AFP USA

Stock markets mostly rose Tuesday with traders’ attention fixed on President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff plans, earnings updates and upcoming inflation data.A report suggesting Trump could slowly hike import tariffs provided support and put a cap on the dollar’s latest surge.However, traders remain concerned that his pledges to cut taxes, regulations and immigration continue to dampen sentiment with warnings that the measures will revive inflation.Traders have slashed their expectations on how many times the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates through 2025 to one.But some fear the Fed’s next move could even be a rate hike owing to still-sticky inflation and concerns over Trump’s policies.Data on Tuesday showed US wholesale inflation for December was lower than expected, with no change in the Producer Price Index over the month when volatile food and energy prices are excluded. Wall Street’s three main indexes all opened higher.Investors will be paying more attention to US and UK consumer price inflation data due on Wednesday.”With rate expectations now the driving force behind market moves, key inflation data midweek will continue to shape the narrative for the early parts of 2025,” noted Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.European stock markets were mostly higher in afternoon trading.In Asia, Hong Kong and Shanghai rallied as China’s securities regulator said it was looking at ways to provide more stability to markets.This followed another run of poor performances sparked by worries over the world number two economy and Trump’s threatened tariffs.- Dollar mixed -The dollar traded mixed against major peers Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that members of Trump’s team were looking at a gradual increase in tariffs to boost their negotiating hand and tamper inflationary pressures.Traders were spooked when he said soon after his re-election that he would impose huge levies on China, Canada and Mexico as soon as he took office.The pound remained stuck close to levels not seen since the end of 2023. The euro was near its weakest since late 2022, with fears it could return to parity with the dollar.The yen edged up against the greenback as the yield of Japan’s 40-year government bond hit its highest since being launched in 2007, with debate returning to whether the country’s central bank will hike interest rates at next week’s policy meeting.Eyes were also on earnings. In London, shares in retailer JD Sports slumped 7.3 percent after it warned on profits. Energy giant BP shed 2.1 percent on a weak trading update, capping gains on the benchmark FTSE 100 index.On the upside, Paris was lifted by rising share prices of French banks. “This earnings season will set the tone for financial stocks in 2025, but the stakes are high,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets.”Even with solid fourth-quarter results, the macro backdrop — characterised by lingering inflation concerns, steeper yields, and recalibrated Fed expectations — may weigh on sentiment.”- Key figures around 1430 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 42,473.55 pointsNew York – S&P: UP 0.5 percent at 5,863.70New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 19,212.80London – FTSE 100: UP less than 0.1 percent at 8,218.15Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 7,463.15Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 20,297.87Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.8 percent at 38,474.30 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.8 percent at 19,219.78 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 2.5 percent at 3,240.94 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0267 from $1.0224 on MondayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2158 from $1.2180Dollar/yen: UP at 157.79 yen from 157.65 yenEuro/pound: UP at 84.44 pence from 83.90 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.7 percent at $76.78 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.7 percent at $80.42 per barrelburs-rl/lth

Furious at the prospect of a US government ban on social media platform TikTok, American users have flocked to another Chinese-owned app in droves, many with a defiant message: “Take my data!”TikTok has become another battleground showcasing China-US tensions, with President Joe Biden’s administration accusing the app of allowing Beijing to collect data and spy on users — claims denied by China and TikTok’s owner ByteDance. The United States passed a law last year forcing ByteDance to either sell the platform or shut it down by January 19.With that deadline looming, Xiaohongshu — a lifestyle-focussed Instagram-meets-Pinterest alternative — surged to the top of the Apple App Store downloads on Monday.The hashtag “tiktokrefugee” had more than 100 million views by Tuesday evening.”They are trying to ban TikTok because they said China is stealing information. They don’t ban any American company from stealing our information,” user penguinpepperpia, who has more than 264,000 TikTok followers, told AFP.  The content creator downloaded Xiaohongshu rather than return to US platforms such as Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, which they characterised as apps for “older people” that also “steal your personal information and sell it to other companies”. “That is why many Americans don’t care anymore and we would rather let China have our information,” said the user.Other “refugees” shared similar sentiments.New Xiaohongshu user Adham said in a video posted on Monday: “I know our government is a little bit racist, but Chinese people, I love you guys. I don’t care if you take my data. Take it.”- ‘Deliciously ironical’ –  The phenomenon showed how “foolish” the TikTok ban was, Milton Mueller, a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy who filed a brief in opposition of the ban to the US Supreme Court, told AFP. “It is deliciously ironical that the threat of a ban is backfiring so quickly, even before it is put into place,” he said.”It does seem as if the TikTok ban is pushing users towards other apps that have a much less clear division between the Chinese Communist Party and the app itself,” Duke University’s Robyn Caplan said.Neither Xiaohongshu or ByteDance commented on the situation when asked.What the phenomenon showed was that the Biden administration’s strategy towards Chinese technology of “small yard, high fence” was not effective, said the London School of Economic’s Meng Bingchun. “The yard keeps getting bigger, and the fence is leaky,” Meng said.”Worse still, in this case, those living within the fence can be migratory in the digital space.”