A growing force of firefighters moved into the Los Angeles area Monday as more powerful winds were expected to trigger new wildfires that could set back the recent progress made in containing blazes that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people.

Crews and equipment arrived from across the U.S., and from Canada and Mexico -- including water trucks and planes that drop firefighting chemicals -- as the National Weather Service warned that the coming days could become "particularly dangerous."

It predicted severe fire conditions will last through Wednesday, with wind gusts in the mountains reaching 105 km/h. The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, warned fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns at a community meeting Sunday night.

The relative calm Sunday allowed some people to return to previously evacuated areas. But even as containment increased in the worst of the fires, more bad news emerged from the ashes: The death toll surged late Sunday with an update from the Los Angeles County medical examiner. At least 16 people were missing, a number authorities said was also likely to rise.

Fierce Santa Ana winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires sparked last week into infernos that leveled entire neighbourhoods around the nation's second-largest city where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.

In less than a week, four fires around the nation's second biggest city have ignited more than 60 square kilometres, roughly three times the size of Manhattan.

Most of that destruction has been from the Eaton Fire near Pasadena and the Palisades Fire, in a wealthy enclave along the Pacific Coast. Firefighters have made progress on both fronts in recent days, with the Eaton Fire roughly one-third contained.

The returning high winds could trigger explosive growth of the existing fires and new outbreaks in areas untouched so far, creating new challenges for firefighting crews already stretched thin.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said 70 additional water trucks arrived to help firefighters fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. "We are prepared for the upcoming wind event," Marrone said.

Fire retardant dropped by aircraft will act as a barrier along hillsides, officials said.

A group of artists, musicians, and friends in Topanga Canyon banded together to stop fires breaking out in new areas by turning off gas lines and propane tanks.

"We helped hopefully save a couple houses and we put out a couple spot fires, Derek Mabra said as he drove along the coast looking at the destruction. "It's complete and total devastation."
Residents check on their homes

Some residents have been able to return to their homes to survey the damage.

Jim Orlandini, who lost his hardware store in Altadena, a hard-hit neighbourhood next to Pasadena, said his home of 40 years survived.

#Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on reports that hundreds of prisoners have been mobilized to extinguish fires in the US state of California, pointed to the hypocrisy of the United States.

Earlier, The Washington Post, citing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, reported that the state authorities had sent 395 prisoners to fight forest fires. The newspaper noted that most of them were persons who had committed minor crimes.

On her Telegram channel, Zakharova pointed out that in recent years, US officials have repeatedly criticized China for allegedly using forced labor, particularly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The diplomat noted that in 2023, Washington restricted imports of products from several Chinese companies in an attempt to exclude goods allegedly produced with the help of Uygur forced labor from the US supply chain. "This raises a logical question: will Congress draft a bill imposing sanctions on California authorities, private companies, and ordinary Americans for using prison labor to put out fires?" she wondered. "We are so sick of this hypocrisy!" Zakharova added.

Wildfires began to spread across Los Angeles County on January 7. According to meteorologists, dry and windy weather was the cause of the rapid spread of the fires. Evacuation notices were sent to nearly 180,000 residents. The fire has destroyed more than 12,300 structures in the region, with damage estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.

What caused the deadly #California #wildfires?

Investigators are considering an array of possible ignition sources for the huge fires that have killed at least 10 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in the Los Angeles area.

In hilly, upscale Pacific Palisades, home to Hollywood stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Crystal who lost houses in the fire, officials have placed the origin of the wind-whipped blaze behind a home on Piedra Morada Drive, which sits above a densely wooded arroyo.

While lightning is the most common source of fires in the U.S., according to the National Fire Protection Association, investigators were able to rule that out quickly. There were no reports of lightning in the Palisades area or the terrain around the Eaton fire, which started in east Los Angeles County and has also destroyed hundreds of homes.

The next two most common causes: fires intentionally set, and those sparked by utility lines.

John Lentini, owner of Scientific Fire Analysis in Florida, who has investigated large fires in California including the Oakland Hills fire in 1991, said the size and scope of the blaze doesn’t change the approach to finding out what caused it.

“This was once a small fire,” Lentini said. “People will focus on where the fire started, determine the origin and look around the origin and determine the cause.”

So far there has been no official indication of arson in either blaze, and utility lines have not yet been identified as a cause either.

Utilities are required to report to the California Public Utilities Commission when they know of “electric incidents potentially associated with a wildfire,” Terrie Prosper, the commission's communications director, said via email. CPUC staff then investigate to see if there were violations of state law.

The 2017 Thomas Fire, one of the largest fires in state history, was sparked by Southern California Edison power lines that came into contact during high wind, investigators determined. The blaze killed two people and charred more than 440 square miles (1,140 square kilometers), according to the investigation headed by the Ventura County Fire Department.

So far no such reports for the current fires have been posted to the CPUC website that tracks such filings.

While lightning, arson and utility lines are the most common causes, debris burning and fireworks are also common causes.

But fires are incited by myriad sources, including accidents.

In 2021, a couple's gender reveal stunt started a large fire that torched close to 36 square miles (about 90 square kilometers) of terrain, destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings and claimed the life of a firefighter, Charlie Morton.

The Eaton and Palisades fires were still burning with little to no containment on Thursday. Winds softened, but there was no rain in the forecast as the flames moved through miles of dry landscape.

“It’s going to go out when it runs out of fuel, or when the weather stops,” Lentini said. “They’re not going to put that thing out until it’s ready to go out.”

Why does #Trump want to end U.S. daylight saving time?

When do the clocks change?

Any changes that Trump and the Republicans may enact probably would not take effect immediately.

