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The speed and intensity of the blazes ravaging Los Angeles this week have put its firefighting infrastructure to the test — and given rise to questions and criticism surrounding preparedness.Hydrants ran dry in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood as it was ravaged by one of the region’s five separate fires, while water shortages additionally hampered efforts elsewhere.”We need answers to how that happened,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a letter to the heads of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Los Angeles County Public Works.Calling the lack of water and water pressure “deeply troubling,” Newsom directed state officials to prepare an independent report on the causes.Chris Sheach, assistant professor of disaster management at Paul Smith’s College in New York state, told AFP part of the problem is that the city’s fire-fighting infrastructure wasn’t designed for enormous multi-acre conflagrations.”Their system is built to fight individual house fires,” he said, or for “responding to commercial or residential structure fires.”The amount of water used for one building compared to the amount needed to squelch a fire burning across thousands of acres is quite different, he added.- Resources needed -Early firefighting efforts created four times the normal demand for water over approximately 15 hours, Janisse Quinones, CEO and chief engineer at the city’s water department, told the New York Times.Apart from that, Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley has said her city is hampered by a lack of resources.”I have, over the past three years, been clear that the fire department needs help. We can no longer sustain where we are,” she told CNN Friday, explaining the necessity for more staff, resources and funding.She said this included the need for 62 new fire stations amid a 55 percent increase in call volume since 2010.US President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to the White House in just over a week, has seized upon the drama to attack Democrats, launching a series of evidence-free broadsides accusing Governor Newsom of a variety of failings.He has even tried to blame a lack of water on environmentalists’ efforts to protect the smelt — a small fish that lives hundreds of miles away from the fires. – ‘Risk-reward decision’ -“The fact that we have such a low number of fatalities despite the massive property losses is a testament to the work of fire chiefs and government officials who have been timely,” Sheach, the professor, said.The fires have so far destroyed around 10,000 buildings, California’s fire agency reported, while the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office has put the death toll at 11.California firefighters “are some of the best firefighters in the world. They do this so often,” Sheach said, adding that they were better trained than in most other localities because “it’s their reality.”How can a city like Los Angeles be better prepared in the future? And would it mean hiring more firefighters or increasing water supply?”Those are decisions that politicians have to work with with their community, because what’s right for each community is going to be up to how much they’re willing to pay,” Sheach said.Decreasing risk means spending more money, he explained, calling the situation a giant “risk-reward decision.”

Los Angeles Lakers coach J.J. Redick says he hopes the team’s eventual return to play can “give people hope” after seeing his Pacific Palisades home incinerated in the deadly wildfires that have ravaged the city.The Lakers postponed a scheduled home game against Charlotte on Thursday because of the fires, which have left at least 11 people dead and destroyed around 10,000 homes and other buildings.Redick oversaw practice on Friday for what was expected to be an emotionally charged home game against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, but that game too was postponed in a decision announced by NBA league chiefs.The Los Angeles Clippers’ game against Charlotte set for Saturday was also postponed.Redick is one of several members of the Lakers organization directly impacted by the fires, seeing his family’s rented property in Pacific Palisades, the ground zero of the disaster, consumed by the flames.On Friday, Redick became emotional as he spoke to reporters about the personal impact of the disaster on his family.”I’m not sure I’ve wept or wailed like that in several years,” said Redick, who was living in the house with his wife, Chelsea, and their two sons.”It was not prepared for what I saw,” Redick said of visiting Pacific Palisades after returning home from the Lakers’ road game at Dallas in the early hours of Wednesday morning.By that stage, Redick’s family had been evacuated to a hotel. The Lakers coach then paid a visit to his home early Wednesday to assess the situation.”It was complete devastation and destruction. I went a different way to the house through the village, and it’s all gone,” Redick said. “I don’t think you can ever prepare yourself for something like that.”We moved out here, and the Palisades community has really been so good to us. That’s the part to us that we’re really struggling with. I recognize that people make up community and we’re going to rebuild and we’re going to lead on that.