Huge wildfires near famous Grand Canyon
They've been called the Dragon Bravo Fire and White Sage Fire by the Arizonian authorities, who are still working to contain them.No one has been hurt by either blaze, but tens of thousands of residents and tourists have had to evacuate the surrounding areas.
What are wildfires?
Wildfires are fires that burn across natural landscapes like woods and forests.They need three things to start and spread:Fuel, such as trees or plants.A spark, like a flash of lightning or something manmade like a campfire.Weather, as high winds can make them spread and hot weather makes things burn more easily.
What's happened in the Grand Canyon?
The Dragon Bravo Fire began on 4 July and was caused by a lightning strike, according to authorities. The Wild Sage Fire, meanwhile, was reported on 9 July after a thunderstorm.It was the Dragon Bravo Fire that burned the lodge, and it has reportedly destroyed between 50 and 80 other buildings in the area with strong winds fuelling the blaze."As stewards of some of our country's most beloved national treasures, we are devastated by the loss of the Grand Canyon Lodge," Aramark, the company that operated the lodge, said in a statement."We are grateful that all of our employees and guests have been safely evacuated," the statement added.
The governor of Arizona, who is a Democrat, criticised the way the federal government, run by the Republican Party, has handled the fire.She called for an investigation into why it was decided to be a controlled burn as opposed to being put out.But a spokesperson for the US Interior Department (which is responsible for America's natural landscapes) said the allegation that the fire was mismanaged "is not at all accurate", and they take threats of wildfires very seriously.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 hours ago
- The Independent
Massive spike in threats against Obama after Trump team claims he committed ‘treason'
Threats made online against former president Barack Obama spiked over the weekend after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused him of a years-long coup attempt against President Donald Trump. Gabbard has claimed Obama and his top officials ran a 'treasonous conspiracy' by insinuating they manufactured an investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election to undermine Trump's first election. Hours after she made the claim, on July 18, violent rhetoric about Obama surged on platforms such as Truth Social, Telegram, and Gab, with some calling for his arrest, imprisonment, and execution. That rhetoric was intensified after the president posted an artificial intelligence-generated video of Obama being arrested and continued to re-post Gabbard's claims throughout the weekend. By July 19, threatening comments targeting Obama rose from three to 56 – a more than 1,700 percent increase, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Truth Social users posted rhetoric calling for a 'firing squad,' a 'public hanging,' and 'streaming' his execution live – all while decrying Obama for the alleged treason. One user called for Obama's execution by using memes of a guillotine, electric shock chair, and public hanging platform. For years, Trump has blamed Obama and other Democrats for abusing power to facilitate investigations or indictments into himself. Since taking back the White House, Trump has promised to conduct a campaign of retribution against those he believes have targeted him. The documents Gabbard referred to as evidence of Obama's meddling show that the Obama administration wanted a review of the allegations against Russia before leaving office and pressured intelligence agencies to work quickly. spokesperson for Obama denied Gabbard's allegations, calling them 'bizarre,' 'ridiculous,' and 'a weak attempt at distraction. The Independent has asked the White House for comment. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism said similar violent rhetoric increased on Gab, a platform known for platforming right-wing extremists. Between July 17 and July 20, comments targeted Obama as treasonous and deserving punishment rose from nine to 48, a more than 400 percent increase. A review of targeted comments made on Telegram in the same timeline revealed that threats against Obama rose from zero to 12. A White House spokesperson told Newsweek that, "President Trump and the entire administration strongly condemn all forms of violence. The Trump administration also believes in accountability and that individuals who participate in criminal activity should be held to the fullest extent of the law.
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump fires back at reports he's trying to destroy Musk's companies
President Donald Trump shot back at reports that he will try to destroy the companies of former best friend Elon Musk, clarifying his intent when it comes to the world's richest man. Trump had previously threatened to take away the billions in government contracts that Musk's various companies hold. The duo had a very public fallout over Trump's one big beautiful bill, which resulted in each man making threats against the other But the president now says he wants Musk to 'thrive.' 'Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!,' the president wrote on Truth Social. 'I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us,' Trump wrote. The clarification came after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked in her briefing on Wednesday if Trump supports federal agencies contracting with Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI. 'I don't think so, no,' she replied and then added she would speak to the president about the matter. xAI won a contract for up to $200 million with the Department of Defense, alongside Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, last week. Additionally, this week, xAI unveiled a suite of products for U.S. government customers, which it refers to as Grok for Government. Trump and Musk have had a hot and cold relationship since the Tesla founder left government service in May. After his departure, Musk publicly turned on Trump's signature bill, complaining it would increase the country's debt and undo much of the savings his Department of Government Efficiency had sought. Trump was furious at Musk's public criticism and, at one point, responded: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' 'We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,' Trump added. Musk, for his part, threatened to start a third political party to go after Republican candidates and posted on his X account that the reason the Jeffrey Epstein files hadn't been released because Trump is in them. He later took that post down.
