{"id":211030,"date":"2025-01-08T23:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T23:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/thursday-briefing-los-angeles-battles-deadly-wildfires\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T23:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T23:08:09","slug":"thursday-briefing-los-angeles-battles-deadly-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/thursday-briefing-los-angeles-battles-deadly-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Briefing: Los Angeles Battles Deadly Wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/09\/multimedia\/09ambriefing-asia-fire-jqhk\/09ambriefing-asia-fire-jqhk-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Thursday Briefing: Los Angeles Battles Deadly Wildfires\" title=\"Thursday Briefing: Los Angeles Battles Deadly Wildfires\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-150cdda9\">Deadly wildfires ravage Southern California as water runs low<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Multiple out-of-control blazes in the Los Angeles area yesterday killed at least two people and seriously injured many others. The fires destroyed homes and businesses and blanketed highways in smoke. Officials warned of a dwindling water supply and said the worst was yet to come. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2025\/01\/08\/us\/california-wildfire-la-palisades\" title=\"\">Follow our live coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, and more areas were placed under evacuation orders by the hour. At least 18 school districts reported closures, and about 400,000 energy customers were without power. Air quality worsened as smoke poured into the sky. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/01\/08\/weather\/los-angeles-fire-maps-california.html\" title=\"\">Here\u2019s a map of the evacuations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hurricane-level winds in the area reached as high as 160 kilometers per hour, fueling the fires and hampering efforts to contain the devastation. Multiple firefighting agencies responded with strike teams, but the wind forced them to ground aircraft, making the fires particularly difficult to fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Context:<\/strong> The winter and late fall tend to produce catastrophic fires in California, and scientists have found that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2025\/01\/08\/us\/california-wildfire-la-palisades\/wildfire-speed?smid=url-share\" title=\"\">fires in the region have been moving faster<\/a>. An analysis of 60,000 wildfires in the contiguous U.S. between 2001 and 2020 found that growth rates had increased over the decades in California and other parts of the West. As areas there become hotter and dryer, the ground becomes more flammable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-6136396\">World leaders reacted to Trump\u2019s foreign policy threats<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump suggested that the U.S. might reclaim the Panama Canal by military intervention. Then he hinted that the same thing could be done to annex Greenland. He also threatened to use \u201ceconomic force\u201d to make Canada part of the U.S. and suggested that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the \u201cGulf of America.\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2025\/01\/08\/us\/trump-news\" title=\"\">The responses from world leaders were mixed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe sovereignty of our canal is nonnegotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest,\u201d Panama\u2019s foreign minister, Javier Mart\u00ednez-Acha, said. Residents of Greenland <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/world\/asia\/greenland-trump-denmark.html\" title=\"\">appeared to be bewildered and anxious<\/a>. \u201cThis is all getting scary,\u201d a native Greenlander said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Canada was blunt. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded in a social media post that \u201cthere isn\u2019t a snowball\u2019s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.\u201d Mexico had some fun with it. During a news conference yesterday, President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected several of Trump\u2019s assertions and joked that the U.S. should be renamed \u201cMexican America.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Related: <\/strong>Trump vowed that \u201call hell will break out in the Middle East\u201d if Israeli hostages were not freed in the next two weeks. Gazans were left to wonder: <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/world\/middleeast\/trump-hostages-gaza-israel.html\" title=\"\">If this is not hell, then what is<\/a>?<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/><\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-5f955637\">U.K. released evidence from a war crimes inquiry in Afghanistan<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">British special forces soldiers used extreme methods against militants in Afghanistan, according to testimony released yesterday as part of a British Ministry of Defense inquiry into allegations of war crimes. The evidence paints a disturbing portrait of an elite fighting force acting with impunity and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/world\/europe\/uk-afghanistan-war-crimes.html\" title=\"\">putting body counts above all other benchmarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The testimony came from email exchanges, letters and witness statements by senior officers and rank-and-file soldiers. One member of a British unit said that the troops acted as if they had \u201ca golden pass allowing them to get away with murder.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Armia Khalil, an artist who worked as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, met a visitor in 2023 who was clearly looking for something specific. Their five-minute talk in the museum\u2019s Egypt wing changed Khalil\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The visitor turned out to be a museum curator planning an exhibition. After Khalil showed him his art, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/nyregion\/egyptian-artist-metropolitan-museum-exhibit.html\" title=\"\">it was included in the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Lives lived:<\/strong> Perry, the miniature donkey who was the model for Donkey in the \u201cShrek\u201d franchise, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/07\/us\/shrek-donkey-perry-dead.html\" title=\"\">has died at 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-5a58db9a\">What determines longevity?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There are countless people who live to be 100 years old, and their daily habits don\u2019t always adhere to common medical advice \u2014 they drink, they smoke, they don\u2019t exercise. Helen Reichert, a cigarette smoker who lived for more than a century, outlived all the doctors who told her to quit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But decades of research have shown cases like Reichert\u2019s to be more of an anomaly than a motivation to let loose. So, how much of a person\u2019s longevity comes down to lifestyle, and how much is because of luck \u2014 or lucky genetics?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both can be factors in how long you live. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/well\/longevity-influences-genetics-lifestyle.html\" title=\"\">Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-1uuxri4 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-705d9918\"><span><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">RECOMMENDATIONS <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/briefing\/california-wildfires-trump-panama-afghanistan.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deadly wildfires ravage Southern California as water runs low Multiple out-of-control blazes in the Los Angeles area yesterday killed at least two people and seriously injured many others. The fires destroyed homes and businesses and blanketed highways in smoke. Officials warned of a dwindling water supply and said the worst was yet to come. Follow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/09\/multimedia\/09ambriefing-asia-fire-jqhk\/09ambriefing-asia-fire-jqhk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2460,8158,235,11100,2459,9086,5907],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211032,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211030\/revisions\/211032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}