 19, found her unresponsive on their couch in their living room when she noticed she hadn't woken up her brother Jacob, 15, for school. Imogen said: "The paramedics managed to wake her up, but she was confused and couldn't recognize me or my brother." She was then rushed to Warrington Hospital and within hours tests found her liver was failing. 

Doctors placed her into an induced coma and, just three days later, transferred her to the specialist Liver Intensive Care Unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. It is one of only a handful of centers in the UK able to perform emergency liver transplants. The mom was immediately placed on the super urgent transplant list and every passing hour mattered. 

After several liver offers that were unfortunately unsuitable, on July 22 a donor liver finally became available. The family hoped this would be the moment everything began to get better, but it was only the start of an 'unimaginable battle' for them.

Ashwagandha supplements are growing in popularity (Getty Stock Image) During the transplant operation, Lois suffered three cardiac arrests caused by a blood clot blocking the main artery to her lungs. She was deprived of oxygen for a prolonged period while the incredible surgical and critical care teams fought tirelessly to save her life. At one point, Ollie was told to prepare for the worst and that she was unlikely to survive the operation. 

But against all odds, Lois survived and woke from her coma after a month on August 13. The dad said: "The number of times we have been told we are going to lose her and then she just defies the odds. "Doctors thought she was brain dead and put a do-not-resuscitate order on her. The days that followed were filled with fear, uncertainty and heartbreak. But by some miracle she woke up. 

"Doctors brought in a retired neurological specialist to figure out why she is awake as scans showed otherwise - but they can't give any answers." She has been able to recognize her family, say a couple of words and has started to give signs such as the odd twitch of her finger or toe. 

However, the complications she suffered have left her with significant brain damage, and she remains in critical care undergoing intensive neurological rehabilitation every day. Ollie visits his wife at Queen Elizabeth Hospital every day. He said: "The medical team caring for Lois have told us that her case is so rare and medically complex that they intend to publish it as a case study in medical journals to help healthcare professionals around the world learn from the extraordinary challenges they faced while saving her life." 

'We don’t know if she will walk again' Lois' condition has been described as 'medically complex' (SWNS) At this stage, it is believed that ashwagandha is the ‘main cause’ of Lois’ liver failure, although this is still being investigated. Ollie has been told that life is going to be very different for Lois and that she will be disabled in ‘some shape or form’. He said: "At this stage, nobody knows what her recovery will look like. 

"We don’t know if she will walk again, regain full use of her body, or what level of care she will need in the future. "What we do know is that Lois has already shown incredible strength, and we will continue to fight alongside her every step of the way." 

The family is currently crowdfunding to buy a house and adapt it for Lois. Lois and her family live in a rental property which they have recently been given notice on due to the landlord wanting to sell it.

Ollie said: "If you are able to donate, no matter how big or small, you will be helping to give my wife the opportunity to rebuild her life and helping our family face the future together. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your kindness, generosity and support." You can donate here. 

Clancy has been on trial following the deaths of five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan, in 2023. The suspect - who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder - does not deny killing her children, though her lawyers argue that she was dealing with postpartum psychosis at the time, so could not distinguish right from wrong. 

The prosecution, on the other hand, claims she was aware of right from wrong and that the killings were an intentional act. Earlier this month, the judge declared a mistrial, as the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Lindsay Clancy has been on trial following the deaths of her three children (Greg Derr/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Ahead of an update in the case next week, Patrick Clancy sat down with 60 Minutes, where he was asked about the conversation he had with his ex-wife following the deaths of their children. "I asked her if she remembered it," he told CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat. "She said it was like a dream and she remembered much in the way you would remember a dream after waking up." 

Douthat then asked Patrick - who has since remarried - about whether he felt like he had failed. "I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time and I live with the outcome," he said. "I live with it every day." Patrick went on to recall how he returned home from running errands that tragic day to find Clancy in the backyard.

Patrick Clancy has detailed a conversation he had with Clancy after the deaths of their children (60 Minutes) He then found his children in the basement, with Cora and Dawson having already died. Callan was airlifted to hospital, with Patrick recalling: "I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live.