- Short-term reaction? -Until Monday, Xiaohongshu — or RedNote in English — was popular primarily among Chinese-speaking users. It boasted 300 million monthly active users at the end of 2023. Unlike TikTok’s sister app Douyin or the micro-blogging site Weibo, Xiaohongshu skews heavily towards lifestyle content.It is seen as facing relatively less censorship than other platforms: users can be found posting LGBTQ content and discussing the merits of women remaining single, topics often considered sensitive in China.For “native” Xiaohongshu users on Monday, the influx of Americans was a head-scratcher but also provided an unexpected opportunity for cultural exchange.Some even asked for help with English homework.In public group chats on the platform, new users asked for translations of slang terms, as well as keywords to search for content they wanted.”It’s funny and ironic that the Americans and the Chinese are meeting online under the circumstance that the US government is banning TikTok… similar to what the Chinese government has been doing for ages to American apps,” 26-year-old Amanda Zhang told AFP. The part-time pet content creator, who studies in the United States, said she was worried the US government might move to ban Xiaohongshu too if it gained enough traction.It remains unclear what the long-term implications of the shift will be. Xiaohongshu’s main challenge to retaining these new users is translation, Caplan said. LSE’s Meng added: “My hunch is that what we are witnessing now is more of a short-term reaction than a long-term trend.”The question now is whether there will be a critical mass of these refugees to achieve the desired network effect for the platform, and whether Xiaohongshu will respond quickly enough to harness the new users.”

US President-elect Donald Trump would have been convicted for his alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election result if he hadn’t been re-elected four years later, said a report by then special counsel Jack Smith released early Tuesday.In a case that never went to trial, Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday, was accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.However, the US Department of Justice’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind,” said the report, which was released after midnight.”Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the (Special Counsel’s) Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”The proceeding referred to in the charges was the session of Congress called to certify President Joe Biden’s election win that was violently attacked on January 6, 2021, by a mob of Trump’s supporters who stormed the US Capitol.Smith, who was special counsel appointed to investigate Trump, dropped the case after the Republican won November’s presidential election, citing the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.Trump, 78, hit back on his Truth Social platform soon after the report’s release, calling Smith “deranged”, and adding that he “was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss’.””To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his Fake findings at 1:00 A.M. in the morning,” Trump added in another post.Trump’s attorneys had earlier urged US Attorney General Merrick Garland not to release the report, calling the plan to disclose it “unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest.”- ‘Change the results’ -Smith’s report details Trump’s alleged efforts to persuade state-level Republican lawmakers and leaders to “change the results” of the 2020 election.”Mr. Trump contacted state legislators and executives, pressured them with false claims of election fraud in their states, and urged them to take action to ignore the vote counts and change the results,” according to the report released by the Department of Justice.”Significantly, he made election claims only to state legislators and executives who shared his political affiliation and were his political supporters, and only in states that he had lost,” it said.In addition, the report alleges Trump and co-conspirators planned to organize individuals who would have served as his electors, if he had won the popular vote, in seven states where he lost — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “and cause them to sign and send to Washington false certifications claiming to be the legitimate electors.”They ultimately “used the fraudulent certificates to try to obstruct the congressional certification proceeding,” the report says, adding that Trump had “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort” to overturn the election results “in order to retain power.”The report says Trump’s untruths included dozens of demonstrably false claims that large numbers of ineligible voters, such as non-citizens, had cast ballots, and that voting machines had changed votes that had been for him.Trump, however, knew there was no fraud that would affect the election’s outcome and that he had lost, according to the report, in part because then vice-president Mike Pence and his advisers told him there was no evidence for his claims.The report says that, on January 2, 2021, days before election tallies would be certified, Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state and pushed him to “find 11,780 votes” — Biden’s margin of victory in the southern state.When the state official refuted Trump’s false claims, the then-president threatened him, the report says.Trump faces separate racketeering charges in Georgia over his efforts to subvert the election results in the state. That case will likely be frozen while he is in office.The special counsel office concluded that “Trump’s conduct violated several federal criminal statutes and that the admissible evidence would be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction.”Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed another federal case against the former and future president last year — over Trump’s handling of top secret documents after leaving the White House — but charges are still pending against two of his former co-defendants.Smith left the justice department last week, days after submitting his final report as special counsel.In another case, a judge sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge on Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the president-elect’s efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.

