Pacific

When much of Altadena burned in January, it affected not just the city’s homes but also its businesses. Popular local shops went up in flames just like everything else, and work-from-home artisans — displaced from not just their residences but also their work spaces and all the materials contained within — were suddenly without a place to live or a place to work.

On the Westside, the Palisades fire, also in January, tore through Pacific Palisades and Malibu, forever changing the fabric of these tight-knit neighborhoods and small businesses. Although rebuilding efforts are underway, progress and construction are expected to take several years as residents and business owners deal with permit approval, insurance hindrances and inflation.

Even now, local businesses that remain have struggled to regain a foothold.

With the giving spirit in mind this holiday season, we’ve put together this list of gifts from Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu businesses, all of whom were affected in some way by the Eaton and Palisades fires. Purchase one of these items and you’ll spread good cheer (and good money) around areas that still need all the help they can get.

If you make a purchase using some of our links, the L.A. Times may be compensated. Prices and availability of items and experiences in the Gift Guide and on latimes.com are subject to change.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. military carried out three strikes Monday in the waters of the Eastern Pacific against boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing 14 and leaving one survivor.

The announcement made on social media Tuesday, marks a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September spaced weeks apart. This was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day.

Hegseth said Mexican search and rescue authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the sole survivor but didn’t say if that person would stay in their custody or be handed over to the U.S.

In a strike earlier in October which had two survivors, the U.S. military rescued the pair and later repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador.

Hegseth posted footage of the strikes to social media in which two boats can be seen moving at speed through the water. One is visibly laden with a large amount of parcels or bundles. Both then suddenly explode and are seen aflame.

The third strike appears to have been conducted on a pair of boats that were stationary in the water alongside each other. They appear to be largely empty with at least two people seen moving before an explosion engulfs both boats.

Hegseth said “the four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.”

The death toll from the 13 disclosed strikes since early September is now at least 57 people.

British number three Katie Boulter’s poor run of form continued with a straight-sets loss to world number 44 Eva Lys in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

Boulter, 29, was beaten 6-2 6-1 in just one hour and 14 minutes by the 23-year-old German.

After coming through two rounds of qualifying, she was the only British player in the main draw after Emma Raducanu withdrew, ending her season early through illness.

The Briton was only able to win 50% of the points on her first serve and was broken five times by Lys.

This latest defeat caps a disappointing run of form, which has seen the former world number 29 unable to progress beyond the second round of a tournament since the Nottingham Open in June.

It also comes five days after the Briton lost in straight sets in the second round of the Japan Open by world number 51 Sorana Cirstea.

Elsewhere, British number four Fran Jones was beaten in straight sets by China’s Wang Xiyu in the first round of the Guangzhou Open.

Seventh seed Jones was broken four times in the match as she lost 6-4 6-4 to the world number 163.

They had come to hear plans for the privately funded rebuilding of the Palisades Recreation Center that was badly damaged in the January fire that tore through Pacific Palisades.

Most of the hundreds crammed into the rec center’s old gym cheered about plans for new park space, pickleball courts and basketball hoops to be paid for by some of Los Angeles’ wealthiest and most prominent philanthropists.

But that Tuesday night — nine months to the day since the Palisades fire began — they were angry, too. With City Hall.

During public comments, Jeremy Padawer, whose home in the Palisades burned, said of the city-owned rec center: “We need this. We need churches, we need synagogues, we need grocery stores. We need hope.”

But he said he didn’t trust the municipal government to run the beloved rec center and reminded the crowd that the city, which is navigating the complex recovery from one of the costliest and most destructive fire in its history, is “a billion dollars in debt.”

Firefighters extinguish hot spots at the Community United Methodist Church of Pacific Palisades on Jan. 12.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

“What are they going to do with this brand new facility when [philanthropists] turn the keys over to them?” he asked. “Do we trust them?”

“No!” the crowd shouted.

He added: “Where is Mayor Bass?” The audience cheered. Someone hollered back: “Lost cause!”

Bass and other city leaders dispute they have neglected the fire-ravaged Palisades, but the scene encapsulated the anger and disappointment with City Hall that has been building in one of Los Angeles’ wealthiest neighborhoods. There, scores of yard signs depict the mayor wearing clown makeup à la the Joker. On one cleared lot, an enormous sign, roughly 7 feet tall, stands where a home once did, declaring: “KAREN BASS RESIGN NOW.”

Residents have blamed city leaders for a confusing rebuilding process that they say is being carried out by so many government agencies and consultants that it’s difficult to discern who is in charge. They also say that the city is moving too slowly — a charge that Bass and her team vehemently reject.

Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, speaks during a news conference announcing the arrest of 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht in connection with the Palisades fire on Wednesday.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

On Wednesday, a day after the meeting at the rec center, federal prosecutors announced that the deadly Palisades fire was a flare-up of a small arson fire that had smoldered for six days, even after city firefighters thought they had it contained. Authorities said they had arrested Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old Uber driver who is suspected of setting the initial fire on New Year’s Day.

Hours after the arrest was announced, the Los Angeles Fire Department — which failed to pre-deploy engines despite extreme wind warnings — released its long-awaited after-action report that said firefighters were hampered by an ineffective process for recalling them back to work, as well as poor communication, inexperienced leadership, and a lack of resources.

Many Palisadians had already suspected the fire was a rekindling of the smaller blaze, said Maryam Zar, who runs the citizen-led Palisades Recovery Coalition. But the onslaught of news landed “like a ton of bricks” in the frustrated community.

Zar got home late after attending the meeting at the rec center Tuesday night. Then, on Wednesday morning, her phone buzzed with text message chains from Palisadians telling one another to brace for a traumatic day — not necessarily because they would learn how the fire started, “but because we all knew that it was so unnecessary,” she said.

While people were happy there was “finally some accountability” with the arrest, she said, conversations in the Palisades quickly turned to: “Had the city been prepared, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Zar, who has spent more than a decade serving on and founding volunteer organizations and task forces in Pacific Palisades, said she was well accustomed to byzantine government processes.

“But for the first time, I’m worried because the wheels just aren’t turning,” she said.

A large sign on a fire-scorched lot at Alma Real Drive and El Cerco Place in Pacific Palisades calls on Mayor Karen Bass to resign.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

One project that has, for some, become surprisingly emblematic of working with the city is the promised-but-delayed installation of a small temporary space for the Palisades Branch Library, which stood next to the rec center campus before it was destroyed.

Cameron Pfizenmaier, president of the volunteer group Friends of the Palisades Library, said Los Angeles Public Library officials told her in July that the city would be placing a 60-by-60-foot prefabricated building — essentially a large trailer — on a grassy space at the entrance to the rec center.

It would include lockers for patrons to pick up books ordered online, computers, printers and scanners, and public meeting space. The building, she said she was told, would be up and running by August.

Then, she said, the building’s installation was delayed to October. And the location was changed, with the temporary space — which probably will stand for several years while the library is being rebuilt — now set to be placed atop two tennis courts at the rec center.

In an email to The Times this week, Bass’ office said that the building’s installation is expected to begin in November and that it should open by the end of January.

“The community is losing faith that the city is actually able to do anything,” said Pfizenmaier, who lost her home. “It’s such a missed opportunity for good news and hope.

“It’s not that hard to drop a bungalow and hook it into power. … The only thing that’s making it hard is the bureaucracy that’s preventing it.”

People play tennis at the Palisades Recreation Center on Oct. 5.

(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)

Yet Palisadeans themselves seem divided on the library, with some decrying the proposed use of the rec center’s grassy expanse, a rare green oasis in the charred neighborhood. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his home, posted a photo of the space on Instagram, complaining that “Karen Bass and her city goons want to put a temporary library on top of it” and that he figured “the library will be designed in the shape of an empty water reservoir.”

Others have blasted the decision to place the structure atop the popular tennis courts.

In a statement to The Times, Bass’ office said the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and the Los Angeles Public Library are gathering community feedback about the modular building, which the two agencies will share. They also are still determining how to hook up plumbing, sewage and electricity on site and are ordering books, computers, supplies and furniture, the mayor’s office said.

“This effort needed to be coordinated with and adjusted to the plans to redesign and rebuild the Palisades Rec Center to ensure the temporary site would not impede future construction,” Bass’ office said.

From the days just after the fire through July, the library lot on Alma Real Drive served as a staging area for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s emergency response, including distributing water and providing electric vehicle charging stations for Palisades residents, Bass’ office said.

