National and international media news & headlines compiled by CLG

California Has Not Requested Help From Pentagon to Fight Los Angeles Fires, Spokesperson Says | 12 Jan 2025 | Hundreds of Marines and ten Navy helicopters stand ready, but California has not requested help from the Pentagon to fight the raging fires in Los Angeles, according to a Pentagon spokesperson on Friday. “Why isn’t the military putting all of their forces right now on the ground? We have to work with the state,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said at a Pentagon briefing Friday. The Pentagon currently has 500 active-duty Marines and a variety of equipment on standby, but they have not yet been requested by California, Singh explained. She said they are prepared to support requests of route clearance, distribution of supplies, search and rescue, and air support.

LA’s $750k-a-year water chief ‘was aware of empty reservoir and broken fire hydrants months before fires’ | 10 Jan 2025 | The 750,000-a-year LA water czar is responsible for a raft of failures that contributed to the devastating Palisades Fire, fire department insiders told DailyMail dot com. On Mayor Karen Bass’s orders, the city maxed out its budget to “attract private-sector talent,” hiring Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quinones on a 750,000 salary in May — almost double that of her predecessor. Now, Quinones is being blamed by LA Fire Department (LAFD) insiders for leaving a nearby reservoir disconnected and fire hydrants broken for months, DailyMail dot com can reveal, leading to firefighters running out of water as they battled the devastating Palisades Fire this week. And, Daily Mail dot com has learned, Quinones past employer is also linked to fire scandals. She was previously a top executive at electricity company PG&E, which went bankrupt over liability for several massive wildfires in California.

FEMA kicks hurricane survivors out of temporary housing into snowstorm and freezing temperatures; U.S. has given Ukraine over $65 billion since Feb. 2022 –FEMA is also closing disaster recovery centers in North Carolina until Monday – ‘due to winter weather’ | 11 Jan 2025 | Residents of Western North Carolina are confused about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s role in helping locals with disaster recovery after Hurricane Helene. Locals are especially confused as FEMA plans to end temporary housing assistance for about 2,000 North Carolina residents on Saturday — during a snowstorm, when temperatures across the Appalachian Mountain region are expected to be below 20 degrees. The housing program was initially supposed to end on Friday, but FEMA pushed the deadline back to Saturday. “I’m actually talking to several people that are losing the FEMA vouchers,” Ryan McClymonds, founder of volunteer group Operation Boots on the Ground in WNC and Eastern Tennessee, told Fox News Digital on Friday. [See: Biden regime announces its final military aid package for Ukraine before leaving office.]

Death toll in Los Angeles fires jumps to 16 as winds whip back up –Firefighters raced to save Brentwood and other neighborhoods near the UCLA campus | 11 Jan 2025 | The number of people killed by the wildfires in Los Angeles grew Saturday night to 16 as winds whipped back up and pushed flames toward new communities. Firefighters raced to save Brentwood and other neighborhoods near the UCLA campus as gusty wind pushed the largest fire in Palisades further inland. That Palisades Fire was at least 11% contained and the second deadliest. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Saturday that five deaths appear to be from the Palisades Fire while 11 died in the Eaton Fire.

More than 150K under evacuation orders in LA as deadly wildfires rage | 11 Jan 2025 | The Palisades, Eaton and Hurst and fires are still out-of-control in Los Angeles on Saturday, four days since they began ripping across the county, killing at least 11 people, displacing nearly 200,000, and destroying as many as 10,000 structures, including whole residential neighborhoods. At least 35,000 acres of land have burned down — an area about two-and-a-half times the size of Manhattan.

Los Angeles has never seen this level of destruction: ‘Everything is burned down’ | 10 Jan 2025 | The unprecedented scale of the destruction in Pacific Palisades came into horrifying focus Thursday from a fire that flattened a large swath of the community, rendering it unrecognizable. As the smoke began to clear after two days of intense fire, Pacific Palisades appeared as a moonscape of destruction. Entire swaths of the residential district, from its quaint village to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, were completely gone, the architectural whimsy and lush landscaping reduced to burned-out ruins with white smoke still billowing from the wreckage.

The Historic Landmarks Razed By Deadly Los Angeles Fires | 9 Jan 2025 | The raging wildfires in the Los Angeles area are the city’s most destructive to date: More than 2,000 structures have burnt down, including homes, businesses, and historic buildings. According to a Wednesday statement by California State Parks, fires that spread through Will Rogers State Historic Park engulfed the eponymous 1930s actor’s ranch house. And blazes that swept through Topanga State Park destroyed the iconic Topanga Ranch Motel. The Palisades Fire also brushed the grounds of the Getty Villa, an art museum founded by J. Paul Getty in 1974 to house his massive collection of Classical and Renaissance works… Among the many buildings destroyed is the Bunny Museum, “the world’s only museum about everything bunny.”

