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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.

The Oscar nominations were unveiled Thursday, with Netflix’s “Emilia Perez” leading the charge on a whopping 13 nods.Here are five takeaways from the 97th Academy Awards nominations announcement:- Progressive Hollywood -The United States may have swung to the political right by re-electing President Donald Trump and putting the Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress, but Tinseltown’s progressive politics were on full display Thursday.Frontrunner “Emilia Perez” boasts the first ever openly trans acting nominee in Karla Sofia Gascon — even if the movie’s approach to LGBTQ representation was dubbed “retrograde” by advocacy group GLAAD.”The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half-hour epic about a Holocaust survivor moving to the post-war United States, celebrates the key role of immigrants in building the world’s leading economy.It earned 10 nods. So did Broadway adaptation “Wicked,” which promotes tolerance regardless of skin color, and warns against authoritarianism.And there were two surprise acting nominations for “The Apprentice,” a biopic about the young Trump that has drawn legal threats for its unsavory depiction of his formative years.- Changing of the guard? -In the absence of films from Hollywood heavyweights like Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese — and no love for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” — this year’s nominees for best director are all appearing in the category for the first time.Only James Mangold, who helmed Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” has ever been Oscar-nominated in any category previously.He earned nods for adapted screenplay with superhero prequel “Logan,” and best picture with racing drama “Ford v Ferrari.”His four rivals are Sean Baker, Jacques Audiard, Brady Corbet, and Coralie Fargeat — the sole woman nominated.All have earned their stripes on the indie and international circuits — and Audiard’s “A Prophet” was Oscar-nominated in 2010 — but they are tasting personal Academy recognition for the first time.- Nepo ‘babies’ -It has long been an open secret in Hollywood that one of the quickest ways to the top is to have famous parents.But even for the most talented acting scions, that journey can still take many decades.Isabella Rossellini, the daughter of three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman and acclaimed director Roberto Rossellini, finally scored her first Academy nomination at the age of 72, with “Conclave.”And 59-year-old Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres followed in her mother’s footsteps, decades after Fernanda Montenegro was nominated for “Central Station.”- Return of the musical… -In Hollywood’s Golden Age, grand old musicals like “The Wizard of Oz” would often dominate the Oscars.While there have been more recent successes like “La La Land,” the genre has generally faded from critical recognition.Even “La La Land,” with its record-tying 14 nominations, infamously missed out on best picture after an envelope mix-up at the 2017 Oscar ceremony’s botched finale.The 2024 crop of movies is a return to form, with “Emilia Perez” and “Wicked” leading the pack.There was also a strong showing for “A Complete Unknown,” in which Timothee Chalamet performs hits like “Blowin’ in the Wind” in Bob Dylan’s signature raspy voice.- … but not on stage -Despite the musical accolades, this year’s Oscars ceremony will break with tradition by not featuring live performances of the best original song nominees.The announcement comes after last March’s Academy Awards telecast featured memorable renditions of “Barbie” songs from Billie Eilish and Ryan Gosling.There will be no such opportunity for singer-actress Selena Gomez, who performed “Emilia Perez” number “Mi Camino,” and H.E.R., who sings “The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight.”Instead, Academy bosses say the show will feature segments focusing “on the songwriters.”That is good news for the likes of Diane Warren, who broke her own record with a 16th best song nomination with “The Journey.” She has never won a competitive Oscar but earned an honorary award in 2022.

Shares of American Airlines plunged Thursday after the carrier released a disappointing 2025 profit outlook even as its earnings topped expectations in the most recent quarter.American executives forecast a loss of as much as 40 cents per share in the first quarter of 2025 as the company works through the low-demand months of January and February and digests elevated costs from recent contract agreements with labor unions.But American expressed a bullish outlook about demand for periods later in the year.Chief Executive Officer Robert Isom predicted “continued strength domestically” and said the strong US dollar should boost traffic to Europe this summer.”As we look to some of our peak periods, spring break and getting into summer, I see robust demand across the board,” Isom said during a conference call with analysts.American overall reported fourth-quarter profits of $590 million, much above the $19 million in the year-earlier period. Revenues rose 4.6 percent to $13.7 billion.But American forecast a far bigger first-quarter loss than analysts expected. The company also estimated full-year earnings of between $1.70 and $2.70 per share, below the analyst average of $3.02.During the conference call, American touted the benefits of a new credit card agreement with Citi and said efforts were on track to restore business with corporate clients who fled a poorly-executed company shift to direct bookings.The company also touted its progress in paying down debt, noting it has reduced payments by more than $15 billion from 2021 when its level was much above its rivals.American shares fell 9.3 percent in morning trading.

