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Indonesia, Iran Sign Preferential Trade Agreement

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)
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Indonesia, Iran Sign Preferential Trade Agreement

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, left, speaks to journalists as Indonesian President Joko Widodo listens during a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP)

The leaders of Indonesia and Iran on Tuesday signed a preferential trade agreement to expand economic relations during an official visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Jakarta.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after the signing as streamed online by his cabinet secretariat, hoped the agreement “would increase trade between Indonesia and Iran” but did not provide details.

After signing 10 agreements at the Bogor Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Widodo told media he hoped the PTA would increase transactions between Indonesia and Iran, reported AFP.

The agreement would give Indonesia greater access to Iranian markets, particularly with regard to its exports of vegetable oil, cocoa, coffee and tobacco, said the Indonesian Trade Ministry.

For his part, Raisi, who is on his first official visit to the archipelago nation, said that Iran and Indonesia have decided to increase their annual trade ties to $20 billion while seeking to use national currencies to settle trade payments.

“We believe that sanctions and threats cannot stop us in any way from cooperation and communication with neighboring countries, Muslim nations and countries that are aligned with us,” Raisi said.

Indonesian trade ministry official Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono said on Tuesday the two countries had agreed on a “countertrade” scheme in which goods and services can be exchanged “without being constrained by scarcity or currency difficulties.”

Two-way trade between the nations currently amounts to around $250 million, with the Southeast Asian country recording about a $200 million surplus, according to the Indonesian trade ministry.

Djatmiko told reporters on Monday Indonesia is keen to boost trade with the Middle East and the surrounding region.

“Iran could be a gateway to the surrounding region, such as Central Asia ... or even to Türkiye because we do not have any trade deal with Türkiye yet,” he said.

Under Tuesday's agreement, Iran would give Indonesia greater access to products like processed food and pharmaceuticals, textile, palm oil, coffee and tea, while Indonesia will lower tariffs for Iran's oil and chemical products, metals and some dairy products.

Raisi's visit comes as ties between Iran and the West have become increasingly strained following the Iranian security forces' violent crackdown on protests against the country's clerical elite after the death of a Kurdish woman in custody of the morality police last year.

Several countries, including the US, have imposed broad sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program and alleged rights violations.

This week, the EU imposed the eighth round of sanctions over Tehran's brutal crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.

Trade between Indonesia and Iran dropped from $715.5 million to $141.6 million in 2019 after the US imposed its sanctions.

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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they're possible given the extreme conditions.

 

A look at fire tornadoes according to The AP.

What is a fire tornado? Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornadoes involve clouds generated by the fire itself.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary of wildland fire terms doesn’t include an entry for fire tornado, but it defines a fire whirl as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris and flame,” and says large whirls “have the intensity of a small tornado.”

Wildfires with turbulent plumes can produce clouds that in turn can produce lightning or a vortex of ash, smoke and flames, said Leila Carvalho, professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“There is a rotation caused by very strong wind shear and a very hot, localized low-pressure system,” she said.

What is a fire tornado capable of? Fire tornadoes can make fires stronger by sucking up air, Carvalho said. “It creates a tornado track, and wherever this goes, the destruction is like any other tornado.”

In 2018, a fire tornado the size of three football fields killed a firefighter as it exploded in what already was a vast and devastating wildfire near near Redding, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of San Francisco in northern California. Scientists later described an ice-capped cloud that reached 7 miles (11 km) into the air and caused winds up to 143 mph (230 kph).

Research also suggests fire tornadoes can carry airborne embers, also called firebrands, over long distances, said James Urban, an assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They also can change the fire’s behavior, he said.

“That’s also something that is dangerous and scary for first responders, or really anyone,” he said. “It can change and maybe go in a different direction.”

The interaction between wind, the fire plume and topography determines whether a tornado will develop, he said. For example, sometimes a certain topography will restrict airflow in such a way that a spiral pattern develops.

Can you make one in a lab? Together with San José State University, Worcester Polytech is part of a Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. In the lab in Worcester, researchers have created small fire tornadoes by putting up walls around a fire or arranging a bunch of little fires that together restrict airflow. But that’s on a much smaller scale than what’s happening with the wildfires.

“We’ve got the biggest fire lab in the US for a university, but we cannot get something the size of what’s been reported at these fires,” he said. “You can’t really bottle that and put it in a lab.”