Daylight saving time in the United States and some other countries is due to start on March 9 at 2 a.m. local time, meaning people will lose an hour of sleep. Mornings will be darker but it will stay light until later in the evening. Daylight saving time is scheduled to end on Nov. 2. The saying "spring forward, fall back" serves as a helpful reminder for adjusting clocks.

Daylight saving time in the United States always starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

In the UK and other European countries, daylight saving time, also known as summer time, begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October. This year it will start on March 30 and end on Oct. 26.
When is the shortest day of the year in 2025?

The shortest day of 2025 will be on Dec. 21, which marks the winter solstice. Daylight hours vary significantly across latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Areas near the North Pole will be plunged into complete darkness while southern regions will still get more than 10 hours of sunshine.
Why and how was daylight saving created in the U.S.?

The modern idea of changing the clocks with the seasons can be traced back to at least the late 19th century, when New Zealand entomologist George Hudson proposed it to conserve energy and extend summer daylight hours, something that would have benefited his hobby of collecting insects after work. The idea was slow to gain traction until World War One, when European states sought any strategies to conserve fuel. Germany was the first country to adopt daylight saving time in 1916. The United States followed in 1918.

The practice went through many variations before the United States standardized it in 1966 in a law called the Uniform Time Act, which allows states to opt out of it but not to stay on daylight saving time permanently.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader #Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Syrian youth to "stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity."

"We predict that a strong and honorable group will also emerge in Syria because today Syrian youth have nothing to lose. Their schools, universities, homes, and streets are unsafe," Khameini said.

He added: "Therefore, they must stand firmly with determination against the planners and executors of insecurity and prevail over them."

Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 after a 13-year civil war.

Iran spent billions of dollars propping up Assad during the war and deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power.

Assad's overthrow is widely seen as a major blow to the Iran-led "Axis of Resistance" political and military alliance that opposes Israeli and U.S. influence in the Middle East.

Clashes between #Islamists now in power in Syria and Assad's supporters leave casualties.

This year, scientists were able to pull back the curtain on mysteries surrounding figures across history, both known and unknown, to reveal more about their unique stories.

In some cases, analysis of ancient #DNA helped fill knowledge gaps and change preconceived notions. A prime example is how aDNA research is reframing the way people understand the archaeological site of Pompeii, which remains trapped beneath a layer of ash thousands of years after Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in AD 79 doomed the Roman town.

Genetic traces collected from the bones of victims showed that what was once considered to be a mother holding her son in their final moments was an unrelated adult male who likely offered comfort to a child before they perished, and they challenged other long-held assumptions.

Unmasking the unknown

A detailed analysis of tooth enamel, tartar and bone collagen helped researchers uncover details about “Vittrup Man,” a Stone Age migrant who died violently in a swamp in northwest Denmark about 5,200 years ago.

His remains, recovered from a peat bog in Vittrup, Denmark, in 1915, were found alongside a wooden club that was likely used to beat him over the head. But little else was known about him.

Using cutting-edge analytical methods, Anders Fischer, project researcher in the department of historical studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and his colleagues set out to “find the individual behind the bone” and tell the story of the oldest known immigrant in Denmark’s history.

Vittrup Man grew up along the Scandinavian coast and belonged to a hunter-gatherer community, enjoying a diet of fish, seals and whales. But his life changed drastically in his late teens when he made the move to Denmark and shifted to a farmer’s diet, eating sheep and goat. He died between the ages of 30 and 40.

Vittrup Man may have been killed as a sacrifice, or perhaps he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Fischer found the use of multiple techniques to uncover aspects of his identity gratifying.

“In the Vittrup case we meet a genuine first-generation immigrant and can follow his remarkable geographic and dietary transition from northern to southern Scandinavia and from a fisher-hunter-gatherer to a farmer way of life,” he said.

Ex-OpenAI #engineer who raised legal concerns about the #technology he helped build has died, Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind #ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

Balaji worked at #OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

“We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI.

Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

“Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors.

“He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.”

Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement.

He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji.

He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement.

His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing.

“It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.”

He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations.

But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.”

He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.”

#MOSCOW, December 24. Russian President Vladimir #Putin has left for St. #Petersburg, where he will hold meetings with #CIS heads of state and government in the coming days.

The multilateral program is expected to take place mainly on Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, Putin is scheduled to meet with President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.

The leaders are expected to discuss key areas of cooperation in the political, trade and economic, military-technical, cultural, and humanitarian spheres. Special attention will be paid to current regional issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.

As announced by the Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, "acute problems in the field of migration will be discussed". The heads of state will also consider joint work in the CIS, where Russia will chair in 2024 and in 2025 this post will be transferred to Tajikistan.

Putin and Rakhmon last met at the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Astana in November. They meet regularly, both one-on-one and in multilateral settings. In addition, the leaders have regular telephone conversations.

Russia is the leading trade partner of Tajikistan. In January-September of 2024, the volume of mutual trade increased by 10.1% over the same period last year to $1.08 bln. Russia is the second largest investor in Tajikistan's economy after China. Its volume is $1.6 bln. Russia supplies about 90% of the needs of the local economy for oil products. More than 36,000 students and postgraduates from Tajikistan study in Russian #universities.

UNITED NATIONS, December 21. #Russia’s response to the latest Ukrainian crime will not keep itself waiting, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said, commenting on Friday’s missile attack on the town of Rylsk in the bordering Russian region of #Kursk.

"Our response to this deliberate criminal attack on Russian civilians will come shortly," the diplomat warned as he denounced the attack as yet another unambiguous step by the Kiev regime toward escalation.

Six people, including a child, were killed in the attack and 10 others were hospitalized.

The Russian Investigative Committee is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.