fire

When fire alarms failed, this woman livestreamed her escape from the Hong Kong apartment inferno to warn other residents. The live-in nanny rescued her employer’s baby as she raced down 23 flights of stairs at the Wang Fuk Court complex, where at least 146 people lost their lives.

A huge fireball exploded at a waste facility in an Australian suburb in western Sydney, sending flames 100 metres into the sky. Authorities are investigating the fire’s cause, but say a chemical tank exploded in the blaze, sending concrete debris flying and causing damage to nearby buildings.

From deadly floods in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, to antigovernment protests in the Philippines and demonstrations in Italy to show solidarity with Gaza, here is a look at the week in photos.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with an assist from Noah Goldberg, giving you the latest on city and county government.

L.A. City Hall is not known for making things simple for real estate developers — especially those seeking approval of large, complicated projects.

Yet earlier this year, Westwood resident Zach Sokoloff navigated the city’s bureaucratic obstacle course, winning City Council approval of a $1-billion plan to redevelop Television City, the historic studio property on Beverly Boulevard.

Now, Sokoloff is hoping to make what some might view as a baffling career change, jumping from Hackman Capital Partners, where he is senior vice president for asset management, to a job as L.A.’s next elected city controller.

For that to happen, Sokoloff would need to defeat City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who is running for another four-year term in June. That’s a tall order, given Mejia’s social media savvy, his status as an incumbent and his deft use of graphics highlighting the minutiae of city government — sometimes featuring hat-wearing corgis.

In 2022, Mejia secured more votes than any other candidate in city history, as he and his team like to point out. Former state Sen. Isadore Hall, who is also running against Mejia, has his own track record of winning elections.

Sokoloff, by contrast, has never run for public office. He’s spent the past seven years at Hackman, which proposed the 25-acre Television City project and owns other studio properties.

A onetime grade school algebra teacher, Sokoloff promised to emphasize “leadership through listening” if he is elected, shining a light on areas where the city is struggling and working collaboratively to find solutions.

Sokoloff gave some credit to Mejia for seeking to make city government more transparent and understandable. But he argued that such efforts are only a starting point.

Mejia’s audits, he said, “just aren’t moving the needle.”

“He’s shown a preference for lobbing criticism after the fact, rather than getting involved early on to shape the outcome,” Sokoloff said in an interview.

Mejia spokesperson Jane Nguyen pushed back, saying Mejia has championed an array of policy changes, including the creation of a chief financial officer position and a move to “multi-year budgeting.”

In an email, Nguyen said public officials have been responding to Mejia’s audits by working to improve oversight of rents for affordable housing, purchases of military equipment by the Los Angeles Police Department and housing placements by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

“Despite our small audit staff, this work is ‘moving the needle’ and making a difference in city policies and departments while improving the quality of life of Angelenos,” she said.

Nguyen said her boss has listened to thousands of constituents at community events and at his town hall meetings.

“All politicians ‘listen,’” she said. “The difference between Kenneth Mejia and our opponents is who we listen to. Our Office listens to the people of Los Angeles.”

If Mejia secures a majority of the vote in June, he will avoid a November 2026 runoff. Forcing Mejia into a round two will be a tough task for Hall and Sokoloff, said political science professor Fernando Guerra, who runs the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

Because city controller is a relatively low-profile position and Mejia is an incumbent, voters will likely stick with him unless there’s serious “negative publicity,” Guerra said.

“While he’s quirky, there’s nothing there that’s in any way scandalous,” Guerra added.

Sokoloff is launching his campaign at an opportune time. Television City is the subject of several lawsuits, which have been filed not just by neighborhood groups but also The Grove, the shopping mall developed by businessman and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso. Those plaintiffs have asked a judge to overturn the council’s approval of the project, saying the city failed to comply with CEQA, the state’s environmental law.

Shelley Wagers, who lives nearby and has been fighting the project, said she was surprised by Sokoloff’s decision to run for citywide office. Asked whether he is in fact good at listening, she replied: “Not in my experience, no.”

Sokoloff defended his company’s handling of the TVC project, pointing to the unanimous votes cast by the planning commission and the council.

“We built a broad and diverse coalition of supporters,” he said. “Ultimately, the results of the [city’s] entitlement process speak for themselves.”

Sokoloff has already picked up one key endorsement: Laura Chick, who was perhaps the most confrontational city controller in recent history. Chick, who served in citywide office from 2001 to 2009, took on officials at the city’s harbor, its airport agency, the city attorney’s office and many others.

Chick, who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said L.A. needs a controller who will find strategies to make the city more efficient and effective.

“[Sokoloff] understands that L.A. needs an active problem solver as its chief auditor,” she said.

State of play

— CREATING A RECORD: Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and an assortment of elected officials, clergy and community activists went to a four-hour hearing this week that focused on the impact — and alleged abuses — of Trump’s immigration crackdown. “We want to establish a record, because when the political winds change, we want to hold those accountable,” Bass said.

— THANKSGIVING TEXTS: Caruso, the real estate developer now weighing a second run for mayor, offered his own message on the immigration raids this week, sending a text message blast asking for donations to help families whose lives have been upended by crackdown.

“As we get ready to sit down with family tomorrow, I’m thinking about the families across our city whose Thanksgiving will look a little different,” Caruso wrote on Wednesday. “Many are afraid to return to work after the recent workplace raids, leaving families short on food, rent, and basic necessities.”

— CONCEPT OF A PLAN: Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner said he supports “the concept” of hiking L.A.’s sales tax by a half-cent to pay for additional firefighters and fire stations. Beutner offered his take a few days after the firefighters union confirmed it is preparing ballot language for the tax, which would raise $9.8 billion by 2050. The union wants voters to take up the measure in November 2026.

— FIRE FUNDING: Even without the tax, Fire Chief Jaime Moore is asking for more than $1 billion for his department’s next annual budget, a 15% hike over the current year. Moore said the additional funds are needed to ensure the city is prepared for emergencies like the Palisades fire.

— DIALING 9-1-1: Sticking with the firefighting theme, Beutner posted an interactive graphic on his website showing how much paramedic response times have increased in most zip codes in the city. Beutner said firefighters are being asked to respond to too many non-emergency calls.

— DELAYED RESPONSE: Residents in neighborhoods near the Port of Los Angeles were not told to shelter in place until nearly six hours after a massive hazardous materials fire broke out aboard a cargo ship in the harbor. The handling of the alert, which urged residents to go inside immediately and shut their doors and windows, follows deep concerns about the region’s alert system and how it worked during the Eaton fire in January.

— KATZ OUT THE BAG: The five-member board that oversees the Department of Water and Power has lost its third commissioner in as many months. Richard Katz, a former state lawmaker and a Bass appointee, had his final meeting on Nov. 18. In his resignation letter, he said he’s stepping aside to focus on two upcoming surgeries.

— LACKING A QUORUM: Because the DWP board needs three members to hold a meeting, it won’t be able to conduct any business until the council confirms the mayor’s newest appointee: Benny Tran, who is slated to replace Mia Lehrer. Tran is a principal with Baobab Global Consulting, according to his nomination paperwork.

— IN HOT WATER: A high-ranking DWP employee has been accused of making staffers run personal errands for her on city time, including purchasing tickets to a Snoop Dogg concert, according to a filing lodged by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission’s director of enforcement. The employee’s lawyer said the claims were the product of a disgruntled subordinate.

— MONEY TROUBLES: L.A. County’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing faces a $230-million financial gap in the upcoming budget year, setting the stage for cuts to key services. Officials are looking at scaling back an array of programs, including services to help homeless residents find apartments.

