Donald Trump says Ukraine is ready to begin peace negotiations “as soon as possible”, with strong signals Russia is also ready for a deal. During an address to Congress, the US president read aloud a letter he said he’d received from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was similar to a message posted on X earlier in the day. “I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said. The tone offered a hint of a possible cooling of the acrimony between the two leaders, our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher writes. Meanwhile, the UK defence secretary is flying to Washington for a meeting with his US counterpart on Thursday – Ukraine is expected to be top of the agenda. Source: BBC

The U.N. human rights chief appealed on Thursday for $500 million in funding for 2025 to support its work, such as investigating human rights abuses around the world from Syria to Sudan, warning that lives hang in the balance. The U.N. human rights office has been grappling with chronic funding shortages that some worry could be exacerbated by cuts to U.S. foreign aid by President Donald Trump. The annual appeal is for funds beyond the allocated U.N. funds from member states’ fees, which make up just a fraction of the office’s needs. “In 2025, we expect no let-up in major challenges to human rights,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told member states in a speech at the U.N. in Geneva. “I am very concerned that if we do not reach our funding targets in 2025, we will leave people … to struggle and possibly fail, without adequate support,” he said. He said any shortfall would mean more people remain in illegal detention; that governments are allowed to continue with discriminatory policies; violations may go undocumented; and human rights defenders could lose protection. “In short, lives are at stake,” Turk said. The human rights office gets about 5% of the regular U.N. budget, but the majority of its funding comes voluntarily in response to its annual appeal announced on Thursday. Western states give the most, with the United States donating $35 million last year or about 15% of the total received in 2024, followed by the European Commission, U.N. data showed. Still, the office received only about half of the $500 million it sought last year. Source: reuters.com

The US State Department has frozen nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, effective immediately, days after President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order Monday to put a hold on such aid for 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a cable, seen by CNN, to all US diplomatic posts on Friday outlining the move, which threatens billions of dollars of funding from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs worldwide. Foreign assistance has been the target of ire from Republicans in Congress and Trump administration officials, but the funding accounts for very little of the overall US budget. The scope of the executive order and subsequent cable has left humanitarian and State Department officials reeling. The cable calls for immediate “stop work” orders on existing foreign assistance and pauses new aid. It is sweeping in its scope. Essentially all foreign assistance appears to have been targeted unless specifically exempted. That means lifesaving global health aid, development assistance, military aid, and even clean water distribution could all be affected. The cable provides a waiver only for emergency food assistance and foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt. The cable does not specifically mention any other countries that receive foreign military financing, like Ukraine or Taiwan, as being exempt from the freeze. In the coming month, the cable said, the administration will develop standards for a review of whether the assistance is “aligned with President Trump’s foreign policy agenda.” “Decisions, whether to continue, modify, or terminate programs, will be made following this review,” the cable states, noting that such a review should be completed within 85 days. In a public statement on Wednesday, Rubio said that “every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” The impact of the freeze on assistance will be immense because the US is consistently the world’s largest humanitarian donor. “It’s a global freak out at the moment,” a humanitarian official said Saturday. InterAction, an alliance of international nongovernmental organizations, said in a statement Saturday that the freeze “interrupts critical life-saving work including clean water to infants, basic education for kids, ending the trafficking of girls, and providing medications to children and others suffering from the disease. It stops assistance in countries critical to U.S. interests, including Taiwan, Syria, and Pakistan.” “The recent stop-work cable from the State Department suspends programs that support America’s global leadership and creates dangerous vacuums that China and our adversaries will quickly fill,” the statement said. One humanitarian official said the pause is incredibly disruptive and said the specifics of the cable are “as bad as can be.” Another official told CNN that while they expected there to be cuts or changes to assistance to specific areas, they were not expecting such a sweeping and immediate pause. They said that the humanitarian needs worldwide are acute and a freeze in assistance from the US could be detrimental. In his executive order, Trump claimed that the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.” However, one of the officials noted that assistance programs, such as those related to global health, which are targeted by the freeze, are in the US’ interest and had enjoyed bipartisan support. “Making sure there are not pandemics is in our interest. Global stability is in our interest,” they said. Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Lois Frankel of Florida said in a Friday letter to Rubio that programs that appear affected by the freeze such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) “depend on an uninterrupted supply of medicines.” PEPFAR and PMI were launched by Republican President George W. Bush and have long enjoyed bipartisan support. Meeks serves as the top Democratic on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Frankel is a member of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, meaning they both have oversight over State Department and USAID funding. They added that people around the world — such as in conflict-ridden Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and Ukraine — rely on the continued flow of aid from the United States. “Congress has appropriated and cleared these funds for use, and it is our constitutional duty to make sure these funds are spent as directed,” the letter read. “These funds respond directly to your stated challenge of carrying out a foreign policy that makes the United States stronger, safer, and more prosperous.” The International AIDS Society warned on Saturday that halting PEPFAR would place millions of lives in jeopardy. IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement, “This is a matter of life or death. PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people — and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.” Source: CNN

Donald Trump has warned he will impose high tariffs and further sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine. Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said that by pushing to settle the war he was doing Russia and its president a “The big favor”. Trump had previously said he would negotiate a settlement to Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022, in a single day. Russia has not yet responded to the remarks. Still, senior officials have said in recent days that there is a small window of opportunity for Moscow to deal with the new US administration. Putin has said repeatedly that he is prepared to negotiate an end to the war, which first began in 2014, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which are currently about 20% of its land. He also refuses to allow Ukraine to join NATO, the military alliance of Western countries. Kyiv does not want to give up its territory, although President Volodymyr Zelensky has conceded he may have to cede some currently occupied land temporarily. On Tuesday, Trump told a news conference he would be talking to Putin “very soon” and it “sounds likely” that he would apply more sanctions if the Russian leader did not come to the table. But in his Truth Social post the next day, he went further: “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a huge FAVOR,” he wrote. “Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.” Continuing, he wrote: “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL’.” Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said Trump’s threat of more serious sanctions on Russia “gives a signal to Vladimir Putin this is going to get worse, not better”. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today program, he added: “We should incentivize Putin to say, ‘OK, it’s time actually to have a ceasefire.’” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy earlier told Reuters news agency that the Kremlin would need to know what Trump wanted in a deal to stop the war before the country moves forward. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that at least 200,000 peacekeepers would be needed under any agreement. And he told Bloomberg that any peacekeeping force for his country would have to include US troops to pose a realistic deterrent to Russia. “It can’t be without the United States… Even if some European friends think it can be, no, it will not be,” he said, adding that no one else would risk such a move without the US. While Ukraine’s leaders might appreciate this tougher-talking Trump – they have always said Putin only understands strength – the initial reaction in Kyiv to the US president’s comments suggests that it is actions people are waiting for, not words. Trump has not specified where more economic penalties might be aimed, or when. Russian imports to the US have plummeted since 2022 and there are all sorts of heavy restrictions already in place. Currently, the main Russian exports to the US are phosphate-based fertilizers and platinum. Speaking to the BBC, Volker said the Russian economy could take “substantial” damage if Trump chose to preserve or strengthen the toughest US sanctions so far, which he said were only levied as Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden left office. “Russia really didn’t feel as much pressure as they could,” he commented. Source: BBC

President-elect Donald Trump has announced the appointment of actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as ambassadors to help make Hollywood “bigger, better and stronger”. Mr Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social the actors, all supporters of the president-elect, had been appointed as his “special envoys” to the world-famous filmmaking hub, which he described as a “great but very troubled place”. The 78-year-old Republican, who will take over from President Joe Biden after he is sworn in on Monday, said it was “my honour” to announce the appointments of “these three very talented people”. He said: “They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK-BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” | Mel Gibson at a special screening of the film Monster Summer in Los Angeles in September. Pic: Reuters Mr Trump said the actors “will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest”. He continued: “It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!” | Jon Voight attends a premiere for the film Reagan in Los Angeles in August. Pic: Reuters Gibson said in a statement he got the news “at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised” but “nevertheless, I heed the call”. “My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can,” he added. Gibson – who lost his home in one of the multiple blazes making up the deadly wildfires which have been ripping through Los Angeles for more than a week – jokingly added: “Any chance the position comes with an Ambassador’s residence?” Representatives for Voight and Stallone did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and, in the past week, the LA wildfires. Overall production in the US was down 26% from 2021, according to data from ProdPro. In the greater Los Angeles area, productions were down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, the lowest since 2020. Source: news.sky.com

