Japanese government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said no damage was reported from the missile, which landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, about 125 miles west of Oshima island. Oshima lies off the western coast of the northernmost main island of Hokkaido
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Friday threatened with “unprecedently” strong action against its rivals, after South Korea announced a series of military exercises with the United States aimed at sharpening their response to the North’s growing threats.
While the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or its allies, the White House National Security Council said it needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.
“It only demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people,” it said, calling it a “flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his national security director, Kim Sung-han, presided over an emergency security meeting that accused the North of escalating regional tensions. It denounced North Korea for accelerating its nuclear arms development despite signs of worsening economic problems and food insecurity, saying such actions would bring only tougher international sanctions.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo was closely communicating with Washington and Seoul over the launch, which he called “an act of violence that escalates provocation toward the international order.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Deep underneath the sodden soils and the berms of snow that now coat California, fuels for fire are waiting to sprout. Grasses and other quick-growing vegetation, spurred by the downpours that saturated the state at the start of the year, quickly turn to kindling as the weather warms.
“When that rain comes – and it came last month – that results in significant fuel load increases,” said Isaac Sanchez, a CalFire battalion chief. “[Plants] are going to grow, they are going to die, and then they are going to become flammable fuel as the year grinds on.”
While experts say it’s still too early to predict what’s in store for the months ahead and if weather conditions will align to help infernos ignite, it’s clear the rains that hammered California this winter came as a mixed blessing, delivering badly needed relief while posing new risks. Along with seeding the tinder of tomorrow, the inclement weather hampered efforts to perform essential landscape treatments needed to mitigate the risks of catastrophic fire.
“That is now the reality of the environment in the state that we live in,” Sanchez, added. “We are constantly facing a double-edged sword.”
Reservoirs are more robust than they have been in years. The snowpack, which will slowly release moisture into thirsty landscapes through the spring and summer, is 134% of its average for April, giving the state an important head start. The rains also bumped California out of the most extreme categories of drought, according to the latest analysis from the US Drought Monitor.
But the storms also left behind a dangerous mess.
Strong winds ripped trees from their roots and tore down branches, littering ignition opportunities throughout high-risk areas. Through the slopes and mountainsides, saturated earth crumbled, chewing gaps through roads and highways and hindering access. If these issues linger into the summer and autumn months, they could augment fire dangers.
A tree which toppled during recent storms sits next to the road on 11 January, in Santa Cruz, California. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
The deluges also washed out winter plans for prescribed burning – which are often years in the making.
“Those big rains effectively shut down our ability to broadcast burning across the landscape,” said Scott Witt, deputy chief of pre fire planning at CalFire, a division that focuses on mitigation. Adding controlled fire to landscapes is a proven strategy that both creates healthier, more resilient forests and also reduces fuels that can escalate fire severity, but conditions have to be right before they are set.
Landscapes that are too wet won’t burn and high moisture levels can also increase smoke output during a burn, putting the plan at odds with air quality control. Stormy conditions – especially wind – can make them too hard to control.
Other types of treatments, including those that use machines to clear vegetation from overgrown landscapes, were less affected but the storms caused issues with access, Witt said. “We have had areas that have been damaged to the point where roads were washed out, so roadwork needs to be done prior to us bringing resources in,” he said. “The heavy rains do have the potential of limiting or adjusting where we do our treatments.”
Data from the agency, published on Friday, shows the number of treatments conducted by the state and its affiliates in December and January is roughly 50% lower than it was the year prior.
There may still be time to amp up the work if conditions are favorable through the spring, and the state was able to do more work than expected during a dry fall. But there is a lot of ground to cover and the state is already playing catch-up after more than a century of fire suppression left forests overgrown and primed to burn.
One of the many rockslides on highway 154 after the storms that shut down the highway between Santa Barbara and Solvang/Santa Ynez. Photograph: Amy Katz/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Now, the climate crisis turned up the dial. Spiking temperatures now pull more moisture out of plants, landscapes and the atmosphere, setting the stage for once-healthy ignitions to turn into infernos. The sisyphean task of treating and retreating the lands is a daunting one, especially now that there’s even more fuel on the ground after the storms – and time is running short.
