AFP USA

Dozens of evacuated Los Angeles residents stared incredulously at the thick cloud of black smoke blotting out the sun, scarcely able to believe the scale of the wildfires, and fearing that their homes could be destroyed next.They have gathered above Santa Monica Canyon, near the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood where devastating flames first broke out among multi-million dollar mansions on Tuesday.Residents continue to evacuate, or return briefly to collect their belongings.Gusts are still so strong that expensive Teslas and Alfa Romeos rock on their tires. A police car with a megaphone orders bystanders to “leave the area now.””You got the ashes to worry about in your lungs. You got your life to worry about with these 80- to 100-mile an hour gusts,” Sarahlee Stevens-Shippen told AFP.”We’ve just been in panic mode.”The 69-year-old retiree has lived here since the 1970s.Clad in a mask, she returned to her home at dawn to retrieve a few cherished possessions that she had been unable to gather in her hurry to flee the night before.”When I saw the glow of the fire coming over the mountain yesterday about eight o’clock, I took off,” she said.The flames had “already jumped the coast highway nearby and some palm trees were catching on fire,” she recalled.During the night that followed, at least two more substantial fires broke out to the north of the Los Angeles urban sprawl, in Altadena and the San Fernando Valley.Two people are confirmed to have died so far. Tens of thousands have evacuated their homes. And authorities warn that the danger is far from over, with treacherous windy conditions set to remain until later in the week.”This has been a shock that is still sinking in. But we’re in survival mode, so we’re just grabbing certain necessities and getting out,” said Stevens-Shippen.- ‘Never imagined’ -Carrying a large blue plastic bag stuffed full of clothes, Martin Sansing also emerges from the canyon. A television producer, he and his wife have just fled their four-bedroom villa.When Sansing bought the home for $1.6 million 15 years ago, he thought this neighborhood below the mountains that surround Los Angeles would be safe.”We’re in a pretty urban area. We’re not like, on a hill or anything like that,” he said.”I never imagined we would be affected.”Every fall and winter, California is swept by hot, dry Santa Ana winds. For firefighters, these are a nightmare, as they greatly increase the risk of fires spreading.This week, their strength reached an intensity not seen in more than a decade, meteorologists say.To compound the disaster, South California is experiencing a very dry winter, which makes vegetation more flammable. And there is a surplus of brush and shrubs, thanks to the two previous, unusually wet winters.”It’s hard not to think it’s unrelated to what’s happening on the planet,” said Sansing, 54.”These things seem to be more frequent and more intense.”- ‘So fast’ -At an evacuation center a few miles (kilometers) away, Arlinda Henderson is still trying to come to terms with what has happened.The Pacific Palisades resident has lived in her home with her husband since 1984. Over those four decades, she has experienced evacuations, but never anything of this severity.”This time was different — the fire just came down the hill so fast because of the wind,” she said.”I’d never seen anything like it.”The former flight attendant only had time to grab a few family photos and her pet cat before leaving her home — perhaps for the final time.”I think our house is gone. I’ve tried calling home, and I’ve tried a couple of neighbors. It’s just not ringing,” sighed the 76-year-old.She fears that her home insurance will refuse to continue to cover her against wildfires if she rebuilds in the neighborhood.”I can’t believe LA is surrounded” by wildfires, she said.