— BOLSTERING THE BUDGET: The council’s new Budget and Finance Advisory Committee, a five-member citizen panel looking at ways to strengthen the city’s finances, held its first meeting this week, selecting former City Controller Ron Galperin as its chairman. The committee plans to look at the city’s investment strategies, real estate portfolio, legal obligations and overall approach to annual budgets.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to combat homelessness did not launch new operations this week.
• On the docket next week: The Charter Reform Commission is set to hold an outdoor town hall Saturday at Echo Park Lake. The event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., will take place on the northeast lawn at Echo Park and Park avenues.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Hong Kong began a five-day mourning period on Saturday, after at least 128 people were killed in fires at a high-rise apartment complex. Officials held a three-minute silence as residents laid flowers near the towers. Authorities say around 200 people are still missing.

Emily Burgueno calls them “sovereign burns.”

It’s the subversive act of simply identifying a need in the landscape or the community — maybe the community garden could use some soil revitalization, or the oak trees plagued with weevil pests could use some fumigation — and tending to it with cultural fire. No need for permission.

California has made supporting Indigenous fire stewardship a priority in recent years to help address the state’s growing wildfire crisis. But burning freely across the landscape (with perhaps only a phone call to the local land manager or fire department to give them a heads up) is still a dream, a long way off.

California outlawed cultural burning practices at statehood in 1850 and in most cases, burning freely without permits and approvals is still illegal. Even recently, Burgueno, a cultural fire practitioner and citizen of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel in San Diego County, has seen local authorities arrest an elder on arson charges for using cultural fire in tending the land.

It’s a practice far older than prescribed burning, the intentional fires typically set and managed by U.S. government fire personnel.

With the tradition comes wisdom: Through joint trainings and burns, fire officials versed in prescribed fire are often delighted by the detailed knowledge of fire’s role in an ecosystem that cultural fire practitioners can nonchalantly drop — for example, the benefits of burning after bees pollinate.

While prescription burns carried out by the Forest Service often focus on large-scale management goals, cultural burns are an elegant dance, deeply in tune with the individual species on the landscape and the relationships they have with each other and fire. Burning is one of many tools tribes have to shape the ecosystem and help it flourish through the years.

“It is grounded in our creation stories, our sacred beliefs and philosophy,” Burgueno said. “It helps us understand how to be a steward of the land, which requires us to be a steward within ourselves — to have a healthy body, mind, and spirit.”

For Don Hankins, a Miwok cultural fire practitioner and a geography and environmental studies professor at Chico State, it’s this fundamental tie to culture that makes the practice unique.

The way willows grow back after fire, for example, “they’re long; they’re slender. They’re more supple than if they were not tended to with fire,” Hankins said. “As a weaver, those are really important characteristics.”

The state now sees its prohibitions, enforced with violence, as wrong and has taken significant steps in recent years to address the barriers it created to sovereign burning. In order to freely practice, tribes need access to land, permission to set fire and the capacity to oversee the burn. But the solutions, so far, are still piecemeal. They only apply to certain land under certain conditions.

Hankins, who started practicing cultural burning with his family when he was about 4, has made a practice of pushing the state and federal government out of their comfort zones. He, too, dreams of a day when a burn is defined solely by the needs of the land and its life.

“The atmospheric river is coming in, and we know that once it dumps the rain and snow … we close out the fire season — but what if we went out ahead of that storm, and we lit fires and worked through the ecosystems regardless of ownership?” he said. “That’s the long-range goal I have. In order to get fire back in balance, first we have to take some pretty bold steps.”

More recent wildfire news

At an October town meeting in Topanga, a fire official with the Los Angeles County Fire Department told residents that, during a wildfire, the department may order them to ride out the blaze in their homes. It’s part of an ongoing debate in California about what to do when an evacuation could take hours, but a fire could reach a town in minutes.

The Los Angeles City Fire Department is requesting a 15% increase in its budget to support wildfire response, my colleague Noah Goldberg reports. The request includes funding for 179 new firefighter recruits and a second hand crew specializing in wildfire response. LAFD’s union is also proposing a ballot measure for a half-cent sales tax to raise funds for new fire stations and equipment.

The U.S. Forest Service completed prescribed burns on more than 127,000 acres during the government shutdown, the Hotshot Wake Up reports, despite fears the disruption would severely limit the Forest Service’s ability to burn during optimal fall weather conditions.

A few last things in climate news

A proposed pipeline could end California’s status as a “fuel island,” connecting the golden state’s isolated gasoline and diesel markets with the rest of the country, my colleague Hayley Smith reports. The state is grappling how to balance consumer affordability with the transition to clean energy, with the upcoming closure of two major refineries.

The Department of Energy is breaking up or rebranding several key offices that support the development of clean energy technologies, Alexander C. Kaufman reports for Heatmap News. It’s unclear how the restructuring will impact the Department’s work.

During the COP30 climate conference in Brazil — which produced a last-minute incremental deal that did not directly mention fossil fuels — the South American nation recognized 10 new Indigenous territories, the BBC’s Mallory Moench and Georgina Rannard report. The hundreds of thousands of acres they span will now have their culture and environment legally protected. Although, the protections are not always enforced.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

For more wildfire news, follow @nohaggerty on X and @nohaggerty.bsky.social on Bluesky.

Bamboo scaffolding, a centuries-old technique that was traditionally ubiquitous in Hong Kong, is under scrutiny for its role in the city’s deadliest fire in more than a century.

At least 55 people have died, and hundreds are still missing since scaffolding at a housing estate in Tai Po district caught fire on Wednesday, according to the latest government figures.

Bamboo is cheap, lightweight, and strong enough to withstand the city’s many typhoons and tropical storms. Hundreds of bamboo poles can often be seen lashed together on the side of a modern office tower.

But could one of Hong Kong’s iconic symbols also have served as the kindling for one of its most horrific tragedies in decades?

How is bamboo scaffolding used?

Buildings or housing estates – like the one in Tai Po district – encased in bamboo during significant renovation projects are not a rare sight in the city-state. Sometimes, the scaffolding can remain up for a year or more.

Bamboo scaffolding is built by speciality workers known as “spiders”. They lash together bamboo poles to build intricate grid-like scaffolding that is then typically covered in additional netting to catch construction materials.

While the use of bamboo has faded in other parts of Asia, it has been hard to replace it completely in Hong Kong, even with options such as metal scaffolding, said experts.

“It’s light, cheap and fast to build with,” Ehsan Noroozinejad, a senior researcher and construction expert at Western Sydney University, Australia, told Al Jazeera. “Crews carry poles by hand, cut them on site, and wrap awkward facades without cranes. That speed and flexibility keep projects moving and costs down.”

Because it is “light and easy to cut”, bamboo scaffolding also fits the narrow living environment of Hong Kong, said Xinyan Huang, deputy director of the Research Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

But there are other reasons, too, why bamboo is hard to replace.

“It [Hong Kong] has a long history, so it is a tradition, and it is not easy to change tradition,” Huang told Al Jazeera by email. “Any change in the construction industry will meet much resistance from current players.”

There are 4,000 bamboo scaffolding workers in the city, Hong Kong Free Press reported, citing union figures, although the industry is on the decline thanks to increased competition from metal scaffolding and an ageing cohort of workers.

Is bamboo scaffolding dangerous?

Prior to the fire, most concerns around bamboo scaffolding have focused on worker safety.

There were 22 fatal workplace accidents involving bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong between 2018 and 2024, according to government figures. Six accidents occurred while new scaffolding was being built, while the rest took place during repairs.

Besides the fact that bamboo is by its very nature combustible, it is also structurally weaker and less stable than steel, according to Huang. He told Al Jazeera that it should be phased out for larger projects.

“I think the bamboo scaffolding can be used for small-scale applications, such as installing an air conditioning unit and replacing a window of a room. However, the large-scale usage such as covering the entire building facade should be stopped. Perhaps, a maximum area of bamboo scaffolding can be defined in future regulation,” he said.

What role did bamboo scaffolding play in the Tai Po fire?

The fire is the deadliest in Hong Kong in more than a century, since a blaze in 1918 at the Happy Valley Racecourse in British Hong Kong led to the deaths of more than 600 people.