- ‘Irreplaceable’ items lost -“We talked about it as a group before practice today. And it’s our responsibility and everybody in this building to lead on this and help people.”Redick said his family had lost “irreplaceable” items in the destruction.”Everything that we owned that was of any importance to us in almost 20 years together as a couple and 10 years of parenting was in that house,” he said. “There’s certain things that you can’t replace, that will never be replaced,” he added, citing a charcoal picture of a lighthouse his son had drawn for an art project which had been framed and hung on a wall.Other sports figures were also among those grappling with the devastation.Five-time Olympic swimming gold medallist Gary Hall Jr. said he evacuated his Pacific Palisades house taking only his dog, the insulin he uses to treat his diabetes, a painting of his grandfather, and a religious artifact.He was unable to return to the house to get his five gold, three silver and two bronze medals he won over the course of three Olympic Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004.”I was getting pelted by embers on that first run,” Hall said. “So I grabbed my dog and some dog food, and that was it,” he told the Los Angeles Times.Hall, who found refuge with family in San Diego, told the Times he was preparing for “a complete rebuild” of his life.Meanwhile, the NFL said Friday that the league and four of its teams are donating $5 million to support Los Angeles communities impacted by the fires.The NFL said in a statement on Friday that its two Los Angeles teams, the Rams and Chargers, and their opponents in the wild-card playoff round, the Minnesota Vikings and Houston Texans, had pledged $1 million each, which would be matched by the NFL Foundation, the league’s philanthropic arm.

Eleven people dead, 10,000 buildings destroyed, 180,000 people evacuated, $150 billion in damage.Here are the main figures showing the scale of the massive wildfires that have engulfed Los Angeles County since Tuesday.- Five blazes ongoing -Los Angeles is being ravaged by five different big blazes.The largest, the Palisades Fire northwest of the nation’s second most populous city, has consumed 86 square kilometers (33 square miles).It has ravaged the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, home to multimillionaires and celebrities.The second, at 56 square kilometers (22 square miles), is the Eaton Fire in Altadena, an eastern suburb of Los Angeles. The fires are eight percent and three percent contained, respectively.Three much smaller blazes, the Kenneth Fire (four sq km), Hurst Fire (three sq km) and Lidia Fire (1.6 sq km), have been partly contained — by 50 percent, 70 percent and 98 percent, respectively.- 150 square kilometers -The fires have ripped through more than 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares or 150 square kilometers.)Compared to other fires that have hit California in recent years and spread sometimes over several thousand square kilometers, the current blazes are smaller in size.However, they are particularly deadly and destructive because they are located in residential areas.- 11 dead -To date, at least 11 people are known to have died, the Los Angeles County coroner said Thursday.At least two died in the Palisades Fire and at least five in the Eaton Fire, according to firefighters.If one of the blazes ends up killing six people, it would become one of the 20 deadliest in California history, according to official data.- 10,000 buildings destroyed -At least 10,000 houses and other structures have already gone up in smoke, including at least 5,000 in the Palisades Fire and between 4,000 and 5,000 in the Eaton Fire, according to Los Angeles County firefighters.The two fires are already the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles County.By comparison, the Camp Fire ravaged nearly 19,000 buildings north of Sacramento in November 2018, and the Tubbs Fire destroyed 5,600 north of San Francisco in October 2017.- 180,000 people evacuated -Around 180,000 people have been ordered to leave their neighborhoods. Authorities have been pleading with residents to heed the evacuation orders, as some residents stayed behind trying to save their properties.The legendary neighborhood of Hollywood, threatened at one point by the Sunset Fire, was also evacuated, but the order was lifted Thursday morning after the fire in its hills was brought under control.- 20 arrests -The neighborhoods hit by the fires face another danger: looting. Police have arrested at least 20 people for theft in the Los Angeles area since the first fires broke out Tuesday.A nighttime curfew has been announced and the National Guard has been deployed to patrol affected areas.- $150 billion in damage -With the destruction of luxury residences, the fires could end up being the costliest on record. Private meteorological firm AccuWeather has estimated the damage at between $135 and $150 billion. And that could go up.