A-list actors, musicians and other celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people affected by terrifying wildfires tearing through Los Angeles on Wednesday.The entertainment capital was besieged by out-of-control blazes burning on multiple fronts, with Hollywood events including a glitzy awards show and a Pamela Anderson film premiere cancelled as firefighters battled nearby flames whipped up by hurricane-force winds.Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the swanky Pacific Palisades area, a favorite spot for celebrities where multimillion-dollar houses nestle on beautiful hillsides, while another inferno devastated parts of Altadena, to the east.Mandy Moore, the singer and “This Is Us” actress, told followers on Instagram she had fled with her children and pets from the path of the Altadena fire. “Trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel. Praying for everyone in our beautiful city. So gutted for the destruction and loss. Don’t know if our place made it,” she wrote.Emmy-winning actor James Woods posted a video on X showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his Pacific Palisades home as he got ready to evacuate, and shortly afterwards said all the fire alarms were going off.”I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.”Star Wars” star Mark Hamill told his followers on Instagram that he had fled his Malibu home on Tuesday.”Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH,” he wrote, referring to the Pacific Coast Highway, a scenic road that connects seafront settlements.Hamill said he and his wife Marilou York, along with a pet dog, had gone to their daughter’s Hollywood home to escape what he dubbed the “most horrific fire since ’93.”- Premieres cancelled -Meanwhile, several major Hollywood events were abruptly called off due to the disaster.The annual Critics Choice Awards gala, which honors the year’s best in film and television and is attended by dozens of A-list stars, was postponed from this Sunday to January 26.Anderson’s premiere for “The Last Showgirl” was scrapped due to the unfolding disaster, while Paramount also cancelled a glitzy red-carpet screening of the Robbie Williams musical film “Better Man.”Netflix pulled the plug on a press conference for its Golden Globe winner “Emilia Perez.”A live announcement to unveil this year’s Screen Actors Guild nominations was abandoned on Wednesday morning, in favor of a simple press release.Filming of Los Angeles-based shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Hacks” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was paused. And the Universal Studios theme park was closed for the day due to the extreme winds and fire conditions.- ‘Burn’ -Steve Guttenberg — star of 1984 comedy “Police Academy” — was among those helping get people out of Pacific Palisades as the fire began spreading on Tuesday.The “Cocoon” actor expressed frustration at how some of those fleeing the blaze had abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the ritzy neighborhood.”If you leave your car… leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there. It’s really, really important,” he told a live television broadcast.Reality TV personalities Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from “The Hills,” an MTV show that ran until 2010, said they had lost their house after evacuating.”I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt wrote on Snapchat.

US Federal Reserve officials raised concerns in December that the fight against inflation may have “stalled” in recent months, and weighed the likely impact of Trump’s trade policies, according to minutes of the meeting published Wednesday.The central bank voted 11-to-1 last month in favor of cutting interest rates by a quarter point and signaled a slower pace of cuts ahead, raising concerns that interest rates may have to remain higher for longer. The decision was taken against the backdrop of a small uptick in inflation over the last few months of the year, moving the Fed’s favored inflation gauge away from its long-term target of two percent.At the same time, growth has remained robust and the labor market relatively resilient, reducing the pressure on the Fed to cut rates swiftly. The Fed’s decision to cut rates to between 4.25 and 4.50 percent was not unanimous — an unusual occurrence — with Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack voting to leave rates unchanged.During the meeting, “several” members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee raised concerns that the “disinflationary process may have stalled temporarily or noted the risk that it could,” the Fed said in minutes of the meeting published on Wednesday.”Almost all participants judged that upside risks to the inflation outlook had increased,” it added.  Fed officials were also concerned about how to model the likely impact of changes to trade and immigration policy pledged by Donald Trump on the inflation fight — although they did not refer to the Republican president-elect by name. Trump’s team has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on goods entering the United States and to deport millions of undocumented workers, leading many economists to predict inflation could be higher than previously predicted, and growth lower. Trump and his economic advisors have challenged those assumptions, insisting that his policies will be both disinflationary and pro-growth.”Recent higher-than-expected readings on inflation, and the effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy, suggested that the process could take longer than previously anticipated,” the Fed said. Some officials chose to factor assumptions about trade and immigration into their economic forecasts, while others chose not to do so, and some refused to say whether or not they did. A few participants also said it “might be difficult to distinguish more persistent influences on inflation from potentially temporary ones, such as those stemming from changes in trade policy.”Futures traders see a roughly 95 percent chance that the Fed will keep its key lending rate unchanged at the next rate decision later this month, according to data from CME Group.