Bamboo scaffolding played a big role in spreading the fire, according to experts like Anwar Orabi, a lecturer in fire safety engineering at the University of Queensland, although it was helped by other materials in the estate.

The fire broke out on the scaffolding of one of the estate’s towers on Wednesday, but the speed with which the fire spread took many observers by surprise. Orabi said the design of the scaffolding made it difficult to keep the blaze limited to just a few floors.

“In my point of view, the scaffolding presented a path for the fire to spread vertically which compromised compartmentation. The fire ‘climbed’ the scaffolding, and ignited the multiple fuel sources in people’s homes,” he told Al Jazeera by email.

“Fire can break windows by imposing a strong heat flux [flow of heat] which heats up the glass and breaks it. It is also possible that many people left their windows open resulting in ingress of the fire. This resulted in a multi-storey fire,” he said. Heat radiation and embers from one building helped spread the fire to the next, he said, ultimately engulfing seven towers.

Hong Kong officials also say substandard construction materials were another contributing factor. The South China Morning Post reported that the netting placed over the scaffolding did not adhere to the fire code, citing local officials.

Senior police superintendent Eileen Chung said highly flammable Styrofoam boards had also been placed in windows in the housing estate’s lifts, public broadcaster RTHK reported, helping the fire spread.

Two directors and one engineering consultant from the company behind the construction have been detained, Chung confirmed.

Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee Ka-chiu, has promised that all housing estates undergoing significant improvements will now be inspected.

“The government has immediately arranged for inspections of all housing estates across the city undergoing major repairs, to examine the safety of scaffolding and building materials,” he wrote on Facebook.

A devastating fire swept through Dhaka’s sprawling Korail shantytown, destroying or damaging some 1,500 shanties and reducing tin-roofed dwellings to smouldering ruins, officials reported.

The inferno, which erupted on Tuesday evening, required 16 hours to extinguish, according to Rashed Bin Khalid, a duty officer at the fire department.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, the fire service’s director, confirmed approximately 1,500 shanties were burned or damaged, leaving thousands without shelter.

Official records indicate about 60,000 families — many displaced by climate disasters — inhabit this 65-hectare (160-acre) shantytown. Korail sits adjacent to Dhaka’s affluent Gulshan and Banani districts, surrounded by modern high-rise developments.

Dense smoke enveloped the area as flames consumed dwellings throughout the night.

By Wednesday, displaced residents desperately sifted through debris, attempting to salvage their belongings.

Firefighters reported difficulty accessing the blaze due to the area’s narrow pathways.

Dhaka, home to 10.2 million people as of 2024, contains hundreds of informal settlements populated by rural migrants fleeing poverty, exploitation, and climate-related calamities. Those living there typically survive on daily wages earned as rickshaw drivers, housemaids, and cleaners.

Some 60,000 families, many of them climate refugees, live in the area which covers more than 65 hectares (160 acres).

A fire in a densely populated and impoverished area in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka has burned or damaged 1,500 shanties, leaving thousands homeless, authorities say.

No casualties were reported as of Wednesday, a day after the fierce blaze broke out at the Korail shantytown. According to Rashed Bin Khalid, a fire department officer, it took 16 hours to douse the fire, which began on Tuesday evening.

The fire service’s director, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, said about 1,500 ramshackle dwellings were burned or damaged in the blaze, and thousands became homeless. Heavy smoke blanketed the area as flames engulfed the environs overnight.

According to official data, some 60,000 families, many of them climate refugees, live in the area, which covers more than 65 hectares (160 acres).

The area straddles Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan and Banani neighbourhoods, and it is surrounded by clusters of high-rise apartment and office buildings.

On Wednesday, residents who lost their homes were desperate to collect their valuables as they scoured the debris. Firefighters said they struggled to reach the area because of narrow alleys.

Dhaka, a city of 10.2 million people as of 2024, has hundreds of shantytowns where people from rural Bangladesh migrate because of poverty and exploitation.

Climate-induced disasters also push them to the city’s poorest areas, where they live on low-paid daily labour such as driving rickshaws and working as housemaids and cleaners.

At least 44 people have died after Hong Kong’s worst fire in 63 years tore through several high-rise buildings on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

Firefighters are still fighting the blaze in the Tai Po neighbourhood, and trying to reach people who are trapped inside.

By early Thursday morning, officials said they had brought the fire in four buildings under control, but firefighters were still working on three others more than 16 hours after the blaze started.

Here is what to know:

What happened in Hong Kong?

An apartment complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po neighbourhood caught fire at about 2:51pm (06:51 GMT) local time on Wednesday.

The fire began on the bamboo scaffolding outside one of the buildings. This type of scaffolding, made from bamboo poles used by workers during repairs, burns very easily. Once the scaffolding caught fire, the flames quickly spread up the structure and into the building, and then to nearby towers.

The blocks were also wrapped in green construction netting all the way to the rooftops due to ongoing renovation work, which also caught fire, helping it spread faster.

According to local media, the fire intensified rapidly: By 3:34pm (07:34 GMT), it had reached a level four alarm, and by 6:22pm (10:22 GMT), it had reached a level five alarm – the highest alert level in Hong Kong.

The blaze is Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since at least August 1962, when a fire in the city’s Sham Shui Po district killed 44 people. A fire at the Garley Building on Nathan Road in Kowloon killed 41 people and injured 81 others in November 1996.

Since Monday, Hong Kong has been under a heightened fire alert as dry weather conditions made the risk of fire extremely high.

Where did the fire start?

The fire started at Wang Fuk Court, a housing estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district.

The complex, built in 1983, consists of eight high-rise buildings with a total of 1,984 flats. According to local media reports, seven of the buildings were affected by the fire. Of those, four have since been brought under control.

Tai Po is a suburb of Hong Kong near the border with mainland China, and is home to approximately 300,000 residents. It is part of the government’s subsidised home-ownership scheme.

Property records show that Wang Fuk Court has been undergoing major renovation work, costing about $42.43m.

How did the fire spread so quickly, and what caused it?

The fire spread very quickly because it started on the bamboo scaffolding around the building and spread to the green netting covering the structures.

Both the bamboo and the green netting burn easily, so once they caught fire, the flames shot up the outside of the tower and reached many floors.

Burning pieces then fell and set nearby buildings on fire within minutes. Wind and open areas from the renovation work likely made the flames grow even faster.

While the exact cause is still being investigated, officials say the flammable scaffolding, building materials, and the tall, closely packed towers all helped the fire get out of control.

Police also said they found mesh and other protective materials on the outside of the buildings that did not appear to be fireproof, as well as styrofoam materials on the windows.

“We have reason to believe that those in charge at the company were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” Eileen Chung, senior superintendent at the Hong Kong Police Force, said.

Officers have arrested two directors and an engineering consultant, aged between 52 and 68, of a construction company.

Chung said police arrested them in the Tai Po, Ngau Tau Kok, and San Po Kong districts at about 2am on Thursday (18:00 GMT, Wednesday).

How many people died or are missing?

Authorities have confirmed the deaths of 44 people, including a firefighter. About 279 residents are still unaccounted for. As of 8am (00:00 GMT), at least 66 people had been admitted to hospital, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority told CNN. Of those, 17 were in critical condition, and 24 were listed as serious.

Four people died in hospital. About 900 people have sought shelter in community centres.

What is the latest on the ground?

It is now 9:42am (01:42 GMT) in Hong Kong, and according to local reports, firefighters are still fighting the blaze.

Earlier, the South China Morning Post reported that Derek Armstrong Chan, the deputy director of fire services, said extreme heat had prevented firefighters from accessing some upper-floor apartments. He added that crews would “keep trying” to reach them.

He also said that the “debris and scaffolding of the affected building are falling down, posing additional danger to our frontline personnel”.

