World Briefing: January 13, 2025

A day after making some progress containing fires, firefighters across Los Angeles County were bracing for another round of powerful winds that could threaten new communities and hamper efforts to contain the firestorm. “There will be the potential — especially late Monday night through Wednesday — for explosive fire growth as those winds pick back up,” said Ariel Cohen, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. “In the case of an evacuation order being issued, you have to follow that immediately. Seconds could save your life.” Gusts of 50 to 65 mph are expected Monday, with the strongest winds arriving before dawn on Tuesday and peaking through Wednesday. Areas north of the line from Point Dume to Glendale will be particularly at risk, Cohen said. The brewing wind conditions are generally expected to push existing fires at a south and westward angle - Los Angeles Times

• A new investigative task force is being created in response to the wildfires, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell announced Saturday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be taking over as the lead investigator on the task force, he said. The ATF will be working to determine the origin and cause of the Palisades Fire, the agency’s Los Angeles office said in a tweet. “Certified fire investigators have been on scene and will continue to work in conjunction with state and local investigators to determine the cause of this tragic event,” the agency said. The same national response team that investigated the Maui wildfire is expected to join the investigation of the Palisades Fire, two people briefed on the matter told CNN. Their assistance was requested by Los Angeles fire officials. The team can determine whether power line failures, arson, or other causes were involved in starting the blaze - CNN

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• Gov. Gavin Newsom is deploying an additional 1,000 members of the California National Guard to fire-ravaged Los Angeles. The new additions will bring the total number of CalGuard service members in the region to about 2,500 by Monday, according to the governor’s office. CalGuard personnel are supporting wildfire suppression efforts, stationed at traffic control points and providing protection in some burn zones. - LA Times

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• Hiring a private fire crew costs thousands of dollars a day, and most work through government contracts or with insurance companies. Some wealthy property owners are calling them in directly. The extent of the role private firefighters played in protecting certain businesses and homes in the Palisades is still emerging. A two-person private firefighting crew with a small vehicle can cost $3,000 a day, while a larger crew of 20 firefighters in four fire trucks can run to $10,000 a day, according to Bryan Wheelock, vice president of Grayback Forestry, a private firefighting company in Oregon. Hiring them is not as easy as putting out a post on social media: Most won’t work directly with homeowners - NYT

The black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed Jeju Air flight that left 179 people dead stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea’s transport ministry said on Saturday. The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan, South Korea, on December 29 carrying 181 passengers and crew when it belly-landed at the Muan airport and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier - SCMP

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni says she didn’t believe President-elect Donald Trump actually intends to use military force to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, saying she read his comments more as a warning to China and other global players to keep their hands off such strategically important interests. “I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,” said Meloni, who travelled last weekend to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate and intends to attend his inauguration. Rather, she said, Trump’s comments were “a message to some other big global players more than any hostile claim over these countries.” She identified increased “Chinese protagonism” in the commercially important Panama Canal and resource-rich Greenland as being behind Trump’s warning, and said she interpreted his words as part of a “long-distance debate between great powers.” - PBS

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, while attending an Iranian opposition event in Paris, called for the return of “maximum pressure” against Tehran to push it to allow more democracy and to cease support for extremist elements in the Middle East. “These pressures are not just kinetic, just not military force, but they must be economic and diplomatic as well,” Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant-general, on January 11 told attendees at a gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – which Tehran considers a terrorist group. Trump has vowed to return to the “maximum pressure” policy he pursued during his previous term, with the goal of hampering the Iranian economy enough to force it to negotiate its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and curb regional activities. Trump in 2018 withdrew Washington from a landmark nuclear deal signed with world powers, reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran. Trump said the terms were not strict enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In Paris, Kellogg said there were now opportunities “to change Iran for the better” but that “we must exploit the weakness we now see. The hope is there, so must too be the action.” - RFE/RL

Thousands of people rallied in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on January 12 to protest the December annulment of the presidential election in which right-wing, pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round. Protests have been continuing in Romania since December 6 when the Constitutional Court canceled the election two days before the second round amid allegations of Russian interference. Demonstrators on January 12 waved the Romanian flag and carried Christian icons as wells as banners that read “Democracy,” “Freedom,” and “Give us back the second round,” as they demanded the court to reverse its ruling. They also called for the resignation of the outgoing President Klaus Iohannis, whose term expired on December 21 but is staying on as head of state until his successor is elected. While the rally, which blocked traffic, was peaceful, police said they have arrested three people for “possession of knives and other prohibited items.” - RFE/RL

Boris Johnson has called Vladimir Putin a “fucking idiot” over his “barbaric” behaviour in eastern Europe. Speaking to the Baltic news website Delfi, the former UK PM said: “What Putin is doing is archaic, and barbaric. “And he needs to understand that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – none of these countries are part of the Russian Imperium anymore. And nor is Ukrain…It’s over. Over, over, over. No more empire, Vladimir, you fucking idiot.

Philippine economic growth is expected to accelerate this year and in 2026, making the country one of the strongest performers among Southeast Asian economies. In its recently published flagship report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2025, the UN projects Philippine economic growth to accelerate to 6.1 percent this year. Economic growth is forecast to further go up to 6.2 percent in 2026. “The Philippines is one of the strongest growth performers among [South]east Asian economies,” said UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Economic Affairs Officer Zhenqian Huang.

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