Bass has issued a swath of executive orders to aid recovery, including providing tax relief for fire-affected businesses and streamlining permitting. And she has touted the speed with which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency, cleared debris from the library lot, citing her own “call to prioritize public spaces in the debris removal operation.”

The lot was cleared in April in six days — 24 days ahead of schedule.

Bass’ office said the L.A. Public Library is working to select an architect from a list of preapproved contractors through the Bureau of Engineering “to expedite the rebuilding of the permanent library.”

Joyce Cooper, director of branch library services for the library, said in an interview that the Palisades Branch Library held more than 34,000 items, including books, audiobooks, DVDs and CDs.

“Pretty much our entire collection — everything was lost,” Cooper said. “It was a community hub. When the fire destroyed the branch, it took that away from everybody.”

The city established limited library services in the nascent Pacific Palisades in the 1920s, and the community got its first branch library in 1952.

The most recent facility opened in 2003 and was damaged by a 2020 electrical fire that destroyed much of the children’s collection, said Laura Schneider, a board member and former longtime president for Friends of the Library.

After a long closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers worked hard to draw people back to the library, Schneider said. Children and teenagers competed in writing contests, volunteers hosted big weekend book sales, and older people sought help with computers.

Schneider — whose still-uninhabitable home was damaged by the January fire — was first drawn to the library as a young mom. She moved to the Palisades when her son, now 23, was 2 years old and was enchanted by the big, circular window with a window seat in the fairy-tale-themed children’s section.

“I really believe it’s the heart of the Palisades,” Schneider said. “It’s a place that welcomes everyone. … There’s no community center. There’s no senior center in the Palisades. The library is as close to that as it comes.”

At the start of Tuesday night’s meeting at the Palisades Recreation Center, Jimmy Kim, general manager of the city’s cash-strapped parks department, made clear that questions about the location of the temporary library were “outside the scope” of the gathering and would not be answered. Many in the audience groaned.

The recreation center will be rebuilt through a public-private partnership that Bass and her onetime political adversary, billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, promoted in a joint appearance in the spring. There, Bass told reporters that the city’s job was to ensure the project was able to move quickly through the permitting process and that “the role of government is to get out of the way.”

Private donations from Caruso’s philanthropic group Steadfast LA will help pay for the roughly $30-million rebuilding of the rec center. Another major donor is LA Strong Sports, a group started by Lakers coach JJ Redick, a Palisades resident who coached a youth basketball team at the center and appeared at the Tuesday meeting.

Speaker after speaker praised the private donors for making speed a priority.

“I’m so grateful that this is going through private [development] and not city because otherwise it would not be up for another 10 years,” said one woman, who said she had lived in the Palisades for two decades and had an 8-year-old boy who used the park often.

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She added: “I just want to thank Rick Caruso for being the savior of our community.”

Caruso — who defeated Bass in the Palisades by wide a margin in the 2022 mayoral election — smiled and waved at her from the front of the room as the audience clapped.

A 15-year-old girl came to the microphone and said the rec center was where she learned to ride a bike and where her brothers played Saturday basketball games. Please, she pleaded with the donors in the room, hurry.

“Please don’t let us age out,” she said. “Please don’t let this take so long that kids never get to experience what I have. We’re ready to come back stronger. We just need help getting there.”

Caruso told the audience he expected construction to begin in January and for the center to reopen in January 2027. He said his group will not operate the space — the city will — but that he thought it would be in better hands if a community foundation took it over from the government.

At the end of the meeting, a City Hall staff member told the crowd that Bass had sent several staffers that night. The mayor, she promised, was listening.

When federal prosecutors arrested a man Wednesday for setting a small fire that reignited days later into the deadly Palisades blaze, they suggested the arrest largely settled the matter of blame.

“A single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen,” Bill Essayli, acting United States attorney for Central California, said as he announced the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old Uber driver.

But the new details they offered about the cause of the fire only added to residents’ anger and dismay about how city officials handled the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,700 structures across Pacific Palisades and Malibu. It also renewed calls for City Hall to be held accountable.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades was going through maintenance and empty during the Palisades fire. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Until this week, the focus of Palisades residents has been on a reservoir that was supposed to be a key source of water for the neighborhood being dry and other issues related to the fire response. But federal investigators concluded Wednesday that L.A. firefighters thought they had put out the small fire Rinderknecht allegedly set Jan. 1 only for it to smolder and burn underground and then rekindle in heavy winds Jan. 7.

This latest revelation is fueling debate over whether the city of L.A. or the state of California can be found civilly liable for its role in the fire.

Already, a flurry of complaints have been filed over the last 10 months accusing various L.A and California officials of failing to prepare for and respond to the fire.

Most legal experts agree that cases against government entities are tough because California law gives public officials broad immunity from failing to provide fire protection. Some argue that a criminal case against Rinderknecht could ultimately hurt residents’ civil complaints.

“Now those civil cases are dead in the water, because you have an arsonist,” said Neama Rahmani, president of the L.A.-based law firm West Coast Trial Lawyers, which is handling Eaton fire cases against Edison.

“That ultimately means that the already weak civil cases against the government became even weaker,” he said, “because now you have the person who’s really at fault for all this.”

EPA crews comb the ruins for hazardous material at a home on Miami Way, that was burned in the Palisades Fire, Thursday, February 6, 2025.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

But lawyers suing the government on behalf of Pacific Palisades residents disagree, and maintain that Rinderknecht’s arrest does not undermine their case.

Just hours after federal law enforcement officials announced Rinderknecht’s arrest, attorneys representing thousands of Palisades fire victims filed a new master complaint against the city of L.A. and the state of California, plus about a dozen new defendants, including Southern California Edison, Charter Communications and AT&T.

“We never allege that the state or the city started the Palisades fire,” said Alexander “Trey” Robertson, an attorney representing 3,300 Palisades fire victims. Rather, he said, their case against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the California Department of Parks and Recreation hinged on the lack of preparations in advance of the fire and the response after the fire started. “That has nothing to do with what started the Lachman fire,” he said. “It is what transpired after that fact.”

The 198-page complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, was not a response to Rinderknecht’s arrest or the new details provided by federal prosecutors. Wednesday just happened to be the deadline a judge set for lawyers to file an omnibus complaint on behalf of 10,000 residents and business owners.

Robertson noted that his complaint did not include the Los Angeles Fire Department: California government code gives it broad immunity against claims of negligent firefighting.

But Robertson argued that the LADWP is liable, because the draining of the Santa Ynez reservoir resulted in fire hydrants running dry and their energized power lines came down on homes and vegetation that ignited additional fires. And the state of California is also liable, he said, because it did not inspect its land in the days between the Lachman and Palisades fires to ensure that no smoldering embers or residual heat remained that could reignite during the predicted Santa Ana wind event.

Robertson said there is case law that holds that a public entity is liable for a “dangerous condition” allowed to exist on its property that causes a fire.

“We allege that the embers from the Lachman Fire which the state allowed to burn for six days on its land (Topanga State Park) constituted a ‘dangerous condition of public property.’ This claim is expressly authorized by statute and not barred by the immunity statutes.”

Rahmani, whose law firm is handling cases against Edison in the Eaton fire, said that would be a very tough ‘dangerous condition’ case.

“What was the dangerous condition here that caused this fire?” he asked. “You’re saying the state has a legal duty. Think of all the hundreds of thousands of square miles of state parks in California to inspect the land. I don’t think any judge would say that there’s a legal duty to inspect forest land for smoldering fire.”

David Levine, a professor of law at UC San Francisco, said Wednesday’s arrest ultimately didn’t seem to change the limited liability public officials have in a fire through government immunity.

“It would be hard to prove liability on that because they’re going to have so much protection due to immunity,” Levine said. “Because these are public entities, they’re not going to be liable for punitive damages.”

Still, Levine said, plaintiff lawyers’ could try to thread the needle by using a ‘dangerous condition’ exception. “The statutes allow for that kind of a claim, but you have to prove it,” he said. “That’s a factual matter that would have to be developed.”

Rahmani said he always thought the cases against government entities in the Palisades fire were weak because California statute gives officials broad immunity from failing to provide fire protection.

“I personally feel that they’re leading people on, giving them hope that does not exist,” Rahmani said.

The emergence of a criminal suspect in the Palisades fire further hindered attorneys’ case, Rahmani said, because judges and juries tend to put all the fault on the criminal, even if there was a claim for negligence. “Because you have an intentional criminal act,” he said, “liability would have to be apportioned between the bad actors.”

