Month: January 2023

Thousands of people have evacuated their homes, while millions more are under severe weather warnings.

Nearly 188,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, according to data from Poweroutage.us.

Heavy rain is forecast to last much of the state throughout Tuesday, with some areas at risk of dangerous mudslides.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has described it as “the most impressive storm since January 2005”.

The weather is expected to dump up to 7in (18cm) of rain in some parts by Wednesday and could produce additional flooding, mudslides and landslides. particularly in areas previously hardest hit by heavy rainfall, NWS officials warned.

“An enormous cyclone” is developing off the coast, officials said.

A five-year-old, who was swept away by floodwaters near Paso Robles on Monday, is still missing.

The boy and his mother were reportedly in a truck taking him to school when the vehicle was overcome by water. It sparked a seven-hour search that was called off when the conditions became too dangerous for divers. He has not been declared dead, local officials said, however details of when the search will resume have not been given.

Around 90% of Californians – some 34 million people in the most-populous US state – are under flood watch, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“This is not a day to be out doing anything you don’t have to,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told the Los Angeles Times.

An order issued on Monday afternoon by the Montecito Fire Department directed residents of the town and nearby canyons: “Leave now!”

Residents unable to flee were told to move to their innermost room or high ground.

The NWS reported that up to 14in (35.5cm) of rain was dumped in the last 24 hours in the region.

Across the state, average rainfall totals have hit between 400% and 600% above average values, the NWS said on Tuesday.

People living in the elite coastal enclave of Montecito were among those ordered to leave their homes.

Montecito is home to many Hollywood stars, including actor Rob Lowe, and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, who posted a video from the banks of a flooded creek on Monday.

“This is crazy!” DeGeneres said. “This creek next to our house never flows, ever. It’s probably about nine feet up and is going to go another two feet up.”

The evacuation comes on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide in Montecito that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes.

This new round of severe weather will bring heavy rain on already flooded rivers, damaging winds that are expected to topple trees and power lines, and heavy snow in the California mountains.

The NWS forecasts the heaviest and most widespread rain to hit early Tuesday and into the afternoon. The agency issued a flood warning in areas around Los Angeles, including Orange County and the San Bernardino County Mountains.

Other evacuations have been ordered by officials, including in areas downstream of reservoirs that could overflow.

President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for California on Monday, which allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to provide disaster relief.

In the last week, California has experienced two overlapping weather phenomena – an atmospheric river, where an airborne stream of dense moisture flows in from the ocean, and a bomb cyclone, a storm with a rapid drop in pressure that creates an explosive effect.

Atmospheric rivers can cause extreme rainfall and floods. Bomb cyclones require a mix of high and low temperatures, rising and dropping air pressure, and moisture, often resulting in strong winds and severe storms.

Much of the area hit by heavy rain has been under extreme drought conditions. Last year, California capped how much water residents can use in an effort to conserve its depleting supply.

Despite the rain, much of the state remains under moderate to extreme drought warnings, according to the US Drought Monitor.

Experts have said that it would take many years of rain to reverse the two-decade drought that has hit the western US.

One official, the former commander of the military police, has been arrested, local media reported.

The officials also include Brasília’s former public security chief Anderson Torres and others “responsible for acts and omissions” leading to the riots, the attorney general’s office said.

Mr Torres denies any role in the riots.

Colonel Fábio Augusto, the police commander, was dismissed from his role after supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.

The rioting came a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, widely known as Lula, was sworn in.

The dramatic scenes saw thousands of protesters, some clad in yellow Brazil football shirts and waving flags, overrun police and ransack the heart of the Brazilian state.

Of the approximately 1,500 people arrested and brought to the police academy after the riot, officials say that nearly 600 have been taken to other facilities, where police officials have five days to formally charge them.

Earlier on Tuesday, the federal intervenor in public security accused Mr Torres of “a structured sabotage operation”.

Ricardo Cappelli, who has been appointed to run security in Brasília, said there was a “lack of command” from Mr Torres before government buildings were stormed.

Lula’s inauguration on 1 January was “an extremely successful security operation,” Mr Cappelli told CNN.

What changed before Sunday was that, on 2 January, “Anderson Torres took over as Secretary of Security, dismissed the entire command and travelled”, he said.

“If this isn’t sabotage, I don’t know what is,” Mr Cappelli added.

Mr Torres said that he deeply regretted the “absurd hypotheses” that he played any part in the riots.

He said the scenes, which occurred during his family holiday, were lamentable and said it was “the most bitter day” of his personal and professional life.

Lula has accused security forces of “neglecting” their duty in not halting the “terrorist acts” in Brasília.

Public prosecutors asked on Tuesday for a federal audit court to freeze Mr Bolsonaro’s assets in light of the riots.