TikTok on Tuesday labeled as “pure fiction” a report that China is exploring a potential sale of the video-sharing platform’s US operations to billionaire Elon Musk as the firm faces an American law requiring imminent Chinese divestment.Citing anonymous people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Chinese officials were considering selling the company’s US operations to Musk’s social media platform X.The report outlined one scenario being discussed in Beijing where X would purchase TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance and combine it with the platform formerly known as Twitter.”We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told AFP.The report estimated the value of TikTok’s US operations at between $40 billion and $50 billion.Although Musk is currently ranked as the world’s wealthiest person, Bloomberg said it was not clear how Musk could execute the transaction, or if he would need to sell other assets.The US Congress passed a law last year that requires ByteDance to either sell its wildly popular platform or shut it down. It goes into effect on Sunday — a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.The US government alleges TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.TikTok has challenged the law, taking an appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.At the hearing, a majority of the conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member bench appeared skeptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok that forcing a sale was a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.Bloomberg characterized Beijing’s consideration of a possible Musk transaction as “still preliminary,” noting that Chinese officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.Musk is a close ally of Trump and is expected to play an influential role in Washington in the coming four years.He also runs electric car company Tesla, which has a major factory in China and counts the country as one of the automaker’s biggest markets.Trump has repeatedly threatened to enact new tariffs on Chinese goods, which would expand a trade war begun in his first term and which was largely upheld, and in some cases supplemented, by outgoing President Joe Biden.

Buckle up: Donald Trump returns to the White House next week for a second term that promises to be even more volatile — and hard-line — than his roller-coaster first presidency.Buoyed by his historic political comeback, the billionaire Republican has shown no sign of changing the bombastic style that shook the United States and the world from 2017 to 2021.”If you liked Trump One, you’re going to love Trump Two,” Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, told AFP.For all the talk of a more disciplined Trump, the 78-year-old — who will become the oldest person ever sworn in on January 20 — appears to be much the same mercurial figure as last time around.Before even setting foot back in the Oval Office, he has spoken of a new “golden age” even as he vows retribution against opponents and the media, and pledges the mass deportation of illegal migrants.Trump has also set off alarm bells around the globe, issuing outlandish territorial threats against US allies and stoking fears that he will throw Ukraine under the bus to win a peace deal with Russia.”Trump’s character is fundamentally the same,” said David Greenberg, professor of history and journalism at Rutgers University. “What we can expect to see is more of the unexpected.”- New normal – But if anything, Trump 2.0 is set to be even more powerful, and more extreme. A Trump presidency shocked many in 2016, but is now the new normal. Big tech and big business have rallied behind the man they largely shunned in his first term.Crucially Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and boss of the increasingly right-wing X social media platform, is at Trump’s side.”Everybody wants to be my friend,” the president-elect said in December.Many of the guardrails around Trump four years ago are gone, with diehard loyalists replacing the so-called “adults in the room” who tried to moderate his worst instincts.The Republican Party is firmly behind him in a way that wasn’t the case last time. The US House of Representatives and Senate are both in Republican hands — albeit with a tiny majority in the House — and few dare even murmur dissent.”Trumpism is the Republican Party today,” said Jon Rogowski of the University of Chicago, adding that Trump was now “more palatable to a wider range of the political spectrum.”Trump’s stunned critics have largely fallen mute during the transition. The once fervent accusations of “fascism” and authoritarianism have dimmed while even President Joe Biden, who described Trump as a “threat to democracy,” has toned down his rhetoric.Barely mentioned for now is the way Trump ended his first term — in disgrace after his election-denying supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 — or the fact that he will be the first convicted felon to be president.But former special counsel Jack Smith delivered a parting rebuke early Tuesday, in a report detailing Trump’s alleged criminal effort to overturn the 2020 election result that saw Biden win.The report said Trump would have been convicted at trial had Smith not dropped the case after the Republican was elected president in November last year.