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Legislation to reduce the impact of increasingly devastating forest fires on US federal land passed the House of Representatives on Thursday as firefighters battled to tame the latest in a series of blazes threatening southern California.One of the first bills to pass the lower chamber of Congress in Donald Trump’s presidency, the Fix Our Forests Act would increase the pace and scale of forest management projects by speeding up environmental reviews, deterring frivolous lawsuits.It was reintroduced after passing the House of Representatives last September with overwhelming bipartisan support but did not make it through the Senate, and will need to compete for floor space in the upper chamber before it can be signed into law.It passed the House comfortably in a 279-141 vote but environmental groups said the bill had been “misleadingly” named and would open public lands to massive logging projects under the guise of preventing wildfires. “This is nothing more than a bill of goods that will do little of anything to combat fires and instead plays favorites with the timber industry which is hungry to consume more of our forests — removing large fire-resilient trees and devastating the lands and species which call them home,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife.The group said the bill would remove science from land management decisions and weaken protections for endangered species. The vote came with the greater Los Angeles area on edge after two enormous fires tore through America’s second largest metropolis, killing more than two dozen people and wreaking billions of dollars of devastation.Firefighters on Thursday were trying to tame a new blaze in Castaic, 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, that forced 31,000 people to flee their homes.Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted Democratic leaders in Los Angeles and California for having “mismanaged virtually every aspect” of the wildfires, leaving a reservoir empty and allowing forest debris to pile up near homes.”They assumed the risk because they advanced their radical political agenda, and now people are paying a heavy price for that,” he told reporters.”We think that needs to be taken into account going forward, but the bipartisan Fix our Forest Act will do what the governor of California would not do, and that is restore the health of our forests and make communities more resilient to wildfires.”

The US Senate on Thursday confirmed John Ratcliffe with overwhelming bipartisan support as director of the CIA, filling a key post in President Donald Trump’s national security team.The upper house of the US legislature voted 74-25 to approve Ratcliffe, who served as the director of national intelligence from 2020-2021 during Trump’s first term in office.Ratcliffe said during his confirmation hearing last week that under his leadership, the agency would “produce insightful, objective, all-source analysis, never allowing political or personal biases to cloud our judgment or infect our products.”He also zeroed in on Beijing, saying the CIA needs to “continue and increase in intensity the focus on the threats posed by China and its ruling Chinese Communist Party.”And he emphasized the importance of having the agency focus on technology as a target, saying that understanding adversaries’ capabilities on that front “is more important than ever.”Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor, was a US representative for Texas from 2015-2020 — a period in which he helped defend Trump during the first impeachment proceedings against him.Trump then appointed Ratcliffe to serve as the director of national intelligence, leading the US intelligence community and serving as the president’s main advisor on that topic.

Several US states have reached a $7.4 billion settlement with the Sackler family and their pharmaceutical company Purdue over the opioid crisis that has ravaged the lives of millions of Americans, officials said Thursday.The opioid crisis, which has caused more than 500,000 deaths over 20 years in the United States, has triggered a flurry of lawsuits against drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies from victims and the authorities.Thursday’s settlement, which will see funds routed to communities and individuals affected by opioids, is the largest of several targeting the makers and sellers of the highly addictive drugs.The $7.4 billion settlement was agreed “in principle with members of the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma for their instrumental role in creating the opioid crisis,” New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office said in a statement.”The settlement ends the Sacklers’s control of Purdue and ability to sell opioids in the United States and will deliver funding directly to communities across the country over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs. “The $7.4 billion settlement in principle (is) the nation’s largest.”Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors were accused of encouraging free-wheeling prescription of their products through aggressive marketing tactics while hiding how addictive the drugs are.- Litigation avalanche -Facing an avalanche of litigation, in 2021 Purdue pled guilty to three criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin.The Sacklers have consistently denied wrongdoing over the opioid crisis.The settlement featured some 15 states including New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.”The Sackler family relentlessly pursued profit at the expense of vulnerable patients, and played a critical role in starting and fueling the opioid epidemic,” James said in a statement. “While no amount of money will ever fully repair the damage they caused, this massive influx of funds will bring resources to communities in need so that we can heal.”The settlement includes the eight heirs of the original Purdue founders Raymond and Mortimer Sackler who served on the company board — Richard, Kathe, Mortimer Jr, Ilene, David, and Theresa Sackler.For many people, opioid addiction begins with prescribed pain pills, before they increase their consumption and eventually turn to illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid.Opioid victims and their families addressed the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, directly in a US courtroom in March 2022 as part of the company’s bankruptcy case. “We buried Matthew and Kyle because of your family’s vicious acts of disregard for human life,” Liz Fitzgerald said of the deaths of two of her sons, who died at ages 32 and 25 after years of dealing with opioid addictions.”Two boys are gone because of your ‘safe’ medication,” Fitzgerald said.