Overnight, he said, it was dark, and that made the rescue and firefighting operation “more difficult”.

“In the hours of darkness, it will pose additional danger and difficulties to our operation, and up to this moment, the temperature inside the fire scene is still very high. So, we have difficulties proceeding to upper floors of two of the buildings.”

The Hong Kong Fire Services Department mobilised more than 1,200 fire and ambulance personnel to the site, officials said. Some in the area have returned to work and school.

At least 13 people have been killed in a fire that has engulfed several high-rise apartment buildings in Hong Kong, authorities say, with some residents reported trapped inside.

Flames took hold in several apartment blocks of the Wang Fuk Court estate in Tai Po, a district in the northern part of the city, on Wednesday afternoon before engulfing other parts of the buildings.

Firefighters battled the blaze into the night as thick, black smoke billowed from the 31-storey towers and orange flames lit up the sky.

Nine people were declared dead at the scene and four sent to hospital were later confirmed dead, said the Fire Services Department, which upgraded the blaze to a level five alarm – the highest level – after nightfall.

At least 15 people were injured, and local media reported that some residents were believed to be trapped inside the buildings.

Chan Derek Armstrong, deputy director of Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department, told reporters that the fire spread rapidly and authorities received numerous calls for help from residents.

“Debris and scaffolding of the affected buildings are falling down, so [that poses] additional danger to our frontline personnel,” he said, adding that the temperature inside the buildings remained very high.

“It’s quite difficult for us to enter the buildings and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations,” he said.

‘People trapped inside’

“There’s nothing that can be done about the property. We can only hope that everyone, no matter old or young, can return safely,” a Tai Po resident surnamed So, 57, told the AFP news agency near the scene of the fire.

“It’s heartbreaking. We’re worried there are people trapped inside.”

Reporting from the scene of the blaze, journalist Laura Westbrook told Al Jazeera that when the fire started, it spread through the bamboo scaffolding to other blocks in the housing estate.

“As I’ve been standing here, I can smell the smoke and occasionally we hear these pops, as some of the debris falls to the ground,” Westbrook said.

Wang Fuk Court is one of many high-rise housing complexes in Hong Kong, a city that is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Harry Cheung, 66, who has lived at Block Two in one of the complexes for more than 40 years, said he heard “a very loud noise” at around 2:45pm local time (06:45 GMT) and saw a fire erupt in a nearby block.

“I immediately went back to pack up my things,” he told the Reuters news agency. “I don’t even know how I feel right now. I’m just thinking about where I’m going to sleep tonight because I probably won’t be able to go back home.”

Bamboo scaffolding

People gathered on a nearby overhead walkway, watching in dismay and taking pictures as smoke billowed from the buildings.

Some of the structures were clad in bamboo scaffolding, with social media posts from residents saying the units had been under renovation for around a year.

Frames of scaffolding were seen tumbling to the ground as firefighters battled the blaze, while scores of fire engines and ambulances lined the road below the development, witnesses told Reuters.

Firefighters deployed 128 fire trucks and 57 ambulances to the scene.

Authorities set up a casualty hotline and opened two temporary shelters in nearby community centres for evacuated residents. Sections of a nearby highway also were closed by the firefighting operation.

“Residents nearby are advised to stay indoors, close their doors and windows, and stay calm,” the Fire Services Department said. “Members of the public are also advised to avoid going to the area affected by the fire.”

Tai Po, located near the border with mainland China, is an established suburban district with a population of about 300,000 people. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 people.

L.A. County voters are fuming.

Two out of three think the county is headed in the wrong direction. Four out of five feel its leaders are closely connected to “big money interests, lobbyists, and developers,” and the same fraction felt county supervisors were effective “only some of the time” — or not at all.

How to turn things around? Seven out of ten agreed the county government needed “major reform.”

Those are the top-line findings from a new survey on local governance published this week by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

The survey, paid for by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, took the pulse of just over 1,000 registered voters and found most were feeling quite glum about the local state of affairs.

“Voters and residents are in a state of distrust and think that the government is not working,” said Fernando Guerra, the center’s director.

But the survey was meant to show more than just a dejected electorate, Guerra said. He argued it made another point: Now is not the time for opponents to try and undo Measure G, a controversial measure that overhauled the county’s form of government.

“There are some people that are trying to relitigate Measure G, and I’m talking at the level of political elite,” said Guerra, who supported the overhaul. “What these numbers are suggesting, and what I’m suggesting, is if it were to be put up for an election again, it would pass again.”

It’s been almost exactly a year since voters approved Measure G, bringing something akin to a wrecking ball to the county’s governance structure and promising to replace it with something unprecedented in California: namely, nine supervisors instead of five and an elected county executive rather than an appointed one.

The measure was always controversial, with criticism lobbed at the position of chief executive, who opponents said would now hold far too much power over a $45-billion budget and the well-being of the county’s 10 million residents.

The measure barely passed, with a little more than half of voters agreeing to give it a shot. But the ultimate bureaucratic flub is giving some opponents of the overhaul new ammo to bring it back to voters.

Due to an error with how the county handles charter updates, voters inadvertently gave a 2028 expiration date to a different ballot measure that allocates funding for anti-incarceration efforts — known as Measure J — when they approved Measure G. (The head-scratching error is a wonky one — readers curious as to how it came about can find out here.)

Months after the error came to light, the county has still not said how it plans to fix the mistake. There are a few options, including putting either of the measures back on the ballot.

The survey of voters was not an election poll, and respondents were not given opposing arguments. Most voters did not seem to know much about the impending county government overhaul and the survey did not ask about the bureaucratic screw-up, which could be seized upon in a campaign. About half didn’t remember how they voted.

It’s not clear who exactly is pushing so hard for G’s demise currently. While the overhaul had its vocal opponents — including two supervisors — the effort would be extremely expensive and some may not relish the idea of a campaign that may come with an acute sense of déjà vu.

Some on the government reform task force who opposed Measure G said they didn’t think it was in the cards — though those who opposed the measure said they didn’t think it was such a bad idea.

“I have not heard that,” said John Fasana, a task force member who first noticed the error and voted against both Measure G and J. “I think that’s what they should do: if they’re going to do one, I would say it should be G.”

Instead, the county appears to be leaning toward a ballot measure involving Measure J for 2026.

On Nov. 3, Dawyn Harrison, the county’s top lawyer, laid out the possible options for the board to “reverse the error and honor the will of the voters.” That memo included language for various ways to enshrine Measure J through a ballot measure and make sure it doesn’t go poof in a few years.

Brian Kaneda, who is part of the coalition that got Measure J passed, said the group believes the county has multiple options to fix the blunder. But putting Measure J back on the ballot, they warn, should be the last thing the county considers.

“If evidence surfaces that a new ballot measure is legally required, we’re ready,” said Kaneda. “But we believe the county should rectify this internally, honoring the will of 2.1 million voters.”

State of play

— RUFF WEEK: One of the opponents of L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia accused the controller of misusing city resources by using images of his corgis and other graphics for both his office and his campaign. A campaign spokesperson suggested the opponent was “jealous of our cute corgi graphics.”

— BIN BONANZA: Los Angeles has left dozens of green bins on city blocks, so residents can dump their food waste and comply with a state composting law. Some residents say it’s overkill.

— ‘SMEAR’ STANCE: Newly appointed Fire Chief Jaime Moore says the media is trying to “smear” firefighters. The accusations appear to be in reference to a Times report that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to leave the burn area of the Jan. 1 Lachman fire, which would reignite into the deadly Palisades fire.

— FIRE FUND: The city’s firefighter union plans to propose a ballot measure that would increase the sales tax for Angelenos by half a cent in perpetuity, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually for the department to build dozens of new stations, add rigs and increase the size of the department by more than 1,000 by 2050. “This is the most important thing for the LAFD really ever,” said Doug Coates, the acting president of UFLAC.

