16 dead, 16 missing as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week

16 dead, 16 missing as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week
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The sun rises behind a home destroyed by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP)
16 dead, 16 missing as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week
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A car drives past homes and vehicles destroyed by the Palisades Fire at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP)
16 dead, 16 missing as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week
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A resident sifts through his mother’s fire-ravaged property in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 11, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 13 January 2025
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16 dead, 16 missing as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week

16 dead, 16 missing as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week
  • “There’s no power, there’s no water, there’s broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. The first responders are working as quickly as possible to ensure that it is safe for you to return into your communities”

LOS ANGELES: Firefighters scrambled Sunday to make further progress against wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed 16 people in the Los Angeles area as forecasters again warned of dangerous weather with the return of strong winds this week. At least 16 people were missing, and authorities said that number was expected to rise.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 mph (113 kph). The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, said weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson.
“You’re going to have really strong gusty Santa Ana winds, a very dry atmosphere and still very dry brush, so we still have some very critical fire weather conditions out there,” Thompson said at a community meeting Saturday night.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said 70 additional water trucks arrived to help crews fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. “We are prepared for the upcoming wind event,” he said.
Fierce Santa Anas have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires sparked last week into infernos that leveled entire neighborhoods around the city where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.
Twelve people were missing within the Eaton Fire zone and four were missing from the Palisades Fire, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Luna added that “dozens” more reports might have come in Sunday morning and investigators were reconciling whether some of the missing might be among the dead. There are no children among those reported missing, he said.
Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 16 over the weekend. Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades Fire and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said in a statement Saturday evening.
Officials said they expected that figure to increase as teams with cadaver dogs conduct systematic grid searches in leveled neighborhoods. Authorities have established a center where people can report the missing.
Officials also were building an online database to allow evacuated residents to see if their homes were damaged or destroyed. In the meantime, LA city Fire Chief Kristin Crowley urged people to stay away from scorched neighborhoods.
“There are still active fires that are burning within the Palisades area, making it extremely, extremely dangerous for the public,” Crowley said at a Sunday briefing. “There’s no power, there’s no water, there’s broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. The first responders are working as quickly as possible to ensure that it is safe for you to return into your communities.”

Officials warned the ash can contain lead, arsenic, asbestos and other harmful materials.
About 150,000 people in Los Angeles County remained under evacuation orders, with more than 700 residents taking refuge in nine shelters, Luna said. Officials said most of those orders were unlikely to be lifted before the red flag warnings expire Wednesday evening.
“Please rest assured that first thing Thursday we will begin talking about repopulation,” Marrone said.
By Sunday morning, Cal Fire reported the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires had consumed more than 62 square miles (160 square kilometers), an area larger than San Francisco. The Palisades Fire was 11 percent contained and containment on the Eaton Fire reached 27 percent. Those two blazes accounted for 59 square miles (nearly 153 square kilometers).
Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes 1,354 fire engines, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico.
Fighting to save public and private areas
Minimal growth was expected Sunday for the Eaton Fire “with continued smoldering and creeping” of flames, an LA County Fire Department incident report said. Most evacuation orders for the area have been lifted.
After a fierce battle Saturday, firefighters managed to fight back flames in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities near Pacific Palisades not far from the coast, where swooping helicopters dumped water as the blaze charged downhill.
The fire ran through chaparral-covered hillsides and also briefly threatened to jump over Interstate 405 and into densely populated areas in the Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley.
Arrests for looting
Looting continues to be a concern, with authorities reporting more arrests as the devastation grows. Michael Lorenz, a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department, said seven people have been arrested in the last two days.
“We even made arrests of two individuals that were actually posing as firefighters coming and in and out of houses, so we’re paying very, very close attention to everybody,” Lorenz said at Saturday evening’s community meeting.