It takes just days for smaller plants to dry after the rain stops, Witt said, “and dead grasses will start to dry out within an hour or two”. It’s not yet clear whether California will get much more of a dousing before spring. The heavy snowpack could help delay the onset of risks but “if we continue to stay in a dry pattern – even though we had a really strong beginning of winter,” Witt said, “we could easily have an early fire season”.
Noting the urgency, Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson with the United States Forest Service who is based in California, said the outlook was not as grim as it might appear. There was still a lot that could happen before the onset of high-risk weather.
The cold, rainy conditions also helped forests recover from the drought, which will make them more burn-resistant. Water tables are looking far better and bug species that wreak havoc on vulnerable trees are being better kept at bay. “There is a lot of good news ecologically and we can’t separate that,” she said, noting that the boost may not go as far as it might have in a world without climate change.
“And as far as getting the work done, we just have to remember it is a long-term process,” she added, emphasizing that the effects of landscape treatments must be measured across decades, not years. “It took 150 years to happen, and it is not going to be fixed in a season.”
The 132,000-acre Rancho San Fernando Rey, 100 miles north of Los Angeles, now has a lush and abundant river running through it, thanks to the rains that filled the usually dry valley. Photograph: Amy Katz/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Acknowledging that the storms affected the agency’s ability to conduct landscape treatments this winter, she said there’s still a lot of work being done. “It doesn’t really have any bearing on what we will be able to do in the spring or how fire season will look in the summer and fall,” she said. “It is way too early for us to anticipate how this is going to affect fire season.”
What will have greater bearing on fire risks this year is the conditions that align come summer and fall – and those are harder to predict.
“There’s a lot left to luck,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, echoing Freeman. Last year, when risks were high and the winter was dry, timing fell in California’s favor. Fewer catastrophic fires erupted and, while there were high-severity burns that were deadly and destructive, the acreage scorched by the end of the year was only a fraction of what it was in years past.
This year the conditions are very different. Going into spring with more snow, and wetter soils, different kinds of risks remain. “It speaks to our need to continually think about fire,” Quinn-Davidson said. While the weather will do what it will, more than can be done to prepare for the worst. That includes building on the growing momentum to perform more prescribed burns and other treatments, to champion fire-ready communities, and listen to and learn from Indigenous leaders who performed cultural burns for centuries before white colonizers disrupted essential and natural cycles on the lands.
With harder-to-predict weather patterns, agencies and organizations charged with this work will have to be nimble. “We really need to be ready when the windows present themselves to take advantage of them,” she said, adding that this is where community-based fire management groups – which are sprouting up all over the state – shine.
That’s what gives her hope. Even if some conditions can be left up to chance, there is a lot that can be done. “We have a lot of power and ownership,” she said, noting that landscapes are shaped by people. It will be up to people and communities to ensure the tools are in place to prevent the worst kinds of fires from erupting “We just have to have our hearts in the right place.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that while he won in the parliamentary elections of 2014, the country lost.
KCR made these remarks while speaking on the Adani-Hindenburg row during the Assembly session held on Sunday.
The chief minister said that the Prime Minister, while he made a chest-thumping speech, avoided answering questions on the Adani issue and bulldozed opposition from raising questions. “The manner in which BJP leaders are praising the PM will lead to the point of Modi becoming the ex-PM,” KCR said to the chortles of the TRS MLAs.
(This is a breaking story. Keep refreshing the page for fresher updates).
Hyderabad: AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi on Saturday fired at the BRS led state government on various issues like lack of justice to the Urdu language and development in Old City during the session of thanks to the Governor for her address that happened on Friday.
Akbaruddin also expressed serious disappointment over the lack of mention of many achievements of the state government in the Governor’s address.