"I remember just thinking, 'Just give me one. Just give me one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could. I'd tell him about his brother and sister.' And I was holding out hope for that." Callan sadly died four days later. 

"I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him. And he died in my arms," Patrick added. When asked whether Clancy had asked for forgiveness, Patrick responded: "No, but I gave it to her. "When it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn't get there, I would be eaten up inside forever." 

Bizarre conspiracy theories about Patrick began to spread online during the trial, which led to his lawyer speaking out.

Attorney Howard Cooper said: "Over the past months, Patrick Clancy and his family have been subjected to a relentless, escalating and destructive defamation campaign. 

"This campaign of misinformation has been launched and promoted by minor celebrities, so-called influencers and outright conspiracy theorists who appear intent on boosting their own social media profiles and potential profit by publishing what they know to be outright falsehoods that Patrick was somehow involved in the death of his young children and other vile claims. 

"This campaign, now fuelled by insatiable media coverage, remains at a fever pitch and has resulted in real life threats to his reputation, livelihood, and life." Addressing those theories on 60 Minutes, Patrick said: "It's painful to see. And it makes it difficult to be in public and it's possible that some of those people, after seeing lie after lie after lie, they start to believe it and that's what we're left with." 

Brueckner has never been charged over Madeleine’s disappearance, but remains the prime suspect in both the German and British investigations into what happened to her. However, the convicted rapist who was freed from jail last September after serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of an elderly woman, has previously denied any involvement in the case. 

A number of searches have been carried out by German, Portuguese and British authorities since Madeleine vanished in 2007, with the latest taking place near the Portuguese municipality of Lagos in June 2025. In 2023, investigators carried out searches near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz. Madeleine was three when she disappeared (PA) Brueckner spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir. In a new admission, he has confirmed he was just 150 yards from the McCann’s family holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the night she vanished. 

The 49-year-old has said police stopped him in his van containing drugs three times that evening while he was making a 'quick getaway'. He revealed his whereabouts on the night the three-year-old disappeared in a bombshell new interview with the Mail. Christian has shared his whereabouts (Alexander Koerner/Getty Images) “I was on the beach, not far from Maddie’s hotel, selling drugs," he said. “I’d been in Spain and smuggled the weed into Portugal. “I was even stopped by police three times on the street [in Praia da Luz] while they were looking for Maddie. 

“Luckily, they didn’t find the drugs. My van was full of them.” He explained how police never searched his vehicle as officers began flooding the area following the report of Maddie's disappearance, prompting him to try and get away. 

He said: “I was making a quick getaway; there were flashing blue lights and checkpoints everywhere. I just thought, ‘Get me out of here’.” 

Announcing his whereabouts, he said he hadn't spoken out before 'because the police want to frame me for the Maddie thing'. Madeleine, then aged three, vanished in the Portuguese resort shortly after she was left sleeping by her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who went for dinner in a nearby restaurant.

Madeleine has never been found (Handout/Getty Images) British police have their own investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance in which Brueckner is also a suspect, but the UK probe remains a missing persons not a murder inquiry. 

The revelations come amid claims that Brueckner is planning a 'tell all' book. The Mirror reported that he is thought to be working on a first draft and has approached at least one professional writer to help him, with hopes to publish in both German and English. 

An insider was quoted as saying: "Brueckner is desperate to tell his side of the story. He believes that writing about his innocence will help him. "Ultimately he also sees it as a way to help him financially."

The weapon was a sharp, heavy blade; the brutality was unprecedented; and the chief suspect was Andrew’s 32-year-old unmarried daughter, Lizzie. With a brand-new Netflix series revisiting the infamous double homicide in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, public fascination with the Victorian gothic mystery has spiked once again. 

While popular culture remembers the nursery rhyme claiming Lizzie gave her mother "forty whacks," the physical items recovered by investigators in 1892 paint a far more forensic, macabre picture of 19th-century crime detection. Here are six of the most grisly items collected as evidence during the investigation. 

The "Handleless" Hatchet Head 

Police thoroughly searched the Second Street residence, eventually turning their attention to the dark basement. There, in a small chimney recess, officers discovered four axes and hatchets. One in particular immediately caught their attention: a small hatchet head whose wooden handle had been cleanly snapped off near the socket. The iron head was coated in a coarse white ash and dust. 