Asked exactly how many looters have been arrested, Lorenz said he couldn’t give a precise number but that officers were detaining about 10 people a day. California National Guard troops arrived Friday to help guard properties.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X Saturday that “California will NOT allow for looting.”
Historical cost
The fires that began Tuesday just north of downtown LA have burned more than 12,000 structures.
No cause has been determined for the largest fires and early estimates indicate the wildfires could be the nation’s costliest ever. A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion.
In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the fires could end up being the worst natural disaster in US history.
“I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope,” he said.
Inmate firefighters on the front lines
Along with crews from other states and Mexico, hundreds of inmates from California’s prison system were also helping firefighting efforts. Nearly 950 incarcerated firefighters were dispatched “to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow fire spread,” according to an update from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Though the state has long relied on prison labor to fight fires, the practice is controversial as the inmates are paid little for dangerous and difficult work. Inmates are paid up to roughly $10.24 each day, with additional money for 24-hour shifts, according to the corrections department.
Overflowing kindness
Volunteers overflowed donation centers and some had to be turned away at locations including the Santa Anita Park horse racing track, where people who lost their homes sifted through stacks of donated shirts, blankets and other household goods.
Altadena resident Jose Luis Godinez said three homes occupied by more than a dozen of his family members were destroyed.
“Everything is gone,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “All my family lived in those three houses and now we have nothing.”
Rebuilding will be a challenge
Newsom issued an executive order Sunday aimed at fast-tracking the rebuilding of destroyed property by suspending some environmental regulations and ensuring that property tax assessments are not increased.
“We’ve got to let people know that we have their back,” he said. “Don’t walk away because we want you to come back, rebuild, and rebuild with higher quality building standards, more modern standards. We want to make sure that the associated costs with that are not disproportionate, especially in a middle-class community like this.”
The White House said as of Sunday more than 24,000 people have registered for federal assistance made available by President Joe Biden’s major disaster declaration last Wednesday.
LA Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday that she has spoken with members of the incoming presidential administration and said she expects Donald Trump will come visit the devastated region.
Leadership accused of skimping
Bass faces a critical test of her leadership during the city’s greatest crisis in decades, but allegations of leadership failures, political blame and investigations have begun.
Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to determine why a 117 million-gallon (440 million-liter) reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry.
Crowley, the LA fire chief, said city leadership failed her department by not providing enough money for firefighting. She also criticized the lack of water.
“When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there’s going to be water,” Crowley said.


Justin Trudeau reportedly says Trump’s talk of making Canada a US state is ‘a real thing’

Justin Trudeau reportedly says Trump’s talk of making Canada a US state is ‘a real thing’
Updated 08 February 2025
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Justin Trudeau reportedly says Trump’s talk of making Canada a US state is ‘a real thing’

Justin Trudeau reportedly says Trump’s talk of making Canada a US state is ‘a real thing’

VANCOUVER, British Columbia: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said President Donald Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st US state is “a real thing” and is linked to the country’s rich natural resources, local media reported.
Trudeau’s comments to business and labor leaders in a closed-door session were mistakenly carried by a loudspeaker, Canada’s public broadcaster CBC reported.
“Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing. In my conversations with him on…,” Trudeau said of making Canada a US state before the microphone cut out, according to CBC.
“They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,” Trudeau reportedly said.
Trudeau’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post on social platform X, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labor, confirmed what Trudeau said.
“Yes, I can confirm that Trudeau said his assessment is that what Trump really wants is not action on fentanyl or immigration or even the trade deficit, what he really wants is to either dominate Canada or take it outright,” McGown wrote.
Trump has repeatedly suggested Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st US state.
In public comments Friday, Trudeau said Canada must think “tactically and strategically” on how to deal with Trump’s threats to impose hefty tariffs on all Canadian imports.
Speaking in Toronto at the opening of a one-day summit on the Canada-US economic relationship, Trudeau said the country must work with the US to avoid tariffs, adding that Canada needs to eliminate internal trade barriers and expand its trade with other nations.
“This is a moment,” said Trudeau. “This is a time in our country’s history that really matters.”
Trump on Monday agreed to a 30-day pause on threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with another 10 percent tariff on Canadian oil, natural gas and electricity.
Trump had threatened the tariffs to ensure greater cooperation from the countries to stop illegal immigration and prevent fentanyl smuggling, but he has also pledged to use tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing and raise revenues for the federal government.
Trudeau said Canada can use the 30-day extension to show US officials the country’s increased spending on border security. Canada has announced a $1.3 billion Canadian dollars ($900 million) border security plan that includes drones, helicopters, more border guards and the creation of a joint task force.
Trudeau also has promised to appoint a new fentanyl czar, who will serve as the primary liaison between the Canadian and US governments, even though less than 1 percent of the fentanyl and illegal immigrant crossings into the US come from Canada.
“We need to be very deliberate about how we continue to engage closely with the United States to make the case that Canada is responsible for a tiny part of the North American fentanyl problem, but that we are also bitterly touched by this tragedy,” Trudeau said.
He added that Canada needs to be prepared if Trump decides to go ahead with the tariffs after 30 days.
“We need to be ready to respond robustly,” he said. “We also have to be ready to support Canadians through the responses we’re giving and through a difficult time of tariffs.”
Canada had planned to retaliate to the US action with 25 percent tariffs on $155 billion Canadian dollars ($109 billion) worth of American goods.
Trudeau said it’s also time to have “genuine free trade in Canada,” while strengthening its trade relationships with other countries.
Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said she is happy the meeting is focused on internal trade, trade diversification and responding to US tariffs.
“It’s clear that we can’t just tinker around the edges with incremental steps right now,” she said. “We’ve got to be bold so that businesses and communities can pivot to be more resilient and less reliant on what happens in the US,” Laing said in a statement.


