Death toll from Los Angeles fires rises, with dangerous winds incoming

Firefighters were battling massive wildfires Monday that have ravaged Los Angeles and killed at least 24 people, with officials warning of incoming dangerous winds that could whip up the blazes further.The fires ripped through the United States’ second-largest city for the seventh day, reducing whole communities to scorched rubble and leaving thousands without homes.Massive firefighting efforts have staunched the spread of the Palisades Fire, which was looming toward upscale Brentwood and the densely populated San Fernando Valley.But conditions are set to dramatically worsen, with “extreme fire behavior and life threatening conditions” over the coming days.Winds up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour mean a “particularly dangerous situation” will be declared from early Tuesday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.Those gusts could fan flames and whip up embers from existing burn zones into new areas, firefighters warned.Los Angeles County Fire Department chief Anthony Marrone said his department had received resources including dozens of new water trucks and firefighters from far afield and was primed to face the renewed threat.Asked whether hydrants could run dry again, as they did during the initial outbreak of fires last week, Mayor Karen Bass replied: “I believe the city is prepared.”There was frustration for evacuees who were told they would not be returning home until at least Thursday when winds subside.Some have queued for hours in the hope of getting back to homes they fled to pick up medication or a change of clothes.- Search for bodies -But Sheriff Robert Luna said escorts into those areas were being suspended Sunday because of the winds and dangerous conditions among the wreckage, as well as the need to retrieve victims’ bodies.Teams with cadaver dogs were carrying out grid searches with the grim expectation that the confirmed death toll would rise.Several more arrests of looters were made, including one burglar who had dressed as a firefighter to steal from homes. Nighttime curfews in evacuated zones have been extended and additional National Guard resources have been requested.Henry Levinson was trying to get to his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.”I wanted to collect my dad’s ashes, which we had to leave behind, as well as my grandma’s ashes, which we also had to leave behind,” Levinson, an editor, told AFP on Sunday.- Fire tornado -The Palisades Fire has consumed 23,700 acres (9,500 hectares) and was just 13percent contained.Video footage showed “fire tornadoes”, red-hot spirals that occur when a blaze is so intense it creates its own weather system.But containment of the 14,000-acre Eaton Fire in Altadena had improved, figures showed, with 27 percent of its perimeter controlled.The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner published a list of fatalities without giving details of any identities. Eight of the dead were found in the Palisades Fire zone, and 16 in the Eaton Fire zone, the document said.The total number of residents under evacuation orders dropped to around 100,000, from a peak of almost 180,000. The LA Times reported that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), adjacent to the Palisades evacuation zone, was almost emptied as students voluntarily left despite there being no evacuation order issued for the campus.The sudden rush of people needing somewhere to live has posed a growing problem for the city, with reports of illegal price gouging from opportunistic landlords.California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed the city would rebuild, saying there would be a “Marshall Plan” — a reference to the US support that put Europe back on its feet after World War II. “We already have a team looking at reimagining L.A. 2.0,” he said.Some will have treasured items incinerated in the blaze replaced. Olympic chief Thomas Bach has promised US swim star Gary Hall Jr. that his lost medals will be replaced.- ‘Worst catastrophes’ -President-elect Donald Trump has accused California officials of incompetence, even though a heroic firefighting operation has operated 24/7 since the first flames erupted.That effort was bolstered Sunday with the arrival of crews from Mexico.They join teams from all over California and across the western United States who have come to help out.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky even offered on Sunday to send 150 personnel to California from his war-ravaged country.”The situation there is extremely difficult, and Ukrainians can help Americans save lives,” he wrote on social media.A huge investigation by federal and local authorities was underway to determine what caused the blazes.While the ignition of a wildfire can be deliberate, they are often natural and a vital part of an environment’s life cycle.But urban sprawl puts people more frequently in harm’s way, and the changing climate — supercharged by humanity’s unchecked use of fossil fuels — is exacerbating the conditions that give rise to destructive blazes.

Le ministre des Transports Philippe Tabarot visé par une enquête pour détournement de fonds publics