Republican Donald Trump was inaugurated again Monday as the 47th U.S. president, calling for a “revolution of common sense” and vowing to quickly order sweeping policy changes, including the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States back to their home countries. “The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump declared in his half-hour inaugural address. “From this moment on, America’s decline is over. We will lead it to new heights of victory and success. There is no dream we cannot achieve. We will not be broken. We will not fail. “I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump told a crowd of about 600 people in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and millions watching on TV throughout the country. “My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization,” he said. Photo Gallery: In photos: Trump inauguration Trump, 78, was the country’s 45th president, and only the second after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to serve a second nonconsecutive term. With Trump’s inauguration, President Joe Biden leaves office after a single four-year term in the White House. In his address, Trump vowed to quickly carry out a litany of 2024 campaign promises, citing the fact that he swept all seven political battleground states in defeating his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump said he will “declare a national emergency,” close the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico to stem the flow of thousands of migrants seeking to enter the U.S., with many of them looking to escape poverty, crime and unemployment in Central American countries and elsewhere. Trump said he would enforce a “stay in Mexico” policy for migrants looking for asylum in the U.S. and end the policy of catching other migrants at the U.S. border and then releasing to them to live in the United States while they await adjudication of their asylum requests, a process that can take months, even years. He said he would declare Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorists,” although said nothing about how he would deal with them. US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden pose alongside President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump as they arrive at the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, before departing for the US Capitol where Trump will be sworn in as the 47th US President. On the domestic front, he said he would declare a “national energy emergency,” even though production is already at a record high. “We will drill, baby, drill,” he declared emphatically. Trump said he would end Biden policies to promote the production and sale of electric vehicles, while also overhauling U.S. trade policies, imposing new tariffs on key trade partners, levies expected to include those imposed on Canada, Mexico and China. “The American dream will soon be thriving as never before,” he contended. “We will forge a society that is fair and merit based.” Much like at a campaign rally last year when Biden was still running for reelection before dropping out in favor of Harris, Trump assailed his predecessor’s performance in office as Biden sat immediately behind him. “We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home,” Trump said, “while at the same time, stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.” Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania, new Vice President JD Vance and their families, began his second inaugural day eight years after his first by attending a traditional service for incoming presidents at St. John’s Episcopal Church across a park from the White House. Afterward, the Trumps headed to the White House for a preinaugural tea with Biden and first lady Jill Biden, before heading to the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony. Trump is the oldest person ever inaugurated as U.S. president, eclipsing Biden who was five months younger when he took the oath four years ago. Vance, 40, and most recently a U.S. senator from the Midwestern state of Ohio, was sworn in as the 50th vice president and is the third youngest in history. Trump is also the first felon to serve as U.S. president, after his conviction last year on 34 criminal charges linked to falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn film star Stormy Daniels, although a judge declined to penalize him in any way. Charges that Trump tried to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden were dropped because of a long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. U.S. presidential inaugurations, a symbol of the democratic country’s norms of a peaceful transition of presidential power, are traditionally held on the steps of the Capitol overlooking the vast sweep of the National Mall. But with freezing temperatures hitting Washington, Trump days ago moved the ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda, where 2,000 of his supporters rioted in 2021 to keep Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory. SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025. Several U.S. billionaires — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla chief executive and X owner Elon Musk — were among those who watched the inauguration, as was TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew. Foreign dignitaries were there as well, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentina President Javier Milei and Ecuador President Daniel Noboa. Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni arrives for the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in