Jurors, he said, already tended to be reluctant to put a lot of liability on government defendants. “They’re thinking, ‘Hey, my taxes are gonna go up, who’s gonna pay for all this?’.. That’s why it’s very hard to get massive verdicts against government entities.”

Asked about potential liability for the state or other jurisdictions in the Palisades fire resulting from the reignition of an earlier fire, California Gov. Newsom said, “We will look at the facts and judge on the basis of those facts.”

“When it comes to the issue of fire liability, I know a thing or two, going back to Paradise…” Newsom added. “This is done without political interference. The facts need to be pursued.”

Some lawyers expect that claims will be filed against Uber, Rinderknecht’s employer.

“Obviously, Uber is going to fight that,” Rahmani said. “In terms of someone to go after, Uber seems to me to be the only entity, and that’s gonna be a tough argument.”

Legal experts appear to agree on one thing: Even if Rinderknecht is convicted, he cannot possibly compensate the thousands of residents in the affluent coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades who lost loved ones and homes.

“I’ll assume he’s not an heir of Elon Musk or Estee Lauder,” Levine said. “The private and public loss is so vast here. Whatever assets this guy has, I would say, wouldn’t even qualify as a drop in the bucket.”

“Criminal justice — having someone be held accountable — is important,” Rahmani said. “But obviously, as far as money in the bank, it’s not going to be helpful.”

If an arsonist was found responsible in the Eaton fire, Rahmani said, that would have a huge impact on legal claims.

“That would be a home run for Edison,” Rahmani said. “That would save them and the California Fire fund billions of dollars, because then they wouldn’t be a fault. It wouldn’t be their tower. It wouldn’t be the electrical fire. This sort of arson with an accelerant, it would completely change the game, and the value of those claims would go to almost nothing.”

Times Staff Writer Daniel Miller contributed to this report

A man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.

Justice department officials said evidence collected from 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices showed an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city.

The fire was sparked on 7 January near a popular hiking trail overlooking the wealthy coastal neighbourhood.

The Eaton Fire, ignited the same day in the Los Angeles area, killed another 19 people and destroyed about 9,400 structures. The cause of that fire remains unclear. Mr Rinderknecht will appear in court in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.

The suspect allegedly started the fire in the Pacific Palisades on New Year’s Day. That blaze smouldered underground for days before it spread above ground.

Mr Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and has been charged with destruction of property by means of fire, Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli said at a press conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

“The arrest, we hope, will offer a measure of justice to all those impacted,” Mr Essayli said.

Officials said further charges – including murder for those who were killed – could come in the future.

The suspect was familiar with the area because he was a former resident of Pacific Palisades, officials said. Since the fires, he relocated to Florida.

He lit the fire with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve. Days later that fire spread and became one of the most damaging in Los Angeles history.

Officials said that the suspect had lied to investigators.

Among the thousands of structures destroyed in the fires were the homes of a number of celebrities including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges.

Right above the shores of Huntington Beach, a retired American subsonic T-33 fighter jet darted across the blue canvas of a clear afternoon sky, leaving a spiraling plume of smoke in its wake.

The aeronautical scene is a familiar sight in the coastal city this time of year. The Pacific Airshow, an annual three-day civilian and military aerobatic display that touts advanced maneuvers and aerial military might, has drawn thousands of aviation enthusiasts to Huntington Beach and the Australian Gold Coast since its inception in 2016.

Janet Cardena, who has attended every Pacific Airshow, said experiencing the raw physical power of the planes keeps her coming back.

“I’m down by the water and I feel the jets while they do their flyover, and the rumble — your body shakes like a building when there’s an earthquake,” Cardena said. “Then the smell of the gas. …It’s amazing for me.”

However, this year, there was a notable force of nature and technology missing from the spectacle.

Due to the congressional deadlock over the budget and subsequent federal shutdown, the U.S. military — perhaps the most prominent Pacific Airshow draw — would not be in attendance over the October 3-5 weekend.

“We have been advised that U.S. military assets will not be able to participate in this year’s event,” Airshow Director Kevin Elliott said in a statement. “While this is certainly disappointing news, we are excited to share that Pacific Airshow Huntington Beach will continue as scheduled.”

People line the beach to watch the Grumman Albatross Water Landing aircraft during the Pacific Airshow.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

To some, the sky might as well have fallen.

“When we’re trying to bring our kids out here to have fun, and I’m like, ‘well, sorry, no Marine Corps planes,’ it’s pretty disappointing,” said Ryan, a former Marine who chose not to share his last name out of privacy concerns. “I was in the invasion of Iraq, and so we had a lot of fixed wings coming over, dropping bombs, so I tend to get kind of emotional.”

The Pacific Airshow has had its fair share of hitches before — many outside of organizer’s control. Last year, viewers were subject to a thick marine layer that clouded the skies and nearly obstructed the view of the few planes that still went up. In 2021, an oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach forced a cancellation of the last day of the weekend.

This year, the show went on, though without what many believe is the main attraction. There was still a beachful of attendees, staring at the sky in anxious anticipation of the intestine-rattling blast of plane engines from not-so-far above.

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds fly in formation over the Huntington Beach Pier on Friday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The British Royal Air Force and Canadian Armed Forces acted as substitutes for the U.S. Air Force, some members of which strolled around the event uniformed and at booths hosting pull-up challenges and recruitment efforts near the food vendors.

“That’s one thing I do miss, is the scene where the F-35s and the Thunderbirds play,” said Janet Kondos, an Air Force veteran. “It is what it is, they got to do what they have to do.”

Royal Air Force paratroopers drew a grand applause after a coordinated display of parachute work that saw them float down to the shores. After a Red Bull aerobatic helicopter improbably flipped over its rotor and pulled itself out of a dive at the last second, a group of children near the shore started imitating the maneuver in somersaults.

Emma McDonald, an Australian pilot who flew a petite Extra 300L aerobatics plane, darted directly into the sky at a near-90-degree angle about midway through the program, which caused the audience to hold their collective breath as the aircraft plateaued. McDonald yanked the plane from an upright position and tumbled over into a glide, drawing gasps that transformed into cheers.

“That’s it!” one attendee shouted. “Keep it up!”

A crowd formed on the beach to watch the Pacific Airshow on the first day Friday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Although there was little American military spirit in the sky, the patriotic spirit on the ground was indelible, reminiscent of a Fourth of July celebration. Children ran and played in the water, couples with full beach setups caught a slight buzz in the sweltering heat and American flags decorated the sands like a planet conquered.

“We did the Miramar Air Show before and they had a whole Marine Corps infantry display where they get off the helicopters and then they do the whole attack,” Ryan said. “It would be pretty cool with our equipment here, as opposed to the Royal Air Force.”

Despite not having the most current U.S. fleets, crowds were still privy to a history lesson in American aviationthroughout the program. A World War II B-29 Superfortress, a B-25 Mitchell bomber and Vietnam-era Grumman Albatross all made impressionable appearances.

A helicopter flown by Aaron Fitzgerald flips during the Pacific Airshow on Friday. .

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

To some, the opportunity to be so close to some of the crowning achievements in aeronautics was personal.

“Out of all the dreams that I had as a kid, that’s the one thing I wanted to do, like I want to fly an Apache, I wanted to fly a jet,” said Cardena. “But growing up, there weren’t women that were pilots and so this is as good as it gets for me — this is as close as I can get to them.”

Cardena still found herself slightly disappointed with the consequences of a federal shutdown. She had looked forward to seeing the planes and helicopters she grew up wishing she could fly, but unfortunately, it was not her year.

As Cardena reflected, a Royal Air Force C-17 temporarily blotted out the sun and covered the beachgoers with a gargantuan shadow as it passed over Huntington.

Australian PM Albanese fails to sign mutual defence pact a week after also failing to sign security deal with Vanuatu.

Australia has failed to secure a defence treaty with Papua New Guinea (PNG) that would have seen their militaries commit to defending each other in the case of an armed attack.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape signed a “defence communique” in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday instead of the anticipated mutual defence treaty.

Albanese’s failure to sign the defence deal with PNG, the largest Pacific Island nation, comes on the heels of last week’s failed attempt by the Australian prime minister to secure a security partnership with fellow Pacific nation Vanuatu.

Both security deals are seen as part of Australia’s push to counter China as a rising power in the Pacific region.