— FRAUD PROBE: Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said his office will investigate claims that plaintiffs made up stories of sexual abuse in order to sue L.A. County. The announcement follows Times investigations that found nine people who said they were paid by recruiters to join the litigation.

— RESERVOIR QUESTIONS: State officials determined that even if the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been full during the Palisades fire, the water system still would have been overwhelmed and quickly lost pressure. Officials concluded the water supply in Southern California was “robust” at the time of the fire and that the water system isn’t designed to handle such large, intense wildfires.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness went to Beverly Boulevard and Mountain View Avenue in Historic Filipinotown, an area represented by Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez. Outreach teams also returned to previous Inside Safe locations in Echo Park, Van Nuys, Mar Vista, Little Armenia, Sun Valley, Woodland Hills and the Figueroa Corridor, according to Bass’ team.
• On the docket next week: The county supes will consider deferring permit fees for some homeowners who are rebuilding single-family homes in areas of Malibu after the Palisades Fire.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

In the weeks since federal investigators announced that the devastating Palisades fire was caused by a reignition of a smaller blaze, top Los Angeles Fire Department officials have insisted that they did everything they could to put out the earlier fire.

But The Times has obtained records that call into question the agency’s statements about how thoroughly firefighters mopped up the Jan. 1 Lachman fire in the days before it reignited.

In an interview last month, then-Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva said that firefighters returned to the burn area on Jan. 3 — due to a report of smoke — and “cold-trailed” an additional time, meaning they used their hands to feel for heat and dug out hot spots.

“We went back over there again. We dug it all out again. We put ladders on it. We did everything that we could do — cold-trail again,” Villanueva told The Times on Oct. 8. “We did all of that.”

A dispatch log obtained by The Times, however, shows that firefighters arrived at the scene that day and quickly reported seeing no smoke. They then canceled the dispatch for another engine that was on the way, clearing the call within 34 minutes. The log does not mention cold trailing. It’s unclear if crews took any other actions during the call, because the LAFD has not answered questions about it.

The Times has made multiple requests for comment to LAFD spokesperson Capt. Erik Scott by email, text and in person, but the agency has refused to explain the discrepancy. Villanueva also did not respond to an emailed request for comment and an interview request.

The conflict between the LAFD’s statements and its own records is likely to intensify frustration and anger among Palisades fire victims over contradictory and incomplete information about what was done to protect their community. With the first anniversary approaching, gaps remain in what the LAFD has told the public about what it did to prepare for and respond to the fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

The LAFD’s after-action report on the Palisades fire makes only a cursory reference to the Lachman blaze. Missing from the 70-page document, released last month, are the report of smoke in the area on Jan. 3 and a battalion chief’s decision to pull firefighters out of the scene the day before, even though they warned him that there were signs of remaining hot spots.

The head of the board that oversees the LAFD has maintained that information about the firefighter warnings — or any examination of the Lachman fire — did not belong in the after-action report.

“The after-action review that was presented to the commission is exactly what we asked for,” Genethia Hudley Hayes, president of the Board of Fire Commissioners, said at the board’s meeting on Tuesday. She said the review was only supposed to cover the first 72 hours after the Palisades fire erupted.

“It is not an investigation,” she said. “It should not include things that the newspaper seems to feel like should be included.”

The after-action report detailed missteps in fire officials’ response to the Palisades fire, including major failures in deployment and communications, and made recommendations to prevent the issues from happening again.

Two former LAFD chief officers said the report also should have provided an examination of what might have gone wrong in the mop-up of the Lachman blaze, which investigators believe was deliberately set, as part of its “lessons learned” section.

“A good after-action report documents what happened before the incident,” said former LAFD Battalion Chief Rick Crawford, who retired from the agency last year and is now emergency and crisis management coordinator for the U.S. Capitol. “The after-action report should have gone back all the way to Dec. 31.”

Patrick Butler, a former assistant chief for the LAFD who has worked on several after-action teams, including for the federal government, agreed.

“If you limit an after-action to an artificial timeline, you’re not going to uncover everything you need to learn from,” said Butler, who is the Redondo Beach fire chief.

He noted that the reports shape training and operational improvements for the Fire Department.

“To exclude the Lachman fire from the report gives the appearance of a coverup of foundational facts,” Butler added. “It’s not a harmless oversight. The consequences can be significant and far-reaching.”

The Jan. 3 report of smoke at the Lachman burn area came in shortly before noon, according to a dispatch log of the incident. Firefighters from Fire Station 23 — one of two stations in the Palisades — arrived on the scene about 10 minutes after they were dispatched.

A couple minutes later, they reported “N/S,” or nothing showing, according to the log. A few minutes after that, they canceled the dispatch for an engine from Fire Station 69, the other Palisades station.

The last entry in the log was from 12:20 p.m., indicating that an L.A. County crew was working in the area.

The L.A. County Fire Department said in a statement that the crew was at the scene for less than 30 minutes conducting an “informal ‘lessons learned’ discussion of their actions from the night of the fire.”

“They did not gear up or perform any work while there and they did not see anything of note,” the statement said.

The L.A. County crew left the scene about 12:40 p.m.

The Times previously reported that firefighters were ordered to roll up their hoses and leave the burn area of the Lachman fire on Jan. 2, even though they had complained that the ground was still smoldering and rocks remained hot to the touch. The paper reviewed text messages among three firefighters and a third party, sent in the weeks and months after the fire, in which they discussed the handling of the blaze.

LAFD officials also opted not to use thermal imaging technology to detect lingering hot spots. Despite warnings of extreme winds leading up to Jan. 7, they failed to pre-deploy any engines or firefighters to the burn area — or anywhere in the Palisades.

At least one battalion chief assigned to the LAFD’s risk management section has known for months that crews had complained about hot spots after the Lachman fire. But the department kept that information hidden from the public.

At the Tuesday fire commission meeting, newly appointed Fire Chief Jaime Moore — in an apparent reference to The Times reporting — slammed what he called media efforts to “smear” firefighters who battled the worst fire in city history.

“Something that’s been very frustrating for me as fire chief, and through this process, is to watch my friends in the media smear our name and the work that our firefighters did to combat one of the most intense fires, the Palisades, the wind-driven monstrosity that it was,” Moore, a 30-year LAFD veteran, said on his second day on the job.

He added: “The audacity for people to make comments and say that there’s text messages out there that say that we did not put the fire out, that we did not extinguish the fire. Yet I have yet to see any of those text messages.”

Moore made those remarks despite having been tasked by Mayor Karen Bass with conducting an investigation into The Times report about the LAFD’s response to the Lachman fire.

Bass had requested that Villanueva investigate, saying that “a full understanding … is essential to an accurate accounting of what occurred during the January wildfires.”

Critics have said it would be improper for the LAFD to investigate itself and called for an independent review.

Before the City Council confirmed his appointment as chief, Moore also had called for an outside organization to conduct the inquiry, describing the reports of the firefighters’ warnings on Jan. 2 as alarming.

On Tuesday, he said he would review the LAFD’s response to the Lachman fire.

“I will do as Mayor [Karen] Bass asked, and I will look into the Lachman fire, and we will look at how that was handled, and we will learn from it, and we’ll be better from it,” he said.

A Bass spokesperson said Wednesday that the mayor “has made clear to Chief Moore” that the investigation into the Lachman fire should be conducted by an independent entity.

The LAFD has not responded to a question about who will conduct the probe.

From Broderick Turner and Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Lakers confirmed that Joey and Jesse Buss, who both had been executives with the team, are no longer with the franchise.

The announcement was made Thursday in a move many figured would come later with changes to the Lakers’ basketball operations department after Mark Walter became the majority owner. The sale was at a $10-billion valuation and was approved by the NBA board of governors in October.

According to a person not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, everything with the Lakers is being evaluated and that included firing scouts on Thursday.

It was felt that starting the process now was the best course of action to take rather than wait, according to one person aware of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.