- ‘Professional wrestling’ -Trump will start his second term in a hurry, knowing that he’s limited to four more years — even if he has mused about a constitution-breaking third term.He is expected to sign around 100 executive actions in his first hours in office, possibly including pardons for some of the January 6 rioters.Trump’s first months are likely to focus on immigration and the economy, his electoral strong points, while Musk will lead efforts to gut the federal government.Trump has also picked an uncompromisingly controversial — and rich — cabinet, including the vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary.On the world stage, Trump is more provocative than ever. He has refused to rule out military action against strategic Greenland and Panama, while threatening US trading partners and neighbors Canada and Mexico with huge tariffs.Conversely, Trump says he wants talks with the leaders of Russia and China, strongmen he has long openly admired.The question is just how seriously Trump’s threats should be taken.”A really good metaphor for President Trump is professional wrestling,” said Loge. “The point is not the sport, the point is the spectacle.”This time around, the world may be more ready to deal with him, Loge added. “In the first Trump administration people responded to the spectacle. This time we may be responding more to the sport.”

Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees go under the microscope in a frenzied week on Capitol Hill starting Tuesday, as US senators hold confirmation hearings that could make or break their political careers.Thirteen nominees will be grilled before 11 committees, and while many will sail through, others face controversies ranging from alleged sexual assault and heavy drinking to their relationships with dictators and vaccine skepticism.The Trump picks have been in stringent preparations, taking part in mock hearings and coaching on how to negotiate tough questions while still maintaining unswerving loyalty to the president-elect.”This time, people view the nominees as an extension of Donald Trump and his agenda,” Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House spokesman, told CNN.”They’re not there to defend their own views. They’re there to defend Trump’s policies.” Senate Republicans are keen for Trump’s national security nominees to be confirmed quickly and Democrats may agree to fast-track some. But they are determined to throw up roadblocks in front of candidates they see as unfit.One of the first on the docket will be one of the most controversial — Pete Hegseth, the former Army National Guard officer and ex-Fox News host nominated for secretary of defense.Hegseth, whose hearing is on Tuesday morning, has faced allegations of sexual assault, financial misconduct and excessive drinking, and lingering questions over his views on women in the military. He also has no comparable management experience.Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Armed Services Committee, described Hegseth as “a guy with a track record of being so drunk at work events that he needed to be carried out on multiple occasions.””Can we really count on calling Hegseth at 2AM to make life and death national security decisions? Nope,” she said on X.Hegseth can only afford three Republican rejections and still be confirmed, should every Democrat and independent vote against him.- Fiery hearings -But he has maintained Trump’s support while the excoriating headlines have multiplied and Senate Republicans appear open to hearing him out.Former Democratic congresswoman turned Trumpist Tulsi Gabbard is another candidate whose lack of qualifications and experience have raised alarm bells, as well as her attitudes toward US adversaries.Gabbard met then Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and declared him “not the enemy.” She has also voiced sympathy for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Opposition appears to be softening however after she flipped her stance to support a controversial government intelligence-gathering program that she tried to repeal in 2020. Some pressure on the nominees is expected from both sides of the aisle, especially for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services and an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist.But former Florida senator and foreign policy hawk Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, is a sure bet with bipartisan support, and will likely be confirmed before Trump takes office on January 20.Rubio gets his hearing Wednesday, along with homeland security secretary nominee Kristi Noem, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi and CIA pick John Ratcliffe, who has been confirmed by the Senate before, as director of national intelligence.Bondi was Trump’s second choice after his initial pick, former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration after facing sexual misconduct and drug-taking allegations.Some of the most potentially fiery hearings are yet to be scheduled, including for Kennedy and Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to run the FBI.Patel — a conspiracy theorist who vowed in a podcast that Trump would “come after” journalists, lawyers and judges he believes haven’t treated him fairly — is not expected to get his confirmation hearing until February.Early Tuesday, Trump’s team lost a bid to prevent the release of a report by then-special counsel Jack Smith detailing the incoming president’s alleged criminal effort to overturn the 2020 election result that saw Joe Biden win.The report said Trump would have been convicted at trial — had Smith not dropped the case after the Republican was elected president in November last year.

