24 dead as fire crews try to corral Los Angeles blazes before winds return this week
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters scrambled Sunday to make further progress against wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed 24 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 firefighters fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. “We are prepared for the upcoming wind event,” Marrone said. Fire retardant dropped by aircraft Sunday will act as a barrier along hillsides, officials 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.
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The California wildfires could be leaving deeper inequality in their wake
ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — The sight of celebrity mansions and movie landmarks reduced to ashes can make it seem like the wildfires roaring through the Los Angeles area affected a constellation of movie stars.
But a drive through the charred neighborhoods around Altadena shows that the fires also burned through a remarkable haven for generations of Black families avoiding discriminatory housing practices elsewhere. They have been communities of racial and economic diversity, where many people own their own homes.
Some now fear the most destructive fires in California’s history have altered that for good. Recovery and rebuilding may be out of reach for many, and pressures of gentrification could be renewed.
Samantha Santoro, 22, a first-generation college student at Cal Poly Pomona, remembered being annoyed when the initial news coverage of the wildfires focused more on celebrities. She and her sister, who attends UC Berkeley, worry how their Mexican immigrant parents and working-class neighbors who lost their homes in Altadena will move forward.
“We don’t have like, ‘Oh, I’ll just go to my second home and stay there,'" Santoro said.
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A dad and daughter help evacuees learn whether their homes survived the California wildfires
As the fire roared down a hillside toward their Altadena home, Vanessa Prata and her parents hurried to pack their car. They focused on saving irreplaceable items, like family photographs and a baby doll from Vanessa's childhood.
But they didn't leave.
Instead, the Pratas have remained in their family home of 27 years, which is somehow still standing amid widespread devastation from the Los Angeles wildfires, even as homes just over a block away burned. And as residents who did flee are kept away by police or military barricades, Prata and her dad have taken it upon themselves to check on their neighbors' homes.
“They’re sitting in these shelters. They’re not sure whether their house survived or didn’t survive,” Prata said. “Once you know what the situation is, you have an ability to regroup and see what you’re going to do moving forward.”
The fires raging around Los Angeles have consumed an area larger than San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. Since the fires first began Tuesday, they have burned more than 12,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and some vehicles, and killed at least 24 people. The White House said Saturday that the Department of Defense is making its nearby bases available for emergency shelter, including more than 1,000 available beds.
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Biden and Netanyahu discuss the latest in the effort to reach an Israel-Hamas war ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke Sunday about efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Israel-Hamas war, a sign of the intensifying push to reach a deal before Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
Talks mediated over the past year by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly stalled at moments when they seemed close to a deal. Still, in recent days, U.S. officials have expressed hope of sealing an agreement.
Sunday’s call between Biden and Netanyahu came as the head of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency, David Barnea, and Biden’s top Mideast adviser, Brett McGurk, were both in the Qatari capital Doha. Barnea’s presence, confirmed by Netanyahu’s office, meant high-level Israeli officials who would need to sign off on any agreement are now involved in talks.
McGurk has been working on final details of a text to be presented to both sides, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” But he said he would not predict whether a deal can be reached by Jan. 20, the day of the inauguration.
“We are very, very close,” he said. “Yet being very close still means we’re far because until you actually get across the finish line, we’re not there.”
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India kicks off a massive Hindu festival touted as the world's largest religious gathering
PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Millions of Hindu devotees, mystics and holy men and women from all across India flocked to the northern city of Prayagraj on Monday to kickstart the Maha Kumbh festival, which is being touted as the world's largest religious gathering.
Over about the next six weeks, Hindu pilgrims with gather at the confluence of three sacred rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — where they will take part in elaborate rituals, hoping to begin a journey to achieve Hindu philosophy’s ultimate goal: the release from the cycle of rebirth.
Here’s what to know about the festival:
Hindus venerate rivers, and none more so than the Ganges and the Yamuna. The faithful believe that a dip in their waters will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation, particularly on auspicious days. The most propitious of these days occur in cycles of 12 years during a festival called the Maha Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival.
