Trump Visits North Carolina and Los Angeles in Tour of Disaster Zones

President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)
President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)
TT
20

Trump Visits North Carolina and Los Angeles in Tour of Disaster Zones

President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)
President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)

US President Donald Trump visited disaster-hit western North Carolina on Friday and was traveling later to Los Angeles, promising help while stoking partisan tensions with Democratic rivals over recovery efforts.

Trump's first trip since reclaiming the presidency on Monday could provide an opportunity to assure residents that the federal government will help those whose lives have been upended by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.

On arrival in Asheville, North Carolina, he sharply attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency's handling of the after-effects of September's Hurricane Helene. FEMA was run by then-President Joe Biden's administration for the last four years.

During a briefing about recovery efforts, the Republican Trump promised to speedily help North Carolina "get the help you need" to rebuild.

He said he would prefer the states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves rather than rely on FEMA to do the job. He said he would sign an executive order aimed at what he said would address problems inherent to FEMA.

"I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away," he said.

Trump complained that Biden did not do enough to help western North Carolina recover from the hurricane, an accusation the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.

Trump also sharply criticized Democratic officials' response to wildfires in Los Angeles that have caused widespread destruction this month. His Republican colleagues in Congress have threatened to withhold disaster aid for the region.

Trump was due to visit Los Angeles later in the day while three massive blazes still threaten the region.

NEWSOM TO GREET TRUMP IN LOS ANGELES

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump also threatened to withhold aid and repeated a false claim that California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.

"I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water flow down," Trump said.

He has falsely claimed that Newsom, a Democrat, prioritized the preservation of endangered fish over public safety. Newsom has said there is no connection between the fish and the fire.

The governor told reporters on Thursday that he planned to be on hand at Los Angeles International Airport to greet Trump.

"I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president and welcome him," Newsom said.

Trump has accused Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass - who was out of the country when the fires broke out - of "gross incompetence," pointing to what he called a lack of preparation and ineffective or harmful water management policies.

“It's ashes, and Gavin Newscum (sic) should resign. This is all his fault!!!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, denigrating the governor by misspelling his name.

Water shortages caused some hydrants to run dry in affluent Pacific Palisades, hindering the early response. When the fires broke out, one of the reservoirs that could have supplied more water to the area was empty for a year. Officials have promised an investigation into why it was dry.

Mayor Bass and fire officials have said the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster, and stressed the unprecedented nature of the fires.

Trump has focused some of his criticism on California's complicated policies for sharing the plentiful water supply found in the northern part of the state with the parched south. The diversion results in the discharge of some water into the ocean, something Trump has depicted as a callous waste.

Newsom has dismissed those attacks as groundless, and experts have said that the diversions, in part designed to protect agricultural interests, have played little or no part in the difficulties encountered in fighting the fires.

Since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, they have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, authorities say. Much of Southern California remains under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk due to strong, dry winds.



Iran's IRGC Detains Two Britons on Spying Charges

Traffic flows through a congested highway in Tehran on January 18, 2025. (AFP)
Traffic flows through a congested highway in Tehran on January 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Iran's IRGC Detains Two Britons on Spying Charges

Traffic flows through a congested highway in Tehran on January 18, 2025. (AFP)
Traffic flows through a congested highway in Tehran on January 18, 2025. (AFP)

Iranian authorities said Tuesday that a British couple, arrested last month by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the country’s southeast, have been charged with espionage and accused of links to Western intelligence services.

Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said Craig and Lindsay Foreman had entered Iran “posing as tourists” and gathered information before their arrest in Kerman province.

Jahangir also said the pair had been held by the IRGC “over espionage charges.”

The Foremans “had gathered information from several provinces” and were found to be “cooperating with covert institutions linked to the intelligence services of hostile and Western countries,” the spokesman said, according to AFP.

According to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website, the Kerman judiciary chief Ebrahim Hamidi said the couple’s links to foreign intelligence services “has been confirmed.”

BBC said the couple, in their early 50s, were on a motorbike trip around the world when they were detained in January.

Social media posts show the duo crossed into Iran from Armenia in December and were gradually making their way toward Australia.

On Friday, Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed that it was “providing consular assistance to two British nationals detained in Iran” and was in contact with Iranian authorities.

Last Saturday, the couple’s family said they were engaging with relevant authorities to ensure the pair's well-being and safe return home.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported last week that British Ambassador Hugo Shorter met with the couple at the Kerman prosecutor’s office.

The agency also published a photo of the meeting, with the couple’s faces blurred.

A statement issued by the British Foreign Office on their family's behalf said: “This unexpected turn of events has caused significant concern for our entire family, and we are deeply focused on ensuring their safety and wellbeing during this trying time.”

The family called it a “distressing situation,” adding: “We are actively engaging with the British government and relevant authorities, working diligently to navigate the complexities of this matter.”

The IRGC have arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.

Human rights groups and some Western countries have accused Iran of trying to win concessions from other nations through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran denies such accusations.

In January 2023, Iran announced the execution of British-Iranian dual citizen Alireza Akbari, prompting outrage among Western governments including Britain, which called it “barbaric.”