AFP USA

For a film about sex work to win an Oscar is rare. For it to win the respect of sex workers is even rarer.If Sean Baker’s “Anora” triumphs at the Academy Awards next Sunday, as predicted by most pundits, it will have achieved both.”Sean gets sex work. He just does,” porn actress and director Casey Calvert tells AFP, as she prepares to film an explicit lesbian scene on a set in the San Fernando Valley.”Sean is the only working mainstream filmmaker who has the ability to get it right. He’s also the only one who cares about getting it right,” adds adult film veteran Eli Cross, who is the cinematographer for the day.Baker’s journey to the Oscars began in this valley next to Los Angeles, infamously and accurately dubbed the capital of the US porn industry.It was here that he shot “Starlet,” a micro-budget film about a young adult actress who forms an unlikely friendship with an elderly widow.Baker’s candid portrayal of an industry used to being maligned and sensationalized by Hollywood earned him the friendship of porn workers like Calvert, who later worked as a paid consultant on his film “Red Rocket.”She will be among the many pornographers and sex workers cheering on “Anora” as it competes for best picture, best director, best actress for Mikey Madison, and much more on March 2. “It’s so exciting to me that I can’t even think about it,” says Calvert.”It would feel like this industry that I love being recognized on a stage it’s never been recognized before on.”- ‘Really skeptical’ -“Anora” follows Ani, a New York stripper and escort, as she embarks on an ill-fated, whirlwind romance with a bratty young Russian customer who turns out to be the son of an oligarch.Typical of Baker’s movies, it is stuffed with details that “civilian” viewers might miss.These range from the pole-dancing bruises on Ani’s legs, to the way she licks her fingers before instigating a sex act.”It’s just such a sex worker thing to do. It’s so in character,” explains Calvert.Authenticity is not something sex workers expect from Hollywood.Most famously, “Pretty Woman” served up a sanitized fairy tale about a prostitute and her wealthy savior. “The sex work industry as a whole is really skeptical of any film having to do with sex work,” says Calvert.”Hollywood, historically speaking, has made a lot of movies about prostitution and escorting that are not particularly positive.”Following the world premiere of “Anora,” Baker told AFP he had deliberately avoided the “hooker with a heart of gold” cliches.For Calvert, Baker’s films stand out because they are not really about sex work — they are about the struggles, emotions and humanity of people who happen to do sex work for a living.”It’s not about the taboo of sex. It’s just about a marginalized community of people who he finds really interesting and wants to explore,” she says.- ‘Consensual’ -“Anora” has already won multiple awards, from the Cannes festival’s Palme d’Or to prizes from Hollywood’s directors, producers, writers and critics.Baker has repeatedly dedicated his success to sex workers, and Madison used her BAFTA acceptance speech to pledge to be “an ally.”That such remarks caused zero controversy arguably represents a sea change in Hollywood. A decade ago, industry heavyweights like Meryl Streep joined a campaign to oppose the decriminalization of sex work.It is part of a wider, age-old debate about the profession.Opponents warn that criminal gangs exploit and traffic vulnerable women. Proponents of a regulated industry say it would better protect sex workers, who have the right to do as they wish with their bodies.Pornographer Siouxsie Q said it was “amazing” to see a film portraying “consensual adult sex work” receiving mainstream accolades.”We’ve come a long way, baby — we really have,” she told AFP.- ‘Stigma’ -Still, Calvert says the “stigma” surrounding pornography remains fierce, with highly experienced and talented adult filmmakers rarely able to cross over into Hollywood work.On the day AFP visited her set, Calvert — known for directing what she calls “big budget cinematic features” in adult film — was shooting in a large but outwardly nondescript house on a suburban cul-de-sac.Neighbors chased away reporters carrying camera gear to the home, wary of what was taking place inside.Baker is an unusual mainstream director who casts real porn actors in his films, and is genuinely friends with many in both businesses.Calvert says that fact was “a huge reason why I think that the critical success of ‘Anora’ is so important.”Baker’s work “helps a ton to break down those barriers,” she said.