The Los Angeles Rams reached the second round of the NFL playoffs on Monday as the Lakers and Clippers returned to NBA action in the fire-ravaged city, all paying tribute to first responders and offering solace to fans.”Sports are a lot of things and sports can certainly provide an escape and a distraction,” said Lakers coach JJ Redick, who lost the home he shared with his wife and two sons when the Palisades fire erupted last week.”Hopefully sports tonight can provide some joy as well,” Redick said.More than 90,000 people remained displaced Monday, seven days after multiple wind-driven blazes erupted.At least 24 people have been killed and thousands left without homes, and authorities warned that winds forecast to intensify again on Tuesday could lead to “extreme fire behavior and life-threatening conditions.”Two Lakers games and one Clippers game had been postponed before Monday’s contests went ahead, and both teams dedicated the night to the community and first responders.The Lakers fell to the San Antonio Spurs 126-102 at their Crypto.com Arena in downtown LA while the Clippers beat the Miami Heat 109-98 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood several miles south.Meanwhile the Rams dominated the Minnesota Vikings 27-9 in an NFL wild card round playoff game relocated to Glendale, Arizona, because of the fires.The Arizona Cardinals’ home stadium was transformed with the colors and logos of the Rams. The team chartered a convoy of buses to bring fans from Los Angeles, with people turning up at SoFi Stadium before dawn to start the six-hour trip.Fans brandished flags and signs thanking fire fighters and Rachel Platten performed her anthemic “Fight Song” in a pre-game ceremony.The song celebrating resilience fit the “LA Strong” message sent Monday by the city’s beloved teams.Earlier in the day, a dozen Los Angeles pro clubs pledged $8 million toward wildfire relief and outlined plans for three events to distribute supplies to those affected by blazes still ravaging the United States’ second-largest city.- Stand together -In addition to that concrete support, quarterback Matthew Stafford said the Rams hoped to provide a little emotional uplift as well.”We knew what we were playing for,” he said. “It’s a tough time to be back (in Los Angeles). We’re just happy that we came out and played like this tonight to get (fans) something to be happy about.”Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said he hoped his team’s game could “bring some smiles to some faces” although he acknowledged that “once these games are over it’s still back to real life.”Veteran James Harden, a Los Angeles native, scored 21 of his 26 points in the second half to fuel a Clippers comeback and after the game leaned in to the “LA Strong” theme.”We’re going through some tough times right now,” Harden said. “Something we’ve never seen before. So it’s very, very powerful for us to stand together… as one we can stand together and get through it.”Spurs veteran Chris Paul, a former Clipper whose family had to evacuate their Los Angeles home, said the uncertainty caused by the fires was hard on the visiting teams, too.”But I think us along with the Lakers probably were just excited to get a chance to hoop,” said Paul who was a teammate of Reddick when both were with the Clippers.He and Victor Wembanyama gave jerseys to Redick’s young sons after the game.Lakers star Anthony Davis was only sorry that the Lakers couldn’t come up with a victory.”One thing we found out during the course of Covid is sports kind of brings joy back to people, even if it’s temporary,” Davis said. “We were eager to play basketball again in front of our fans — it sucks that we weren’t able to get the win.”