Alaska lawmakers push back on Trump’s mountain name change

Alaska lawmakers push back on Trump’s mountain name change
Updated 08 February 2025
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Alaska lawmakers push back on Trump’s mountain name change

Alaska lawmakers push back on Trump’s mountain name change
  • A resolution passed unanimously by the Alaska state senate on Friday urged Trump to rethink his plan.

LOS ANGELES: Donald Trump’s order to change the name of the highest mountain in the United States faced pushback Friday from members of his own party.
Alaska’s Republican-dominated senate voted overwhelmingly against his plan to ditch the Indigenous name Denali for the huge peak, which Trump has rechristened Mount McKinley.
The president has unleashed a flood of executive orders in his first few days in the White House as he attempts to remake the US government.
Orders have included mass pardons for pro-Trump rioters, a federal hiring freeze and an attempt to overturn the constitutionally mandated practice of granting birthright citizenship.
But his order to rename the 20,300-foot (6,200-meter) Denali drew the ire of Alaska’s state legislators.
A resolution passed unanimously by the Alaska state senate on Friday urged Trump to rethink his plan.
“The name Denali is deeply ingrained in the state’s culture and identity,” the motion said.
“Residents of the state believe that the names of the geographic features in the state should be determined by state residents and representatives.”
The motion, which earlier cleared the lower chamber by a sizable majority, notes that state lawmakers called for the mountain to be known by its Indigenous name as far back as 1975.
Four decades later, then-president Barack Obama officially recognized that push and dropped the moniker Mount McKinley, which had been the peak’s official name since 1917.
It was coined in honor of Republican president William McKinley who served in the Oval Office from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.
The resolution by the state legislature appeared unlikely to change Trump’s mind, but was notable as a rare display of disobedience from members of his largely quiescent Republican Party.


French ex-president Sarkozy gets electronic tag

French ex-president Sarkozy gets electronic tag
Updated 08 February 2025
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French ex-president Sarkozy gets electronic tag

French ex-president Sarkozy gets electronic tag
  • Sarkozy’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said he continued to contest the conviction for influence peddling and would lodge an application with the European Court of Human Rights this month, after exhausting all legal avenues in France

PARIS: Nicolas Sarkozy was fitted with an electronic tag Friday after being convicted of graft, prosecutors said, in a first for a former French president.
France’s highest appeals court in December ordered Sarkozy to wear the tag for a year, after finding him guilty of illegal attempts to secure favors from a judge.
Sarkozy, who turned 70 last week, was fitted with the ankle monitor at his home, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
A judge summoned the ex-president on the day of his birthday and told him he would wear the monitor from February 7, a source close to the case said. The ankle bracelet was imposed as an alternative to spending one year in jail.
The right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, would only be allowed out of his home between 8.00 am and 8.00 pm, the prosecutor’s office said.
He would however be allowed an extra hour and a half in the evenings three days a week when he attends court as an accused in another case.
In hearings that started last month and run through to April 10, Sarkozy has been charged with accepting illegal campaign financing from Libya before his 2007 election.
Sarkozy’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said he continued to contest the conviction for influence peddling and would lodge an application with the European Court of Human Rights this month, after exhausting all legal avenues in France.
Theoretically, the former head-of-state could also apply in France for a conditional release that can be given to people aged 70 and above.

Sarkozy has been shadowed by legal troubles since he lost the 2012 presidential election.
But he remains an influential figure and is known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.
Before the latest trial, Sarkozy, his wife singer and former supermodel Carla Bruni and daughter went on holiday to the Seychelles. He is no longer able to travel.
In the case which led to the ankle bracelet, a court found that Sarkozy and a former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a “corruption pact” with judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about an investigating judge.
The deal was done in return for the promise of a plum retirement job for the judge.
The trial came after investigators looking into a separate case of alleged illegal campaign financing wiretapped Sarkozy’s two official phone lines, and discovered that he had a third, unofficial one.
It had been taken out in 2014 under the name “Paul Bismuth,” and only used for him to communicate with Herzog. The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict.
Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal.
But Sarkozy is France’s first post-war president to be sentenced to serve time.