Joey Buss was an alternate governor and vice president of research and development with the Lakers while Jesse was the team’s assistant general manager.

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CLIPPERS

Jalen Suggs scored a season-high 23 points and had seven assists, and the Orlando Magic rolled to a 129-101 win over the Clippers on Thursday night.

James Harden had 31 points and eight assists for the Clippers. Ivica Zubac, the only other Clipper in double figures, had 14 points and 19 rebounds.

The injury-riddled Clippers, playing the fourth game of a seven-game trip, lost for the ninth time in 10 games.

Continue reading here

Clippers box score

NBA standings

DODGER STADIUM GONDOLA

From Bill Shaikin: The Los Angeles City Council challenged Mayor Karen Bass last week, overwhelmingly passing a resolution urging Metro to kill the proposed Dodger Stadium gondola and urging Bass to lend her support.

A Metro committee considered the gondola project Thursday, and Bass just happened to be one of the five voting members of the committee. In front of the hundreds of community members that turned out for the hearing, Bass would have a public opportunity to make her case for whatever position she might choose to take.

Bass whiffed.

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BASEBALL IN LONG BEACH

From Bill Shaikin: When spring training rolls around, it will be one dozen years since the Angels last appeared in a postseason game and two dozen years since they won their first and only World Series championship. If baseball were scripted, two of the Angels’ World Series heroes would take charge of the team and make it a winner again.

As it turns out, two of those champions are taking charge of a team next year. Not the Angels, though.

Troy Percival has been hired to manage the new Long Beach team in the independent Pioneer League. Percival, the closer who recorded the final out in the 2002 World Series, said his hitting coach would be Troy Glaus, the 2002 World Series most valuable player.

“I made sure that he could hit fungoes,” Percival said, “because I can’t.”

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From Bill Plaschke: On the drive up to the Rose Bowl’s front door, underneath the legendary glowing sign, toward the picturesque purple mountains, there stands the most impactful symbol of the school that plays there.

It is a statue of Jackie Robinson in a UCLA football uniform.

He is cradling the ball in his left hand and warding off impending tacklers with his right, a striking bronze symbol of a university’s resilience and strength. The most formidable figure in American sports history is standing where he grew up, where his team lives and where he forever will embody the epitome of the gutty Bruin.

Nobody represents the mission of UCLA more than Jackie Robinson.

Nothing is more disgusting than the thought of UCLA leaving him in the dust.

The Bruins are trying to flee the Rose Bowl, did you hear? They’re trying to break a long-term lease and leave Pasadena on the next thing smokin’. Oh yeah, they’re all but gone, it’s all there in lawsuits and court filings and mounds of legal stuff that mask the real message.

UCLA values a quick buck over enduring integrity, fast cash over deep tradition and dollars over die-hards.

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Former head of UCLA’s football NIL collective denies wrongdoing alleged in report

LA OLYMPICS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: LA28 hopes to sell more tickets for the 2028 Games than any other Olympic organizing committee in history, and the private group launched a fundraising campaign Thursday to help keep those tickets accessible to local fans.

The fundraising effort invites local sports teams, philanthropists and partners to fund ticket donations that will go to local organizations that will distribute tickets within their communities. The Rams are the inaugural partners, donating $5 million to the campaign.

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U.S. WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM

From Kevin Baxter: The women’s national soccer team will return to Carson in 2026 for the first time in nearly two years for its annual January training camp, U.S. Soccer will announce Thursday.

The 11-day camp will run from Jan. 17-27 and will conclude with two international matches. The first, on Jan. 24 against Paraguay, will be played at Dignity Health Sports Park and will include a tribute to two-time World Cup champion Christen Press, who announced her retirement this fall.

The venue and opponent for the second match on Jan. 27 has not been finalized.

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USC BASKETBALL

Chad Baker-Mazara scored scored a career-high 34 points and Jordan Marsh hit a contested three-pointer at the buzzer to lift USC to a 107-106 win over Troy on Thursday night.

Troy, coming off a 108-107 double-overtime win at San Diego State on Tuesday, led throughout the third overtime but threw the ball away into the front court after rebounding Baker-Mazara’s missed drive with about 10 seconds to go. Rodney Rice got the loose ball and fired it ahead to Marsh, who took a couple of dribbles and hit from almost straightaway.

Rice had 26 points and nine assists for USC (4-0) and Ezra Ausar 22 points, which was outrebounded 63-39, including 25-7 on the offensive end.

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USC box score

KINGS

Phillip Kusharev scored in regulation and the only goal of a shootout, and the San Jose Sharks held on for a 4-3 win over the Kings on Thursday night.

San Jose’s first player in the shootout, Kusharev skated toward his left then shifted direction toward the net before flipping the puck over the left shoulder of Kings goalie Anton Forsberg. Kusharev also had a goal in the second period.

Ty Dellandrea had a goal and an assist for San Jose. Adam Gaudette scored a goal, while Collin Graf had two assists. Yaroslav Askarov made 31 saves, two during the shootout.

Joel Armia, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe had goals for the Kings.

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Kings summary

NHL standings

DUCKS

Drake Batherson scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:58 to play, and the Ottawa Senators held off a furious rally after the Ducks pulled their goalie in the final minutes for a 3-2 victory Thursday night at Honda Center.

Batherson was camped in front of the net when he deflected a blue-line shot from Jake Sanderson past goalie Petr Mrazek to end the Ducks’ six-game home win streak.

Beckett Sennecke and Mason McTavish scored in the second period for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks. Mrazek, the backup who made his fifth start of the season in place of Lukas Dostal, had 22 saves.

Continue reading here

Ducks summary

NHL standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1953 — Notre Dame ties Iowa 14-14 by faking injuries in both halves. With two seconds to go in the first half, a Notre Dame player stops the clock by faking an injury and the Fightin’ Irish score on the next play. With six seconds left in the game and Notre Dame out of timeouts, two players fake injuries and the Irish score on the last play to tie the game.

1965 — The Cotton Bowl is packed with 76,251 fans, giving the Dallas Cowboys their first home sellout. The Cleveland Browns spoil the day with a 24-17 win.

1971 — The New York Rangers score eight goals in the third period of a 12-1 rout over the California Seals.

1981 — Brigham Young’s Jim McMahon passes for 552 yards in a 56-28 victory over Utah. Gordon Hudson sets the NCAA record for yards gained by a tight end with 259.

1982 — The NFL resumes play after seven weeks of the season were canceled when the NFL Players Association went on strike Sept. 23.

1987 — The Columbia Lions extend their Division I-record losing streak to 41 games with a 19-16 loss to Brown. Columbia gives up a touchdown with 47 seconds left in the game.

1987 — Southwestern Louisiana quarterback Brian Mitchell rushes for 271 yards and four touchdowns and passes for 205 yards in a 35-28 victory over Colorado State.

1998 — Villanova’s Brian Westbrook becomes the first player to record 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season and catches two touchdowns to lead the Wildcats to a 27-15 victory over Rhode Island.

2004 — Roger Federer wins a record 13th straight final, beating Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-2 in the title match of the ATP Masters Cup. Federer breaks the record of 12 straight finals victories shared by Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.

2008 — Michigan’s 42-7 drubbing by Ohio State put a merciful end to the worst season in Michigan’s 129 years of intercollegiate football. The Wolverines (3-9) lose the most games in school history.

2010 — Jimmie Johnson becomes the first driver in the seven-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship to overcome a point deficit in the season finale, finishing second to Ford 400 winner Carl Edwards while winning his record fifth consecutive title.

2015 — Brent Burns scores twice and Patrick Marleau gets his 1,000th career point — an assist on Burns’ first goal — to lift the San Jose Sharks over the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1.