The former president, who has condemned the riots, has not admitted defeat from October’s tight election that divided the nation, and flew to the US before the handover on 1 January.

On Monday, he was admitted to hospital in Florida with abdominal pain relating to a stabbing attack during his election campaign in 2018. Reports say he left the hospital on Tuesday.

Mr Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that he intended to return to Brazil, telling CNN that he would bring forward his departure from the US, which was originally scheduled for the end of January.

A day after the riots, heavily armed officers started dismantling a camp of Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters in Brasília – one of a number that have been set up outside army barracks around the country since the presidential election.

Mr Torres, who previously served as Mr Bolsonaro’s justice minister, was fired from his role as Secretary of Public Security on Sunday by Brasília governor Ibaneis Rocha.

Mr Rocha was himself later removed from his post for 90 days by the Supreme Court.

Lula has also taken aim at the security forces, accusing them of “incompetence, bad faith or malice” for failing to stop demonstrators accessing Congress.

“You will see in the images that they [police officers] are guiding people on the walk to Praca dos Tres Powers,” he said. “We are going to find out who the financiers of these vandals who went to Brasília are and they will all pay with the force of law.”

Video shared by the Brazilian outlet O Globo showed some officers laughing and taking photos together as demonstrators occupied the congressional campus in the background.

Protesters had been gathering since the morning on the lawns in front of the parliament and up and down the kilometre of the Esplanada avenue, which is lined with government ministries and national monuments.

Despite the actions of the protesters, in the hours before the chaos, security had appeared tight, with the roads closed for about a block around the parliament area and armed police pairs guarding every entrance into the area.

The BBC had seen about 50 police officers around on Sunday morning local time and cars were turned away at entry points, while those entering on foot were frisked by police checking bags.

According to Katy Watson, the BBC’s South America correspondent, some protesters aren’t just angry that Mr Bolsonaro lost the election – they want President Lula to return to prison.

Mr Bolsonaro has gone very quiet since losing October’s elections, she said, adding that in not publicly conceding defeat, he’s allowed his most ardent supporters to remain angry over a democratic election that he legitimately lost.

The former president condemned the attack and denied responsibility for encouraging the rioters in a post on Twitter some six hours after violence broke out.

On Tuesday, his son, Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said people should not try to link his father to the riots, stating that he has been silently “licking his wounds” since losing the election.

Scottish ministers say they can no longer support the previous position of “maximising economic recovery” of fossil fuel reserves.

Licensing new developments in the sector is reserved to Westminster.

The Scottish government’s plan for the energy sector over the next 20 years is focused on boosting renewables.

The draft energy strategy supports “the fastest possible just transition” away from oil and gas.

It restates the long-standing opposition to new nuclear projects and calls on the UK government to reform the energy market.

The Scottish Conservatives say oil and gas workers in north-east Scotland are being regarded as an “afterthought”.

Michel Matheson, net zero and energy secretary, said: “At a time of unprecedented uncertainty in our energy sector, accelerating the transition towards becoming a renewables powerhouse makes sense for a number of reasons – particularly to helping to mitigate against future global market volatility and the high energy prices which are making life so difficult for so many people across Scotland.

“While we do not hold all the powers to address these issues at source, this strategy sets out how we can achieve an energy transition that ensures we have sufficient, secure and affordable energy to meet our needs, support Scotland’s economic growth and capitalise on future sustainable export opportunities.”

The energy strategy suggests increasing the current level of renewable electricity generation capacity and speeding up the decarbonisation of domestic industry, transport and heat in buildings.

Liam Kerr, Scottish Conservative energy spokesman, said: “The cabinet secretary’s much delayed energy strategy will represent a far from happy new year for the tens of thousands of workers engaged in oil and gas. These workers often feel like an afterthought for this government and that impression won’t improve after today.”

Mr Kerr said the Scottish government “could provide no evidence” of how it would hit a target of 77,000 low-carbon jobs by 2050.

The energy strategy was published alongside a “just transition” plan, which sets out how the shift away from fossil fuels can be done fairly.

The UK government published a similar strategy last year which paved the way for a fresh round of oil and gas licensing. More than 100 new licences are expected to be granted by regulators this year.

But Westminster’s Environmental Audit Committee has criticised the plan for having “significant gaps” and not enough focus on energy saving. The committee called on the UK government to set a date for the end of oil and gas licensing.

Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), which represents more than 400 energy firms, welcomed proposals to create a “hydrogen economy” in Scotland.

The organisation said it “strongly” supports plans to develop the Acorn Project, a carbon capture storage and production facility at St Fergus in Aberdeenshire.

However, the organisation expressed concerns about plans to wind down oil and gas production.

Jenny Stanning, OEUK’s external relations director, said: “Scotland gets 79% of its total energy from oil and gas according to its latest official figures. Across the UK about 24 million homes (85% of the total) rely on gas boilers for heat and we get 42% of our electricity from gas. We also have 32m vehicles running on petrol and diesel.

