A new wildfire erupted north of Los Angeles on Wednesday, exploding in size and sparking thousands of evacuation orders in a region already staggering from the effects of huge blazes.Ferocious flames were devouring hillsides near Castaic Lake, spreading rapidly to cover 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) in just over two hours.The fire was being fanned by strong, dry Santa Ana winds that were racing through the area, pushing a vast pall of smoke and embers ahead of the flames.Evacuations were ordered for 19,000 people all around the lake, which sits around 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, and close to the city of Santa Clarita.”I’m just praying that our house doesn’t burn down,” one man told broadcaster KTLA as he packed his car.The fire came with the greater Los Angeles area still suffering after two enormous fires that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of structures.Robert Jensen from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department urged everyone in the impacted area of the new blaze — dubbed the Hughes Fire — to leave immediately.”We’ve seen the devastation caused by people failing to follow those orders in the Palisades and Eaton fires,” he said.”I don’t want to see that here in our community as well. If you’ve been issued an evacuation order, please get out.”Television footage showed police driving around the neighborhood urging people to get out.There are four county jails in the Lake Castaic area, housing 4,700 people, the American Civil Liberties Union said.”We have long opposed the expansion of the jail system especially in dangerous fire zones and we are gravely concerned for the safety of people incarcerated in those jails,” said Melissa Camacho, senior staff attorney with the ACLU SoCal.”We urge our county supervisors to direct the LA Sheriff’s Department to immediately organize the transportation needed to evacuate the jails without delay.”California Highway Patrol said the fire was impacting traffic on the I5, a major artery that runs the length of the US West Coast.Helicopters and planes were on the scene dropping water and retardant on the blaze.That fleet included two Super Scoopers, enormous amphibious planes that can carry hundreds of gallons (liters) of water.Crews from Los Angeles County Fire Department and Angeles National Forest were also attacking the blaze from the ground.It was not immediately clear what sparked the fire, but it occurred during red flag fire conditions — when meteorologists say strong winds and low humidity create conditions ripe for rapid fire spread.Smoke was visible southwest of the fire as far away as Thousand Oaks and west as far as Ventura on the Pacific Coast.

Donald Trump’s recent threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico are a negotiating tactic, the president’s long-time informal economic advisor argued Wednesday.”Donald Trump is doing exactly what any rational person would do understanding economics,” Arthur Laffer, one of the godfathers of supply-side economics, told AFP in an interview.”He’s using trade as a tool to exact other policies. It’s his leverage,” said Laffer, 84, who was an economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan and has long informally advised Trump, but is not part of his administration.”In order for that leverage to be true, in order for that leverage to really work, you have to be convinced that you will put those tariffs on,” he added.  Shortly after taking the oath of office on Monday, Trump said he was mulling new tariffs of 25 percent against the two close US allies starting February 1, accusing them of failing to tackle illegal immigration and drug trafficking.”I think President Trump believes that they could easily solve the immigration problem for the US, and they could make a big dent in the fentanyl problem,” Laffer said. Trump also threatened to impose a 10 percent tariff on China which, he said, had not done enough to tackle the flow of the synthetic opioid to Canada and Mexico, from where it is trafficked into the United States. Trump’s comments drew condemnation from Beijing and Ottawa, while Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said it was important to “keep a cool head and refer to signed agreements, beyond actual speeches.”Trump’s tariff and immigration proposals — which include the mass deportation of millions of undocumented workers — have been criticized as inflationary by many economists, who see these policies putting pressure on the Fed to pause interest rate cuts. Supporters such as Laffer and Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent have asserted the president’s planned supply-side tax and deregulation reforms should help counteract any temporary inflationary pressures from tariffs.Asked what economic policies he hoped Trump would enact, Laffer named a wish list of measures he wanted to see.  “I hope we get tariffs reduced dramatically, and non-tariff barriers reduced, and quotas reduced,” he said.”I hope we get the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act re-upped,” he added, referring to Trump’s 2017 package of tax cuts, some of which is set to expire at the end of this year. “And I hope we get deregulation, we get cutting in government spending, and we go to a supply-side economy where we have a low rate broad-based flat tax, spending restraint, sound money, minimal regulations, free trade,” he added.

President Donald Trump has halted arrivals of refugees already cleared to enter the United States, according to a memo seen Wednesday, as he quickly pursues a sweeping crackdown on migration.Following an executive order signed Monday hours after Trump took office, “all previously scheduled travel of refugees to the United States is being canceled,” said a State Department email to groups working with new arrivals.The memo asked the UN International Organization for Migration not to move refugees to transit centers and said that all processing on cases has also been suspended.Refugees already resettled in the United States will continue to receive services as planned, it said.Trump in each of his presidential campaigns has run on promises to crack down on undocumented immigration.But the refugee move also targets a legal pathway for people fleeing wars, persecution or disasters.In his executive order, he said he was suspending refugee admissions as of January 27 and ordered a report on how to change the program, in part by giving “greater involvement” to states and local jurisdictions, which he said were being “inundated.”It also revoked his predecessor Joe Biden’s decision to consider the impact of climate change in refugee admissions.Trump said during his election campaign that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” and earlier rose to prominence questioning the citizenship of Barack Obama, the first African-American president.- Shift at State Department -New Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said Wednesday that the State Department will “no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration. ””Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, will prioritize securing America’s borders, stopping illegal and destabilizing migration and negotiating the repatriation of illegal immigrants,” Rubio said in a statement.Biden had embraced the refugee program as a way to support people in need through legal means.In the 2024 fiscal year, more than 100,000 refugees resettled in the United States, the most in three decades.The Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar have been among the top sources of refugees in recent years.Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voiced alarm at Trump’s moves and said that acceptance of refugees was “a core American value.””The US Refugee Admissions Program has a long history of bipartisan support and is a life-saving tool for the most vulnerable refugees, all while making Americans safer by promoting stability around the world,” she said.The State Department memo said that Afghans who worked with the United States until the collapse of the Western-backed government in 2021 could still arrive through their separate resettlement program.But Shaheen voiced concern that Afghans were also being left in limbo with flights cancelled.The UN high commissioner for refugees estimates that there are 37.9 million refugees in the world, among some 122.6 million displaced people.Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, which advocates for refugees, said that Trump’s decision was “devastating” to people who had already lost so much.”Refugees go through one of the most rigorous vetting processes in the world, and it’s heartbreaking to see their dreams of safety derailed just days before, or in some cases, just hours before they were set to begin their new lives here,” she said.