Elon Musk to position Cybertrucks with Starlinks and WiFi in greater LA-Malibu area By @legitgov | 12 Jan 2025 | Elon Musk announced on his social media platform X that he will position Cybertrucks with Starlinks and free WiFi in some fire-ravaged areas in Los Angeles and Malibu. “We are going to position Cybertrucks with Starlinks and free WiFi in a grid pattern in the areas that most need it in the greater LA/Malibu area,” Musk posted on Sunday. The vehicles will serve as mobile Internet hubs in areas affected by California’s fires. Later, the SpaceX and Tesla businessman noted that he will add security personnel along with food and beverages to the Cybertrucks. “Also adding security personnel in vehicle and snacks & beverages for passers-by,” Musk wrote.

Biden’s ‘fire away’ remark during LA wildfire briefing shocks social media: ‘Absolutely disgusting’ | 9 Jan 2025 | Joe Biden made what many considered a “disgusting” joke during his remarks on the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires Thursday. Biden convened senior administrative officials to address the federal response to the Pacific Palisades wildfires that have continued to rage throughout the county, forcing the displacement of thousands of California citizens and destroying thousands of homes and buildings. After briefing the public on the federal government’s plan to help local officials during the disaster, Biden gave the floor to Kamala Harris, who hails from California, and made a quick joke. “Madam Vice President, I know you’re directly affected. So you fire away, no pun intended,” Biden said.

Outraged LA residents call for ‘immediate recall’ of Mayor Karen Bass over wildfires – as petition hits 100K signatures | 11 Jan 2025 | Angry Angelenos want to filet this bass. More than 76,000 outraged Los Angeles residents demand the ouster of lefty Mayor Karen Bass in a new petition, ripping her “gross mismanagement” in her disastrous response to the devastating wildfires ravaging the city. “We…urgently call for the immediate recall of [Bass] due to her gross mismanagement and failure to effectively respond to the devastating 2025 fires in and around the city,” reads the Change dot org petition created Wednesday, which had amassed more than 65,000 signatures by Saturday morning [and more than 100,000 signatures by Sunday afternoon]

.Zelensky ‘a beggar and blackmailer’ – EU state’s PM | 11 Jan 2025 | Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has lashed out at Vladimir Zelensky, declaring that the Ukrainian leader’s “begging and blackmailing” needs “to stop.” Relations between Bratislava and Kiev soured when Ukraine cut off the flow of Russian gas earlier this month. “I’m not here to hold hands with Zelensky, and I’ll admit, I’m sick of him sometimes,” Fico said at a meeting of the Slovak parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Friday. “He roams Europe begging and blackmailing, asking others for money,” Fico continued, adding: “This needs to stop.” Immediately after taking office in 2023, Fico halted military aid to Ukraine and vowed to veto the country’s potential accession to NATO.

AfD delegates reject motion condemning Putin | 12 Jan 2025 | The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has overwhelmingly voted against including in its 2025 election manifesto a condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine conflict. The delegates gathered for a conference in Riesa, Germany, on Saturday to decide on the platform for the snap parliamentary elections which will be held next month. Albrecht Glaser, a member of the Bundestag, proposed accusing Russia of failing to protect civilians in Ukraine… According to news channel N-tv, 69% of the delegates voted to reject the motion.

California leads country in human bird flu with nearly 40 confirmed cases | 12 Jan 2025 | A child in California is presumed to have H5N1 bird flu, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH). As of Dec. 23, there had been 36 confirmed human cases of bird flu in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). This represents more than half of the human cases in the country. The latest pediatric patient, who lives in San Francisco, experienced fever and conjunctivitis as a result of the infection. The unnamed patient was not hospitalized and has fully recovered, according to the SFDPH.

Milk from Minnesota dairy farms to undergo mandatory testing for bird flu | 12 Jan 2025 | Agriculture officials next month will begin mandatory testing of milk from Minnesota’s dairy farms for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered national testing of raw milk in a federal order in December, beginning with six states. The testing has now expanded to 28 states, which produce nearly two-thirds of the nation’s milk supply. The USDA says the goal of the testing is to gain a clearer picture of the presence of the H5N1 virus in dairy herds… Avian influenza has been confirmed in dairy cattle in 16 states, including Minnesota, which had nine cases last year.

Trump nemesis Jack Smith resigns from the DOJ | 11 Jan 2025 | Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned from his position on Friday after completing two criminal investigations into President-elect Donald Trump. In a footnote in a motion submitted to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday, it said that Smith had completed his work and separated from the Department on January 10. That motion was urging Cannon not to extend a court order that she issued last week blocking the release of Smith’s final report. Lawyers for Trump had persuaded the Trump-appointed judge to block the release of the volume of Smith’s report pertaining to their case before her… Once Trump takes office January 20th, his own Justice Department will get to make determinations on whether the report on the classified documents case ever gets released.

Joe Biden’s Border Chief Grants Amnesty to 850,000 Migrants | 10 Jan 2025 | Joe Biden’s pro-migration border chief has extended temporary amnesty for 850,000 illegal and quasi-legal economic migrants until 2026, further suppressing American wages and spiking their rents. The 18-month expansion of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) amnesty was announced by outgoing border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas. The beneficiaries include 234,000 illegal migrants from El Salvador who first got their TPS status after a 2001 earthquake. The mass amnesty declaration also includes 600,000 economic migrants from Venezuela.