Sporting a “Trump Was Right” T-shirt and a “Make America Great Again” cap, Carol Newton was brimming with impatience to see the US president before he addressed a conservative convention near Washington.A month after his return to the White House, Donald Trump has been a “whirlwind,” said the 63-year-old retiree. And after four years under President Joe Biden, she added, “That’s what we needed.”Hailing from northwestern Washington state, Newton said she had seen the Republican billionaire “a half-dozen times.”And every time, she added, “You come away feeling good and, you know, enlightened and hopeful and enriched.”Newton had brought her young grandson to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a yearly assembly of top Republicans in suburban Maryland.She didn’t expect anything terribly new from Trump’s speech on Saturday, saying she’s happy to hear “the same message.” – ‘Golden Era’ -In the corridors of the sprawling National Harbor convention center, Trump’s image and name are omnipresent. Attendees can take selfies with a life-sized cardboard likeness, purchase sequined vests bearing the words “Trump: The Golden Era” or wear T-shirts showing Trump defiant with a bloodied ear after last July’s assassination attempt.One woman sported a “Daddy’s Home” T-shirt bearing a picture of the Republican leader outside the White House, while another proudly displays red, white and blue fingernails with “TRUMP” spelled out on one hand and “VANCE,” the US vice president, on the other.”People are happy that Trump is president, you know, and last year we were all hoping he would be,” said Clark Page, a 70-year-old retiree from Alabama, referring to the previous CPAC confab. This is Page’s sixth CPAC. He said he first saw Trump in 2015 at a rally in his home state.”The first time I saw him, I thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to be president.'”- ‘Not as crowded’ -Page, a former medical equipment salesman, said Trump’s first month back in office had been “fantastic.””Reagan was fantastic, too,” he added, referring to the conservative president from the 1980s, “but I’ve never seen a president as effective as Donald Trump.”While the CPAC attendees interviewed expressed universal excitement about Trump, some said this year’s convention was a bit disappointing.”It’s not as crowded as it has been,” said 39-year-old Rex Clark, who works for a military contractor. “I hope everybody’s not being complacent.”James Ong, a student at Catholic University in Washington, agreed. “There’s like, less enthusiasm here compared to past CPACs,” said Ong, who campaigned for Trump last year and is attending his third meeting of the group.The young people he saw at previous CPAC conventions, the 21-year-old Ong added, seem to have given way to “Baby Boomers” and older Americans. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “not ready” to sign a minerals deal with the United States, a source told AFP on Saturday, raising doubts about the proposed agreement as a rift between the two countries deepened.Since taking office last month, President Donald Trump has upended US foreign policy, making diplomatic overtures towards the Kremlin while demanding Ukraine give up its rare minerals to compensate for the wartime aid it received under Joe Biden.Trump’s national security adviser predicted Friday that Zelensky would sign a minerals deal soon, but its contours have not been made public and Zelensky has pushed back at any arrangement that would mean “selling” his country.”In the form in which the draft is now, the president is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness,” a Ukrainian source close to the matter told AFP.Kyiv wants any agreement signed with the US to include security guarantees.The negotiations between the two countries come amid a deepening war of words between Trump and Zelensky that has raised alarm in Kyiv and Europe.On Wednesday, Trump branded his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” and called for him to “move fast” to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.On Friday, the US proposed a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.- ‘What kind of partnership is this?’ -Trump has asked for “$500 billion worth” of rare earth minerals to make up for aid given to Kyiv — a price tag that Ukraine has balked at and that does not correspond with published US aid figures.”There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract $500 billion from us,” the Ukrainian source told AFP of the proposed deal.”What kind of partnership is this? … And why do we have to give $500 billion, there is no answer,” the source said, adding that Ukraine had proposed amendments to the draft.The United States has provided Ukraine with more than $60 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion, according to official figures — the largest such contribution among Kyiv’s allies but substantially lower than Trump’s $500 billion figure.The Kiel Institute, a German economic research body, said that from 2022 until the end of 2024, the United States gave 114.2 billion euros ($119.8 billion) in financial, humanitarian and military aid in total.- UK support ‘ironclad’ -A senior Ukrainian official told AFP Friday that despite the tensions, talks on a possible agreement were “ongoing”, with Trump envoy Keith Kellogg praising Zelensky as “courageous” after visiting Kyiv earlier this week.Ukraine still faces daily Russian bombardment and is slowly ceding ground to Moscow on the frontline.Moscow’s defence ministry earlier on Saturday claimed the capture of Novolyubivka in the eastern Lugansk region, which is now largely under Russian control.On Monday, Ukraine will mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen discussed “the need to secure a just and enduring peace in Ukraine” on a call Saturday, a Downing Street spokesperson said.In a separate call on Saturday with Zelensky, Starmer reiterated “UK’s ironclad support for Ukraine”, according to Downing Street.