Waiting a little longer to sign the treaty with PNG was “perfectly understandable”, Albanese told reporters, adding that he expected it to be signed in the “coming weeks”.

“The wording has been agreed to. The communique today, as signed, outlines precisely what is in the treaty,” Albanese said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Joint communique between Papua New Guinea and Australia on a Mutual Defence Treaty, signed today. 🇵🇬🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/rSUCHPLCJW

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 17, 2025

Marape told reporters there was “no sticking point”, suggesting that the mutual defence treaty could be signed shortly.

Marape also said that China had no hand in delaying the signing of the deal with Australia.

The Australian prime minister said earlier that the delay was due to a meeting of the PNG cabinet failing to reach a quorum of members to endorse the treaty.

Vanuatu security partnership also delayed

Last week, officials in Vanuatu said that the government’s coalition partners required further scrutiny of the security partnership with Australia, worth some $500 million Australian dollars ($326.5m), as there were fears it could limit the country’s access to infrastructure funding from other countries.

China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor and has provided loans for Chinese firms to undertake major infrastructure projects in the country.

PNG’s Marape struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, telling journalists that it was in his country’s and Australia’s mutual interests to work side by side on defence.

“I made a conscious choice that Australia remains our security partner of choice,” Marape said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Australia’s delays in sowing deeper defence ties with PNG and Vanuatu in the Pacific region come as the much-vaunted AUKUS submarine deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, remains under a cloud amid a review of the original 2021 deal by the Pentagon.

US defence officials have said they ordered the review to reassess if it was in line with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

Despite the review, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said in June that he was confident that the AUKUS plan to provide Australia with closely-guarded US nuclear propulsion technology, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to build next-generation nuclear submarines would proceed.

In a tetchy exchange with an Australian reporter on Tuesday, Trump revealed that Albanese would be visiting him shortly in Washington, DC.

When asked whether it was appropriate for a president to have so many business dealings, Trump told the ABC reporter that he was “hurting” relations between the US and Australia.

“You’re hurting Australia. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump told the reporter.

“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone,” Trump said, before sharply telling the reporter to be “quiet”.

Albanese is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

Pacific Island leaders have kicked off their annual summit in the Solomon Islands, with climate change and security expected to take centre stage amid the battle for influence in the region between China and the United States.

The weeklong gathering began in Honiara on Monday with a meeting of the group’s small island states.

The leaders of the 18-member forum, including Australia and New Zealand, will head to the seaside settlement of Munda for a retreat on Thursday.

Notably, this year’s summit will take place without the forum’s two dozen donor partners, including China, the US and Taiwan, after a dispute over Taipei’s attendance caused the Solomon Islands to bar those observers.

Among 18 forum members, three have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, three have defence compacts with the US, and several are French territories. Thirteen of the members have ties with China.

Divavesi Waqa, the secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, said this year’s meeting will cover “regional priorities”, including “climate change, ocean governance, security, [and] economic resilience”.

“These are not just policy issues. They are lived realities for our people,” Waqa told reporters on Sunday.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, who welcomed leaders from neighbouring countries to Honiara, said the meeting’s theme “Lumi Tugeda: Act Now for an Integrated Blue Pacific Continent” reflected the “urgency for regional unity and action”.

“If ever there was a time that demanded strengthened Pacific regionalism and collective action, it is now,” Manele said, according to a statement.

The Solomon Islands leader, who has sought to strengthen relations with Australia after Western criticism of his predecessor’s close ties with China, has previously defended his decision to bar foreign observers.

Manele told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) last month that the decision was temporary while the forum updates its procedures for non-member participation.

“The Pacific region must always lead, drive and own their own agenda and not be distracted by divisive issues pushed by external media,” Manele said, in apparent reference to reports that the decision was related to a decision not to include Taiwan in this year’s meeting.

“We are not under pressure from any external forces,” he said.

“Let me be very clear: Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation. Our government acts in the best interests of our nation and the region.”

At this year’s forum, the Pacific Islands leaders are expected to sign the Fiji-proposed “Ocean of Peace” Declaration, which the country’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said comes as the Pacific region has “endured catastrophic calamities caused by climate change” as well as “its rich resources exploited by many”.

The proposal includes guiding principles, including “protecting and recognising the Pacific’s stewardship of the environment” as well as “peaceful resolution of disputes” and “rejection of coercion”, he said.

According to ABC, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will arrive in Honiara on Wednesday after visiting Vanuatu, where he is expected to sign a landmark pact to strengthen economic and security ties.

Vanuatu recently led an important case before the International Court of Justice, which saw the United Nations’ top court rule that states must act urgently to address the “existential threat” of climate change by cooperating to cut emissions.

Australia’s bid to host next year’s COP31 climate change meeting, as a Pacific COP, will be on the agenda in Honiara, amid criticism of Canberra’s mixed record on reducing its own emissions and fossil fuel exports.

Australia has previously pledged to work closely with its island neighbours to raise awareness of the challenges they face from rising sea levels and worsening storms.

The forum’s 18 members are Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The U.S. Air Force’s top officer in the Pacific says a key takeaway from China’s huge military parade tomorrow will be that “we are not deterred.” Several new Chinese air combat drones and air and missile defense systems, as well as a host of other advanced capabilities, will be showcased at the event in Beijing, as TWZ has been reporting on already.

Air Force Gen. Kevin Schneider, head of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), offered his own strategic signaling on the forthcoming Chinese parade during a virtual talk hosted today by the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Schneider was responding to a direct question from Aviation Week‘s Steve Trimble, who specifically highlighted the new air combat drones, as well as the HQ-29 high-end anti-ballistic missile system, that are among the Chinese systems set to make their official public debut tomorrow.

“Nations like China, and North Korea, and Russia, and others do these kind of events. There’s certainly a big focus on messaging,” Schneider said. “You know, messaging is certainly a factor there, but I think the takeaway for this is we are not deterred.”

“We will continue to stay ahead of the challenges. We will continue to find ways to advance our capabilities and to deal with potential adversary systems as they are developed and fielded,” he continued. “I maintain a high degree of optimism that we have been successful in doing that, and we will continue to be successful in finding ways to mitigate threats by others as they are developed, and advancing our own capabilities, to be able to break down doors, to get into anti-access area/denial areas, and to be able to operate in weapons engagement zones, something that we have done as a nation since day one.”

Earlier in the talk, Schneider had also offered a basic rubric for understanding deterrence, which he said was imparted to him by a former head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM).

“He described deterrence as a bit of a mathematical equation. It was capability times willingness times messaging. And his point was, if any of those factors are zero, then deterrence is zero. It wasn’t an addition problem. It was a multiplication problem.”

“Within that, capability is the outsized factor in deterrence,” he added. “So, finding ways that we can continue to improve our positions, our capabilities, and to be able to adapt ahead of what a potential adversary is doing, is by far the most important of those factors.”

Schneider specifically name-checked the B-21 Raider stealth bomber and the F-47 sixth-generation fighter as examples of how the Air Force is advancing its capabilities. New Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones are another centerpiece of the Air Force’s future plans, including in partnership with future crewed aircraft like the F-47 and B-21.

“By and large, it’s China that occupies the main focus of our attention,” including the “growing size and capability of the People’s Liberation Army [PLA],” Schneider acknowledged. He also highlighted “the aggressive behaviors that go along with that, and that plays out in the West Philippine Sea, against the Philippines, on an almost daily basis, as well as … in and around Taiwan, with the multi-domain pressure activities that take place with regularity.”

The remarks from the current PACAF commander are in line with other comments in recent years from senior Air Force officers about the capabilities of PLA, especially its growing fleet of J-20 stealth fighters.

“It’s [the J-20] not anything to lose a lot of sleep over,” Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, then head of PACAF, told members of the media, including TWZ, on the sidelines of the Air & Space Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference back in 2022. “Certainly, we’re watching them closely and seeing how they felt and how they operate them.”

“Well, I’m like Gen. Wilsbach,” now-retired Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, then Air Force Chief of Staff, had said while speaking separately at the same event. “[The J-20 is] not something to lose a lot of sleep over, but I’m gonna pay attention to it.”

“I don’t think that it’s a dominating aircraft at this point, compared to what we have [in terms of stealthy F-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightnings],” Wilsbach said at the 2023 Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “They’ve done some good copying… pretty much most of the technology from that airplane [the J-20] was stolen from the U.S.”