Winds calmed Friday around Los Angeles, providing a fleeting window of opportunity for firefighters battling five major blazes, as official recriminations began over responsibility for the disaster.At least 11 people have died as flames ripped through neighborhoods and razed thousands of homes this week in a disaster that US President Joe Biden likened to a “war scene.”As the scale of the damage to America’s second-biggest city came into focus — one new estimate suggested the bill could hit $150 billion — Angelenos grappled with the heart-rending ruin.”I lost everything. My house burned down and I lost everything,” Hester Callul, who reached a shelter after fleeing her Altadena home, told AFP.With fears of looting and crime growing, California Governor Gavin Newsom deployed the National Guard to bolster law enforcement.A nighttime curfew has been imposed in evacuated areas, and dozens of arrests made.”This curfew will be strictly enforced,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna. “We are not screwing around with this.”The five separate fires have so far burned more than 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares), California’s fire agency reported.”It reminded me of more of a war scene, where you had certain targets that were bombarded,” said Biden, as he received a briefing on the fires at the White House. – ‘Devastating’ -A lull in winds enabled much-needed progress in tackling the fires Friday.The biggest of the blazes has burned down more than 20,000 acres of the upscale Pacific Palisades and Malibu neighborhoods, where firefighters said they were starting to get the fire under control.By Friday eight percent of its perimeter was contained — meaning it can’t spread any further in that direction.”Braveheart” actor Mel Gibson was the latest celebrity to reveal his Malibu home had burned down, telling NewsNation the loss was “devastating.”The Eaton fire in the Altadena area was three percent checked, with almost 14,000 acres scorched and key infrastructure — including communication towers — threatened.Fire chief Jason Schillinger said Friday that “significant progress” had been made in quelling the blaze.A third fire that exploded Thursday afternoon near Calabasas and the wealthy Hidden Hills enclave, home to celebrities like Kim Kardashian, was 35 percent surrounded.But emergency chiefs warned the situation is “still very dangerous” and the reprieve from intense gusts that spread embers will not last.”The winds have died down today, but… are going to increase again in the coming days,” said Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.- ‘Need answers’ -The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office confirmed an additional fatality on Friday, bringing the overall death toll so far to 11.Authorities have said it was too early to know the cause of the blazes, but criticism has mounted of officials’ preparedness and response.Newsom ordered on Friday a “full independent review” of the city’s water utilities, describing the lack of water supplies and loss of pressure at hydrants during the initial fires as “deeply troubling.””We need answers to how that happened,” he wrote in an open letter.Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley blamed funding cuts to her department, telling Fox News affiliate KTTV: “We are still understaffed, we’re still under-resourced, and we’re still underfunded.”Meanwhile, emergency managers apologized Friday after false evacuation alerts were erroneously sent to millions of mobile phones, sparking panic.”I can’t express enough how sorry I am,” said Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.And aviation authorities were investigating who had piloted an illegal drone that struck a water-dropping aircraft, punching a fist-sized hole in the plane and taking it out of action.- Misinformation -Biden also took a veiled swipe at incoming president Donald Trump, who has spread misinformation over the flames that has then been amplified on social media.”You’re going to have a lot of demagogues out there trying to take advantage of it,” Biden said of the fires.Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather and changing the dynamics of the blazes.Two wet years in southern California have given way to a very dry one, leaving ample fuel on the ground primed to burn.The fires could be the costliest ever recorded, with AccuWeather estimating total damage and loss between $135 billion and $150 billion.

