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Deadly wildfires ravage Southern California as water runs out
Multiple wildfires that broke out in the Los Angeles area yesterday killed at least two people and seriously injured many others. The fires destroyed houses and business buildings, and the highways were covered in smoke. Officials warned of dwindling water supplies and said the worst was yet to come. Follow our live stream here.
Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, and more and more areas were placed under evacuation orders by the hour. At least 18 school districts reported closings, and about 400,000 energy customers were without power. Air quality worsened as smoke spread across the sky. Here is the evacuation map.
Hurricane-force winds in the area reached up to 100 miles per hour, fanning the fires and hampering efforts to contain the destruction. Multiple fire agencies responded with strike teams, but winds forced them to ground aircraft, making the fires particularly difficult to extinguish.
Context: Winter and late fall tend to cause catastrophic wildfires in California, scientists have found fires in the region are moving faster. An analysis of 60,000 wildfires in the contiguous US between 2001 and 2020 found that growth rates increased over the decade in California and other parts of the West. As the areas there become hotter and drier, the soil becomes more flammable.
World leaders reacted to Trump’s foreign policy threats
On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump suggested that the US could take back the Panama Canal through military intervention. He then hinted that the same thing could be done for the annexation of Greenland. He also threatened to use “economic force” to make Canada part of the US and suggested that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the “Gulf of America”. The responses of world leaders were mixed.
“The sovereignty of our canal is non-negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and irreversible conquest,” said Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha. Greenlanders he seemed confused and worried. “This is all getting scary,” said the native Greenlander.
Canada was honest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded in a social media post that “there is no way Canada will become part of the United States.” Mexico had fun with it. During a press conference yesterday, President Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed several of Trump’s claims and joked that the US should be renamed “Mexican America.”
Related: Trump has vowed that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if the Israeli hostages are not released within the next two weeks. The residents of Gaza were left to wonder: If this is not hell, then what is?
Great Britain has released evidence from an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan
British special forces soldiers used extreme methods against militants in Afghanistan, according to testimony released yesterday as part of a British Ministry of Defense investigation into allegations of war crimes. The evidence paints a disturbing portrait of an elite fighting force operating with impunity and putting body count above all other criteria.
The testimony came from email exchanges, letters and witness statements from senior officers and enlisted soldiers. One member of the British unit said the troops acted as if they had a “golden pass that allows them to get away with murder”.
Armia Khalil, an artist who worked as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, met a visitor in 2023 who was apparently looking for something specific. Their five-minute conversation in the Egyptian wing of the museum changed Khalil’s life.
The visitor turned out to be a museum curator planning an exhibition. After Khalil showed him his art, was included in the show.
Lived lives: Perry, the miniature donkey who was the model for the donkey in the “Shrek” franchise, died at 30.
What determines longevity?
There are countless people who live to be 100 years old, and their daily habits are not always in line with the usual medical advice — they drink, smoke, don’t exercise. Helen Reichert, a cigarette smoker who lived for more than a century, outlived all the doctors who told her to quit.
But decades of research have shown that cases like Reichert’s are more anomalies than motivations for relaxation. So how much of a person’s longevity is down to lifestyle, and how much is due to luck — or lucky genetics?
Both can be a factor in how long you live. Read more.
