(1) Powerful quake hits Tibet, kills over 100
A devastating earthquake in China’s remote Tibet region killed at least 126 people and damaged thousands of buildings on Tuesday (January 7, 2025), with tremors also felt in neighbouring Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and parts of India.
The quake struck rural, high-altitude Tingri county, about 80 km north of Mount Everest near China’s border with Nepal, at around 9:00 a.m. (0630 IST) on Tuesday. Tingri, the epicentre, is home to around 62,000 people, and is much less developed than urban centres like Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) measured the quake’s magnitude as 6.8, while the U.S. Geological Survey reported it as 7.1. The area most affected is surrounded by mountainous terrain on the Chinese side of Mount Everest.
At least 126 people have been confirmed dead and 188 others injured as of 7:00 pm, CCTV said. Twenty-eight people in critical condition were transferred to hospital for treatment and 3,609 houses had collapsed, it added.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are often hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which are pushing up an ancient sea that is now the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. The entire plateau is seismically active, as well as its eastern and northern rims, which overlap with the Chinese provinces and regions of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.
Tuesday’s quake was the worst since a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in 2023 that killed at least 149 people in a remote northwestern region of the country.
(2) Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigns
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday (January 5, 2025) as the leader’s increasing unpopularity came to a head. The announcement followed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s resignation in December last year after Trudeau asked her to take a lesser position in the government.
Trudeau emerged into the Canadian political scene in 2013 when he swept the Liberal party’s leadership election. He won over 70% of the votes in that contest.
Trudeau’s success followed him in the federal elections in 2015, when his party won the majority of seats in the House of Commons, up from just 34 seats in 2011 to 184 in 2015. However, Trudeau’s fortunes did not last. His party’s seat share dipped in the 2020 election and following the pandemic, he called up early elections to regain a stronger position in the House in the hopes that the voters would reward him for his handling of the pandemic. This was a failed bid. While the Liberal party won three more seats, it could not win a majority.
Over the past months, voting intention polls showed Trudeau’s popularity plummet, even as that of the Conservative candidate increased. Trudeau’s dip in popularity comes from a variety of factors including a housing crisis, his stance on immigration and his handling of the pandemic.
Trudeau suspended Parliament, postponing a no-confidence motion by former ally NDP to May in the earliest. In any case, elections will be held by October this year to elect the next Prime Minister.
(3) 2024 confirmed to be warmest on record: Copernicus
Global temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5 Celsius above the pre-industrial era for the first time, bringing the world closer to breaching the pledge governments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, scientists said on Friday (January 10, 2025).
The World Meteorological Organization confirmed the 1.5C breach, after reviewing data from U.S., U.K., Japan and EU scientists.
The global average temperature was 15.10°C, which was 0.72°C above the 1991-2020 average, and 0.12°C above 2023 — the previous warmest year on record. This, according to Copernicus, is equivalent to 1.60°C above the pre-industrial level.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said climate change was pushing the planet’s temperature to levels never before experienced by modern humans. Scientists have linked climate change to greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
The planet’s average temperature in 2024 was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, C3S said. The last 10 years are the 10 hottest years on record, the WMO said.
Climate change is worsening storms and torrential rainfall, because a hotter atmosphere can hold more water, leading to intense downpours. Atmospheric water vapour reached a record high in 2024, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was the third-wettest year on record.
(4) Delhi Assembly polls on Feb.5, results on Feb. 8
Voting for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held in a single phase on February 5, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday (January 7, 2025). Counting of votes will take place on February 8. The term of the current Delhi Assembly ends on February 23.
Announcing the dates at a press conference in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the polling date has been deliberately placed on a Wednesday (weekday) like in Maharashtra so that more people can come out to vote. More than 13,000 polling stations will be set up in Delhi, he said.
According to the final electoral rolls published on Monday, Delhi has a total of 1.55 crore voters, of which 83.49 lakh are men, 71.74 lakh women and 1,261 transgenders.
There are 25.89 lakh young voters, 2.08 lakh first-time voters, and 830 above 100 years of age.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, is seeking a third straight term in office in the national capital. In the 2020 Assembly polls, AAP won 62 seats, BJP 8 and the Congress drew a blank.
(5) Los Angeles fires: 24 dead as fire crews try to contain the blazes
Firefighters scrambled on Sunday (January 12, 2025) to make further progress against wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed 24 people in the Los Angeles area as forecasters again warned of dangerous weather with the return of strong winds this week. At least 16 people were missing, and authorities said that number was expected to rise.
Since the fires first began on Tuesday (January 7, 2025) just north of downtown LA, they have burned more than 12,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles.
The fires have consumed about 56 square miles (145 square kilometers) — an area larger than San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people remained under evacuation orders and new evacuations were ordered on Friday (January 10, 2025) evening after a flare up on the eastern side of the Palisades Fire.
Source: Cal Fire; Map: Gautam Doshi
By Saturday (January 11, 2025) morning, the Lidia fire, which spanned over 395 acres, was fully contained. Meanwhile, the major fires which are the Palisades fire (21,596 acres) and the Eaton fire (14,117 acres) are only 11% and 15% contained, according to Cal Fire.
A fierce battle against the flames was underway in Mandeville Canyon, home to Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities not far from the Pacific coast, where swooping helicopters dumped water as the blaze charged downhill. Firefighters on the ground used hoses in an attempt to beat back leaping flames as thick smoke blanketed the chaparral-covered hillside.
Tens of thousands of people remained under evacuation orders and new evacuations were ordered Friday evening after a flare up on the eastern side of the Palisades Fire. A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday (January 15), with sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 mph (113 kph). The most dangerous day will be Tuesday (January 14, 2025), said weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson.
Published – January 13, 2025 12:07 pm IST