Emergency managers in Los Angeles apologized Friday after false evacuation alerts sparked panic in a city on edge over an unprecedented wildfire disaster.Millions of mobile phones blared on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday morning with automated warnings urging people to be ready to flee.”This is an emergency message from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued in your area,” said the message, which was widely disseminated on Thursday, including to areas well away from the danger zones.”Remain vigilant of any threats and be ready to evacuate. Gather loved ones, pets and supplies.”Huge fires in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and around Altadena have consumed 35,000 acres, razing thousands of buildings and killing 10 people.For many Angelenos, the alert system was the first they knew of the blazes and the need to escape.Some 153,000 people are currently under mandatory evacuation orders across the region.A correction was sent 20 minutes later, explaining the alert had only applied to the new Kenneth Fire that was exploding to the north of the city.Nevertheless, a similar erroneous message was sent out around 4 am Friday.Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, said the automated errors had caused “frustration, anger (and) fear.””I can’t express enough how sorry I am,” he told reporters.McGowan said he was working with specialists to find out what had gone wrong and why so many people were sent messages that did not apply to them.”I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone,” he said.”This is extremely frustrating, painful and scary, but these alert tools have saved lives during these emergencies.”Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the error was “unacceptable.””I want to express my deep frustration with the alert system that is causing confusion and additional panic for our communities at this time of extreme crisis,” she said.”Whatever the cause, it is unacceptable.”Chris Sheach, assistant professor in disaster management at Paul Smith’s College, said automated warning systems are always susceptible to “kinks and bugs,” particularly as they are rarely used at scale, but still remain vital in reducing the death toll during disasters.”Likely it was a coding error,” that caused warnings to reach unintended recipients in the wrong area codes, he told AFP.”The benefits far outweigh the risks. If this had been the Palisades in 1975… the only way they could evacuate people was fire trucks driving street by street with a megaphone.”Sheach said it was important for authorities to be up front about the mistakes, so that citizens do not ignore or disable future alerts.”Millions of these messages go out every year across the country, across the globe, to communities that are appropriate, safe, and on time,” he said.”Because of those misses, it takes a little extra work to build the trust.”

The United States and Britain on Friday announced sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft, just days before outgoing President Joe Biden leaves office.The US Treasury Department said it was designating more than 180 ships as well as Russian oil majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy.”At the same time, the UK government announced sanctions against the two companies, saying their profits were “lining (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war chest and facilitating the war” in Ukraine.”Taking on Russian oil companies will drain Russia’s war chest –- and every ruble we take from Putin’s hands helps save Ukrainian lives,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement.”Putin is in tough shape right now, and I think it’s really important that he not have any breathing room to continue to do the god-awful things he continues to do,” Biden told reporters Friday at the White House.Gazprom Neft slammed the sanctions as “baseless” and “illegitimate,” Russian state news agencies reported.”Gazprom Neft considers the decision to include its assets on the sanctions list as baseless, illegitimate and contrary to the principles of free competition,” Russian state news agencies quoted a company representative as saying.Oil prices rose on the news, with a barrel of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in March up 3.6 percent at $79.68 at around 4:45 pm in Washington (2145 GMT).Asked about gasoline prices, Biden conceded costs could rise “as much as three, four cents a gallon,” but stressed that sanctions would have a “more profound impact” on Russia.- ‘Sweeping action’ -Even before the sanctions were officially announced, rumors of fresh designations sparked condemnation from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave incoming US President Donald Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible.”In total, the United States announced sanctions against almost 400 people and entities.These include 183 oil-carrying vessels, along with Russian oil traders and oilfield providers, the two Russian oil majors, and more than two dozen of their subsidiaries, according to the Treasury Department.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced plans to speak with Putin about the sanctions, which also affect Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and its parent company, Gazprom. NIS is the only supplier of gas to Serbia and the majority owner of both gas pipelines that transport gas from Russia to households and industries in the country.”Today, the United States imposed the most significant sanctions yet on Russia’s energy sector, by far the largest source of revenue for Putin’s war,” Daleep Singh, the Biden administration’s deputy national security advisor for international economics, said in a statement.Senior administration officials told reporters the measures were designed to give the United States additional leverage to help broker a “just peace” between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the United States for introducing the sanctions. “These measures deliver a significant blow to the financial foundation of Russia’s war machine by disrupting its entire supply chain,” he wrote in a post on the social media platform X.