 


Trump revokes Biden’s access to government secrets in payback move

Trump revokes Biden’s access to government secrets in payback move
Updated 08 February 2025
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Trump revokes Biden’s access to government secrets in payback move

Trump revokes Biden’s access to government secrets in payback move
  • “JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said in a social media most stating that Biden "could not be trusted with sensitive information"
  • Trump also removed security details assigned to protect former government officials who have criticized him, including his own former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo

PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s revoking former President Joe Biden’s access to government secrets and ending the daily intelligence briefings he’s receiving in payback for Biden doing the same to him in 2021.
Trump announced his decision in a post on his social media platform shortly after he arrived at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach for the weekend.
“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote. “He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.”
The move is the latest in a vengeance tour of Washington that Trump promised during his campaign. He has previously revoked security clearances from more than four dozen former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop saga bore the hallmarks of a “Russian information operation.” He’s also revoked security details assigned to protect former government officials who have criticized him, including his own former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who faces threats from Iran, and former infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Biden didn’t immediately comment on the move.

Donald Trump's post on his Truth Social media platform, announcing his move to revoke former President Joe Biden's access to government secrets.

 

Biden ended Trump’s intelligence briefings after Trump helped spur efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. At the time, Biden said Trump’s “erratic” behavior should prevent him from getting the intel briefings.
Asked in an interview with CBS News what he feared if Trump continued to receive the briefings, Biden said he did not want to “speculate out loud” but made clear he did not want Trump to continue having access to such information.
“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” Biden said. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
in 2022, federal agents searched Trump’s Florida home and seized boxes of classified records. He was indicted on dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified records and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. He pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. A judge dismissed the charges, ruling the special counsel who brought them was illegally appointed, and the Justice Department gave up appeals after Trump was elected in November.
In his post, Trump cited the special counsel report last year into Biden’s handling of classified documents, saying, “The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information.”
He ended his post by saying, “I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Special counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified information and found that criminal charges were not warranted but delivered a bitingly critical assessment of his handling of sensitive government records. The report described Biden’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It said Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.
Trump has the right to end the briefings for Biden because it is a sitting president’s decision on whether a past president should continue to have access to classified information.
Steven Cheung, the president’s communications director, shared Trump’s post on the X social media platform and said, “Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more!”


19 states sue to stop DOGE from accessing Americans’ personal data

19 states sue to stop DOGE from accessing Americans’ personal data
Updated 08 February 2025
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19 states sue to stop DOGE from accessing Americans’ personal data

19 states sue to stop DOGE from accessing Americans’ personal data

Nineteen Democratic attorneys general sued President Donald Trump on Friday to stop Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records that contain sensitive personal data such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans.
The case, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system in violation of federal law.
The payment system handles tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veterans’ benefits and much more, sending out trillions of dollars every year while containing an expansive network of Americans’ personal and financial data.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, was created to discover and eliminate what the Trump administration has deemed to be wasteful government spending. DOGE’s access to Treasury records, as well as its inspection of various government agencies, has ignited widespread concern among critics over the increasing power of Musk, while supporters have cheered at the idea of reining in bloated government finances.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office filed the lawsuit, said DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s data raises security problems and the possibility for an illegal freeze in federal funds.
“This unelected group, led by the world’s richest man, is not authorized to have this information, and they explicitly sought this unauthorized access to illegally block payments that millions of Americans rely on, payments for health care, child care and other essential programs,” James said in a video message released by her office.
James, a Democrat who has been one of Trump’s chief antagonists, said the president does not have the power to give away American’s private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress.
Also on the lawsuit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
The suit alleges that DOGE’s access to the Treasury records could interfere with funding already appropriated by Congress, which would exceed the Treasury Department’s statutory authority. The case also argues that the DOGE access violates federal administrative law and the US Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.
It also accuses Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of changing the department’s longstanding policy for protecting sensitive personally identifiable information and financial information to allow Musk’s DOGE team access to its payment systems.
“This decision failed to account for legal obligations to protect such data and ignored the privacy expectations of federal fund recipients,” including states, veterans, retirees, and taxpayers, the lawsuit says.
The Treasury Department has said the review is about assessing the integrity of the system and that no changes are being made. According to two people familiar with the process, Musk’s team began its inquiry looking for ways to suspend payments made by the US Agency for International Development, which Trump and Musk are attempting to dismantle. The two people spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Separately, Democratic lawmakers are seeking a Treasury Department investigation of DOGE’s access to the government’s payment system.
Also, labor unions and advocacy groups have sued to block the payments system review over concerns about its legality. A judge in Washington on Thursday temporarily restricted access to two employees with “read only” privileges.