PARADISE, United States: US President Donald Trump arrived in California on Saturday to meet with officials, victims and the “unbelievably brave” firefighters there, as more than 1,000 people are listed as missing in the worst-ever wildfire to hit the US state.
“It seems many more people are missing than anyone thought even possible,” Trump told reporters from the White House South Lawn shortly before boarding the Marine One helicopter to fly to Joint Base Andrews.
The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, the so-called Camp Fire, has now claimed 71 lives.
The fire has devoured an area roughly the size of Chicago, destroying nearly 10,000 homes and 2,400 other buildings.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters the number of people unaccounted for had soared, from 631 to 1,011, in 24 hours as authorities received more reports of people missing, and after earlier emergency calls were reviewed.
“I want you to understand that this is a dynamic list,” Honea told reporters. He said that on a positive note, 329 people who had been listed as missing have now been accounted for.
“The information I am providing you is raw data and we find there is the likely possibility that the list contains duplicate names,” he said, adding that some people who had escaped could be unaware they were listed as missing.
The inferno erupted November 8, laying waste to the town of Paradise in the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and sending thousands fleeing.
Trump on Saturday repeated an earlier claim that mismanagement of California’s forests was largely to blame for the fires.
“We will be talking about forest management,” he said. “This could have been a lot different situation.”
Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters, called Trump’s earlier remark “ill-informed,” and added: “It is the federal government that has chosen to divert resources away from forest management, not California.”
California, which leans strongly Democratic, has been at the forefront of resistance to Trump’s environmental and other policies.
But days after threatening to cut federal funding to California over its alleged “gross mismanagement” of forests, Trump tweeted Friday that he was looking forward to meeting Governor Jerry Brown and his newly elected successor Gavin Newsom.
“We are with you!” Trump said.
Roslyn Roberts, 73, who was forced from her home in Paradise, said she voted for Trump but would disagree with him if she has the chance on Saturday.
“I would tell him that this fire has nothing to do with forest mismanagement. Thousands and thousands of homes got destroyed with no trees around,” she said at a shelter set up by the American Red Cross in a church.
In Chico, just west of Paradise, volunteers had erected a tented encampment for evacuees.
“Just trying to make it day by day. It’s all we can do,” said Dustin Kimball, who worked at the Paradise cemetery.
The Camp Fire has burned 146,000 acres (59,000 hectares) and was 50 percent contained by Friday, California’s fire service said.
Authorities said 47,200 people had been evacuated because of the fire and nearly 1,200 were living in shelters.
Smoke from the fire forced schools to close in San Francisco on Friday and the city’s iconic cable cars to suspend service. The Golden Gate Bridge was shrouded in thick smog.
Much of the rescue work is now focused on Paradise, where many retirees were unable to get out in time.
Rescuers with sniffer dogs have been conducting a painstaking house-to-house search.
“I’m still going to keep on looking and hope for the best,” Johnathan Clark told AFP. He was hunting for his brother, sister-in-law and nephew.
Three other people have died in southern California in a blaze dubbed the Woolsey Fire, which engulfed parts of Malibu, destroying the homes of several celebrities.
That inferno, which is about two-thirds the size of the Camp Fire, was close to 80 percent contained by Friday.
Adding to the misery of Camp Fire survivors, an outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus has been reported at several shelters. Twenty-five people had to be hospitalized, health officials said.
While the cause of the Camp Fire remains under investigation, a lawsuit has been filed against the local power company, PG&E, by fire victims claiming negligence.
Trump to visit California fire scene as 1000 remain missing
Trump to visit California fire scene as 1000 remain missing
- Thousands of people displaced by California's most destructive wildfire face heavy rains next week that could trigger dangerous floods and mudslides, while helping douse the flames
- Trump took a helicopter tour over the Northern California landscape scorched by the killer wildfire
UN Security Council extends South Sudan arms embargo
The resolution extends an arms embargo on the country by a year to May 31, 2025
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council overcame resistance from several countries on Thursday and extended an arms embargo and sanctions imposed in an effort to stem violence in South Sudan.
The US-drafted resolution passed with the minimum amount of support necessary, with nine countries in favor and six abstentions.
The text decried “the continued intensification of violence, including intercommunal violence, prolonging the political, security, economic and humanitarian crisis in most parts of the country.”
The resolution extends an arms embargo on the country by a year to May 31, 2025.
It also extends an exemption, adopted a year ago, permitting the transfer of non-lethal military aid in support of a 2018 peace deal without necessitating prior notification.
It also affirms the Security Council’s readiness to review the arms embargo measures, including their ultimate suspension or easing, “in the light of progress” on certain key issues.
The embargo “remains necessary to stem the unfettered flow of weapons into a region awash with guns. Too many people, and especially, women and children, have borne the brunt of this ongoing violence,” said deputy US ambassador to the UN Robert Wood.
Juba rejects that position, along with several Security Council members including Russia, which has long demanded the lifting of the embargo.
“It is essential to acknowledge the significant achievements we have made,” said South Sudan’s ambassador to the UN Cecilia Adeng, who called for a “more balanced approach.”
“Lifting the arms embargo will enable us to build robust security institutions necessary for maintaining peace and protecting our citizens.”
The embargo “is no more serving the purposes of which it was established” and “it is having negative effects since it hinders the ability of the transitional government to create the necessary capacity,” said Amar Bendjama, the ambassador of Algeria which abstained on the vote along with the other African members including Sierra Leone and Mozambique, joining Russia, China and Guyana.