- Strong economy influenced timing -Friday’s announcement comes just 10 days before Biden is due to step down, and puts President-elect Trump in something of an awkward position given his stated desire to end the Ukraine war on day one of his presidency.Asked about the timing, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that oil markets were now in a “fundamentally” better place than they had been in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and that the US economy was also faring better. “We believe the moment was ripe right now to adjust our strategy,” he said.The US State Department announced it was also taking action against Russia’s energy sector, “sanctioning nearly 80 entities and individuals, including those engaged in the active production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia.”Among those it designated were people involved in Russia’s metals and mining sector, “and senior officials of State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.”The move sparked condemnation from Rosatom, which called it “unreasonable and unlawful” in nature.”The sanctions are perceived as an element of unfair competition on the part of unfriendly states,” Rosatom said in a statement published by several Russian news agencies. 

The fires ravaging upmarket Los Angeles districts Pacific Palisades and Malibu will be the most expensive ever to hit California, according to experts, who expect premiums to rise in a region already abandoned by many insurers.Analysts at JPMorgan estimated that the total cost of damage and insured damage had doubled in less than 24 hours to $50 billion and $20 billion respectively. And the flames were still advancing on several fronts Friday.These record levels already far outstrip the 2017 Tubbs fire and the 2018 Camp fire, whose estimates of insured damage have climbed, according to sources, to as much as $16 billion.The value of the houses makes all the difference: At this stage, more than 10,000 buildings have been destroyed this week, the vast majority of them homes worth an average of $3 million.By comparison, some 18,000 buildings were destroyed in the Camp fire in 2018, but the average house was only around $500,000.David Burt, the founder and director of DeltaTerra, a consultancy firm specializing in climate-related financial risks, estimates that the market value of the 15,400 homes in Pacific Palisades is close to $13.5 billion.Despite the high cost of the damage, experts believe insurance companies should have no problem compensating their customers.According to Standard and Poor’s, the insurers are starting 2025 with comfortable reserves thanks to strong financial results over the last two years.They have also significantly reduced their presence in the Californian regions that are highly exposed to fire risk, and are also well diversified.The JPMorgan analysts see things the same way, insisting that, at this stage, it expects “the vast majority of losses stemming from the wildfires to be concentrated in homeowners’ insurance,” and a “significantly lesser amount” in commercial fire and personal auto.- Insurance ‘exodus’ -“There’s been a mass exodus of big players from the market in these parts of California,” Ben Keys, a real estate and finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told a conference Friday.”We’ve seen enormous non-renewals recently,” he said. On Wednesday, California’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, announced that homeowners in areas affected by and around the fires would be protected for a year against non-renewal and cancellation of coverage. This type of measure protected more than a million contracts in 2024.In 1968, the coastal state set up a public insurance scheme, called FAIR, for homeowners who could no longer find a private insurer.This “band-aid” was supposed to be temporary while people moved from one insurance policy to another, but has now expanded well beyond its intended use, lamented Keys, pointing out that its exposure had risen from $50 billion in 2018 to more than $450 billion today.To bring companies back on board, Commissioner Lara has also initiated a reform process authorizing them to increase premiums on condition that they do not apply any geographical exclusions.There is no longer any question of “cherry-picking” to select the best contracts, said Susan Crawford, an expert on climate and geopolitics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.”The acceleration in ferocious weather events… should trigger awareness that actually things do need to change,” she said. “We need some measure of political adjustments in reaction to rapid climate change.”In the meantime, Californians — and perhaps Americans nationwide — should prepare for an increase in premiums; 2025 has only just begun, and the previous year was marked by some destructive disasters.According to modelling by the specialist website AccuWeather, hurricanes Milton and Helene caused $160-$180 billion and $225-$250 billion in damage respectively. On Wednesday, it estimated the total cost of the Los Angeles fires so far at between $135 billion and $150 billion.The State Department published a new national strategy on climate change Friday, stating that climate-related disasters like winter storms and hurricanes had caused $182.7 billion in economic losses in 2024 — twice as much as in 2023.