Several senior US Federal Reserve officials raised concerns in December that the fight against inflation may have “stalled” in recent months, according to minutes of the meeting published Wednesday.The central bank voted 11-to-1 last month in favor of cutting interest rates by a quarter point and signaled a slower pace of cuts ahead, raising concerns that interest rates would have to remain higher for longer. The decision was taken against the backdrop of a small uptick in inflation over the last few months of the year, moving the Fed’s favored inflation gauge away from its long-term target of two percent.At the same time, growth has remained robust and the labor market relatively resilient, reducing the pressure on the Fed to cut rates swiftly. The Fed’s decision to cut rates to between 4.25 and 4.50 percent was not unanimous — an unusual occurrence — with Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack voting to leave rates unchanged.During the meeting, “several” members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee raised concerns that the “disinflationary process may have stalled temporarily or noted the risk that it could,” the Fed said in minutes of the meeting published on Wednesday.”Almost all participants judged that upside risks to the inflation outlook had increased,” it added.  Fed officials were also concerned about how to model the likely impact of changes to trade and immigration policy pledged by Donald Trump, although they did not refer to the president-elect by name. Some chose to factor some assumptions into their economic forecasts, while others chose not to do so, and some refused to say whether or not they had. Trump has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on goods entering the United States, and to implement a policy of mass deportation of undocumented workers, leading many economists to predict inflation could be higher than previously predicted, and growth lower. Trump and his economic advisors have challenged those assumptions, insisting that his policies will be disinflationary and pro-growth.During their rate discussions, a few participants said it “might be difficult to distinguish more persistent influences on inflation from potentially temporary ones, such as those stemming from changes in trade policy that could lead to shifts in the level of prices.”Before the minutes were published, futures traders assigned a probability of around 95 percent that the Fed would keep its key lending rate unchanged at its next rate decision later this month, according to CME Group.

Mexico’s president took a swipe at Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying that the United States should be called “Mexican America,” after Trump’s vow to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”At her regular morning press conference, Claudia Sheinbaum displayed a 17th-century world map showing North America as “Mexican America.”Pointing out that the Gulf of Mexico was the name recognized by the United Nations, she turned the tables on Trump, saying: “Why don’t we call it (the United States) Mexican America?””It sounds nice, doesn’t it?””He talked about name, we too are talking about the name,” she said, while assuring that she expected to have “good relations” with the incoming US president.Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on January 20, said Tuesday he planned to rename the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring.””It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country,” he said.He also claimed that Mexico was run by drug cartels, to which Sheinbaum responded that “in Mexico, the people rule.”In the run-up to his return to office, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Mexico, threatening to impose stiff tariffs on imports from one of the United States’ biggest trading partners unless it halted the flow of illegal migrants and drugs across the border.He has also revived a threat from his first term to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups.