Le ministre des Transports Philippe Tabarot est visé par une enquête préliminaire pour détournement de fonds publics et prise illégale d’intérêts à la suite d’un signalement de la Haute autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique (HATVP) en juillet 2021, a indiqué lundi une source judiciaire, confirmant une information du Monde.Cette enquête, ouverte également pour recel de ces deux infractions par le Parquet national financier (PNF), porte sur les postes occupés par M. Tabarot au sein du groupement d’intérêt public (GIP) touristique et culturel puis à la communication pour la commune du Cannet (Alpes-Maritimes) entre 2018 et 2020.Cette ville de 40.000 habitants a été dirigée entre 1995 et 2017 par sa soeur, la députée LR Michèle Tabarot.”Une perquisition a eu lieu le 30 novembre 2022 au domicile de M. Tabarot et dans les locaux de la mairie du Cannet et du GIP du Cannet”, a ajouté la source judiciaire. “L’enquête préliminaire est toujours en cours”, a-t-elle précisé.Selon la déclaration d’intérêts enregistrée le 30 novembre 2020 et consultée par Le Monde, M. Tabarot a été directeur du GIP d’avril 2018 à juillet 2020 et a touché pour ce poste 82.473 euros net en 2019, soit près de 6.900 euros par mois. Puis il était rémunéré 17.997 euros net entre août et novembre 2020, soit près de 4.500 euros par mois, en tant que chargé de mission de ce GIP pour le développement touristique et culturel de la ville du Cannet. Parallèlement, en 2019, il était rémunéré 15.318 euros en tant que chargé de communication de cette commune, soit 1.276 euros par mois.A cette époque, il était également élu au conseil régional de Provence-Alpes-Côté d’Azur et a touché environ 40.000 euros nets par an en tant que vice-président chargé des transports entre 2015 et 2021.Le nouveau ministre a déclaré, toujours selon le quotidien, 137.872 euros nets pour la seule année 2019.Le nouveau ministre des Transports Philippe Tabarot, élu sénateur LR des Alpes-Maritimes en septembre 2020, est un spécialiste du secteur: il a défendu un texte pour encadrer le droit de grève dans les chemins de fer avant les Jeux olympiques, et est partisan d’une ligne dure en matière de sûreté.Au conseil régional, ce Cannois de 54 ans avait géré le dossier de la privatisation de la ligne TER entre Marseille et Nice, dont l’exploitation avait été confiée en 2021 au groupe Transdev, au grand dam des syndicats. Il s’agissait alors d’une première en France. 

India opens giant Hindu festival for 400 million pilgrims

Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India bathed in sacred waters as the Kumbh Mela festival opened on Monday, with organisers expecting 400 million people — the world’s largest gathering of humanity — to assemble over six weeks.The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing — and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions — is held at the site where the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet.”I feel great joy,” said Surmila Devi, 45, after bathing just before dawn. “For me, it’s like bathing in nectar.”Businesswoman Reena Rai’s voice quivered with excitement as she spoke about the “religious reasons” that brought her to join the sprawling tents, packed along the river banks in the north Indian city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state.”As a Hindu, this is an unmissable occasion,” said the 38-year-old, who travelled around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Madhya Pradesh state to take part in the festival, which runs until February 26.Saffron-robed monks and naked, ash-smeared ascetics, many of whom had walked for weeks to reach the site, roamed the crowds offering blessings.The massive congregation is also an occasion for India’s Hindu nationalist government to burnish its credentials.Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “divine occasion” that brings together “countless people in a sacred confluence of faith, devotion and culture”.Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk and Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, welcomed devotees to “experience unity in diversity” at the “world’s largest spiritual and cultural gathering”.- ‘Scale of preparations’ -Organisers say the scale of the Kumbh Mela is that of a temporary country — with numbers expected to total around the combined populations of the United States and Canada.”Some 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,” festival spokesman Vivek Chaturvedi said.Some six million devotees had already taken a dip in the river on Monday morning, according to Sunil Kumar Kanaujia, from the state government’s information centre.Hindu monks carried huge flags identifying their respective sects, while tractors turned into chariots for life-size idols of Hindu gods rolled behind them accompanied by elephants.Pilgrims exulted in the beat of drums and honking horns. The festival is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.Organising authorities are calling it the great or “Maha” Kumbh Mela.- ‘One with god’ -The riverside in Prayagraj has turned into a vast sea of tents — some luxury, others simple tarpaulins.Jaishree Ben Shahtilal took three days to reach the holy site, journeying with her neighbours from Gujarat state in a convoy of 11 buses over three days.”I have great faith in god,” she said. “I have waited for so long to bathe in the holy river.”Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time.Another 68,000 LED light poles have been erected for a gathering so large that its bright lights can be seen from space.The last celebration at the site, the “ardh” or half Kumbh Mela in 2019, attracted 240 million pilgrims, according to the government.That compares to an estimated 1.8 million Muslims who take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.Indian police said they were “conducting relentless day-and-night patrols to ensure top-notch security” for the event.Authorities and the police have also set up a network of “lost and found” centres and an accompanying phone app to help pilgrims lost in the immense crowd “to reunite with their families”.India is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people, and so is used to large crowds.Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight but pilgrims said their faith meant their baths were not chilly.”Once you are in the water, you don’t even feel cold,” said 56-year-old devotee Chandrakant Nagve Patel. “I felt like I was one with god.”Hindus believe bathing there during the Kumbh helps cleanse sins.”I believe it will give me salvation,” said Avish Kumar, a tech worker who travelled from the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.”It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, added teacher Savita Venkat, also from Bengaluru.Government employee Bhawani Baneree, who had come from the western state of Maharashtra, said the “vibrant atmosphere” had made his long journey worthwhile.”Everything is so beautiful”, he said.