Is there anybody out there? Yes! says a Republican congressman: the aliens are right under the ocean.US congressional Representative Tim Burchett said in an interview Wednesday that an admiral — whom he did not identify — had told him of an alien craft moving at incredible speeds in the sea.”They tell me something’s moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater… as large as a football field, underwater,” the Tennessee congressman told disgraced former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, who now hosts a show on right-wing news outlet One America News.”This was a documented case and I have an admiral telling me this stuff.”Burchett, known for claims that the US government is hiding existence of UFOs and other alien activity, said anything is possible given “the vastness of God’s great universe.”However, he told Americans not to worry about the suspected extraterrestrials’ extraordinary advances.”I’m not worried about them harming me,” he said. “I mean, with that capabilities, they would have barbecued us a long time ago.”No evidence has been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth.However, Congress has taken an increasingly serious look at reports of mystery flying objects, treating the once widely mocked topic of UFOs — now often dubbed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — into a serious issue.In March 2024, the Pentagon released a report that it had no proof of UFOs, saying that many suspicious sightings turned out to be merely weather balloons, spy planes, satellites and other normal activity.The Pentagon rejected claims made at a congressional hearing in 2023 by a former Air Force intelligence officer that the US government had recovered a series of crashed alien craft and even non-human “biologics” over the decades.

Firefighters who battled through the night to tame a new blaze that erupted  near Los Angeles appeared to be making progress on Thursday, even as dangerous fire weather continued throughout Southern California.A massive response involving aircraft, bulldozers and 4,000 personnel had swung into action as flames raced across hillsides in Castaic, 35 miles (56 km) north of Los Angeles.Around 31,000 people were ordered to flee their homes, heaping misery on a region already reeling from the two deadly fires that ripped through America’s second biggest city this month.The newly emerged Hughes Fire continued to grow overnight, and by Thursday had consumed 10,000 acres (4,050 hectares), but its rate of growth had slowed considerably after an explosive first few hours.Firefighters said the blaze was 14 percent contained — an expression of how much of the perimeter they are confident is static.Bryan Lewis of the National Weather Service warned the strong winds that had fanned the flames would continue Thursday, gusting up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) an hour at times.But, he told AFP, there was good news in the forecast.”We’re expecting those winds to drop off…. Then by tomorrow, like late morning, afternoon, the wind should be a lot better.”However, super, super dry conditions persist, with mostly single digit relative humidities across most of the area,” he said describing conditions as “still dangerous.”- Rain -Some much-needed rain at the weekend looked set to bring real relief to a region that has seen no significant precipitation for eight months, with up to half an inch (one centimeter) forecast for much of Los Angeles.”It’s going to help in the near term. But, to really get us out of this fire season, we’re going to need at least a couple more inches,” Lewis said.Human activity, including the unrestricted burning of fossil fuels over decades, has warmed the planet and changed our weather patterns.That has left the wet periods wetter and the dry periods dryer, intensifying storms and making populations more vulnerable to disasters.Over the burn scars left by the horrific Palisades and Eaton Fire, which together consumed 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares) and killed more than two dozen people, officials were readying for possible mudslides and debris flows in the downpour.Workers in Los Angeles County have prepared sandbags, gravel and concrete barriers that can be deployed if the rain gets heavy.California Governor Gavin Newsom said he had prepositioned hundreds of personnel to try to head off problems caused by rain, including collapsing hillsides and poisonous chemicals being washed out of razed homes.”Without vegetation to anchor the soil, heavy rainfall can lead to sudden and fast-moving debris flows, which can destroy homes, block roads, and pose serious risks to life and property,” his office said.”The state also works closely with its partners to prevent toxic runoff from entering waterways by installing physical filtration barriers.”President Donald Trump, who continues to claim falsely that California could solve its water problems by simply turning a spigot, is expected in the region on Friday.Officials say he will meet firefighters and people who have been affected by the blazes.