A US judge held former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court on Friday for continuing to defame two Georgia election workers.Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, was ordered by a federal jury in Washington in December 2023 to pay nearly $148 million to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss for repeatedly making false claims that they engaged in 2020 election fraud.At a court hearing in Washington on Friday, District Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani in contempt and threatened him with potential fines if he continues to make defamatory remarks about the pair.It was the second time this week the 80-year-old Giuliani was found in contempt of court.A district judge in New York held him in contempt on Monday for failing to reveal information about assets he has been ordered to hand over to Freeman and Moss.Giuliani attacked Howell following the hearing in Washington, calling her a “mockery of a judge” and saying she is “dying to give me a prison sentence.””I shouldn’t be the one that’s paying fines,” he told reporters. “I shouldn’t be the one in contempt, she should be.”Giuliani was a key figure in Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. A former New York prosecutor, he has been disbarred over his false election claims.Giuliani, who has filed for bankruptcy, has been ordered to surrender his $6 million New York apartment, a 1980 Mercedes Benz convertible, jewelry, luxury watches, and valuable collectible items including a jersey signed by baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.Giuliani was found guilty of defaming the two women as they took part in a vote count in the swing state of Georgia after the presidential election in 2020.Using a video showing the two women passing an object — later revealed to be a mint — the former New York mayor claimed they were exchanging a USB drive “like vials of heroin or cocaine” to rig the results.Freeman and Moss, who are Black, told the jury during the defamation trial that Giuliani’s false accusations had upended their lives and made them the target of racist threats.An eight-person federal jury awarded Freeman and Moss more than $16 million each for defamation, $20 million each for emotional distress and $75 million in punitive damages.

Winds calmed Friday around Los Angeles, providing a fleeting window of opportunity in a firefighting battle against five major blazes wreaking havoc across the city.At least 10 people have died as flames ripped through neighborhoods, razing thousands of homes in one of the worst disasters ever to hit California, with one estimate suggesting the bill could hit $150 billion.As the scale of the damage to America’s second-biggest city started to come into focus, Angelenos grappled with heart-rending ruin.”I lost everything. My house burned down and I lost everything,” Hester Callul, who reached a shelter after fleeing her Altadena home, told AFP.As fears of looting and crime grow, California Governor Gavin Newsom deployed the National Guard to bolster law enforcement. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna imposed a nighttime curfew in some areas.”This curfew will be strictly enforced and is being taken to enhance public safety, protect property and prevent any burglaries or looting in the area that the residents have evacuated,” he said.Luna said anyone who falls foul of the rule could be jailed.”We are not screwing around with this,” he said.The five separate fires have so far burned more than 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares), California’s fire agency reported.Authorities have said it was too early to know the cause of the blazes.- ‘Still very dangerous’ -A temporary lull in winds has enabled progress in tackling the fires.The biggest of the blazes has ripped through more than 20,000 acres of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where firefighters said they were starting to get the fire under control.By Friday eight percent of its perimeter was contained — meaning it can’t spread any further in that direction.The Eaton fire in the Altadena area was three percent checked, with almost 14,000 acres scorched and key infrastructure — including communication towers — threatened.A third fire that exploded Thursday afternoon near Calabasas and the wealthy Hidden Hills enclave, home to celebrities like Kim Kardashian, added to the feeling of encirclement.”You just feel surrounded,” one woman told a local broadcaster.After a massive response to the blaze, including retardant drops from planes and helicopters dumping vast quantities of water, the fire was 35 percent surrounded, firefighters said on Friday.But federal emergency chiefs warned the situation is “still very dangerous” and the reprieve from intense gusts that spread embers will not last.”It is still very dynamic. The winds have died down today, but as I just got a weather briefing… the winds are going to increase again in the coming days,” said Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”The beauty of the wind dying down is that they can get better control over the fires, but it also doesn’t blow the smoke out,” she told a White House briefing.