“These plain facts means we will need gas and oil for decades to come. Additionally, in Scotland alone, the offshore industry supports 90,000 jobs. Across the UK it’s around 200,000.

“So we need to ensure that the final strategy acknowledges the continuing role of oil and gas in Scotland’s energy security and economy – as well as our sector’s role in a rapid transition to a low-carbon future.”

SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies welcomed the Scottish government’s draft report.

He said: “The draft strategy supports ambitious plans for developing onshore and offshore wind, pumped hydro storage, carbon capture and hydrogen.

“But to get there requires increased pace and we look forward to working with the Scottish government and its agencies to turn the ambitions contained within the strategy and plan into tangible actions that support the clean energy transition, build local supply chains, create good green jobs and work in partnership with communities.”

When the last strategy was published in 2017, a target was set for half of Scotland’s energy to come from renewables by 2030.

In the last quarter of 2022, 26.7% of Scottish energy consumption came from renewables.

Ahead of the publication of the latest strategy, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The imperative is clear. In this decade we must set Scotland on the path to an energy system that meets the challenge of becoming a net zero nation by 2045, that supplies safe, secure and affordable energy for all and that generates economic opportunity through a just transition.

“The current energy crisis has demonstrated how vulnerable our energy system is to international price shocks, while laying bare the need for structural reform to ensure affordability for consumers.”

There are many similarities between the draft energy strategies from January 2017 and 2023. More wind, onshore and offshore and continued investment in developing niche marine technologies like wave and tidal.

There’s still opposition to new nuclear power, although this time we’ve only one such generating site at Torness.

But the big difference is in support for oil and gas exploration and development with ministers then keen to avoid the “premature cessation” of production.

Now they want to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.

But Holyrood has limited powers over oil and gas and it’s difficult to see what practical steps it can take to bring this about. Although that was true for fracking and they managed to stop that.

These are two different responses to an energy crisis from two different governments, with one leaning into oil and gas and the other firmly leaning away.

Dozens more were injured on Monday in the city of Juliaca in some of the worst violence since ex-President Pedro Castillo was arrested last month for trying to dissolve Congress.

His supporters have been protesting and blockading roads for weeks.

They say new President Dina Boluarte must go, and want snap elections.

Prime Minister Alberto Otárola denounced the clashes in Juliaca, describing them as an organised attack on police.

He said that thousands of people had tried to overrun the city’s airport and a local police station.

Meanwhile, one protester told the AFP news agency: “The police are shooting at us.”

“We ask Dina to resign. Accept the fact that people do not want you,” the protester added.

Juliaca is located in the Puno region, which has been a hotbed of anti-government demonstrations.

The South American nation has been through years of political turmoil, with the latest crisis coming to a head when Mr Castillo announced he was dissolving Congress and introducing a state of emergency in December.

But Congress proceeded to vote overwhelmingly to impeach him.

Mr Castillo, who is currently in detention, is being investigated on charges of rebellion and conspiracy. He denies all the accusations, insisting that he is still the country’s legitimate president.

About 10 of the files were discovered in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center in Washington in November by Mr Biden’s legal team, said his lawyer.

The batch has been handed over to the National Archives.

Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, is facing a probe for taking classified files to Florida after his presidency.

According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the FBI is involved in the inquiry into classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center, and US Attorney General Merrick Garland has been asked to review the papers.

A source familiar with the matter told CBS News the batch did not contain nuclear secrets and had been contained in a folder in a box with other unclassified papers.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement to CBS on Monday that the files were discovered just before the midterm elections by Biden attorneys who were clearing out the office space.

Mr Biden kept an office at the think tank, which is about a mile from the White House, from 2017 to 2020.

Mr Sauber said: “Since that discovery [of the documents], the president’s personal attorneys have co-operated with the [National] Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”

Mr Trump reacted on Monday on his social media site, Truth Social, asking: “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?”

Mr Trump is under investigation for allegedly resisting requests to give back about 300 classified documents that he took to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after leaving office. The National Archives tipped off the authorities in that case.

The Biden files were discovered shortly before the justice department announced it would appoint an independent lawyer to decide whether to criminally charge Mr Trump over the files found at his golf club.

Congressman James Comer, the new Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Monday that the handling of the Biden papers raised questions about the justice department’s neutrality.

He told reporters: “This is further concern that there’s a two-tier justice system within the DoJ [justice department] with how they treat Republicans versus Democrats, certainly how they treat the former president versus the current president.”

Neither the Penn Biden Center nor National Archives immediately commented.

In September, President Biden appeared on CBS and was asked for his reaction to a photo showing the documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago.

“How anyone could be that irresponsible?” the president said.