2015 — Wes Washpun scores 21 points as Northern Iowa stuns top-ranked North Carolina 71-67 for its first win over the nation’s No. 1 team. The Panthers use a 29-8 run in the second half to turn a 50-34 deficit into a 63-58 lead. The Tar Heels scheduled the trip to Cedar Falls so senior Marcus Paige could play in his home state. Paige doesn’t play because of a broken bone in his right hand.

2016 — Mackenzie Hughes holes an 18-foot par putt from off the green to win the RSM Classic and become the first rookie in 20 years to go wire-to-wire for his first PGA Tour victory. Four players return for the third extra playoff hole at the par-3 17th. Hughes makes his putt and watches Blayne Barber, Henrik Norlander and Camilo Villegas all miss par putts from 10 feet or closer.

2021 — Alexander Zverev of Germany captures his second ATP Finals men’s tennis title defeating world #2 Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-4 in Turin.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Officials at the climate conference say the fire was contained within six minutes, and 13 attendees were treated for smoke inhalation.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Attendees have been forced to evacuate the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, after a fire broke out at the venue in Belem, Brazil.

There were no injuries in Thursday’s blaze, according to Brazil’s Tourism Minister Celso Sabino. In a news conference afterwards, he downplayed the seriousness of the fire.

“There was a small fire here, which is possible at any large event,” he told journalists. “This small fire could happen anywhere on planet Earth.”

Organisers reported that the evacuation was “fast” and the fire was controlled within six minutes, leaving only minor damage.

Thirteen people were treated for smoke inhalation, according to a joint statement from the UN and COP30 leaders.

The affected area, known as the Blue Zone, is expected to remain closed until 8pm local time (23:00 GMT).

The cause of the fire remains unclear. But Helder Barbalho — the governor of the state of Para, where the summit is taking place — told the Brazilian channel GloboNews that authorities believe a generator failure or short circuit might have sparked the incident.

On social media, Barbalho assured the public that other parts of the COP30 conference zone continued to be in operation.

“We will find out what caused it, whether we can restart work here in the Blue Zone today or not,” he wrote. “The Green Zone is operating normally.”

Reports emerged about 2pm local time (17:00 GMT) of flames in the Blue Zone pavilion, a restricted area for negotiators and accredited media.

Videos on social media showed scenes of panic and security officials ordering attendees to exit the venue.

caralho, fogo na zona azul aqui da COP 30. uma loucura de gente correndo. meu deus! pic.twitter.com/ebXubnHwiR

— ralfer (@ralferr) November 20, 2025

Al Jazeera spoke to Fernando Ralfer Oliveira, an independent journalist who was in the Blue Zone when the fire broke out and shared footage of the flames.

“I was in the big corridor that leads to the meeting rooms when a commotion of people started running. I had my phone in my hand and immediately started recording,” said Ralfer.

“When I got close to the pavilion, someone ran past me shouting, ‘Fire, fire, fire!’ So I ran a little and managed to record that bit of the fire. But at that moment, security was already coming towards us in force, saying ‘Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate.’”

Ralfer and other evacuees were then directed to the COP30’s food court area, located outside the pavilion.

Roughly an hour after the fire broke out, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which organises the conference, sent an email to attendees saying that the local fire service would conduct “full safety checks” at the venue.

They then announced the Blue Zone’s continued closure: “Please note that the premises are now under the authority of the Host Country and are no longer considered a Blue Zone.”

The Blue Zone fire happened a week after Brazil responded to the UN’s concerns around safety at COP30.

On November 13, Simon Stiell, the executive secretary with the UNFCCC, sent a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his government, raising issues ranging from faulty doors to water leaks near light fixtures.

That same day, the Brazilian government published a statement saying that “all UN requests have been met”, including the repositioning and expansion of police forces between the Blue and Green Zones.

On his second day as chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Jaime Moore criticized what he called media efforts to “smear” firefighters who responded to the worst wildfire in city history.

Moore’s comments Tuesday appeared to be in reference to a Times report that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and leave the burn area of the Jan. 1 Lachman fire, which days later reignited into the deadly Palisades fire, even though they had complained that the ground was still smoldering.

The Times reviewed text messages between firefighters and a third party, sent in the weeks and months after the Palisades fire, indicating that crews had expressed concerns that the Lachman fire would reignite if left unprotected.

“The audacity for people to make comments and say that there’s text messages out there that say that we did not put the fire out, that we did not extinguish the fire,” Moore told the Board of Fire Commissioners. “Yet I have yet to see any of those text messages.”

Moore’s statements represented a dramatic shift from his comments last week, when he told the L.A. City Council’s public safety committee — two days before the full council approved his appointment as chief — that the reports had generated an “understandable mistrust” of the fire department.

“The most alarming thing to me is … our members were not listened to, or they were not heard,” he said last Wednesday.

In response to Mayor Karen Bass’ request that he investigate the department’s missteps during the Lachman fire, Moore had called for an outside organization to conduct the probe.

On Tuesday, he said he would review LAFD’s response to the Lachman fire, though he did not specify who would conduct the investigation.

“I will do as Mayor Bass asked, and I will look into the Lachman fire, and we will look at how that was handled, and we will learn from it, and we’ll be better from it,” he said.

In one text message reviewed by The Times, a firefighter who was at the Lachman scene Jan. 2 wrote that the battalion chief in charge had been told it was a “bad idea” to leave because of visible signs of smoldering terrain.

A second firefighter was told that tree stumps were still hot at the location when the crew packed up and left, according to the texts. And another firefighter said in more recent texts that crew members were upset when directed to leave the scene, but that they could not ignore orders.

The firefighters’ accounts line up with a video recorded by a hiker above Skull Rock Trailhead late in the morning Jan. 2 — almost 36 hours after the Lachman fire started — that shows smoke rising from the dirt. “It’s still smoldering,” the hiker says from behind the camera.

At least one battalion chief assigned to LAFD’s risk management section knew about the complaints for months, The Times found. But the department did not include that finding, or any detailed examination of the reignition, in its after-action report on the Jan. 7 Palisades fire — or otherwise make the information public — despite victims demanding answers for months about how the blaze started and whether more could have been done to prevent it.

Moore, a 30-year LAFD veteran, told the City Council on Friday that one of his top priorities is raising morale in a department that has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the Palisades fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

In January, The Times reported that LAFD officials decided not to pre-deploy any engines or firefighters to the Palisades — as they had done in the past — despite being warned that some of the most dangerous winds in recent years were headed for the region.

The LAFD after-action report released last month described fire officials’ chaotic response, which was plagued by major staffing and communication issues, as the massive blaze overwhelmed them.

After Bass ousted Fire Chief Kristin Crowley over her handling of the Palisades fire, the department was led by interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva until Moore took over Monday.

Genethia Hudley Hayes, president of the Board of Fire Commissioners, which provides civilian oversight for the fire department, said at Tuesday’s meeting that she had not seen the text messages quoted in The Times. Because she hadn’t seen them, she said, the messages have “no bearing on the work of the fire commission.”

She also said that the commission supported the fire department’s after-action report, noting that that the report was not about the rekindling of the Lachman fire, but about the first 72 hours of the department’s response to the Palisades fire.

“It has nothing to do and should not have had anything to do with the Lachman fire, because that is not what we asked for,” Hudley Hayes said.

WASHINGTON — A federal court has blocked Texas from moving forward with a new congressional map hastily drawn in recent months to net Republicans up to five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.

The ruling on Tuesday is a major political blow to the Trump administration, which set off a redistricting arms race throughout the country earlier this year by encouraging Texas lawmakers to redraw its congressional district boundaries mid-decade — an extraordinary move bucking traditional practice.

The three-judge federal court panel in El Paso said in a 2-1 decision that “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map,” ordering the state to revert to the maps it had drawn in 2021.

Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, who at Trump’s behest directed GOP state lawmakers to proceed with the plan, vowed on Tuesday that the state would appeal the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.

Californians responded to Texas’ attempted move by voting on Nov. 4 to approve a new, temporary congressional map for the state, giving Democrats the opportunity to pick up five new seats.