- ‘Heartbroken’ -AFP journalists surveyed the Pacific Palisades and Malibu via helicopter, witnessing mile after mile of obliteration.”This is crazy… All these homes, gone,” said pilot Albert Azouz.On highly coveted Malibu oceanfront plots, skeletal frames of buildings indicated the fire’s power, with many multimillion-dollar mansions vanishing entirely.Socialite and hotel heiress Paris Hilton was among those whose homes were lost.”Heartbroken beyond words,” she wrote on Instagram.”Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience.The fires could be the costliest ever recorded, with AccuWeather estimating total damage and loss between $135 billion and $150 billion.Beyond the immediate carnage, the fires disrupted life for millions: schools were closed, hundreds of thousands were without power and major events were canceled or, in the case of an NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings, moved.Meteorologist Mike Woofford of the National Weather Center told AFP winds would lessen Friday and Saturday, offering a vital opportunity to firefighters.”We’re seeing a little bit of a decrease now, but more so this afternoon dropping off, and then not much wind tomorrow, until later in the day,” he said.”For sure, good news,” he said, but cautioned it remained dry and winds were expected to return.Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather and changing the dynamics of the blazes.Two wet years in southern California have given way to a very dry one, leaving ample fuel on the ground primed to burn.

Social media giant Meta announced Friday it is dismantling its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the company, marking another major shift in strategy as it aligns with politically conservative priorities.In an internal memo to employees, the company outlined sweeping changes including the elimination of its diverse slate hiring approach and the disbanding of its DEI team.The move comes amid what Meta describes as “a changing legal and policy landscape” following recent Supreme Court decisions against programs that allowed for increased diversity priorities at US universities.The memo, first reported by Axios, landed days after Meta abruptly overhauled its content moderation policies, including ending its US fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram, in a major shift that conforms with the priorities of incoming president Donald Trump.That announcement echoed long-standing complaints made by Trump’s Republican Party and X owner Elon Musk about fact-checking and moderating hate speech on social media.Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has been moving aggressively to reconcile with Trump since his election in November, including donating $1 million to his inauguration fund and hiring a Republican as his public affairs chief.On Friday he sat down for an interview with popular podcaster Joe Rogan in which he bitterly criticized the Biden administration for asking that content be censored on Meta platforms during the coronavirus pandemic.- Threats from Trump -Trump has been a harsh critic of Meta and Zuckerberg for years, accusing the company of bias against him and threatening to retaliate against the tech billionaire once back in office.Republicans are also fiercely against DEI programs in corporate America, many of which were established in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement and the nation’s attempt to reckon with longstanding racial disparities.In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election victory in November, Walmart and a string of prestige brands — from Ford, John Deere and Lowe’s to Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s — also scaled back programs aimed at bolstering minority groups.In its memo, Meta said its Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams will transition to a new role focused on accessibility and engagement, as the company phases out its dedicated DEI initiatives.The parent company of Facebook and Instagram will also terminate its supplier diversity program, which previously prioritized sourcing from diverse-owned businesses. Instead, Meta says it will focus on supporting small and medium-sized businesses more broadly.”We serve everyone,” the memo stated, emphasizing that the company will continue to source candidates from different backgrounds while eliminating specific representation goals for women and ethnic minorities that were previously in place.