“Yesterday’s Governor’s address was significant due to several reasons. In the year 2022, we missed the address due to reasons known to one and all. Let bygones be bygones. It’s a good beginning in the relationship between the top two constitutional functionaries in the state. However, compared to her previous address to the state legislature on March 15, 2021, which consisted of 42 pages. Her latest address is down to only 21 pages. I am sure Telangana has achieved significant progress but this has not been truly reflected in the current address which has been brief both on fact and figures,” he said.
Akbaruddin expressed discontent over the state government’s silence on the ‘step-motherly treatment’ meted out to Telangana by the BJP government at the centre.
“There has not been a murmur as well. The omissions of any reference to the state’s plight at the hands of the central government raise questions. Has the state government deliberately chosen to ignore these issues in the Governor’s address to show courtesy to her Excellency?..or has the Hon’ble Governor dropped portions of the text sent to her before the speech copies were printed?… or has the reference to the central government’s high handedness towards the state been brushed aside after the TRS became BRS?” he questioned.
On Urdu, Old City
MLA Akbaruddin then criticised the BRS government for failing to treat Urdu fairly while designating it as a second official language. He also asked about the circumstances at Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad and the progress of the mosque’s building at the Telangana Secretariat.
The AIMIM MLA said that despite the rapid progress in Hi-Tech City, the lack of development still persists in the Old City.
He also wanted to know when the Charminar pedestrian project and the Hyderabad Metro project would be completed. The AIMIM MLA said that the Makkah Masjid’s renovation works haven’t still seen completion.
Akbar, while congratulating the state government on construction of several hospitals across the state, questioned on the state of the promised Osmania hospital renovation.
MLA Akbaruddin accused chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao and other ministers for preventing him from meeting them and stated that he is willing to meet with even low-ranking staff for the benefit of the Telangana people.
KTR responded with a strong counterargument, stating that speaking without attending the BAC meeting is inappropriate. He added that the AIMIM, which has only seven members, is taking up too much time speaking in the session and advised them to adhere to the designated timings and house rules.
Garland and the FBI have strenuously rejected the GOP accusation — which fact checkers have also deemed false — saying their focus was on protecting school board members amid sharply escalating threats of violence, with no emphasis on parents or those raising policy concerns about Covid restrictions.
The subpoenas primarily seek communications between top FBI and Justice Department officials and outside advocates and the Department of Education. Despite the March 1 deadline, subpoenas typically give way to further negotiation that results in shifting due dates and a narrower scope of document production.
Jordan’s quick-trigger finger on the subpoenas underscores the intensely adversarial posture that is likely to define the GOP’s investigations of the Biden administration. It also illustrates Jordan’s effort to maximize his leverage ahead of a potential brawl with the administration over access to sensitive documents.
On the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s the first test of the Biden administration’s willingness to cooperate with some of the red-meat Republican-led House investigations that Democrats largely regard as rooted in conspiracy theories and grievance politics. The administration has repeatedly insisted that it will take the GOP House’s oversight requests seriously and attempt to negotiate document production when possible — for example, the Justice Department, in a Jan. 20 letter obtained by POLITICO, offered “staff-level meetings” to Jordan. But those promises often belie deep distrust and resistance between the branches.
Previewing the fierce political battle to come, Democrats and the White House immediately hit back at Jordan — saying he was marshaling his powerful gavel in pursuit of right-wing conspiracy theories that had largely been debunked.
“Republicans do not want to be bothered by this inconvenient truth,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), the top Democrat on the Jordan-led panel probing claims of government politicization, in a statement. Plaskett also made a dig at Jordan’s defiance of a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee last year.
Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House, added that the subpoenas “make crystal clear that extreme House Republicans have no interest in working together with the Biden Administration on behalf of the American people — and every interest in staging political stunts.”
The information Jordan is requesting largely reflects a months-long push by the Ohio Republican. The White House previously warned him and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) that they would have to re-submit any requests they made while they were still in the minority.