A huge village has sprung up on the golden sands of a beach in Malibu, becoming a temporary home for thousands of firefighters from all over North America to eat, sleep and recuperate when they aren’t battling fires across Los Angeles.Around 5,000 first responders mingle among trailers and tents, where they are served calorie-laden breakfasts by inmates drafted in to help the enormous effort.”This is a small town that was built from the ground up,” firefighter Edwin Zuniga told AFP of the vast encampment at Zuma Beach, a few miles from the blazes.The camp comes to life before dawn, as thousands of firefighters line up for breakfast.Rows of tables are set against the backdrop of crashing waves in a vast open-air dining room.The standards of dozens of firefighting battalions mark the presence of crews from all over California and the western United States, as well as a contingent of newly arrived Mexicans.Emotional support dog Ember trots happily along, offering an enthusiastic greeting to anyone and everyone who wants to pet her, a welcome distraction from the long, hard days on the fire’s front lines.”The dogs are great,” says the dog’s trainer, firefighter Bari Boersma.”When people pet the dogs, their blood pressure comes down, and they just feel good for a minute,” she said.Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for many firefighters, a chance to load up on calories befores their shift.The chef’s choice on Monday morning was a big heap of “meat, eggs, taters and some kinda bread,” according to a menu.The food is prepared by a team of inmates from California’s prisons, brought in to help in one of the biggest disaster responses the state has ever seen.”This is just an honor and a privilege to be here, serving the community, paying my debt to society, just giving back to people,” Bryan Carlton, a 55-year-old who is serving his sentence at a correctional camp, told AFP. Carlton prepares about 400 gallons (1,500 liters) of coffee throughout his 12-hour shift.”Firefighters need their coffee,” he laughs.Correctional Officer Terry Cook, who supervises inmates at the base, said he occasionally sees a familiar face among the regular firefighters — someone who got themselves back on the straight and narrow after serving their sentence.”I’ve run into inmates that were at my camp two years ago, and I see them in line here, and I shake their hands, and I say ‘congratulations,'” he said.- Dangerous winds -Two huge fires in Los Angeles have scorched 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) since erupting in fierce winds last Tuesday.At least 24 people have died in the blazes, which have destroyed 12,000 structures and forced 92,000 people from their homes, including the well-to-do Pacific Palisades, just a few miles (kilometers) from the firefighters’ camp.After breakfast, teams prepare their vehicles and arm themselves with snacks, sandwiches, drinks and sweets. The disparate battalions swap anecdotes and souvenirs as they ready for the day’s morning briefing.New arrivals from chilly Colorado commend the accommodation — even if it was only sleeping bags on the sand — as considerably warmer than home.Others raise a hearty “Bienvenido!” to bid “welcome” in Spanish to a crew from Mexico that just got here.With the threat of dangerous winds across a swathe of the region, some units are charged with pouncing on new outbreaks, while others are tasked with tamping down the original blaze.Orders in hand, each team sets off, fanning out along streets into Pacific Palisades, or up into the untamed brush of Topanga Canyon.Along the way, they greet sooty and exhausted crews coming down from the hills after their day.For some, it is their first time in the field as part of this firefighting effort; for others, it is one more day in an already long week.- ‘Ready’ -As he readies to climb into Mandeville Canyon, Jake Dean says he has never seen a fire as destructive as this in his 26 years as a firefighter.”After the first day, many people that I’ve known for a long time in base camp barely recognized me,” he said. “My phone didn’t recognize me to turn on, I was so tired and dirty.”But with huge air operations eating into the fire on all fronts, Dean can feel the work paying dividends.”Today will be not so bad,” he said.”We’ll pace ourselves and drink lots of water and be ready for a long haul of work here and the next fire.”