Wilsbach was most recently head of Air Combat Command (ACC) and had been expected to retire soon, but is now reportedly among the contenders to succeed Gen. David Allvin as Air Force Chief of Staff.

All this being said, China has been pushing ahead with its own slew of new and advanced airpower developments in recent years. This is underscored by the air combat drones, or mockups thereof, that will be officially shown for the first time at the parade tomorrow.

Two of the new Chinese air combat drones, seen in the picture below, notably reflect the same kind of dichotomy, broadly speaking, in terms of configuration and performance, that has been seen in the pair of designs currently being developed for the U.S. Air Force CCA program.

The GJ-11 Sharp Sword stealthy flying-wing uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV), or further iterations of that design, including ones intended for naval operations from carriers and big deck amphibious ships, will also be on display at the event. The GJ-11 represents a capability set that the Chinese are investing in heavily, but that the U.S. military continues to eschew completely, at least publicly. This is despite the United States being a leader in that arena for decades, as you can read more about in this seminal TWZ feature.

All of this reflects China’s ever-more prominent position in the uncrewed aviation space. This was further punctuated this year by the emergence of what appears to be a very large, high-altitude, long-endurance, stealthy flying wing-type drone, which TWZ was first to report on and that may now be flying.

Crewed military aviation developments have also continued apace in China. This includes the J-36 and J-XDS (also referred to as the J-50) next-generation crew combat jets that broke cover last December, followed shortly thereafter by a new jet-powered airborne early warning and control aircraft based on the Y-20 airlifter. Just last month, another new Chinese stealth tactical jet design, which may or may not be piloted, emerged. A two-seat variant of the J-20, which would be well suited to the airborne drone controller role, and the J-35, a next-generation carrier-based fighter, also look poised to enter service.

As noted earlier, the parade in Beijing tomorrow will serve as a spotlight for a host of other advanced PLA capabilities, including new ballistic and cruise missiles, air and missile defense systems, armored vehicles, and uncrewed maritime platforms. Many of these systems factor directly into the Chinese anti-access and aerial denial ‘bubbles’ that Gen. Schneider mentioned as being among the challenges the Air Force will need to stay ahead of in order to succeed in any future high-end fight in the Pacific. This is also part of the expanding and evolving threat ecosystem facing U.S. airbases and other facilities across the region.

“I think there’s a couple of takeaways for us and things that we continue to take a look at [when it comes to base defense and resilience],” Schneider also said during today’s talk. “One is detection and sensing, our ability to recognize that our attacks are inbound, or even before they’re inbound, how an enemy or a potential enemy is starting to posture their forces. So indication and warning, and those capabilities that give us indication and warnings.”

Then there is “our ability to flush, our ability to get aircraft into the air quickly, to put fuel in aircraft, to put munitions on aircraft,” he continued. “As an outcome of that, [there is] our ability to repair runways, and what it is that we need for rapid airfield damage repair capability, whether it’s pre-staging equipment or new and innovative ways of putting fixes and taking holes and turning them into usable surfaces again.”

The PACAF commander also highlighted the ability to rapidly deploy forces, something the Air Force is focused heavily on as part of its Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concepts of operations, as well as active air and missile defenses provided by other services. Only a brief mention was given to talk of more physical hardening of facilities against attacks, which remains a source of very heated debate within the Air Force and the rest of the U.S. military, as you can read more about here.

Altogether, Gen. Schneider’s comments today are certainly meant to underscore confidence, at least publicly, that the U.S. Air Force and the rest of the U.S. military remain ahead of the PLA on the capability curve. At the same time, despite the continued downplaying by American officials, there are clear signs of growing concern about more and more advanced Chinese military developments.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Aug. 31 (UPI) — A new tropical storm formed over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, making Kiko the 11th named storm in the Eastern North Pacific this year.

Tropical Storm Kiko formed early Sunday and had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as of 5 p.m. HST Sunday, according to an update from the National Hurricane Center.

It was located about 1,120 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California and was moving west at 9 mph.

The forecasters said they expect Kiko to steadily strengthen over the next couple of days. An NHC discussion on Kiko states they believe it will likely cross into the central Pacific basin in four to five days.

It is expected to grow to hurricane strength in a day or two.

“Kiko is currently a compact system,” NHC forecaster John Cangialosi said in the discussion.

“Although it is forecast to get larger, the model guidance suggests that it will likely be on the smaller side through the week.”

Aug. 30 (UPI) — Ewan, Jamie and Lachland Maclean of Edinburgh, Scotland, set a new record by completing a 9,000-mile row from Peru to Australia that lasted nearly 140 days.

They bested the prior record of 162 days by solo Russian rower Fyodor Konyukhov in 2014 by posting a time of 130 days, five hours and 52 minutes during their non-stop and unsupported row across the Pacific Ocean, the BBC reported.

“It’s still slightly surreal,” Ewan, 32, told the BBC. “It’s going to take a wee while for our feet to touch the ground, but what an amazing reception we’ve had in Cairns.”

They intended to arrive in Sydney, but several tropical storms forced them to end their journey in Cairns, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

One storm swept Lachland overboard, but his brothers pulled him back to their boat, as they rowed from Lima, Peru, to Cairns, Australia, where they landed on Saturday.

They battled seasickness and a defective water converter, caught fish and ate freeze-dried meals to stay fed, but they ran out of the meals on Friday.

About 100, including friends and family, watched and cheered as Ewan, Jamie, 31, and Lachlan, 26, arrived at Cairns Marlin Marina and were greeted to the sound of bagpipes playing, the Cairns Post reported.

They set foot on land for the first time since departing Peru on April 12 and rowing across the ocean.

The brothers raised the equivalent of about $920,000 in U.S.funds in contributions to provide clean water for people in Madagascar, with more possibly being donated.

“It’s foundational for everything, Lachland said. “You need clean water to live a flourishing life, to bring communities out of poverty.”

He estimated 40,000 people in Madagascar will get clean water for the rest of their lives if they reach their goal of about $1.3 million in equivalent U.S. funds.

The brothers previously rowed unassisted across the Atlantic Ocean, which took 35 days to complete in 2020.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – When four Chinese vessels joined with Russian ships earlier this month in joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan, few eyebrows were raised.

Moscow and Beijing have been reinforcing their military partnership in recent years as they seek to counterbalance what they see as the United States-led global order.

But what did raise eyebrows among defence analysts and regional governments had occurred several weeks earlier when China sent its aircraft carriers into the Pacific together for the first time.

Maritime expert and former United States Air Force Colonel Ray Powell described the “simultaneous deployment” of China’s two aircraft carriers east of the Philippines as a “historic” moment as the country races to realise Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambition of having a world-class navy by 2035.

“No nation except the US has operated dual carrier groups at such distances since [World War II],” said Powell, director of SeaLight, a maritime transparency project of the Gordian Knot Center at Stanford University.

“While it will take years for China’s still-nascent carrier capabilities to approach that of America’s, this wasn’t just a training exercise – it was China demonstrating it can now contest and even deny US access to crucial sea lanes,” Powell told Al Jazeera.

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua described the exercise by the aircraft carriers as a “far-sea combat-oriented training”, and the state-affiliated Global Times reported that China was soon poised to enter the “three-aircraft-carrier era”, when its Fujian carrier enters service later this year.

East Asia is a ‘home game’ for China

China currently has two operational aircraft carriers – the Liaoning and Shandong – and the Fujian is undergoing sea trials.

While the Chinese navy operates the world’s largest naval fleet with more than 370 ships compared with the US’s 251 active ships in commission, Beijing still lacks the global logistics network and advanced nuclear submarine technology required of a truly mature blue water force, Powell said.

Beijing’s three aircraft carriers run on diesel compared with Washington’s 11 carriers, all of which are nuclear powered.

But “gaps” in naval capabilities are closing between the US and China.

“[China] fully intends to close these gaps and is applying tremendous resources toward that end, and with its rapidly improving technical prowess and vastly superior shipbuilding capacity, it has demonstrated its potential to get there,” Powell said.

Beijing’s more immediate focus is not directed towards competing with the US globally, Powell added.

Rather, China is focused on changing the balance of power and convincing its allies and adversaries to accept China’s dominance within its chosen sphere of influence in East Asia.

The second option, if ever necessary, is to defeat them.

“East Asia is a ‘home game’ for China – a place where it can augment its small carrier force through its far larger land-based air and rocket forces – including so-called [aircraft] ‘carrier killer’ missile systems that can strike targets up to 4,000km [2,485 miles] away,” Powell said.