People living all over Los Angeles were urged Wednesday to conserve water after hydrants ran dry as major wildfires erupted around the city.Firefighters battling out-of-control blazes struggled with supplies in the ritzy Pacific Palisades area of the city, utility managers said, blaming an unprecedented challenge to the city’s reserves.Massive tanks supplying water to the area ran dry overnight as dozens of hoses were attached in an almost fruitless effort to save homes in a blaze that has leveled around 1,000 buildings.”We have three large water tanks, about a million gallons each,” Los Angeles Department of Water and Power chief executive Janisse Quinones told reporters.”We ran out of water in the first tank about 4:45pm yesterday, we ran out of water on the second tank about 8:30pm and the third tank about 3am this morning.”That’s where the hydrants went dry.”Quinones said more water was being pumped to the area to help keep the hydrants flowing, but the size of the supply lines and the fact that water had to be pumped uphill was complicating matters.”I need our customers to really conserve water, not just in the Palisades area, but the whole system, because the fire department needs the water to fight the fires,” Quinones said.”We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging.”Quinones said residents in certain areas should boil their tap water because of low supplies and pollution.”Because we’re pushing the water system so hard, our water quality is decreasing. So we’re going to be issuing a boil water notice this morning, and that will extend for about 48 hours,” she said.”The water quality is low. We have a lot of ash in the system, and so please, if you’re going to be drinking water, you need to boil the water.”Four major fires were burning around Los Angeles. Two people are known to have died, with a large number of people badly hurt, officials said.Tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, and firefighters are stretched extremely thin fighting blazes that remain entirely uncontrolled.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to publicly release the special counsel’s report on the prosecution of Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Justice Department said Wednesday.Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped the federal criminal case against Trump after he won November’s presidential election but Smith has compiled a report summarizing the findings.The Justice Department said Garland does not plan to publicly release Smith’s report on the other case brought against Trump — for removing large quantities of top secret documents after leaving the White House.Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the documents case against the former and future president last year but charges are still pending against two of his former co-defendants.Cannon, in a ruling on Tuesday, barred Smith and Garland from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report” until an appeals court hears arguments from the pair — Trump’s long-time valet and a Mar-a-Lago employee.The Justice Department asked the appeals court on Wednesday to overturn Cannon’s ruling but said Garland — “to avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants” — does not intend to publicly release the report on the documents case while it is ongoing.Trump, 78, was accused by Smith of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden and stashing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.Trump attacked Smith at a news conference on Tuesday, calling him a “deranged individual.””Why should he be allowed to write a fake report?” the Republican president-elect said. “It’ll be a fake report just like the investigation was a fake investigation.”Smith dropped the cases against Trump, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, after the election citing a Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.- ‘Political stunt’ -Trump’s attorneys have urged Garland not to release the reports.”Smith’s proposed plan for releasing a report is unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest,” they said in a letter to Garland.Releasing the report “would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump,” his attorneys said.Garland allowed the release last year of a report by another special counsel, Robert Hur, into Biden’s handling of classified documents while vice president.Hur declined to file any charges against Biden but in a politically damaging aside described him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”Trump additionally faced two state cases — in New York and Georgia.He was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.Sentencing in that case has been set for Friday but Judge Juan Merchan has said he is not inclined to impose jail time. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a last-minute bid to block his sentencing.In Georgia, Trump faces racketeering charges over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, but that case will likely be frozen while he is in office.

Rampaging wildfires around Los Angeles have killed at least two people and caused a “significant number” of serious injuries, officials tackling the terrifying blazes said Wednesday.More than 1,000 buildings have burned in multiple wildfires that have erupted around America’s second biggest city, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.Hurricane-force winds have whipped up fireballs that have leapt from home to home in the upmarket Pacific Palisades area, torching a swathe of California’s most desirable real estate.”We have well over 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) that have burned, and the fire is growing,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told reporters.”We have no percentage of containment. We have an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed… and a high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate.”A second major fire was burning around Altadena, north of the city, where footage showed flames consuming whole streets.”We have over 2,000 acres burning at this time, and the fire continues to grow with zero percent containment,” Marrone said.”We have over 500 personnel assigned, and unfortunately, we have two reported fatalities to civilians, unknown cause at this time. And we do have a number of significant injuries. We have over 100 structures destroyed.”Two other blazes in the area were also stretching resources.Vicious gusts were pushing the flames, whipping red-hot embers hundreds of meters (yards), sparking new spot fires faster than firefighters could quell them.As dawn broke, a vast pall of smoke was visible over Los Angeles, with the acrid tang of burning in the air.City mayor Karen Bass warned that the “windstorm is expected to worsen through the morning” in a post on X early Wednesday.Some firefighters were facing water shortages at hydrants in the Palisades, the Los Angeles Times reported.Emmy-award-winning actor James Woods posted a video showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his home as he evacuated, adding all the fire alarms were going off.”I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.- ‘Ran to the car’ -The first wildfire erupted on Tuesday morning and spread quickly, taking many residents by surprise.Pacific Palisades resident Andrew Hires told AFP he got a text alerting him to the fire as his child was at the dentist about to have a tooth extracted.”We pulled off the mask and ran to the car,” he said.Trees and vegetation around the Getty Villa were burned, but the structure and collections were spared, the museum said.The Getty, set up by US oil billionaire and collector J. Paul Getty and one of the world’s richest art museums, houses Greek and Roman antiquities in a replica Roman country home.The fire came as the area was being hit by seasonal Santa Ana winds that forecasters said could develop into the worst windstorm in a decade, with gusts of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour.”This looks pretty concerning,” said meteorologist Daniel Swain.Wildfires are part of life in the US West and play a vital role in nature.But scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, which sparked furious vegetative growth — leaving the region packed with fuel and primed to burn.