UN arms embargos are increasingly opposed by some member states, particularly African countries which are often backed by Russia.
“It is clear that at this stage, many of the Council sanctions regimes including South Sudan’s are outdated and need to be reviewed,” said Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Anna Evstigneeva.
It was unfortunate that Washington views such embargos as a “panacea for all of the country’s problems,” she said.
From 2013 to 2018, the country’s 12 million people were gripped by a bloody civil war between the followers of two rival leaders, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, which claimed 380,000 lives.
Violence persists despite a peace deal signed in 2018 and nearly two million people are internally displaced, according to the UN.
The UN Security Council overcame resistance from several countries on Thursday and extended an arms embargo and sanctions imposed in an effort to stem violence in South Sudan. (AFP/File)
Slovak Prime Minister Fico released from hospital, media reports
- The hospital said earlier on Thursday Fico underwent further follow-up examinations
- Fico, 59, was hit in the abdomen and was taken to a hospital
BRATISLAVA: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was released from a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica, where he had been recovering from an assassination attempt, and taken to his apartment in Bratislava on Thursday, Slovak media reported.
The hospital and the government office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hospital said earlier on Thursday Fico underwent further follow-up examinations, which confirmed the positive development of his health condition, and that he had started rehabilitation.
An attacker hit Fico with four bullets at short range when the prime minister greeted supporters at a government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova on May 15.
Fico, 59, was hit in the abdomen and was taken to a hospital in Banska Bystrica in serious condition. He immediately underwent a more than five hour operation and another one two days later.
The attacker, identified as 71-year old Juraj C. was detained on the spot and charged with attempted premeditated murder.
Russia not invited to D-Day 80th anniversary, French presidency says
- Organizers had said in April that President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to the events in France
- The commemorations will be attended by dozens of heads of state and government
PARIS: Russia will not be invited to events marking the 80th anniversary of the Second World War’s D-Day landings next week given its war of aggression against Ukraine, the French presidency said on Thursday.
Organizers had said in April that President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to the events in France, but that some Russian representatives would be welcome in recognition of the country’s war-time sacrifice.
Prior to France’s announcement on Thursday two diplomatic sources told Reuters that the Ukraine war and unease among some allies about Moscow’s presence had led Paris to reverse its initial thinking.
The commemorations will be attended by dozens of heads of state and government, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden.
Briefing reporters ahead of next Thursday’s anniversary, a French presidency official confirmed Russia’s absence and that Zelensky had been invited given his country’s “just fight” in the war against Russia.
“Russia has not been invited. The conditions for its participation are not there given the war of aggression launched in 2022, which has only increased these last weeks,” the official said.
Russia is advancing modestly but steadily in eastern Ukraine as two years of war saps Ukraine’s ammunition and manpower.
Earlier this month, three other EU diplomats told Reuters that a number of states from the bloc had said they would be uneasy if Russia attended.
More than 150,000 Allied troops launched the air, sea and land D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, an operation that ultimately led to the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany.
The Soviet Union lost more than 25 million lives in what it calls the Great Patriotic War and Moscow marks the victory with a massive annual military parade on Red Square.
Russians officials have attended D-Day ceremonies in the past. During the 70th-anniversary events in 2014, Putin along with the then-leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine set up the so-called Normandy format — a contact group aimed at resolving the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which then focused on the Donbas and Crimea regions.
“When there’s a person, there’s a problem. When there’s no person, there’s no problem,” said one of the diplomatic sources using a quote of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s, to describe the decision to not invite Russia.
Israel condemns Slovenia’s Palestinian statehood move
- Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision, which requires Slovenian parliamentary approval, rewarded Hamas for murder and rape
JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister denounced the Slovenian government’s decision on Thursday to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision, which requires Slovenian parliamentary approval, rewarded Hamas for murder and rape, a reference to the Palestinian Islamist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
In a statement, Katz said the move also strengthened Israel’s arch-enemy Iran and damaged “the close friendship between the Slovenian and Israeli people.” He added: “I hope the Slovenian parliament rejects this recommendation.”
UK govt calls for release of Hong Kong democracy campaigners
- “We call on the Hong Kong authorities to end NSL prosecutions,” junior foreign minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said
- Britain has become increasingly critical of Beijing’s influence on its former colony
LONDON: The British government on Thursday urged Hong Kong to halt prosecutions under its National Security Law and release 14 pro-democracy campaigners found guilty of subversion.
“We call on the Hong Kong authorities to end NSL prosecutions and release all individuals charged under it,” junior foreign minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement.
Britain handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997 but has become increasingly critical of Beijing’s influence on its former colony, accusing it of breaking its promise to protect democratic freedoms.
Relations have soured between the two capitals, including after Hong Kongers were given residency and a route to citizenship in the UK due to the crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners.
Trevelyan said Thursday’s verdict was “a clear demonstration of the way that the Hong Kong authorities have used the Beijing-imposed National Security Law to stifle opposition and criminalize political dissent.”
The 14 people found guilty, who were among 47 charged, were “guilty of nothing more than seeking to exercise their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation,” she said.
“Today’s verdict will only further tarnish Hong Kong’s international reputation. It sends a message that Hong Kongers can no longer safely and meaningfully participate in peaceful political debate.”