US news network CNN will shed six percent of staff, some 200 people, the outlet said Thursday as it embarks on a major shakeup of staffing and programing amid a deluge of political news.The broadcaster, which said overall employee headcount could remain stable with new roles created, follows other outlets restructuring amid the return of Donald Trump to the White House on Monday.”Some of today’s announcements mean significant new job opportunities at CNN, but others will lead to the loss of some valued colleagues,” CNN chief executive Mark Thompson told staff in a memo.”Yes, there are job-losses — around 6 percent of the current CNN workforce will be impacted — but we don’t expect total headcount to fall much this year, if at all,” he added. “That’s because of the $70 million we’re investing in our digital plans and the many new jobs it will pay for.”It is unclear if the restructuring will follow the pattern of some other legacy media outlets where seasoned reporters and editors on higher salaries are cleared out to make way for younger, cheaper staff for digital projects.In November the storied Associated Press news agency said it would slash almost eight percent of jobs as the US-based wire battles client cancellations and economic headwinds.Last July CNN announced the elimination of around 100 posts, at the same time as the creation of a paid digital offering on its website to complement existing output.Thompson also announced on Thursday the future launch of a new paid streaming product, without giving details.CNN previously launched a streaming service in 2022, CNN+, but it was shut down with little fanfare after a month amid a complex multi-billion-dollar merger between legacy media titans WarnerMedia and Discovery.The channel, emblematic of declining cable TV viewership, has also suffered from stiff competition.Long overtaken by conservative favorite Fox News, which aired an exclusive interview with Trump on Wednesday, CNN has also been overtaken by MSNBC, which has positioned itself as a vanguard of opposition and criticism to Trump and his Republicans.

Several US states have reached a $7.4 billion settlement with the Sackler family and their pharmaceutical company Purdue over the opioid crisis that has ravaged the lives of millions of Americans, officials said Thursday.The opioid addiction epidemic has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States over two decades.Thursday’s settlement, which will see funds routed to communities and individuals affected by opioid, is the largest of several targeting the makers and sellers of the highly addictive drugs.The $7.4 billion settlement was agreed “in principle with members of the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma for their instrumental role in creating the opioid crisis,” New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office said in a statement.Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors were accused of encouraging free-wheeling prescription of their products through aggressive marketing tactics while hiding how addictive the drugs are.Facing an avalanche of litigation, in 2021 Purdue pled guilty to three criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin.The Sacklers have consistently denied wrongdoing over the opioid crisis.