World-famous actors, musicians and celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people affected by terrifying wildfires tearing through Los Angeles on Wednesday.The world’s entertainment capital was besieged by out-of-control blazes that were burning on multiple fronts, spread by hurricane-force winds that had left hundreds of firefighters almost helpless.Dozens of homes were known to have been lost in the swanky Pacific Palisades area, a favorite spot for celebrities where multimillion dollar houses nestle on beautiful hillsides.Emmy award-winning actor James Woods posted a video on X showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his home as he got ready to evacuate, and shortly afterward said all the fire alarms were going off.”I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.”Star Wars” star Mark Hamill told his followers on Instagram that he had fled his Malibu home on Tuesday.”Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH,” he wrote, referring to the Pacific Coast Highway, a scenic road that connects seafront settlements.The Luke Skywalker actor said he and his wife Marilou York, along with a pet dog, had gone to their daughter’s Hollywood home to escape what he dubbed the “most horrific fire since ’93.”Steve Guttenberg — star of 1984 comedy “Police Academy” — was among those helping get people out of Pacific Palisades as the fire began spreading on Tuesday.The “Cocoon” actor expressed frustration at how some of those fleeing the blaze had abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the ritzy neighborhood.”If you leave your car… leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there. It’s really, really important,” he told a live television broadcast.”This Is Us” actress Mandy Moore was also among those who fled, taking her children and pets with her, according to an Instagram post.”Praying and grateful for the first responders,” she wrote.Reality TV personalities Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from “The Hills,” an MTV show that ran until 2010, said they had lost their house after evacuating.”I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt wrote on Snapchat.

Joe Biden thinks he could have won reelection if he had stayed in the White House race, he said in an interview published Wednesday — while conceding he was unsure if he would have served another full term.The 82-year-old Democrat, who leaves office on January 20, was asked by USA Today if he believed victory over Republican Donald Trump was a realistic prospect last November, and he pointed to unspecified polling and said: “I think yes.””I really thought I had the best chance of beating him. But I also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old. And so I did talk about passing the baton,” Biden said.”But I don’t know. Who the hell knows? So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”Biden, the oldest US president in history, faced persistent questions about his mental fitness before withdrawing from the election after a calamitous televised debate against Trump in which he looked incapable of making the case for another term.He has given fewer sit-down interviews and press conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan, and USA Today was the only print outlet scheduled for a one-to-one before Biden leaves office.Biden was asked about regrets from the last four years but did not mention the presidential debate, or his decision to break his promise to be a single-term president and a “bridge” to next generation.Instead, he complained about misinformation — pointing to falsehoods to spread by Trump and others about two New Year’s Day attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas — and to the glacial pace of infrastructure projects.”I think we would’ve been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these projects in the ground quicker,” he said.Washington has been abuzz with discussion since Trump’s victory over potential preemptive pardons for those who may be in the Republican leader’s crosshairs when he returns to office.Biden confirmed that he was considering the idea but had not yet come to a decision.He described how he told Trump during their Oval Office meeting shortly after the election not to go after perceived enemies, warning that it was “counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores.”Trump listened but did not offer a response, Biden said.  For his legacy, the veteran Democrat said he wanted to be remembered for having a plan to restore the post-pandemic economy and reestablish American global leadership.”That was my hope. I mean, you know, who knows?” Biden said. “And I hope (history) records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind.”