Among the broad swath of records Jordan is requesting from Garland is any documents or communications between DOJ employees and the National School Boards Association, any guidance that stemmed from Garland’s memorandum on threats against school officials and documents and communications from the task force the Justice Department announced in October that was supposed to discuss potential prosecution of any crimes. A DOJ official confirmed the receipt of the subpoena on Friday.
Jordan, in his subpoena to Wray, asked for documents and communications related to the task force, or the bureau’s role, and documents and communications related to a tag the FBI used to track threats against school officials. The committee also conducted a voluntary transcribed interview earlier this week with former FBI official Jill Sanborn as part of its broad investigation into the FBI and DOJ.
The FBI confirmed that it received the subpoena and pushed back on the central claim of Jordan’s investigation.
“As Director Wray and other FBI officials have stated clearly on numerous occasions before Congress and elsewhere, the FBI has never been in the business of investigating speech or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else, and we never will be. Our focus is and always will be on protecting people from violence and threats of violence,” the bureau said.
And in the subpoena for Cardona, Jordan is asking for any documents or communications between the Justice Department and Department of Education employees that refers or relates to Garland’s memo or the National School Boards Association’s letter to President Joe Biden about the rise in threats and asking for input from the FBI, among other entities. The National School Boards Association subsequently apologized for the letter.
The Department of Education had responded to Jordan’s January letter on Thursday, according to a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO. In it, Gwen Graham, an assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs, noted that “as the Department has repeatedly made clear … the Secretary did not request, direct any action, or play any role in the development of the September 29, 2021, letter from the NSBA to President Biden.” That, Graham noted, was also “confirmed by an independent review by outside counsel retained” by the National School Boards Association.
Jordan had signaled in his January letters to Wray, Garland and Cardona, among others, that he would use subpoenas if they didn’t comply with his requests for records.
“Accordingly, for the final time, we reiterate our outstanding requests … and ask that you provide this material immediately. The Committee is prepared to resort to compulsory process, if necessary, to obtain this material,” he wrote in each of the letters.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Rishi Sunak has fired Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi over a “serious breach” of U.K. government ethics rules relating to his tax affairs.
Zahawi has been hit by weeks of damaging headlines over an investigation into his personal taxes carried out by HM Revenue and Customs.
The party chairman and Cabinet Office minister was hit by a penalty from the tax authority while serving as a senior minister, with media reports putting the total charge at £4.8 million. An independent probe, ordered by Sunak and published Sunday morning, concluded Zahawi had not been sufficiently transparent about his private dealings with the tax authority when accepting a succession of senior ministerial roles.
In a letter to Zahawi confirming his sacking, Sunak said he had vowed to put “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” of his administration, and that the investigation by the government’s ethics watchdog Laurie Magnus had found “a serious breach of the Ministerial Code.”
“As a result, I have informed you of my decision to remove you from your position in His Majesty’s Government,” Sunak said.
No.10 also published Magnus’ letter to Sunak, setting out the findings of his short investigation. The ethics chief said that while Zahawi had “provided his full and open cooperation” with his own inquiry, he had shown “insufficient regard” for the ministerial code, and in particular, its requirement to be “honest, open and an exemplary leader.”
Zahawi had, Magnus concluded, failed to declare the HMRC investigation when he became Boris Johnson’s chancellor in July last year; failed to update his declaration of ministerial interests when he settled with HMRC last September; and failed to disclose the nature of the HMRC probe and penalty when Sunak was forming his own government in October 2022, “including to Cabinet Office officials who support that process.”
“Without knowledge of that information, the Cabinet Office was not in a position to inform the appointing Prime Minister,” Magnus concluded.
Zahawi hits out at press
In his reply to the prime minister, Zahawi — who served as U.K. vaccines minister as Johnson’s government vied to get COVID-19 under control — said it had been, “after being blessed with my loving family, the privilege of my life to serve in successive governments and make what I believe to have been a tangible difference to the country I love.”
Zahawi’s own letter made no mention whatsoever of his tax affairs and instead attacked the media, saying he is “concerned” about “the conduct from some of the fourth estate in recent weeks.”