Marco Rubio will pay his first trip as US secretary of state to Central American nations including Panama, where President Donald Trump has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, a spokeswoman said Thursday.Rubio, who is the first Hispanic and first fluent Spanish speaker to serve as the top US diplomat, has vowed to put a top priority on Trump’s goal of curbing migration from Central American nations.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Rubio would travel starting late next week to Panama as well as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.”It’s about making sure that if we’re going to be safe and prosperous and in good shape, we’ve got to have an interest in our neighbors — and in today’s world, it’s certainly South and Central America,” Bruce said.”There’s a reason why this is the first trip. It signals how seriously he takes it,” she said.Bruce did not describe the details of any expected conversations on the Panama Canal. Trump in his inaugural address Monday vowed that the United States would be “taking it back.”Rubio in his confirmation hearing did not suggest military force but said the United States needed to address serious concerns about Chinese influence near the vital waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.Panama, which has long been friendly to the United States, complained to the United Nations over Trump’s threat.President Jose Raul Mulino, during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said that the canal “belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama.”- Enforcement against migration -Trump — who during his campaign said that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” — has put a top priority on halting undocumented migration into the United States.The Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — torn by endemic violence, poverty and natural disasters exacerbated by climate change — have been among the top sources of migration.Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden vowed to look at the root causes of migration. Trump has quickly put an emphasis on enforcement, suspending a Biden program that gives asylum seekers a chance to make their case in an orderly way and threatening to use the military to help secure the US-Mexico border.El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has been a favorite of Trump supporters for his lethal and ruthless crackdown on crime. The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. attended Bukele’s second inauguration last year.The Biden administration had a more distant relationship with Bukele, amid concerns over human rights, although it also largely worked with him as it sought to address migration.Rubio’s decision to visit Guatemala likely marks a continuation of US support for President Bernardo Arevalo, a once-obscure anti-corruption advocate who pulled off an upset election victory in 2023.The Biden administration hailed Arevalo’s victory and quickly moved to work with him as he pushed back against an entrenched elite that sought to stop him from taking office.Arevalo has enjoyed some bipartisan support in Washington but his opponents have sought an alliance with fringe movements that refused to recognize Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, on taking office said he would stop State Department work that seeks to “facilitate or encourage mass migration,” vowing to pursue Trump’s goal of enforcement.

US President Donald Trump issued a blunt warning to global elites in a video message to the World Economic Forum on Thursday: Make your product in the United States or pay tariffs.Beamed on a giant screen in the Swiss Alpine village of Davos, Trump received a loud round of applause from political and business A-listers who had eagerly awaited his appearance all week.Speaking from the White House, Trump touted his plans to cut taxes, deregulate industries and crack down on illegal immigration.But he also had a tough message.”Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff.”In his wide-ranging speech, Trump made a link between the war in Ukraine and oil prices.Trump said he would ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to bring down crude prices.”If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” he said.The US leader then fielded question from the top executives of Bank of America, Blackstone investment firm, Spanish group Banco Santander and  French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies.Trump is always a top draw in Davos, making waves at two previous in-person appearances during his first term in 2018 and 2020.But showing up this year was tougher as the forum happened to start on the day of his inauguration in Washington on Monday.Scores stood in line to hear him speak. Some in the audience included European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.- Trump fans -One of the Republican president’s biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei, took the stage hours before Trump, delivering a fiery speech against “the mental virus of woke ideology”.Milei said Argentina was “re-embracing the idea of freedom” and “that is what I trust President Trump will do in this new America”.He praised like-minded leaders such as Trump, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.”Slowly an international alliance has been formed of all those nations that want to be free and that believe in the ideas of freedom,” he said.He also defended his “dear friend” Elon Musk.The US billionaire and Trump ally caused a stir this week by making hand gestures at an inauguration event for the US president that drew comparisons to the Nazi salute.Milei said Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, has been “unfairly vilified by wokeism in recent hours for an innocent gesture that only means… his gratitude to the people”.- ‘Let’s not hyperventilate’ -Trump already gave Davos a taste of what is to come since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the WEF’s first day.He has threatened tariffs on China, the European Union, Mexico and Canada, pulled the United States from the Paris climate pact and renewed his claim the Panama Canal, just to name a few.His plans to cut taxes, reduce the size of the US federal government and deregulate industries likely found a sympathetic ear amongst many businesses, though economists warn the policies could rekindle inflation.US trade partners and rivals already had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week, as they brace for a second round of his America First policies.Without invoking Trump’s name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned: “There are no winners in a trade war.”European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels was ready to negotiate with Trump. But she also underscored the European Union’s diverging policy with him on climate, saying the bloc would stick by the Paris accord.World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on cooler heads to prevail during a WEF panel discussion on tariffs on Thursday, warning that tit-for-tat levies would be “catastrophic” for the world economy.”Please let’s not hyperventilate,” she quipped. “I know we are here to discuss tariffs. I’ve been saying to everybody: could we chill, also?”