The prosecution argued that the killer had broken off the blood-soaked wooden handle, burned it in the kitchen stove, and rolled the metal head in ashes to conceal lingering residue. While Dr. Edward Wood of Harvard Medical School testified that he found no definitive traces of blood on the metal, it became the state's prime candidate for the murder weapon.

The broken hatchet found in the cellar. (CBS News)

The Victims' Boiled Skulls 

In one of the most shocking evidentiary displays in American legal history, the actual skulls of Andrew and Abby Borden were introduced as physical exhibits in the courtroom. Following initial autopsies performed on the dining room table, the victims were buried—only to be exhumed days later so medical examiners could decapitate them and boil away the soft tissue. 

The cleaned skulls, bearing 19 fractures on Abby and 10 on Andrew, were brought into open court to demonstrate that the bone gashes matched the dimensions of the basement hatchet. The sight was so gruesome that Lizzie Borden reportedly fainted on the spot when the tissue-less skulls were revealed to the all-male jury. 

The Burned Blue Bedford Cord Dress 

Police were baffled by the apparent lack of blood on Lizzie’s clothing when they arrived at the house within minutes of the alarm being raised. Days after the murders, however, family friend Alice Russell observed Lizzie tearing apart a blue Bedford cord dress and feeding it into the kitchen stove. 

Lizzie claimed she was merely disposing of an old garment that had been ruined by brown paint. The prosecution, however, maintained it was the very dress she wore while slaughtering her parents, burned specifically to destroy blood spatter before state investigators could seize it. The Borden family home on Second Street.(Wikimedia Commons)

The Preserved Stomachs of the Victims 

To establish an exact timeline of the killings, medical examiners removed the stomachs of both Andrew and Abby Borden during the post-mortem examinations. The organs were tied off, placed in sealed glass jars, and transported to Harvard Medical School for chemical analysis. 

Dr. Wood examined the undigested food—mostly bread and mutton—to determine when each victim had last eaten. The forensic analysis proved crucial: Abby’s digestion had stopped roughly an hour and a half to two hours before Andrew’s, proving she had been killed first, hours before her husband was attacked on the sofa downstairs. 

Bloodstained Horsehair Sofa Upholstery 

Andrew Borden was murdered while taking a mid-morning nap on the sitting room sofa. The blows to his face and head were delivered with such force that blood spattered across the adjacent wall and soaked deep into the furniture. 

Officers cut away swatches of the bloodstained horsehair sofa fabric, as well as the pillow resting beneath Andrew's head, to present as physical exhibits. The bloodied fabric was brought before the court to illustrate the trajectory of the blows and the sheer proximity the killer had to maintain during the attack. Sliced locks of Abby Borden's hair were found at the scene (Bettman/Getty Images)

Sliced Locks of Abby Borden's Hair 

When Abby Borden was struck down from behind in the second-floor guest bedroom, the impact of the blade sheared directly through her hair before crushing her skull. Investigators gathered and catalogued several locks of her blood-matted hair from the bedroom carpet, which had been cleanly severed by the hatchet blows. 

These hair fragments were submitted alongside the skull casts to demonstrate the sharpness and angle of the weapon used in the initial ambush. Ultimately, the lack of modern forensic tools—fingerprinting was not yet standard practice and blood typing was still years away—meant prosecutors could not conclusively link the broken hatchet or the destroyed dress to the killings. 

After just an hour and a half of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty, leaving the grisly evidence to pass into true crime history. 

Austen Cole from Buckinghamshire in England says his symptoms were repeatedly dismissed as being IBS for more than six months, before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The 55-year-old was then given the devastating prognosis of less than 12 months after doctors discovered the cancer had spread to his liver and lymph nodes. 

Incredibly, the dad-of-two said he has a 'spring in his step' as he tries to remain 'as positive as possible' following the diagnosis. Instead of feeling miserable about his situation, Austen had the brilliant idea to host his own 'leaving do' at his favorite pub The Dove, in Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes.

