Reuters World News - Hollywood scorched, UK bond pain, Lebanon’s election, and Mali’s gold fight

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Raging wildfires in Los Angeles have spread to the Hollywood Hills after multiple blazes killed at least five and stretched firefighting resources to the limit. Lebanon’s parliament looks set to elect its army chief, ending a two-year presidential vacuum and showing the diminished influence of Hezbollah. Canada’s gold miner Barrick threatens to freeze operations in Mali if the country does not lift restrictions on shipments. And turmoil in UK bond markets is piling pressure on Finance Minister Rachel Reeves.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, the LA wildfire spreads, pushing more than 100,000 people from their homes. A market sell-off piles pressure on Britain. Lebanon heads to the polls, testing Hezbollah's weakened influence on the country's politics. And, in Mali, a fight over gold profits. It's Thursday, January 9th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Carmel Primmons in Dublin. Raging wildfires surrounding Los Angeles

have spread to the Hollywood Hills, burning just above Hollywood Boulevard and its walk of fame. Other blazes in the area have killed at least five people destroying hundreds of homes, including some celebrity mansions, and stretching firefighting resources

and water supplies to the limit. More than 100,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. And the fire continues to grow with zero percent. containment. L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Moroni describing the fires as a widespread disaster. No, L.A. County and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster. All day our crews have been out filming the devastation and speaking

with residents, like this man, who asked to be referred to only as Curtis. This is pretty devastating. I don't think L.A. has seen anything like this before. Curtis had just returned to his mobile home park in Pacific Palisades to find only rubble and burnt out cars. My heart goes down. I know five friends already that have lost their homes. Our video journalist, George Garcia, has been covering the fires. Coming into the, in the fire zone, it's like someone just, you know, dropped a bomb in this portion of the city.

The neighborhood is just everything's flattened and the hazy sun. the smoke plumes, the orange, it just looks very apocalyptic. Taking that coastal drive, it was just shocking. It was really, honestly, it was shocking to see how the Palisades fire just kind of flatlined. One of our iconic sceneries, and today, structure after structure, just completely turned to ashes, to rubble. Turmoyle on UK bond markets is heaping pressure on finance minister Rachel Reeves. The sell-off is spooking investors who remember the market meltdown in 2022 that forced out former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

William Schaumburg is Reuters' chief economics correspondent. William, British government debt yields have spied 20 basis points this week to their highest since 2008. What's going on? Investors are worried about high borrowing in the UK. Inflation hasn't gone down as much as people initially hoped. Also, there's the impact of the policies of President-elect Donald Trump in the United States. He wants to do things that investors think will put up inflation in the U.S., and that has a knock-on effect in the UK as well. So a combination of lots of things.

What can Rachel Reeves do about it? Well, Rachel Rees is in a pretty difficult situation. In October, she came out with her first budget that didn't give her much wiggle room for meeting her fiscal targets and what's happened in financial markets. and in the economy which has slowed down means she's pretty much off target already to meet that. So to get back on target, she faces two possibilities. One is to raise taxes, but she said she doesn't want to do that.

And the other is to cut spending, which is looking like the most likely option at the moment. But that comes with the cost. Voters are pretty tired of austerity and there could be a lot of opposition within the government cabinet to further spending cuts. President Claudia Scheinbaum suggesting North America be renamed Mexican America, pointing to a giant map from 1607 behind her that used the historic label.

Her comments come on the heels of President-elect Donald Trump, saying he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. Former President Jimmy Carter is honored with a state funeral in Washington, D.C. today, before his body is returned to Georgia for burial. President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy, and President-elect Donald Trump will attend. Authorities in Tibet have wound down the search and rescue operation for survivors after Tuesday's 6.8 magnitude earthquake near Mount Everest.

More than 45,000 people have been moved to shelters, and the number of missing is still unknown. Lebanon's been without a president since 2022, but today it'll try again to elect a leader after several failed attempts. It's a test of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite political party and paramilitary group and its hold on domestic politics. Timor Azari is here to explain what's at stake in today's election. So the leading candidate is Army commander Joseph Hohm. He's a longtime partner of the US and other European and Arab countries.

He's currently overseeing the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. He's seen as a sort of uncompromising figure in Lebanon, someone who has a military logic, someone who has maintained the unity of the army. And so he's is not your average Lebanese politician. If Aoun is elected, what would that mean for politics in Lebanon? Aoun is not Hizballa's favorite candidate, but they did recently say they are not going to veto him. The balance of power has shifted in the region. I'm speaking to you from Damascus after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, who was a key ally of Hizbollah. We are speaking after Hizballah got battered in a war with Israel and Iran's entire axis weakened.

Hasbullah needs to reconstruct in Lebanon. Its community was hit hard, thousands of buildings destroyed, thousands of buildings destroyed, thousands of people killed. To do that, they need international consensus. They need support from outside. And at this point, the international community is standing behind Josef Al. That's why they might show some compromise here. So how could this election impact the ceasefire with Israel? What the ceasefire calls for is for military infrastructure in the area to be dismantled so that Lebanese security forces are the only forces there. If Josef Haan becomes president and he is the Army Commander, that means that it might give extra wind in the sales of the Libyanese Army doing

that and having a sustainable long-lasting ceasefire. In Mali, a standoff between a Canadian mining company and the military government is escalating. As the price of gold has surged in recent months, Mali and other West African nations have been applying pressure to mining companies, seeking a bigger share of their revenues. Mali has restricted gold shipments from Barak mines, and Barak now says, it'll suspend mining operations there unless those restrictions are lifted. But as David Lewis reports from Nairobi, the relationship between Mali and Barak could be hard to disentangle.

Well, even for a company as big as Barrick, its operations in Mali are hugely important. The Lulogunkoto mine in Western Mali that's at the center of the talks with the government accounts for around 14% of its estimated global gold output. But the operation is also hugely important for Mali, Mali as well. Barrack employs around 8,000 people in the country, nearly all of whom are Malians. Over the years, the company claims to have contributed over $9 billion to the Malian economy. An investor as big as this is critical for an economy like Mali's, which has struggled during

years of war against Islamist militants and sanctions imposed on the country since a 2020 coup. Mali has issued an arrest warrant for Barrack's CEO, Mark Bristow, so relations have really deteriorated. Yes, the arrest warrant against Barrack's CEO, Mark Bristow, is extreme, but the junta has already detained Malian executives working for Barrack in the country, and they've also detained the foreign CEO of another mining company while he was visiting. But more broadly, it's part of a trend in the region, which includes Bukina Faso and Niger, which are also run by military governments, to try to get more for the minerals that are dug up from these countries as the prices of, in particular, gold and uranium are high.

What's Mali saying about Barrick's pledge to cease operations? Mali is maintaining that this is a process that's just aimed at leveling the playing field, making sure that the government gets its own fair share from its own resources. And a Mali and government source that we've spoken to on background did say basically that the mining code seeks to address the inequalities without killing the industry. for its part, Barrack submitted an arbitration request to try and settle the dispute. But sources say that there are talks going on behind the scenes, as both the company and the government do want to try and find a solution.

And if you're interested in gold and its surging price on financial markets, check out this week's episode of Reuters Econ World. It's all about the precious metal, and it's available on the Reuters app or wherever you get your podcasts. And for today's recommended read, Everyone's been talking about Greenland, so we're pointing you to a beautiful set of photos of the Arctic Island that's dominated this week's headlines.

There's a link in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.