President Donald Trump fired top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown on Friday, part of a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership.Trump offered no explanation for Brown’s dismissal less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which followed sweeping layoffs of federal workers and moves to dismantle government institutions just a month into the president’s second term.Brown had been nominated to the top military role by Democratic president Joe Biden and became only the second Black person to hold the position. Following Trump’s announcement on Brown, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was seeking a replacement for Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the top US Navy officer.Trump thanked Brown for “his over 40 years of service to our country” in a post on his Truth Social platform, describing him as “a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader.”Brown has commanded a fighter squadron and two fighter wings, as well as US air forces under the Central Command and Indo-Pacific Command. He had served as Joint Chiefs chairman since October 2023.Following the 2020 murder of a Black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in Minnesota, Brown — an experienced fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours, 130 of them in combat — recorded an emotional video about his personal experiences, including with discrimination in the US military.”I’m thinking about my Air Force career, where I was often the only African American in my squadron or as a senior officer, the only African American in the room,” Brown said.”I’m thinking about the pressure I felt to perform error-free, especially for supervisors I perceive had expected less from me as an African American.”- Top Navy officer being replaced -Hegseth had advocated for Brown’s firing in a November podcast appearance, saying any top officers “involved in any of the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) woke shit has got to go,” but told journalists last month that he was “looking forward to working” with the general.Trump said he was nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Caine to replace Brown.He said Caine — whom he recently described meeting in Iraq during his first term — is “an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”Caine served in positions including associate director for military affairs at the CIA, as well as in various operational and staff roles, including more than 150 hours in combat as an F-16 pilot, an aircraft in which he logged more than 2,800 hours.Trump, in his trademark showman style, told a Saudi investor forum in Miami on Wednesday about meeting Caine in Iraq, where he was among a group of “handsome people, everybody’s like from a movie set.”According to Trump, Caine told the president that he went by the nickname “Razin.””I said, wait a minute, your name is Razin Caine? I love you, I’ve been looking for you for five years … this is what I want,” Trump recounted.In another major Pentagon shakeup, Hegseth said he was seeking a replacement for Franchetti, the first woman to serve as chief of naval operations and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”I am… requesting nominations for the positions of chief of naval operations and Air Force vice chief of staff,” Hegseth said in a statement.”The incumbents in these important roles, Admiral Lisa Franchetti and General James Slife, respectively, have had distinguished careers. We thank them for their service and dedication to our country,” he said, without providing an explanation for their departures.Franchetti had previously served on a series of surface vessels, commanding a guided missile destroyer, a destroyer squadron and two carrier strike groups.She was deputy commander of US naval forces in Europe and as well as in Africa, and deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting development. She became vice chief of naval operations — the service’s number two position — in September 2022, and took over the Navy’s top job in November 2023.

