1. An uncontrolled wildfire is threatening densely populated Santa Monica after ripping through an affluent area of Los Angeles, with strong winds grounding firefighting aircraft overnight and fueling other blazes. Mandatory evacuation orders have been expanded to parts of northern Santa Monica, with alerts covering a large swath of the coastal city warning residents may need to evacuate. Widespread and damaging wind gusts are expected to worsen, hampering efforts to contain the fire. The Palisades Fire was at almost 3,000 acres, while two other blazes flared up overnight — one near Altadena and the other near Sylmar, southeast of Santa Clarita. All are un-contained and all have prompted evacuation orders. (Source: bloomberg.com. More sources: AP coverage here. Reuters coverage here. Los Angeles Times coverage here. Weather Channel coverage here. NYTimes: Santa Ana winds in the L.A. area have been intense).
2. Investors in China’s $11 trillion government bond market have never been so pessimistic about the world’s second-largest economy, with some now piling into bets on a deflationary spiral mirroring Japan’s in the 1990s. Yields on Chinese sovereign bonds maturing in 10 years have tumbled in recent weeks to all-time lows, creating an unprecedented 300-basis-point gap with US peers, despite a slew of economic stimulus measures announced by President Xi Jinping’s government. The plunge, which has dragged Chinese yields far below levels reached during the 2008 global financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, underscores growing concern that policymakers will fail to stop China from sliding into an economic malaise that could last decades. (Source: bloomberg.com)
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