More than 200 people came to Cole's 'leaving do' (SWNS) The unusual event saw more than 200 people gather to bid farewell to the now-retired self-employed ceramic tiler, including family, friends from past and present, work colleagues and his partner Tracey Nash. "It was amazing and I loved every minute of it. There was so much laughter, love and fun," he said. 

"I saw people I hadn’t seen since primary school, I couldn’t believe how many people came. The pub was packed. Tracey wanted to call it a celebration of my life but I called it my leaving do. It seemed right." 

In fact, Austen had so much fun that it felt 'almost like a wedding,' as he spent all day and night going around talking to people, however things did take a somber turn when it came to saying goodbyes as people left. "It was only as people left that it became more like a funeral and there were some tears," he said. "The leaving do started at 2.30pm and Tracey and I were the last ones standing at midnight… I can honestly say I loved being at my own wake. Why would I want to miss it?” 

His partner Tracey said it was 'truly amazing to see how many people came to celebrate Austen and be part of such a special day'. "The atmosphere was incredible, but what made it so meaningful was hearing so many people share their stories and memories of Austen," she said. "It gave everyone the chance to say the things they may have otherwise regretted never making the time to say."

He has vowed to enjoy whatever time he has left (SWNS) Tracey added: "It was incredibly heartwarming to see Austen surrounded by so many of the friends he had made throughout the years, watching him laugh, smile and add to the stories and memories they were reminiscing about together. "But my favourite part of the whole evening was seeing Austen realise just how deeply loved he is, and just how much of an impact he has had on so many people’s lives."

Austen, who has two adult children, 28-year-old Lois and Lloyd, 30, has vowed not to waste a single minute of time he has left, and has chosen not to go through chemotherapy, which would likely only lengthen his life by a matter of months. 

"Weirdly people keep saying how well I look, even though I’m dying," he said. "I could have had chemo but it would only delay things by a couple of months and probably make me feel even worse. So I decided instead not to mope around but to make the most of every day I have left." 

Austen added: "The way I see it is that I’ve been dealt a card and I have this illness but I’m not going to let it rule what life I have left. I can still be happy. "Maybe that attitude is even paying off. Who knows, this time next year I might be holding a ‘Stuff You’ party to terminal cancer!”

Now, with worries about the future of artificial intelligence dialling up, people have been looking back at one warning from the 16th century astrologer with a whole new lens. It comes after a former AI researcher who worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic revealed fears the technology 'could kill us all'.

Jacob Coxon shared the chilling message on X, where he wrote: "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt." The following day, Anthropic announced it had stopped several potential plots to build biological weapons using its own AI software. OpenAI boss Sam Altman admitted they need to 'pace the frontier' (Sean Rayford/Getty Images) This in turn prompted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to publish an essay called We Must Pace the Frontier on Saturday (September 12), suggesting a three-point plan to slow the advancement of AI, warning that it could lead to the destruction of what we know. 

Meanwhile, Sam Altman CEO of OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, agreed they need to 'pace the frontier,' before revealing 'two ways AI could go very badly'. "First, we could lose control of the future of AI," which he called 'unacceptable', writing on X. 

"We are unapologetically on Team Humanity and AI must always serve people," he said. "To ensure that, we need to ensure that alignment and safety techniques stay ahead of progress in model capabilities." His other concern was that we could 'end up in a world with too much concentration of power,' adding: "If an extraordinarily powerful AI is used by one person or company to impress their worldview onto everyone else, the results could be extremely dystopian."

People believe Nostradamus was warning about the future impact of AI (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) But what does any of this have to do with Nostradamus? In a passage labeled Century IV, Quatrain 31 in his 1555 book Les Propheties, he said: "The Moon in the full of night over the high mountain, the new sage with a lone brain sees it: By his disciples invited to be immortal, eyes to the south. Hands in bosoms, bodies in the fire." 

Readers have now taken 'lone brain, 'immortal' and 'disciples' to mean some kind of computer or machine intelligence, while 'the new sage' is interpreted as technology. Back in 1989, hypnotherapist Dolores Cannon released a book called Conversations with Nostradamus, which claimed one of her patients had been channelling the seer while under hypnosis and explaining his predictions. 

She wrote that Century IV, Quatrain 31 was about a future genius who would copy his mind into an 'organic computer' so his knowledge could live on after he died.