US President Donald Trump had a heated exchange with a Democratic governor Friday over his order barring transgender athletes from women’s sports, with the state leader telling him: “See you in court.”The Republican president was making televised remarks to a gathering of the country’s governors at the White House when he raised the executive order he signed earlier this month.”Two weeks ago I signed an executive order banning men from playing in women’s sports. Many Democrats are fighting me on that, I hope you continue because you’ll never win another race,” he said. The ban is “to protect women,” he claimed.”Are you not going to comply with it?” he asked Janet Mills,  governor of the northeastern state of Maine.”I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills responded. “Well, we are the federal law… You better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” the president said. “See you in court,” she responded.”Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics,” a visibly angry Trump replied. Trump’s order allows US government agencies to deny funds to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams.Some Maine officials have said they will continue a policy of allowing transgender students to choose which team they play on, citing state law under the Maine Human Rights Act, according to the Portland Press Herald. Mills and the state’s attorney general have vowed to fight any move to deny the state federal funds, the newspaper reported. – ‘Violation’ -Later Friday, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced an investigation into Maine’s education department for alleged violations of Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that forbids discrimination on the basis of gender in educational facilities that receive federal support. A statement cited allegations that Maine’s education department “continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law.”Craig Trainor, DoE acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said Maine must comply with Title IX to continue receiving federal funds.”If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice,” he said in the statement. Mills called it a “politically directed move” to strip funding “paid for by Maine taxpayers.””This is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation,” she added.Republicans hammered Democrats on transgender issues — especially when it came to youth and sports — ahead of the 2024 election, capitalizing on a broader culture war over LGBTQ rights.Since his return to power, Trump has demonized any recognition of gender diversity, attacking transgender people — a small minority of the population — and gender-affirming care for minors in both his rhetoric and in executive orders.Trump has said he will also push the International Olympic Committee to change its rules on transgender athletes before the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Blue baseball caps and T-shirts sporting a continental version of Donald Trump’s political rallying cry — “Make Europe Great Again” — abound at a gigantic conference center near the US capital Washington this week. Leaders across the European right have arrived at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in droves, seeking ideas and insights from those at the heart of the movement that has reshaped the United States.”This idea of America First, it also refers to what we would like, that is to say a little Europe First,” Raphael Audouard, director of the Fondation des Patriotes pour l’Europe (Patriots for Europe Foundation), told AFP. “The return to national borders, which is what Trump is defending, echoes what we’re defending in different European countries,” said the 32-year-old Frenchman, whose group is affiliated with the group of the same name in the European Parliament. CPAC is an annual gathering of conservative leaders and activists that this year is celebrating Trump’s return to the White House, with members of his administration and political allies featuring heavily among the speakers.Many of the American attendees are “happy” to see that Trump’s brand of bombastic populism is also inspiring European leaders, Audouard said.But even amid the meeting of minds, he sounded a note of warning.”We’re aware that we shouldn’t be naive,” he said.”Trump wants America first. But America first is not Europe first.”- ‘Trump revolution’ -Party leaders such as Britain’s Nigel Farage, and prime ministers such as Slovakia’s Robert Fico were among those making the pilgrimage.Not all were singing from the same choir book.France’s Jordan Bardella, a member of the European Parliament and head of his country’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party, announced he was canceling a speech to CPAC scheduled for Friday after Trump ally Steve Bannon made an apparent Nazi salute onstage a day earlier.Others said they had come merely in the spirit of inquiry. Romanian Diana Iovanici-Sosoaca, also a member of the European Parliament, explained that she was there out of “a curiosity what is happening here.””There were times when Europe was great. Now it’s low, it’s down,” said the lawmaker, who first made a name for herself on social networks in Romania for her opposition to anti-Covid measures. That sense of a Europe in decline was a recurring theme among its attendees. “Patriotic Brits… look across the Atlantic with envy,” former British prime minister Liz Truss said in one CPAC speech. “We want a Trump revolution in Britain,” she said. “We want to be part of the second American revolution.” Trump’s cost cutter-in-chief Elon Musk, who took the stage Thursday swinging a chainsaw presented to him by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, called Europe a “collapsing society.””It feels that way. It feels like France was nicer 50 years ago than it is today,” claimed the world’s richest person, who has made himself the US president’s most powerful ally. Former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki told AFP the continent has focused on “stupid priorities… on the wrong priorities, like accommodating as many illegal migrants as possible.”The US and Europe are experiencing “a difficult and very dangerous moment when both parts of the transatlantic community, so to say, are getting more and more away from each other. And I’m very much concerned about this,” he said.”I try to explain, translate the European language to the American language and vice versa. That’s my major objective here.”