The Guardian
19 hours ago
- The Guardian
Justice department forms ‘strike force' to investigate Obama over 2016 election
The US justice department has formed a 'strike force' to investigate claims that the Obama administration carried out a 'treasonous conspiracy' by using false intelligence to suggest Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump. Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, announced the new force's formation after the release of a trove of declassified documents from Barack Obama's national security team by the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. On Thursday, two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, both members of the judiciary committee, called on Bondi to appoint a special counsel into what they called 'an unprecedented and clear abuse of power' by Obama's administration. 'For the good of the country, we urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the US national security apparatus for a political outcome,' the senators said in a staement. Gabbard has alleged that Obama and his senior officials concocted a 'years long coup' against Trump – manifested in a special counsel investigation and FBI inquiries – by 'manufacturing' intelligence in the weeks after Trump's 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton that was meant to show collusion between his campaign and Russia. She has recommended that criminal charges be pressed, including against Obama embraced her argument and has said Gabbard's findings reveal 'irrefutable proof' of treason. Bondi set the scene for a justice department investigation after Gabbard presented what she claimed was evidence of a crime at a White House news conference on Wednesday. 'The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people. We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice,' Bondi said in a statement. Fox News cited a source close to Bondi's strike force as saying no serious lead is off the table. However, any moves to prosecute Obama are likely to be stymied by last year's US supreme court ruling granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for acts committed in the course of their presidential duties. The ruling was widely viewed as favoring Trump, who has faced criminal investigations for acts committed in his first presidency – including the retention of classified documents. Ironically, it may now form an obstacle to Trump's stated desire to pursue 'retribution' against his political opponents. Obama's office issued a rare statement on Tuesday, calling the allegations 'outrageous' and 'ridiculous'. Several others named in Gabbard's document could be targeted. They include James Clapper, her predecessor as director of national intelligence, John Brennan, the former CIA director, James Comey, who was FBI director until he was fired by Trump, Comey's former deputy Andrew McCabe, ex-national security adviser Susan Rice, John Kerry, the former secretary of state, and Loretta Lynch, the then attorney general. Brennan has already been the subject of a criminal referral by the current CIA director, John Ratcliffe. Kash Patel, the FBI director, has opened a criminal investigation into Brennan and Comey, according to Fox News, although its scope is unclear. During his first presidency, Trump publicly accepted the FBI's findings that Russia had sought to interfere in the 2016 race, although he also publicly accepted Putin's denials of the US intelligence community conclusions at a 2018 summit in Helsinki. An 1,000-page Senate intelligence committee report in 2020 also found that Russia had intervened on Trump's behalf, noting that Trump's campaign chair had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer. But in Wednesday's White House appearance, Gabbard unveiled the declassification of a 2020 report from the House of Representatives' intelligence committee which she said showed that the goal of Russian meddling was to undermine faith in the US electoral process rather than to help Trump. The report found that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, did not plan to leak the most damaging material about Clinton until after the election, Gabbard said. These included revelations of 'possible criminal acts' and emails from a hacking of the Democratic national committee (DNC) showing that she suffered from 'psycho-emotional problems', and 'uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness'. She was also supposedly on a daily regimen of 'heavy tranquilizers'. Gabbard also alleges that an intelligence community assessment of Putin's efforts deliberately excluded 'significant' intelligence that contradicted the key findings of Russia's purported preference for Trump. Clinton has previously suggested that Gabbard – a former Democrat member of Congress – was being 'groomed' by Russia as a possible presidential candidate. Gabbard, who has no prior intelligence experience, has also been criticized for repeating Kremlin talking points, including after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Her report appears to misrepresent aspects of the intelligence agencies' assessments of Russia's meddling in the 2016 race. The assessment found that Russia did not conduct cyber-attacks against election infrastructure to change vote tallies, but hacked and leaked documents from the DNC to damage Clinton's campaign – activity that Trump publicly encouraged at the time. While Obama's national security officials have remained silent on the matter, some intelligence veterans have criticized Gabbard's effort. 'The Trump Admin's politicization of the 'intelligence community' is very troubling. Every admin wishes they could do it, and several succeed, but this cohort is off to a flying start,' Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA analyst and national intelligence officer, wrote in an email. 'It's not an entirely new trick – books have been cooked for decades – but it's now institutionalized and, as Tulsi's behavior shows, encouraged.'