‘My soul is there’: freed Israeli hostage dreads for partner still in Gaza

Ilana Gritzewsky was released from captivity more than a year ago, but with her partner and dozens of other Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, her fight is far from over.”My soul is still there,” Gritzewsky, 31, told AFP in an interview at the Tel Aviv headquarters of an Israeli campaign group pressing for a deal to rescue captives seized during Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.Recounting the horrors of the unprecedented attack on southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and the abuses she had suffered in captivity, Gritzewsky said she cannot rest until her partner, Matan Zangauker, is back.In December, Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video of Zangauker, 25, who was abducted along with Gritzewsky from their home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz community near the Gaza border.Seeing the Hamas video of her hostage partner “took me back to my period of captivity”, said Gritzewsky, recalling “the screams, the voices, the smells, the fear, and the helplessness”.The couple were among 251 people seized by militants during the October 7 attack, 94 of whom remain in the war-battered Gaza Strip including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Gritzewsky was one of 105 hostages released during a one-week truce in November 2023, the only pause in fighting so far.Since then, she has joined rallies organised by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, urging the Israeli government to secure the release of the remaining captives.”I’m broken, but I saw my partner alive in a video a month ago. If he can hold on in captivity, how can I not get up every morning and fight for him?” said Gritzewsky.She said her health has deteriorated even though “I have been free for over 400 days.””So for those who have been in Gaza for more than 460 days now, what state they must be in?”With international mediation efforts again appearing to inch closer towards a Gaza truce and hostage release deal in recent days, Gritzewsky called for an “immediate” resolution.- ‘Daily hell’ -Mexican-born Gritzewsky, who immigrated to Israel alone at age 16, said the abuses she had suffered in the hands of her captors keep haunting her.”I was sexually harassed during the abduction” and “still suffer from the consequences”, she said, her voice trembling.Gritzewsky said she lost 11 kilograms (24 pounds) during her nearly two months in captivity.”I also endured abuse. I was burned, lost partial hearing in my left ear, and dislocated my jaw,” she said.But with her partner still not back, Gritzewsky said she has struggled to “start any rehabilitation”.Another freed Israeli hostage, Luis Har, has turned to dance to process his trauma, but said he was “not the same man” after 129 days in captivity.It was a “daily hell,” said Har, who was abducted from Nir Yitzhak kibbutz and will turn 72 next month.Israeli troops rescued him along with brother-in-law Fernando Merman in early 2024, but Har said he would not rest until “everyone is freed”.- Not ‘more promises’ -While many hostages are held in tunnels according to the Israeli military, Har recalled being kept in an apartment in Gaza, being given a bit of pita bread a day for food, and crying at night thinking of his family back in Israel.The moment Israeli soldiers finally reached Merman and him was “so moving”, said Har.To Har, his return home shows that “you must never give up”.”I’m not the same man, but now, the focus must be on the others, on bringing them all back.”That call has emanated from the streets of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, where weekly protests have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the hostages’ release.Gritzewsky usually attends the rallies with her partner’s mother Einav Zangauker, who has become a prominent figure in the fight for a hostage deal.”I break a little” every time indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas fail to produce an agreement, said Gritzewsky.But “I remain optimistic, or else I wouldn’t be able to get up in the morning”, she said, demanding “action” and international pressure on both Hamas and Netanyahu.”We don’t want any more promises.”