The festival is a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at the confluence of three sacred rivers that dates to at least medieval times. Hindus believe that the mythical Saraswati river once flowed from the Himalayas through Prayagraj, meeting there with the Ganges and the Yamuna.
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Southern areas hit by winter storm thaw and power slowly returns
After a freezing winter storm shut schools, cut power and cancelled or delayed flights, the South was slowly thawing Sunday.
Crews worked furiously and by Sunday morning power had been restored to parts of North Carolina and South Carolina where tens of thousands of customers lost electricity over the last few days, according to Duke Energy.
Power was back for 97% of the retail customers served by Georgia Power — the state largest utility — which serves all but four of the state’s 159 counties, it said.
“Crews have not slowed down, in fact, we have brought in additional resources to help us get across the finish line,” a press release on The City of Atlanta Government's Facebook page read.
Much of the winter weather has moved out of the area, said Dylan Lusk, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Peachtree, Georgia.
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As Biden joins the former presidents club, here are some ideas for his retirement to-do list
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is about to have a lot more free time. He need look no further than past presidents for ideas on what to put on his retirement to-do list.
At age 82, Biden is the oldest U.S. president. In a recent interview with USA Today, he acknowledged uncertainty about his future stamina, saying, “Who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
But his age isn't remarkable for former presidents, nine of whom lived past 90. They include George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, John Adams, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter, who recently died at 100.
A look at some traditional — as well as a few decidedly less conventional — ways Biden might spend his upcoming years:
Unlike his presidential predecessor-turned-successor, Donald Trump, Biden almost certainly won't try a political comeback.
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States are preparing to help or thwart Trump's second-term plans
Do you live in a red state, a blue state, or one where Republicans and Democrats share power?
Your answer might provide the best indicator of what to expect from your governor and state lawmakers as President-elect Donald Trump takes office and legislatures convene.
In many cases, political party identification has come to define public policy, percolating from the nation’s capital down to the 50 statehouses.
Many Republican state officials are aligning with Trump's policies by pledging to help him crack down on illegal immigration, for example. Some Democratic state officials are mounting a resistance movement, looking for ways to shield their states from potential federal policies restricting abortion and transgender rights, among other things. Some prominent Democratic governors, meanwhile, have taken a more conciliatory approach in an effort to forge a working relationship with the new administration.
Here's a look at what to expect in some policy areas:
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Canada's Trudeau urges US consumers to consider the harm of Trump's tariff threats
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canada's outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday suggested that President-elect Donald Trump's remarks about Canada becoming America's “51st state” has distracted attention from the harm that steep tariffs would inflict on U.S. consumers.
Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports.
“The 51st state, that’s not going to happen," Trudeau said in an interview with MSNBC. “But people are talking about that, as opposed to talking about what impact 25% tariffs (has) on steel and aluminum coming into the United States."
Trudeau told MSNBC: "No American wants to pay 25% more for electricity or oil and gas coming in from Canada. That’s something I think people need to pay a little more attention to.”
Trump has also said that if Canada merged with the U.S., taxes would decrease and there would be no tariffs.
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North Korean troops in Ukraine gain battlefield experience, cementing alliance with Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — For weeks, Ukrainian troops braced for an unfamiliar enemy: North Korean soldiers sent to bolster Moscow’s forces after Ukraine launched a lightning-fast incursion and seized territory in Russia's Kursk region over the summer.
Their arrival marked a new and alarming phase in the war. And while initially inexperienced on the battlefield, North Korean troops have adapted quickly — a development that could have far-reaching consequences as they gain combat knowledge in the war against Ukraine.
Unlike the Russian troops Ukraine has been battling for nearly three years, Kyiv’s forces were uncertain about what to expect from this new adversary, drawn into the war after Moscow and Pyongyang signed an agreement pledging military assistance using “all means” if either were attacked.
One Ukrainian soldier who has witnessed North Koreans in battle described them as disciplined and highly methodical, saying they were more professional than their Russian counterparts. The soldier spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the sensitive military issue.
However, other soldiers, including Ukrainian special forces, have shared battlefield drone footage on the Telegram messaging app mocking their tactics as outdated.
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