The chief prosecutor in Los Angeles will oppose an attempt by Erik and Lyle Menendez to get a new trial for the bloody 1989 murder of their wealthy parents, he said Friday.The pair were jailed for life after a blockbuster legal drama in the 1990s detailing the gruesome slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the family’s luxury Beverly Hills mansion.But a growing campaign to free the brothers — given new life by a hit Netflix series — has tried to open the door to new legal maneuvers that could see them re-tried, have their sentences reduced or even granted clemency.Prosecutors in Los Angeles had previously appeared receptive, but newly installed District Attorney Nathan Hochman on Friday said he was opposed to any new trial.”We conclude, in our informal response that the court should deny the current habeas petition by the Menendez brothers,” Hochman told reporters, referring to a motion filed by the men’s lawyers that would effectively vacate their convictions.In a highly detailed press conference, Hochman laid out his department’s thinking after a review of the 50,000-page case file.He said his office did not believe the standard for a habeas hearing had been reached, in part because there were doubts over the veracity of evidence the defense was relying on.Erik, now 54, and Lyle, 57, have spent more than three decades behind bars.During two trials in the 1990s that gripped America, prosecutors painted their parents’ shotgun murders as a cold-hearted bid by the then-young men — Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 — to get their hands on their parents’ $14 million fortune.But their attorneys described the 1989 killings as an act of desperate self-defense by young men subjected to years of sexual abuse and psychological violence at the hands of a tyrannical father and a complicit mother.The case saw a huge surge of renewed interest last year with the release of the Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”- Clemency -Hochman on Friday said the men had offered five disparate explanations for the deaths of their parents, ranging from an initial claim that it was a Mafia hit to the self-defense that they ultimately relied on at trial.The problem, he said, was that even if they had suffered sexual abuse, that did not constitute grounds for self-defense, a point their attorney during the original trials conceded.Asked whether he believed the men had been abused, he replied: “What I believe is that they testified to that sexual abuse… in great detail. “I also understand that when it came to any corroborating information about that sexual abuse, it was extremely lacking. In fact… that was their fourth version. In other words, they didn’t come out initially and say: ‘We killed our parents because our father sexually abused us’.”Hochman said the decision on whether to grant the habeas motion was one for the courts, as would be any decision on a re-sentencing.The prosecutor’s office will issue its opinion on that in the coming weeks, with a court hearing on the issue scheduled for March 20-21.As for the third route to freedom available to the men: California Governor Gavin Newsom “has the clemency petition on his desk, and he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants,” Hochman said.

The US Defense Department will cut its civilian workforce by at least five percent starting next week, the Pentagon said Friday, as President Donald Trump continues slashing the government payroll.Trump’s administration has already begun firing thousands of other federal workers who are on probationary status, and the cuts at the Defense Department — the largest employer in the United States — will also focus on recently hired employees.”We anticipate reducing the department’s civilian workforce by 5-8 percent to produce efficiencies and refocus the department on the president’s priorities and restoring readiness in the force,” Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement.”We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs,” Selnick said.The Defense Department employs more than 900,000 civilians, meaning that cuts of five percent would affect a total of more than 45,000 jobs.A day before the announcement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video message that “it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical.””Common sense would tell us where we should start, right — we start with poor performers amongst our probationary employees,” Hegseth said.- Promoting ‘best and brightest’ -“When you look at head count, we’re going to be thoughtful, but we’re also going to be aggressive, up and down the chain, to find the places where we can ensure the best and brightest are promoted based on merit.”Hegseth also said that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have “broad access” to root out the previous administration’s programs from the Pentagon.DOGE will work to “find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), the woke, the climate change BS — that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all,” he said, referring to former president Joe Biden.Musk — the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor — has led the effort to fire swaths of the federal workforce, sparking various legal challenges.A US judge on Tuesday declined a request to temporarily block Musk and DOGE from firing federal employees and accessing agency data after 14 Democratic-ruled states filed suit contesting the billionaire’s legal authority.Judge Tanya Chutkan said the plaintiffs had not sufficiently showed that they would suffer “imminent, irreparable harm” unless a temporary restraining order was issued.And on Thursday, Judge Christopher Cooper denied a union bid to temporarily halt the sacking of federal workers, saying he lacked the jurisdiction to handle the complaint.