Five things to know about New Glenn, Blue Origin’s new rocket

Blue Origin, the US space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2000, has postponed the maiden voyage into orbital space of its brand-new rocket, New Glenn,  due to unspecified technical “anomalies.”Here are five key things to know about the heavy-lift vehicle aiming to challenge SpaceX’s dominance in the commercial space market.- Homage -New Glenn honors a legendary astronaut: John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.It follows in the steps of New Shepard, Blue Origin’s first rocket which was named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.Standing 320 feet (98 meters) tall — roughly equivalent to a 32-story building — New Glenn is both larger and more powerful than its smaller sibling, which is used for suborbital space tourism.- Heavy-lift -New Glenn is classified as a “heavy-lift launcher,” capable of placing substantial payloads into low-Earth orbit. It is expected to carry up to 45 tons into orbit.That is more than double that of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which can lift around 22 tons, though it falls short of the Falcon Heavy’s 63.8-ton capacity.However, New Glenn has a unique edge: its wider payload fairing, which can accommodate larger objects.It “has the largest capacity to put objects in space, large objects” as a result of its wider payload fairing, Elliott Bryner, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.- Swiss knife -Its versatility means New Glenn could become a “Swiss Army knife” of rockets, capable of deploying a diverse array of payloads to both low and higher orbits.These are set to include commercial and military satellites — as well as Project Kuiper, Bezos’s planned space internet constellation, to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.New Glenn also has the potential to carry crewed spacecraft, noted George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies. “One other potential use is for commercial space stations,” he added.With the International Space Station slated for decommissioning in 2030, the race is on to develop replacements. Blue Origin is among the contenders vying to build the first privately run platform.- Partially reusable -Like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, New Glenn features a reusable first-stage booster — designed for up to 25 flights — and an expendable second stage.But to reuse the rocket, Blue Origin first has to land it. The company has mastered the technique with its much smaller New Shepard rocket, which touches down on solid ground. However, reusing New Glenn will require a successful landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.This is no small feat: It took SpaceX six years to perfect the maneuver with Falcon 9 after its debut launch in 2010.”Landing a rocket like this, the way they’re doing it, is definitely not simple,” Bryner said. “The level of technology required to do this is unbelievable.”Yet achieving reusability is crucial to reducing costs and broadening access to space, added Nield.- Higher tech -Under the hood, New Glenn’s propulsion system represents a step up. The first stage is powered by liquid methane, a cleaner and more efficient fuel than the kerosene used in both stages of Falcon 9.Its second stage uses liquid hydrogen, an even cleaner and more powerful fuel, though more challenging to handle due to its cryogenic properties.”It’s the difference between driving a, you know, a Ferrari or a Volkswagen,” William Anderson, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, told AFP, comparing the technology behind New Glenn and Falcon 9.

Blue Origin pushes back first launch of giant New Glenn rocket

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will have to wait a little longer for the long-anticipated maiden orbital flight of its brand-new rocket after a launch attempt dragged on for hours before being canceled due to unspecified technical issues.The towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of legendary astronaut John Glenn, was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window starting at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday.But the countdown repeatedly stalled as teams scrambled to resolve “anomalies,” before the mission was officially “scrubbed” around 3:10 am — a common occurrence in the space industry, but disappointing nonetheless for the hundreds of thousands of people who stayed up to watch the live feed.”We are standing down today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window,” Ariane Cornell, a Blue Origin executive, said on the webcast.She added: “We are reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”With the mission, dubbed NG-1, billionaire Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, vital for the commercial sector, the Pentagon and NASA.Bezos, who founded Blue Origin a quarter-of-a-century ago and celebrated his 61st birthday on Sunday, watched events unfold from the nearby launch control room. Musk, for his part, wished Blue Origin “Good luck!” on X.”SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor… this is great,” G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, told AFP, expecting the competition to drive down costs. SpaceX, meanwhile, is planning the next orbital test of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket — this week, upping the high-stakes rivalry.- Landing attempt -When New Glenn does fly, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, in honor of Bezos’s mother, stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. Though SpaceX has long made such landings a near-routine spectacle, this will be Blue Origin’s first shot at a touchdown on the high seas.Meanwhile, the rocket’s upper stage will fire its engines toward Earth orbit, reaching a maximum altitude of roughly 12,000 miles above the surface.A Defense Department-funded prototype of an advanced spaceship called Blue Ring, which could one day fare the solar system, will remain aboard for the roughly six-hour test flight. Blue Origin has experience landing its New Shepard rockets — used for suborbital tourism — but they are five times smaller and land on terra firma rather than a ship at sea.Physically, the gleaming white New Glenn dwarfs the 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed for heavier payloads. It slots between Falcon 9 and its big sibling, Falcon Heavy, in terms of mass capacity but holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, capable of carrying the equivalent of 20 moving trucks.- Slow v fast development -Blue Origin has already secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard New Glenn. The rocket will also support the deployment of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation designed to compete with Starlink.For now, however, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, while other rivals — United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Rocket Lab — trail far behind.Like Musk, Bezos has a lifelong passion for space. But where Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy industry off-planet onto floating space platforms in order to preserve Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”He founded Blue Origin in 2000 — two years before Musk created SpaceX — but has adopted a more cautious pace, in contrast to his rival’s “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy.If New Glenn succeeds, it will provide the US government “dissimilar redundancy” — valuable backup if one system fails, said Scott Pace, a space policy analyst at George Washington University.