Regionally, while the Philippines engages in increasingly frequent high seas confrontations with the Chinese coastguard, it is Japan that is watching China’s naval build-up with concern, experts said.

Japan’s Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said in June – after confirming that China’s two carriers had operated simultaneously in the Pacific for the first time – that Beijing apparently aims “to advance its operational capability of the distant sea and airspace”.

With the US increasingly perceived as becoming more inward-looking under President Donald Trump, Japan is considered a growing force in the contested maritime terrain in the Asia Pacific region amid what Tokyo has called “the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II”.

‘Preparation for a more uncertain future’

Even before Trump’s second stint as US president, Japan had embarked on the most pivotal shift in post-World War II military spending.

Tokyo’s defence spending and related costs are expected to total 9.9 trillion yen (about $67bn) for fiscal year 2025, equivalent to 1.8 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP), and the government has committed to raising spending on defence to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, according to Japanese media reports.

“[Japan’s] naval capacity is growing steadily, not just in support of the US alliance but in quiet preparation for a more uncertain future – perhaps even one in which America withdraws from the Pacific,” said Mike Burke, lecturer at Tokyo-based Meiji University.

Collin Koh, senior fellow at the Singapore-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), also said that China’s growing military might, assertiveness and proclivity to resort to coercive behaviour have “aggravated Japan’s threat perception”.

But Japan alone cannot guarantee security in such a regional hotspot as the South China Sea, said Burke.

Instead, Tokyo’s goal is to check Beijing’s growing power through a Japanese presence and building partnerships with other regional players.

This year alone so far, Japan has deployed two naval fleets to “realise” what Japanese officials describe as a free and open Asia Pacific region. The first fleet was deployed from January 4 to May 10 and docked in 12 countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.

The second was deployed on April 21 and is ongoing until November, with port calls in some 23 countries, as well as roles in multilateral military exercises.

Japan aims to build trust with other allies, Burke said, noting that Japan has worked on its soft power by funding radar systems, investing in civil infrastructure from ports to rail networks in Southeast Asia, and supporting maritime domain awareness initiatives in the region.

Noriyuki Shikata, Japan’s ambassador to Malaysia, described Tokyo’s approach as a strength at home and reinforcing collaboration abroad with “like-minded countries and others with whom Japan cooperates”, in order to uphold and realise a free and open international order.

“Japan has been strengthening its defence capabilities to the point at which Japan can take the primary responsibility for dealing with invasions against Japan, and disrupt and defeat such threats while obtaining the support of its [US] ally and other security partners,” the ambassador told Al Jazeera.

Zachary Abuza, professor of Southeast Asia studies and security at Washington, DC-based National War College, said the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) is a world-class navy that is focused on building the highest level of capabilities.

Abuza also described Japan’s submarine force as “exceptional”, while it is also building up its capabilities, including more high-end antiship missiles.

“All of these developments should give the Chinese some pause,” Abuza told Al Jazeera in a recent interview.

“That said, they [the Japanese] are nervous about Trump’s commitment to treaty obligations, and you can see the Japan Self-Defence Force is trying to strengthen its strategic autonomy,” he said.

‘Chinese assertiveness could result in an accident’

Geng Shuang, charge d’affaires of China’s permanent mission to the United Nations, said earlier this year that China was committed to working with the “countries concerned” to address conflicting claims in the South China Sea through peaceful dialogue.

He also lambasted the threat posed by the US navy’s freedom of navigation operations in the contested sea.

“The United States, under the banner of freedom of navigation, has frequently sent its military vessels to the South China Sea to flex its muscles and openly stir up confrontation between regional countries,” Geng was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, a vast area spanning approximately 3.6 million square kilometres (1.38 million square miles) that is rich in hydrocarbons and one of the world’s major shipping routes.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are claimants to various parts of the sea.

Ralph Cossa, chairman of the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum research institute, said “the challenge to freedom of navigation is a global one”.

But the challenges posed are particularly worrying when it comes to the rival superpowers China and the US.

“I don’t think anyone wants a direct conflict or is looking to start a fight,” Cossa said.

“But I worry that Chinese assertiveness could result in an accident that it would prove difficult for either side to walk away or back down from,” Cossa said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Pacific Roundtable 2025 summit in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, Do Thanh Hai, deputy director-general at Vietnam’s East Sea Institute Diplomatic Academy, said no one will emerge unscathed from an incident in the disputed region.

“Any disruption in the South China Sea will affect all,” he told Al Jazeera.

Russian Pacific Fleet says joint patrol with China in the Asia Pacific will follow naval drill in the Sea of Japan.

Russian and Chinese naval vessels plan to conduct a joint patrol in the Asia Pacific region, following recent exercises in the Sea of Japan, Russia’s official Interfax has reported.

Citing a statement on Wednesday from the Russian Pacific Fleet’s press service, Interfax said that ships from the Russian Navy and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy “will form a new task group to carry out joint patrol missions in the Asia-Pacific region”.

“After replenishing supplies from logistics vessels, the crews of the Russian Navy and the PLA Navy will form a new detachment to carry out joint patrol tasks in the Asia-Pacific region,” the news agency said.

Russia is conducting a series of military exercises with China in response to the build-up of US military potential in the Asia Pacific region, Interfax said, citing Russia’s chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, in 2022.

Moscow and Beijing have already conducted joint air patrols in the Asia Pacific region since 2019, it added.

The joint patrol announcement comes as the two countries conclude five days of joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan that focused on anti-submarine and air defence missions.

During the final phase of the exercises, Russia’s large anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs and the corvette Gromky, together with the Chinese destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, carried out live-fire drills while crews practised searching for and neutralising a mock enemy submarine, Interfax reported.

Russia’s Pacific Fleet earlier said that the drills were defensive in nature and not directed against any other countries.

The reported formation of the Asia Pacific joint patrol comes as China modernises and upgrades its naval fleet to become a “blue water” force, capable of carrying out long-range operations in the world’s oceans, similar to the United States and other Western forces.

Russia and China, which signed a “no-limits” strategic partnership shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, conduct regular exercises to rehearse coordination between their armed forces and send a deterrent signal to adversaries.

About ten times each day, giant freight trains pass along a narrow section of track along the Sacramento River in far northern California where engineers on the locomotives regularly tense up with stress.

“Every single time, it’s a near miss” of a train hitting a person, said Ryan Snow, the California State Chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “Multiple near misses, every single run. My nightmare is that a family that isn’t paying attention gets hit.”

This particular stretch of track, which wends north from the town of Dunsmuir, is a renegade route for hikers to one of northern California’s most enchanting natural sights, Mossbrae Falls. Fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta, the water pours out of lava tubes and down mossy cliffs, forming a verdant and ethereal cascade into a calm, shaded swimming hole.

It appears magical. It is also inaccessible —unless visitors trespass more than a mile on on the tracks or wade across the river. Accidents have happened. Two people have been struck by trains in the last few years (although both survived.) In May a Southern California woman drowned after trying to reach the falls via the river. But the tourists keep coming. Drawn by Instagram and Tiktok, increasing numbers of people have taken to visiting the falls — nearly 30,000 according to a city study, the majority of them by trespassing up the train tracks.

For years, outdoor enthusiasts in and around Dunsmuir have pushed Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks, to work with the city to create a safe, accessible, legal path. But the effort has been dogged by delays.

This week, the train workers union decided to enter the fray, issuing a press release decrying the slow progress and calling on Union Pacific to do more to make the long-held dream of a trail a reality.

“Each month that goes by without a real construction timeline, lives are put at risk,” Snow said in a statement. The statement also accused Union Pacific of “slow-walking” the project, saying railroad officials have called for meeting after meeting, but has never produced a right-of-way commitment or a clear construction timeline.

Many engineers, Snow said, are frustrated and feel the delay “unfairly endangers both railroad personnel and the public.”

In a statement, Union Pacific said that the railroad had “approved the concept of a trail into Mossbrae Falls years ago, and we have been working with the City of Dunsmuir and the Mount Shasta Trail Association to find solutions that address everyone’s safety concerns.”

Earlier this summer, Dunsmuir city officials held a “summit” with Union Pacific officials to tour the falls and talk about the proposed trail connection.