Among the charred ruins of Pacific Palisades, Jeff Ridgway walks his dog Abby as if nothing has happened. Unlike the tens of thousands of people driven out by the wildfires, this janitor refused to evacuate.He has been holed up in his home in this upscale Los Angeles neighborhood for a week now, after defending the building with garden hoses and buckets of water.”It was just a war,” the 67-year-old Californian told AFP, pointing to a blackened eucalyptus tree that he prevented from burning, just in front of the apartment building where he lives and works.”But I was just stubborn. I was like: ‘I’m not going to be defeated by you. I’m sorry, this is just not gonna happen.'”After nearly 35 years living in this complex, Ridgway was determined to save its 18 apartments from the devastating flames.When the city ran out of water to spray, he resorted to scooping bucketloads from the swimming pool.”I just felt like I had a certain responsibility, both to my home and my stuff, but to their stuff,” he said, referring to the building’s tenants.Several fires continue to burn in Los Angeles, where at least 24 people have perished.In Pacific Palisades and across town in Altadena, police and military roadblocks have sealed off the worst-hit regions, even from residents trying to return.- ‘Smudge’ -But Ridgway never left, and does not want to end up in a hotel room or a shelter. So he continues to camp out in his apartment, despite the scenes of desolation outside his windows.The building’s tenants, who did leave, have sent him bottled water and food deliveries, via a kindly police officer.The assorted clementines, tomatoes and other supplies are enough to last “at least two weeks.”He even received fresh socks, and chicken jerky for his dog.”She’s very happy with her food now. And if she’s happy, then I’m pretty happy,” he said, smiling affectionately at his spaniel.Without electricity, he has been wearing the same clothes for days. “I need to get a shower,” admitted Ridgway, his tweed top and jeans caked in soot.”She needs to get a bath too,” he said, referring to his faithful pooch.”I’ve started calling her ‘Smudge,’ because she’s gotten so dirty.”Luckily, Ridgway is no stranger to rudimentary conditions — he recalls with fond nostalgia several rough-and-ready camping trips to the remote Yosemite National Park.- ‘Shangri-la’ -Pacific Palisades captured the heart of this former bookseller many years ago.For him, these hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean are not just a haunt of celebrity residents like Anthony Hopkins — a former “honorary mayor” of the community.”It’s a Shangri-la,” said Ridgway.”It’s also a real community. It’s got a huge history.”The neighborhood is home to the Getty Villa, an ancient Roman-style mansion with a rich collection of classical antiquities.Famed designers Charles and Ray Eames also constructed a studio on the hillsides. With its colorful concrete blocks, it has become a landmark of modern mid-century architecture.So far these gems have survived the flames.But a stone’s throw from Ridgway’s apartment, a mall with ornate facades that dated to 1924 is nothing more than ruins.”Ours is probably one of the older buildings in town now,” sighed the janitor, in his 1950s residence.Every year he looks forward to the July 4th Independence Day celebrations. Last year, the occasion drew tens of thousands of people to Pacific Palisades, where crowds watched as parachutists descended from the sky and landed on Sunset Boulevard.Ridgway is convinced his neighborhood will emerge from the fires to become a paradise once more, for the same reasons he originally fell in love with it.”Each of these lots without a house is still a one or two million dollar lot. It’s definitely going to come back,” he said.”At the end of the day, we still have the mountains right there, we have the ocean right there, and mostly we have a blue sky and good air quality. That’s what will bring people back.”

Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, called off the inaugural launch of its huge new rocket again on Monday evening after facing weather issues.The company said it would aim for early Thursday morning at the earliest, with a new three-hour window starting at 1:00 am (0600 GMT).An initial test launch of the towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of legendary American astronaut John Glenn, was scrubbed early Monday morning after repeated halts during the countdown.The company later said it had discovered an icing issue on a purge line and would aim for a possible early Tuesday morning launch, but that weather conditions were unfavorable.Shortly after 9:00 pm Monday (0200 GMT Tuesday), Blue Origin announced the launch had been postponed.With the mission, dubbed NG-1, Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: fellow tech innovator Elon Musk.Musk’s company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, which have become vital for the commercial sector, Pentagon and NASA.”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.Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX also plans another orbital test later this week of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket.- Landing attempt -When New Glenn does fly, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.SpaceX has made such landings now routine, but this will be Blue Origin’s first shot at the sci-fi feat.High seas last week caused the New Glenn launch to be pushed back several days.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 journey through 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 SpaceX’s 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.”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.