In his farewell address from the Oval Office Wednesday evening, U.S. President Joe Biden warned of the dangers of the concentration of power and wealth, highlighting the emergence of an “oligarchy” and a “tech-industrial complex.” “The dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people, the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked,” he said. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom.” The president did not say who he meant by oligarchy. But some of the nation’s biggest billionaires including Elon Musk have forged close ties with President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated Monday. Musk spent more than $100 million towards Trump’s reelection, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have made large donations to Trump’s inaugural committee. Without mentioning names, Biden made a jab at Zuckerberg’s recent decision that his social media company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will stop working with fact checkers. “The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking,” Biden said. “The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.” Gaza ceasefire Biden ended his term on a high note on foreign policy. Just hours earlier, he announced that Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire-and-hostage agreement in Gaza. “It is the result not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran — but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden said in a statement. “My diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done.” The deal will largely be implemented by the incoming administration, and in his farewell Biden said he is instructing his team to keep the incoming administration fully informed. Trump immediately sought to take credit for the deal, posting on social media that “the ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November.” On the foreign policy front, the administration insists it is leaving the incoming administration with a “very strong hand to play.” “We’re leaving an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure,” Biden said in his foreign policy address delivered Monday. “An America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and visions.” The president again defended his decision to withdraw the United States from Afghanistan in 2021. Republicans and some Democrats have criticized the manner with which Biden ended America’s longest war as chaotic, costing the lives of 13 service members and dozens of Afghan civilians in a terrorist attack in Kabul. Winter of peril and possibilities In a letter released Wednesday morning, Biden reflected on how his administration began in the shadows of COVID-19 and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters intent on overturning the result of the 2020 election that Biden won. “Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities,” he said in the letter. “But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.” It was Biden’s fifth and final formal address from the Oval Office. In his previous Oval Office address six months ago, he explained his decision to step aside and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run against Trump in the 2024 election. The president’s farewell address comes a day after Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted Trump on charges of illegally trying to cling to power after the 2020 election, released his final report. Smith’s report said the evidence would have been sufficient to convict the president-elect in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue. Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and attacked the special counsel’s work as politically motivated. In July the U.S. Supreme Court granted Trump sweeping protections from criminal liability over his role in trying to undermine his 2020 defeat. Biden used his farewell address to call for a constitutional amendment to end immunity for sitting presidents. Biden’s legacy Biden is leaving office with a 39% approval rating, according to Gallup. Thomas Schwartz, a presidential historian from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said the president’s legacy will be affected by how Trump governs in the next four years. “If Trump ends up being a disaster … either ushering economic chaos, or if there’s more world chaos from conflicts, Biden will be remembered more favorably,” he told VOA. “If Trump really proves to be as dangerous to democratic norms as Biden and the Democrats suggested, then I think he may be seen as very prophetic.” Conversely, by inheriting a strong economy and a winding down of U.S. foreign entanglements, Trump has the potential to become a president in the caliber of Ronald Reagan, Schwartz said. In which case Biden will be noted by historians for his legislative achievements but “won’t be remembered as fondly.” The White House also released an extensive fact sheet detailing the Biden-Harris administration’s achievements domestically and abroad. The sheet highlighted historic economic progress that added 16.6 million jobs, grew the GDP by 12.6% and raised median household wealth by 37%. It underscored investments in infrastructure, clean energy, and semiconductors through Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act. The White House argued that through targeted relief and fair taxation, the Biden administration rebuilt a “stronger, fairer economy,” creating opportunity from the bottom up. Biden ended his farewell address by thanking the nation for the privilege to serve. “I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure,” he said. “Now it’s your turn to stand guard.” Source: voanews.com