City officials said the summit, which included representatives from local elected officials offices as well as railroad officials from Omaha and Denver, marked “a new milestone in the slow but steady process.” A city press release noted that “key Union Pacific officials had the opportunity to see the falls for the first time, recognizing the importance of building public access to this beautiful natural resource.”

But some longtime trail advocates said they were not convinced that the dream is any closer. John Harch, a retired surgeon with the Mount Shasta Trail Assn. and has been working with others for years on public access, said he still didn’t see evidence of concrete progress.

“Here we sit, as before, while people risk their lives to see the falls,” he wrote in an email.

Snow said he hopes the public can put pressure on the parties to make concrete progress.

“We’ve been lucky that we haven’t had any fatalities caused by a trespasser strike,” he said. “The worst thing an engineer can do is hit somebody. It’s stressful.”

Meanwhile, he said, the route is only becoming more popular. “It’s in hiking magazines, and on the internet everywhere. It’s attracting more and more people.”

He added: “I can’t blame them. It’s beautiful.”

Japan reports one death during coastal evacuation but cancels warning across the country by Thursday afternoon.

Japan’s weather office has lifted a tsunami advisory imposed a day earlier, becoming one of the last countries to rescind the emergency order after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded hit Russia’s Far East.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a statement lifting the advisory on Thursday, as fears of a deadly disaster subsided across the Pacific, including the United States’s West Coast and several Latin American countries, allowing millions to return to their homes.

Storm surges of up to 4 metres (12 feet) were predicted for some parts of the Pacific, after the magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday. Ultimately, the tsunamis produced by the earthquake were weaker than had been feared.

“There is currently no coastal area for which tsunami warnings or advisories are in force,” the Japanese agency announced on Thursday afternoon (07:45 GMT).

Almost two million people had been ordered to higher ground in Japan before the warnings were downgraded to an advisory for large stretches of its Pacific coast, with waves up to 0.7 metres still being observed earlier on Thursday.

The highest recorded waves of about 1.3 metres were observed in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, on Wednesday afternoon, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

The only reported death from the tsunamis was a woman killed when her car fell off a cliff in Japan as she tried to escape on Wednesday, Japanese media reported.

Separately, 11 people were taken to hospital after developing symptoms of heatstroke while taking shelter in hot weather, with temperatures rising to about 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places.

In Chile, the country’s disaster response agency Senapred has downgraded its warning from “alert” to “state of precaution” in at least four areas early on Thursday.

The country had conducted what the interior ministry said was “perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out in our country” with 1.4 million people ordered to high ground after the earthquake on Wednesday.

Earlier, Chilean authorities reported no damage or victims and registered waves of just 60 centimetres (two feet) on the country’s north coast.

In the Galapagos Islands, where waves of up to three metres were expected, there was relief as the Ecuadorian Navy’s oceanographic institute said the danger had passed.

Residents reported the sea level falling and then rising suddenly, a phenomenon which is commonly seen with the arrival of a tsunami.

But a surge of just over a metre was reported, causing no damage.

In the US, the country’s National Weather Service originally issued tsunami “warnings” for Hawaii, Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and parts of California, as well as lower-level tsunami advisories for parts of Washington and Oregon. A less serious tsunami watch was in place for the entire US West Coast.

However, the threat level for Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands was later downgraded from a warning to an advisory, meaning that people who had evacuated can now return to their homes.

The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said.

Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea.

The surge of water reached as far as the town’s World War II monument about 400 metres from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.

Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted shortly after the earthquake.

Wednesday’s quake was the strongest in the Kamchatka region since 1952, the regional seismic monitoring service said, warning of aftershocks of up to a magnitude of 7.5.

The US Geological Survey said the quake was one of the 10 strongest tremors recorded since 1900.

As rebuilding ramps up in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles leaders are restricting the building of duplexes on single-family-home lots.

The move follows an executive order issued Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that allows exemptions for the Palisades and other areas devastated by January’s Palisades and Eaton fires from Senate Bill 9. The landmark 2021 law, passed in response to the state’s housing shortage, lets property owners divide single-family-home lots and build up to four units.

In recent days, Palisades residents have raised alarms about SB 9, worrying that their historically single-family-home community would be transformed by the additional density allowed under the law and become more dangerous in the event of future fires. On Jan. 7, the chaotic evacuation amid the flames led residents to abandon their cars on Sunset Boulevard and escape on foot, forcing bulldozers to clear the road so that emergency responders could enter the area.

No outcry has erupted over the addition of accessory dwelling units in the Palisades, even though they could bring similar increases in building, and have been far more common in permit applications.

Some 4,700 single-family homes were destroyed or severely damaged in the Palisades fire, the majority of which were in the city of Los Angeles.

Newsom’s order applies to the Palisades and parts of Malibu and Altadena — areas that burned and that are designated as “very high fire hazard severity zones” by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It mandates a weeklong pause on SB 9 projects to allow the city and county of Los Angeles and Malibu to develop restrictions.

In response, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who alongside City Councilmember Traci Park had urged Newsom to act this week, issued an executive order blocking future SB 9 development in the Palisades.

“I thank Governor Newsom for working with my office to provide some sense of solace for a community working to rebuild,” Bass said in a statement accompanying the order.

Since the fire, the prospect of greater density, including increased affordable housing, has raised tension in the neighborhood. Some of the debates have been mired in misinformation and conspiracy theories falsely asserting that the wealthy community would be rezoned for mass building of low-income apartments.

But residents retain deep scars from January’s tumultuous evacuation and fear that such a situation would be even worse with a larger population, said Larry Vein, founder of wildfire recovery group Pali Strong. They also want the area to return to the predominately single-family-home neighborhood it was, he said.

“The community does not want higher density,” Vein said.

Officials’ push to restrict SB 9 construction stands in stark contrast to their efforts to allow more building on single-family-home lots through different means.

Newsom and Bass each issued earlier executive orders to streamline permitting reviews for accessory dwelling units on single-family-home properties in burn zones.

There are some practical distinctions between the two ways of adding homes. Generally, ADU law permits up to three units on a lot. SB 9 can allow four or potentially more if combined with ADU law. SB 9 units often can be larger than ADUs as well.

Yet the possibility of increased ADU construction has not attracted the same opposition in the community; instead, data indicate that it’s been popular.

The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety does not specifically track permit requests for ADUs or SB 9 projects among home rebuilds, and could not immediately verify their numbers. However, department rebuilding data analyzed by The Times includes a description of each proposed development that is supposed to note if an additional unit is planned.

As of July 28, 500 homeowners had submitted permitting applications to rebuild in the Palisades, The Times’ analysis of department data found. Of those, 73 — nearly 15% — included at least one ADU, according to project descriptions. Per the descriptions, three intend to use SB 9, but that number is an undercount, said Devin Myrick, the department’s assistant deputy superintendent of building. Myrick said the department was still analyzing its data to come up with the actual number of SB 9 projects.

Property owners have cited ADU construction as a way to return to the Palisades more quickly, with some planning to build an ADU before tackling their primary home. For others, the opportunity for building any additional unit, under ADU law or SB 9, provides a financial benefit that could be used to cover gaps in the cost to rebuild.

Vein said Palisades residents are friendlier to ADUs because their construction may not necessarily lead to a larger population. Many people, he said, would use an ADU to work from home, as a guesthouse or allow members of multigenerational families to have their own space. By contrast, he said, SB 9 duplexes inevitably will add people.

“You’ve just doubled the density,” he said.

Some pro-development organizations are blasting the SB 9 restrictions. Matthew Lewis, a spokesperson for California YIMBY, which advocates for greater home building across the state, said that residents’ evacuation concerns are legitimate but that officials should focus on resolving that issue rather than limiting duplexes.

Lewis said the proliferation of ADUs in the area’s rebuild shows that it’s not actually the potential for increased building that’s motivating the opposition. Instead, he said community groups and L.A. politicians are using that argument to thwart a law they’ve long disliked because it expressly calls for changes to single-family-home neighborhoods.

“What we’re talking about is a powerful constituency making enough noise to cause a suspension of laws that were duly passed by the state Legislature,” Lewis said. “That’s very concerning.”

Bass believes her backing of ADUs and opposition to SB 9 in the Palisades do not conflict, mayoral spokesperson Zachary Seidl said. SB 9 was not anticipated to be used after a major wildfire, he said, while streamlining ADU permitting assists property owners with reconstruction.

“The mayor with both of these positions is supporting community members in the Palisades rebuild,” Seidl said.

Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report.