Transgender cartel musical “Emilia Perez” topped this year’s Oscar nominations, earning 13 nods in an announcement on Thursday postponed by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.French director Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set movie, released by Netflix, shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language film.It was followed by epic immigrant saga “The Brutalist,” and show-stopping Broadway adaptation “Wicked,” which each picked up 10 nominations.Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and Vatican thriller “Conclave” bagged eight nods apiece.Voting deadlines had to be extended this month, as Los Angeles — the US entertainment capital and home city of the Academy Awards — was devastated by multiple blazes that have killed more than two dozen people and forced tens of thousands to flee.Nominees were unveiled in subdued circumstances, as a town that typically fixates on the Oscars race was instead fixated on yet more new fires burning north of the city.Even so, the glitzy Oscars ceremony is still set for March 2, capping months and millions of dollars of campaigning for golden statuettes.”Emilia Perez,” in which a narco boss transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime, picked up nods for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best international film, as well as multiple song, score and sound nods.Audiard told AFP on Thursday that he was “extremely thrilled” by the sweeping recognition.The movie’s star Karla Sofia Gascon became the first openly trans acting nominee in best actress, and Zoe Saldana was nominated for best supporting actress.Their more famous co-star, Selena Gomez, who has been criticized for her Spanish-language dialogue, missed out.Nevertheless, the film easily surpassed the record for the most nominations for a non-English-language movie — previously held by “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Roma,” each with 10.”I wonder if it’s becoming a trend — a desire to make films with different linguistic elements, unique actors, and distinctive themes,” said Audiard.- ‘The Apprentice’ -For best actor, firm favorite Adrien Brody was nominated for “The Brutalist” along with Timothee Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”).But in an unexpected pick sure to ruffle a few feathers in the new White House, the fifth and final spot went to Sebastian Stan, for his unsettling transformation into a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice.”The movie has drawn threats of lawsuits from the US president’s attorneys, particularly for a scene in which the then-property developer is shown raping his first wife, Ivana.In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during divorce proceedings, but later rescinded the allegation. She died in 2022.Jeremy Strong, who plays the youthful Trump’s sinister mentor Roy Cohn, was also nominated for his supporting role, edging out the likes of Denzel Washington (“Gladiator II”).Meanwhile, in an intense race for best actress, A-listers Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman — who went all-out with their performances in “Maria” and “Babygirl,” respectively — missed the cut.Instead, comeback queen Demi Moore, who charmed the industry with her Golden Globes acceptance speech for satirical body-horror “The Substance,” was nominated and is seen as the favorite.Her rivals include Gascon, “Anora” star Mikey Madison, and Brazil’s Fernanda Torres for “I’m Still Here.””Wicked” lead Cynthia Erivo was also nominated for best actress, alongside her co-star and pop music sensation Ariana Grande, in the supporting category.- ‘Hope’ -Audiard was joined in the best director running by fellow French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat for “The Substance.”  The only woman nominated in her category, Fargeat told AFP it would give other female filmmakers “confidence” and “hope.””The most touching messages that I’ve received are from young women directors. It gives confidence, strength and role models,” she said.The Los Angeles wildfires have cast a somber shadow on this year’s Oscars.”This has certainly been a difficult time for Los Angeles, where many members of our film community industry work and live,” said Academy present Janet Yang at the start of Thursday’s announcement.The Oscars gala in March will “pay tribute to our brave first responders,” added Academy CEO Bill Kramer.The chaos and displacement caused by the California fires could have prevented many Academy members there from voting, Pete Hammond, awards columnist for movie trade outlet Deadline, told AFP.He predicted the upheaval could have increased the influence of the Academy’s many overseas voters — who often opt for more artsy fare from outside of the US-centric Hollywood orbit.And it was indeed a strong morning for international films. Beyond “Emilia Perez” and “The Substance,” there was an unexpected best picture nod for “I’m Still Here,” set during Brazil’s 1970s dictatorship.