The Associated Press filed a lawsuit against three White House officials on Friday after the news agency was barred from some of US President Donald Trump’s events.The AP, in the suit filed in a federal court in Washington, said the denial of access violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.The White House began blocking AP journalists from the Oval Office 10 days ago over the news agency’s refusal to follow Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”The ban on AP reporters was later extended to Air Force One.The news group said it was bringing the suit against three Trump administration officials to “vindicate its rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution.””The White House has ordered The Associated Press to use certain words in its coverage or else face an indefinite denial of access,” the AP said.”The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” it said.”The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”The suit names as defendants White House chief of staff Susan Wiles and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, as well as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.”We’ll see them in court,” Leavitt said during an appearance Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. “We feel we are in the right. We are going to ensure that truth and accuracy is present at that White House every single day,” she said.In its style guide, the AP noted that the Gulf of Mexico has “carried that name for more than 400 years.””The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” it said.”As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”Trump called the AP a “radical left organization” on Thursday and said the new Gulf of America name is “something that we feel strongly about.”His leveraging of press access underscores the Republican president’s longstanding animosity toward traditional news outlets, which he accuses of bias against him.The White House Correspondents’ Association has called AP’s exclusion from Trump events “outrageous.”The 180-year-old news agency has long been a pillar of US journalism and provides news to print, TV and radio outlets across the United States and around the world. 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sacked the city’s fire chief on Friday, blaming her for leadership failures in the handling of deadly blazes that tore through the California metropolis in January.The axing of Kristin Crowley comes six weeks after America’s second most populous city was ravaged by fires that left at least 29 people dead and vast areas in ruins.It also comes as angry residents continue to look for someone to blame for the fires.”Acting in the best interest of Los Angeles public safety and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I just met with Chief Crowley and removed her as fire chief,” Bass told reporters.The mayor said she has called for a full investigation of “everything” leading up to  January 7 when the fires began. “A necessary step to the investigation was the president of the fire commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after-action report on the fires. The fire chief refused,” Bass said.”We all know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch. These actions required her removal.”Tensions had flared between the two officials even as flames raged in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods.There was sharp criticism over the firefight, particularly in the tony Pacific Palisades area, where hydrants ran dry because of huge demands on the system.Just days after the wind-driven fires broke out, Crowley blindsided city bosses by telling a local television interviewer that Los Angeles had failed her department, which she described as understaffed and underfunded.”My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded,” Crowley told the local Fox television channel. “It’s not.”An appearance on national TV compounded the rift when she told CNN that budget cuts had directly affected her ability to fight the mammoth fires.Hours later, Bass hauled Crowley in for a closed-door meeting that ran so late Bass missed a scheduled news briefing.The next time the two stood together at a press conference, tensions were evident, despite pledges that they were on the same page.- Foreign trip -Bass’s move Friday comes after weeks of criticism levelled at her.The former US congresswoman has frequently been the target of residents’ ire in recent weeks after a flat-footed response to the fires, which broke out while she was in Ghana.Ahead of the January 7 outbreaks, the National Weather Service had been warning that fierce winds and exceedingly dry weather would leave the Los Angeles region at very high risk of a fire.State and local officials announced they were pre-positioning resources to pounce and try to keep a handle on any blazes that they expected would spread rapidly in 100-mile (160-kilometer)-per-hour winds.Local and national media extensively carried warnings of the elevated danger.But at a press conference Friday, Bass framed her decision to press ahead with her foreign trip as the result of Crowley’s failure to warn her of the risk.”What has happened in the two-plus years I’ve been here every time there was a weather emergency, or even a hint of a weather emergency, the chief has called me directly,” Bass told reporters.”She has my cell phone. She knows she can call me 24/7, and she briefed me, and then we would talk about what needed to happen next. That did not happen this time.”