Despite its huge international success, including a leading 13 Oscar nominations, “Emilia Perez” faces criticism in Mexico, where the transgender narco-musical has been accused of trivializing raging drug-related violence.French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language production shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie on Thursday, after winning four Golden Globe Awards.It will vie for the Oscars for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best international film, as well as multiple song, score and sound nods.But in Mexico, where a spiral of cartel-related violence has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the reaction has been less enthusiastic.”The film trivializes the problem of the missing in Mexico,” argues a petition on the Change.org website that had more than 11,000 signatures calling for the movie to be pulled before its scheduled Mexican release on Thursday.”It is an insensitive film, disrespectful to our culture that goes far beyond drug trafficking and the pain of thousands of families,” it added.Angie Orozco, mother of one of the more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico, told local media that while she did not object to “Emilia Perez” being a musical, “it should be approached in a respectful way.””I hope that we can make use of all this noise, going beyond the superficial,” she said.The film stars Karla Sofia Gascon as a bloodthirsty narco who, after transitioning to life as a woman, helps relatives of the missing. The movie also features “Avatar” star Zoe Saldana, singer-actress Selena Gomez and Mexican actress Adriana Paz.Gascon became the first openly trans acting Oscar nominee, in the best actress category, while Saldana was nominated for best supporting actress.In stark contrast, the frosty reception in Mexico began in October at the Morelia Film Festival, where the film drew lukewarm applause.Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (“Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon”), launched an early salvo late last year against “Emilia Perez,” which was mainly filmed in a studio in France.Apart from the presence of Paz, the film “feels inauthentic and it really bugs me,” he said in an interview with Hollywood news outlet Deadline.”Especially when the subject matter is so important to us Mexicans. It’s also a very sensitive subject,” he added in reference to drug-related violence.Audiard has rejected criticism that the film misrepresented Mexico, but acknowledged on Thursday in an interview with AFP that he perhaps “handled it clumsily.”Ahead of the nominations, he told AFP in Bogota said that some scenes in the film deliberately sought to “defy credulity” and that his goal was to tell stories that are “both local and universal.””It’s a Spanish-language film that was shot in Paris. It’s a mongrel film,” he said.- ‘Clumsy prejudices’ -Mexican writer Jorge Volpi called the production “one of the crudest and most misleading films of the 21st century.”In an article in the newspaper El Pais, Volpi argued it “embodies all the clumsy prejudices against gender transitions,” while still praising Gascon’s “meticulous work.”In contrast, Gomez — a third-generation Mexican American — raised eyebrows in the land of her ancestors for her accent when speaking Spanish.Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez described her performance as “indefensible,” though he later apologized.The film has also been roasted by some social media users.”‘Emilia Perez’ is everything that is bad in a film: stereotypes, ignorance, lack of respect, making money from one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world (mass disappearances in Mexico),” Cecilia Gonzalez, a Mexican journalist living in Argentina, wrote on X.There have been some notable exceptions, however: Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro described Audiard as “one of the most amazing filmmakers alive.””It’s so beautiful to see a movie that is cinema,” he gushed in a conversation with Audiard at the Directors Guild of America, according to a video posted by The Hollywood Reporter.Audiard said he spent more than four years researching for “Emilia Perez.”But “at some point you have to stop doing research because…otherwise you end up doing a documentary,” he added.In a nod to the criticism, he said at a recent presentation in Mexico: “If things seem shocking in ‘Emilia,’ I would be ready to apologize.””It’s an opera and an opera is not very realistic.”

Ukraine on Thursday announced evacuations of children from several towns in the northeastern Kharkiv region threatened by Russian forces, as Moscow said it saw nothing new in US President Donald Trump’s call for it to end its invasion. The evacuation announcement came as the Kremlin said that while it was ready for “mutually respectful dialogue” with Trump, his declarations on the conflict marked no break with the previous US administration.Trump on Wednesday threatened fresh sanctions on Moscow if Russia did not strike a deal to end the military campaign against Ukraine, which he called “ridiculous”. But on the ground in northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv region governor Oleg Synegubov said “267 children and their families are to be evacuated from 16 settlements to safe places”.Synegubov said the towns and villages affected are near Kupiansk, a town which Russia has tried to capture for months where fighting is raging around its outskirts.Outnumbered Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold back a better resourced Russian army across a long front line. “The decision was made due to the intensified hostile shelling. We urge families with minors to save their lives and leave the dangerous areas,” Synegubov said on social media. He earlier said a 54-year-old woman was killed in a Russian attack on a village near Kupiansk.Kyiv also said that Russian air attacks had killed at least three others and wounded dozens in other frontline towns. – ‘Waiting for signals’ -Expectations are high that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump will soon hold a phone call to discuss the conflict, after the Republican pledged on the campaign trail to bring a swift end to the fighting.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was “ready for equal, mutually respectful dialogue”.”We are waiting for signals, which we have not yet received,” he added.Russia also said it considered the policies of Joe Biden’s administration “criminal”, calling on Trump to “correct” them. Trump has not said publicly how he sees the contours of a potential peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.Putin has outlined maximalist demands that include the Ukrainian withdrawal from parts of its own territory still under Kyiv’s control.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has meanwhile ruled out territorial concessions, though he has said he would consider trying to secure the return of land captured by Russia through “diplomatic” means.Kyiv is also demanding security guarantees from NATO and the United States along with the deployment of Western, including American, peacekeeping troops.- Sanctions threat -In a post on Truth Social, Trump on Wednesday told Putin to make a deal “now” and threatened “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on Moscow.Trump said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and had “always had a very good relationship with President Putin,” a leader for whom he has expressed admiration in the past.”All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” he said.Asked about the comments on Thursday, Peskov said the Kremlin did not see anything “particularly new” in Trump’s threat of sanctions.He said it was clear from Trump’s first presidency that the Republican “liked” sanctions, adding that Moscow was “closely following” all of his statements.The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed the barrage of Western sanctions that it has been hit with since ordering troops into Ukraine in February 2022.The Russian economy has largely defied Western hopes the restrictions would push it into economic collapse.Peskov on Thursday conceded that Russia faced economic “problems” — like “almost all countries” — but said Russia had the resources to meet “all military requirements”.Russia’s troops have been advancing on the battlefield in recent months, while both Moscow and Kyiv have increased their aerial attacks deep behind the front lines.Moscow’s army on Thursday claimed to have captured another small settlement in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia declared to have annexed in 2022.