South Korean authorities arrested impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday over insurrection accusations related to his December 3 martial law declaration, investigators said. A motorcade was seen leaving the gates of his hillside residence where Yoon had been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire barriers and a small army of personal security. More than 3,000 police officers and anti-corruption investigators had gathered there before dawn, pushing through throngs of Yoon supporters and members of his ruling People Power Party protesting attempts to detain him. Yoon’s lawyers have argued attempts to detain Yoon are illegal and designed to publicly humiliate him. The warrant investigators secured for his arrest is the first ever issued against an incumbent South Korean president. | Police officers and investigators leave the residence of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul, Jan. 15, 2025 As local news broadcasters reported that Yoon’s detention may come soon, some minor scuffles broke out between tearful pro-Yoon protesters and police near the residence, according to a Reuters witness at the scene. Yoon’s declaration of martial law stunned South Koreans and plunged one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies into an unprecedented period of political turmoil. Lawmakers voted to impeach Yoon on December 14 and remove him from duties. Separately, the Constitutional Court is deliberating over to uphold that impeachment and permanently remove him from office. Source: reuters.com  

Roaring flames continued to ravage Los Angeles on Sunday as the top U.S. emergency official warned that increasing winds could pose new threats in the coming days. “The winds are potentially getting stronger and dangerous,” Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “You never know which way they’re going.” Local officials expressed fears that as the fires spread, they could endanger more highly populated areas and threaten some of the city’s key landmarks, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, which houses renowned art works, and the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the top public U.S. universities. | The Getty Villa art museum stands undamaged after the passage of the wind-driven Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 10, 2025 As the wildfires raged for a sixth day, the death toll reached 16, with officials worried that more bodies will be found by searchers and cadaver dogs in the neighborhoods that have been leveled by the blazes. California Senator Adam Schiff told CNN that driving through the devastated communities “frankly reminded me of visiting war zones. There are whole neighborhoods that are gone. We haven’t seen this before.” “The heartbreak is just overwhelming,” he said. Watch related report by Veronica Balderas Iglesias: California Governor Gavin Newsom told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the wildfires could be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, “in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope.” A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion. The damages are so high in part because much of the housing that has burned to the ground is among the costliest in the country. Newsom called for an independent review of how the fires raged on, with firefighters at times facing a shortage of water to fight the blazes as they quickly spread out of control. The governor said he is asking the same questions “that people out on the streets are asking, yelling about, ‘What the hell happened? What happened to the water system?’ Newsom said he wants to know whether the water supply was simply overwhelmed, “Or were 99 mile-an-hour (160 kph) winds determinative and there was really no firefight that could’ve been more meaningful?” “All of us want to know those answers, and I just don’t want to wait because people are asking me. I want to know those facts,” he said. “I want them objectively determined, and let the chips fall where they may. This is not about finger pointing.” Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to determine why a 440-million-liter reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry. Firefighters raced Saturday to get in front of the largest and most destructive blaze burning in Los Angeles as it shifted directions and grew by about 400 hectares. The Santa Ana winds that fueled the blazes are forecast to return. “We need to be aggressive out there,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Operations Chief Christian Litz told reporters at a Saturday briefing. The National Weather Service predicted winds picking up Saturday night into Sunday morning in the area and again late Monday through Tuesday morning, with sustained winds up to 48 kph and gusts up to 112 kph. | The auditorium of Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School lies in ruins after wildfires swept through Altadena, California, Jan. 9, 2025 Four active fires in the Los Angeles region have burned more than 16,000 hectares, with flames destroying more than 12,000 structures. About 150,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, with 700 people taking refuge in nine shelters. The causes of all four blazes remain under investigation.     Officials said two of the fires were 90- and 76% contained but the other two only 11- and 15%. The Palisades fire, the largest and only 11% contained, is threatening to jump over a major highway, Interstate 405, into a more heavily populated area. Jim Hudson, a Cal Fire incident commander, told reporters that firefighters have three priorities: “Life, your property and permanent control” of the flames. Firefighting crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes 1,354 fire engines, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. Source: voanew.com