Initially, the proposal pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, known as Prop. 50, had trigger language that would have conditioned new California maps going into effect based on whether Texas approved its new congressional districts.

But that language was stripped out last minute, raising the possibility that Democrats enter the 2026 midterm election with a distinct advantage. The language was removed because Texas had already passed its redistricting plan, making the trigger no longer needed, said Democratic redistricting expert Paul Mitchell, who drew the maps for Prop. 50.

“Our legislature eliminated the trigger because Texas had already triggered it,” Mitchell said Tuesday.

Newsom celebrated the ruling in a statement to The Times, which he also posted on the social media site X.

“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” Newsom said. “This ruling is a win for Texas, and for every American who fights for free and fair elections.”

Legal scholars had warned that Texas’ bid would invite accusations and legal challenges of racial gerrymandering that California’s maps would not.

The new Texas redistricting plan appears to have been instigated by a letter from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, who threatened Texas with legal action over three “coalition districts” that she argued were unconstitutional.

Coalition districts feature multiple minority communities, none of which comprises the majority. The newly configured districts passed by Texas redrew all three, potentially “cracking” racially diverse communities while preserving white-majority districts, legal scholars said.

While the Supreme Court’s rulings on redistricting have been sporadic, the justices have generally ruled that purely political redistricting is legal, but that racial gerrymandering is not — a more difficult line to draw in southern states where racial and political lines overlap.

In 2023, addressing a redistricting fight in Alabama over Black voter representation, the high court ruled in Allen vs. Milligan that discriminating against minority voters in gerrymandering is unconstitutional, ordering the Southern state to create a second minority-majority district.

The Justice Department is also suing California to attempt to block the use of its new maps in next year’s elections.

Times staff writer Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.

Boeing says its MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone is on track for its first live-fire weapons shot, which will be of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), next month. The company says the MQ-28’s development is otherwise now “hitting its stride,” amid talk of new customers, possibly including the U.S. Navy and Poland. Boeing’s Australian subsidiary first began development of the Ghost Bat for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), which has already conducted extensive flight testing with its fleet of eight prototypes.

Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, provided a general update on the MQ-28 program at a media roundtable ahead of the 2025 Dubai Airshow in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at which TWZ was in attendance. Boeing officials had said on various occasions earlier this year that the AMRAAM shot could come in late 2025 or early 2026.

At the Avalon Air Show in Australia in March, “I talked about doing a weapons shot off the MQ-28 later this year, or early in 2026. We are on track for next month,” Parker said during his opening remarks. “This weapon shot is something we’re really excited about.”

In addition to being a first for the MQ-28, the planned shot also looks set to be a first for any CCA-type drone, at least that we know about.

“It’s an air-to-air missile, and if you were to guess it was an AMRAAM, AIM-120, you would be correct,” he added later on during the roundtable when asked for more specifics.

The test itself will be carried out over the sprawling Woomera Range Complex (WRC) in southern Australia and reflect “a tactically relevant scenario,” according to Parker. The MQ-28 will attempt to down a real airborne target with the AIM-120.

Parker did not offer any specific details about how the engagement might be prosecuted, including how the drone would find and track the target. The MQ-28 is a highly modular design intended to allow for the ready integration of various munitions, sensors, and other payloads. The entire nose can be swapped out. It is worth noting here that at least two of the RAAF’s initial batch of MQ-28s have been spotted with an infrared search and track (IRST) sensor in the nose, which would be very relevant for this upcoming air-to-air weapons test.

Broadly speaking, IRST sensors offer a valuable means of spotting and tracking aerial threats, especially stealthy aircraft and missiles, which can be used as an alternative and/or companion to radars. IRSTs have the additional benefit of being immune to electronic warfare attacks and operating passively, meaning they don’t emit signals that could alert an opponent to the fact that they are being stalked.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the customer here, but we’re well positioned for this,” Parker continued in his response to the question about the AIM-120 shot at the roundtable. “We’ve been sort of testing out some of these capability demonstrations. You would know that the Wedgetail [Boeing’s E-7 airborne early warning and control aircraft] has already controlled two live MQ-28s with a digital, virtual MQ-28 in the pattern, as well, [and] with a target. We’ve already been doing this. So, we’ve already been doing a bunch of multi-ship activities.”

Boeing announced the MQ-28/E-7 team testing back in June. This was one of a number of Ghost Bat capability demonstrations that the company conducted in cooperation with the RAAF this year, as you can read more about here.

“This program is really hitting its stride,” Parker said.

As noted, the RAAF has already acquired eight MQ-28s, all pre-production prototypes, also referred to as Block 1 Ghost Bats. The service has also awarded Boeing a contract to deliver at least three more examples in an improved Block 2 configuration. The Block 2 drones are seen as a pathway to an operational capability, though when that might actually materialize is unclear. Australian officials have also raised the prospect in the past of an expanded family of Ghost Bats, which might include versions that are substantially different from the baseline design. Boeing itself has hinted at the potential for the drones to get significant new capabilities down the road, including the ability to refuel in mid-air.

Regardless of how the MQ-28 itself evolves, Boeing clearly sees potential opportunities for sales beyond the RAAF, as well. The U.S. Air Force has utilized at least one Ghost Bat in the past to support test work related to its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone program, which is structured around multiple iterative development cycles. Boeing did take part in the initial stages of the first phase of that program, or Increment 1, but was cut last year in a down-select. The company could compete in the next cycle, or Increment 2, with the MQ-28 or another design.

In September, the U.S. Navy announced it had hired Boeing, as well as Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, to develop conceptual designs for carrier-based CCA-type drones. Boeing has so far declined to share specifics about what it is working on under that contract, but the Navy has said that there is “strong interest” in the Ghost Bat in the past. Boeing has previously pitched a carrier-capable version of the design at least to the United Kingdom, as well.

Protesters demand justice over the nightclub fire that killed 63 people in the town of Kocani in March.

Thousands of protesters have marched in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, demanding justice for the 63 people who were killed in a fire at a nightclub in March.

The rally on Saturday comes ahead of the trial of the 34 people and three companies charged over the incident, which marked the deadliest blaze in North Macedonia’s history.

The fire broke out at the crowded Pulse club in the eastern town of Kocani during a hip-hop concert on March 16, triggering a stampede and killing 63 people. Some 200 others were injured.

Most of the victims were aged between 16 and 26.

Families of the victims and their supporters marched to the North Macedonian parliament on Saturday, dressed in black and carrying a huge banner with pictures of the victims, saying, “63 shadows will be following you”.

The protesters also chanted “justice for Kocani”.

The families blame corruption and greed for the deaths of their children at the unlicensed venue in Kocani. Authorities said the fire was sparked by a pyrotechnic flame that engulfed the roof of the club and that the venue had numerous and serious safety violations.

Natalija Gjorgjieska was among the families demanding justice on Saturday.

Her husband, musician Andrej Gjorgjieski, was killed in the fire. “We demand the truth. Where did the mistakes occur, who didn’t respond, which institutions were late, who had the responsibility to prevent [them] and did not?” she said.

The prosecution filed indictments for 34 people, among them the club owner, security guards and former mayors of Kocani, as well as representatives of three legal entities, including the security firm and the club owner’s companies.

They are accused of “serious crimes against public security”.

Other defendants include inspectors, civil servants and former economy ministers. If found guilty, they face up to 10 years in prison.

Corruption has long plagued North Macedonia. The Berlin-based monitor Transparency International ranked North Macedonia in 88th place globally on its Corruption Perception Index last year, one of the worst rankings in Europe.

Bribes to authorities to skip licensing requirements and skirt safety regulations are commonplace.

The European Union has repeatedly expressed concerns over pervasive corruption in the country, identifying it as a major obstacle to the nation’s accession to the bloc. North Macedonia is a veteran candidate country, waiting for entry into the EU since 2005.