July 29 (UPI) — A massive magnitude-8.7 earthquake struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula Wednesday morning, prompting tsunami warnings to be issued throughout the Pacific, including for much of the U.S. West Coast.

The earthquake struck at about 8:25 a.m., Japanese time, off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Japan Meteorological Agency rated it a 8.7-magnitude temblor while the U.S. Geological Survey said it was an 8.8-magnitude strike. The U.S. survey said it struck about 74 miles east-southeast of Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula at a depth of 12.8 miles.

If confirmed as an 8.8 magnitude strike, it would be among the 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded and the largest since 2011, when a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck Japan, resulting in a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

United States

A tsunami warning has also been issued for Hawaii, Alaska’s Samalga Pass, and California’s west coast from Cape Mendocino to the Oregon-California border while advisories have been issued for much of the U.S. and Canadian West Coast.

According to the National Weather Service, the tsunami could cause damage all along the coastlines of all Hawaiian islands and “urgent actions should be taken to protect lives and property.”

“A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along coastlines of all islands in the state of Hawaii,” the NWS said in a statement. “Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.”

“Destructive” waves are expected to hit Honolulu by 7:17 p.m. HST Tuesday, according to the local department of emergency management.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has issued an emergency proclamation activating the U.S. National Guard to assist with disaster relief and for the state’s emergency services to take necessary safety actions.

In a press conference, Green said they expect “significant damage” along the coastlines, and that they “we pray that we won’t lose any of our loved ones.”

“God willing these waves will not hurt us, but you have to assume — assume — they will be life threatening,” he said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is forecasting waves of 10 feet above tide level are possible to hit the northern Hawaii islands.

The Hawaii Department of Transport said the Coast Guard has ordered all vessels to follow their procedures to leave port for all islands.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s office said he has been briefed on the situation, while urging residents to stay alert and follow local emergency guidance.

Officials have also closed all beaches, harbors and piers in California’s Huntington Beach, though no evacuations orders have yet been given.

For Samalga Pass, it said that a tsunami with “significant inundation is possible or is already occurring.”

“STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement to his Truth Social platform.

JAPAN

The Japan Meteorological Agency is warning of tsunamis as high as 3 meters, or nearly 9 feet, from northeastern Hokkaido southward to Wakayama Prefecture.

Tsunami warnings order the immediate evacuation from coastal regions and riverside areas to safer, higher ground.

Tsunami advisories have been issued for the rest of the southeastern coast of the country.

Japan Safe Travel, a division of the Asian nation’s tourism organization, is warning that tsunamis are expected to strike the country between 1 and 3 meters starting at about 10 a.m. local time until at least 1:30 p.m.

According to Japan’s fire and disaster management agency, evacuation orders have been issued for 112 cities and towns, affecting more than 1.9 million people.

TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said in a statement that all workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which is under decommission, have been evacuated.

The Japanese government said it has established a prime minister’s liaison office to respond to the earthquake and tsunami.

RUSSIA

Russia’s emergencies ministry said in a statement that tsunami waves have already hit its far east coast, flooding the port town of Severo-Kurilsk and the Alaid fish processing plant.

“Residents have been evacuated,” it said.

Valery Limarenk, governor of Sakhalin oblast, also confirmed on Telegram that the tsunami had struck, saying “residents of the settlement remain safe on higher ground until the threat of additional waves is fully lifted.”

In Kamchatka, off where the quake struck, responders are inspecting buildings. It said the facade of one kindergarten that was under renovation collapsed.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has also warned of waves of up to 10 feet hitting parts of Russia and Ecuador.

South and Central America

The Integrated Tsunami Alert System of Mexico and Central America issued a tsunami alert from Mexico’s Ensenada to Panama, saying waves of up to 3 feet are possible.

This is a developing story.

A HUGE earthquake has struck the coast of Russia – strong enough to cause tsunamis, with warnings issued for the Pacific Islands.

The magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

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It occurred about 84 miles off Kamchatska at around 7.24pm EST (12:30am BST).

The quake was shallow and strong enough to cause waves or a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles).

A tsunami with a wave height of 3-4 metres was recorded in Kamchatka, Russia’s regional minister for emergency situations warned.

Vladimir Solodov, Governor of the Kamchatka Territory, told people to stay away from the coast due to the earthquake being the “strongest in decades”.

No injuries have been reported so far, but a nursery has been damaged.

Locals in the small town of Severo-Kurilsk are being evacuated.

“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Shortly after the quake hit, another struck the Kamchatka Peninsula with a magnitude of 5.51.

Tsunami warnings have been issued for Alaska, Hawaii, Russia and Japan as a result.

The Japan Weather Agency said it expected a tsunami of one meter (3.28 feet) to reach large coastal areas starting at around 10am local time.

Authorities warned people not to go into the sea and stay away from the coast.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves” within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia and Japan.

It comes after The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre warned of a tsunami threat to Russia following three earthquakes last week – with the strongest having a magnitude of 7.4.

The largest quake up until now hit around 89 miles east of east of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – 12 miles below the seabed.

A slightly smaller earthquake of 6.7 struck just minutes earlier, along with a third 5.0 magnitude quake.

There were fears Hawaii would also be impacted – but an island-wide tsunami warning was later withdrawn.

Alerts were also issued for Guam and American Samoa.

The USGS had warned of possible “hazardous tsunami waves” within 300 kilometres of the epicentre in the Pacific.

And residents in Russia had been urged to get to higher ground.

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Union Pacific has announced its intentions to buy its smaller rival, Norfolk Southern, which would create the first coast-to-coast freight rail operator in the United States and reshape the movement of goods from grains to autos across the US.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad giant announced the proposed $85bn deal on Tuesday.

If the merger is approved, the transaction would be the largest-ever buyout in the railroad sector.

Union Pacific has a stronghold in the western two-thirds of the US, with Norfolk’s 31,382 km (19,500-mile) network that primarily spans 22 eastern states.

The two railroads are expected to have a combined enterprise value of $250bn and would unlock about $2.75bn in annualised synergies, the companies said.

The $320 per share price implies a premium of 18.6 percent for Norfolk from its close on July 17, when reports of the merger first emerged.

The companies said last week on Thursday that they were in advanced discussions for a possible merger.

The deal will face lengthy regulatory scrutiny amid union concerns about potential rate increases, service disruptions and job losses. The 1996 merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific had temporarily led to severe congestion and delays across the Southwest.

The deal reflects a shift in antitrust enforcement under US President Donald Trump’s administration. Executive orders aimed at removing barriers to consolidation have opened the door to mergers that were previously considered unlikely.

Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs, appointed in January, has advocated for faster preliminary reviews and a more flexible approach to merger conditions.

Even under an expedited process, the review could take from 19 to 22 months, according to a person involved in the discussions.

Major railroad unions have long opposed consolidation, arguing that such mergers threaten jobs and risk disrupting rail service.

“We will weigh in with the STB [regulator] and with the Trump administration in every way possible,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the SMART-TD union’s transport division, after the two companies said they were in advanced talks last week.

“This merger is not good for labour, the rail shipper/customer or the public at large,” he said.

The companies said they expect to file their application with the STB within six months.

The SMART-TD union’s transport division is North America’s largest railroad operating union with more than 1,800 railroad yardmasters.

The North American rail industry has been grappling with volatile freight volumes, rising labour and fuel costs and growing pressure from shippers over service reliability, factors that could further complicate the merger.

Industry consolidation

The proposed deal has also prompted competitors BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and CSX, to explore merger options, people familiar with the matter said.

Agents at the STB are already conducting preparatory work, anticipating they could soon receive not just one, but two megamerger proposals, a person close to the discussions told Reuters on Thursday.

If both mergers are approved, the number of Class I railroads in North America would shrink to four from six, consolidating major freight routes and boosting pricing power for the industry.

The last major deal in the industry was the $31bn merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that created the first and only single-line rail network connecting Canada, the US and Mexico.

That deal, finalised in 2023, faced heavy regulatory resistance over fears it would curb competition, cut jobs and disrupt service, but was ultimately approved.

Union Pacific is valued at nearly $136bn, while Norfolk Southern has a market capitalisation of about $65bn, according to data from LSEG.

As of 12:15pm in New York (16:15 GMT), Union Pacific’s stock is down 3.9 percent, and Norfolk Southern is down 3.2 percent. Competitor CSX is also trending down. The stock has fallen 1.6 percent since the market opened this morning.