“In a week when a Member of Parliament was physically assaulted, I fail to see how one headline on this issue ‘The Noose Tightens’ reflects legitimate scrutiny of public officials,” he said, referring to the front page of the Independent newspaper, whose reporting helped bring the tax investigation to light.
The sacking was seized on by the opposition Labour Party, with Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson arguing that Sunak had taken too long to act, and is a prime minister “trying to manage his MPs, rather than govern in the national interest.”
“It’s vital that we now get answers to what Rishi Sunak knew and when did he know it,” she added. “We need to see all the papers, not just have the prime minister’s role in this brushed under the carpet.”
This developing story is being updated.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
According to his office, Netanyahu told Deri he was removing him from his post with “a heavy heart and great sorrow.”
“This unfortunate decision ignores the people’s will,” Netanyahu told Deri. “I intend to find any legal way for you to continue to contribute to the state of Israel.”
Deri said he would continue to lead his party and assist the government in advancing its agenda, including the legal overhaul.
Deri’s firing is also expected to shake Netanyahu’s governing coalition, a union buoyed by ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, including Deri’s Shas, which is the third largest party in the government. While some Shas lawmakers threatened to bolt the fledgling coalition in the aftermath of the court ruling, it is expected to survive Deri’s absence and to attempt to craft legislation that would pave the way for his swift return.
Netanyahu is now expected to appoint other Shas members to replace Deri, at least temporarily.
Deri has long been a kingmaker in Israeli politics and has become a key ally of Netanyahu’s who has relied on him repeatedly to join his governments and back his agenda.
Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israeli history, has made overhauling the country’s judiciary a centerpiece of its agenda. It says a power imbalance has given judges and government legal advisers too much sway over lawmaking and governance. Critics say the overhaul could help Netanyahu, himself on trial for corruption charges, evade conviction or see his trial disappear entirely.
The plan has drawn fierce criticism from top legal officials, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, former lawmakers and tens of thousands of Israelis who have come out repeatedly to protest the overhaul.
In a move that was seen as crucial to bringing the governing coalition together, Israeli legislators last month changed a law that prohibited a convict on probation from being a Cabinet minister. That cleared the way for Deri to join the government but prompted the Supreme Court challenge.
Deri has faced legal problems in the past. He was sentenced to three years in prison for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in 2000 during a stint as interior minister in the 1990s. He served 22 months in prison but made a political comeback and retook the reins of Shas in 2013.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy on Friday urged the Telangana government to shift godowns and warehouses operating in residential areas without necessary permissions to the city outskirts.
Keeping in mind the fire incident reported at Ministers Road at Secunderabad in a sports store (which continued for over a day and resulted in a death), Kishan Reddy asked the government to check buildings and other structures in Hyderabad to follow basic fire safety standards.
Reddy said that “learning a lesson” from such an incident will be beneficial in the future. He also spoke to the residents of the colony who were affected by the fire accident.
The union minister instructed officials from the Fire department to make sure that people who were living in fear of the same building collapsing after the fire incident to be provided with all sorts of necessities like food and shelter. The minister also said to arrange a medical camp for the people to check the impact of the toxic fumes that evolved during this incident.
BJP leader and former vice-chairman of the national disaster management authority Marri Shashidhar Reddy a day earlier also wrote to Telangana chief secretary A Santhi Kumari and requested her to go into detail about the incident including the efforts made to douse the flames.
Going through this detail in bringing the fire under control, Shashidhar Reddy said that officials had found it difficult to get water tankers to fill up the empty fire engines. He added that there is an immediate need to make a committee of experts to make a comprehensive study, document response actions, identify defects, shortcomings, and make recommendations for prevention and better preparedness- all in a time-bound and transparent manner.
Observing the incident that took place on January 19, Shashidhar Reddy said it was the third major incident that broke out in 10 months in Secunderabad, which left 19 people dead in the first two incidents. He felt that except for the people’s representatives making photo-ops and giving statements every time, investigations into the causes of such accidents weren’t made public.
