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President Joe Biden on Wednesday cancelled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to devastating fires raging in California. Biden was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon, after eulogizing former President Jimmy Carter at a memorial service in Washington, for the three-day trip to meet with Pope Francis and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The trip was meant as a coda to the second Catholic U.S. president’s time in the White House and a final opportunity to showcase the strength of American alliances before he leaves office on Jan. 20. The announcement of the trip’s cancellation comes just hours after Biden departed Los Angeles after meeting his first great-grandchild, who was born Wednesday at an area hospital. He received a briefing from local fire officials before returning to Washington, as smoke and ash from blazes raging in the area clouded the daytime sky. “After returning this evening from Los Angeles, where earlier today he had met with police, fire and emergency personnel fighting the historic fires raging in the area and approved a Major Disaster declaration for California, President Biden made the decision to cancel his upcoming trip to Italy to remain focused on directing the full federal response in the days ahead,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. Read: Staying safe in a wildfire: What to pack and when to evacuate The large Palisades fire sparked Tuesday morning as Biden was in Los Angeles, and the high winds that helped fuel its massive spread forced the president to scrub a planned visit to Thermal to announce two new national monuments. While flying back to Washington on Wednesday, Biden approved a federal major disaster declaration for Los Angeles County, allowing for federal funding to be made available for temporary housing and home repairs as well as low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. It also provides additional financial assistance to state and local governments to cover the costs of fighting and cleaning up after the fires.

President-elect Donald Trump has raised more than $170 million for his upcoming inauguration, a record amount as tech executives and big donors have eagerly written large checks to help bankroll the ceremony. The private donations collected thus far were confirmed by a person with firsthand knowledge of the fundraising who was not authorized to speak publicly. The person said Trump's inaugural committee is expected to raise more than $200 million by the end of the effort. Trump's inaugural committee did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday. The committee has not yet detailed how it plans to spend the donations. The private donations are typically used to help pay for events surrounding the inauguration, such as costs related to the oath of office ceremony itself, along with a parade and glitzy inaugural balls. Money leftover from the inaugural committee is expected to be used toward a future Trump presidential library, according to the person. EU not to tolerate attacks within borders, France says amid Trump’s Greenland claim The whopping amount raised thus far by Trump's presidential inaugural committee is more than double the amount President Joe Biden raised four years ago when he brought in nearly $62 million for his inauguration, according to Federal Election Commission records. Donations to Trump's first inauguration in 2016 also set a record when he brought in nearly $107 million. After the former president's victory in November, along with Republicans winning control of both chambers of Congress, major donors, including tech companies, have been writing big checks as they've sought to improve their relationship with the incoming president. Amazon and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said last month they were each planning to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also said he was planning to make a $1 million personal donation. The New York Times first reported on Wednesday the fundraising sum for this month’s inauguration.

Wildfires are sweeping through the Los Angeles area, as strong winds fuel fast-moving flames that threaten homes, businesses and neighborhoods, including those of many celebrities. The fires, which began Tuesday, were intensified by powerful Santa Ana winds gusting over 70 mph (112 kph) in some areas, making firefighting efforts even more difficult. Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed the deployment of more than 1,400 firefighting personnel to battle the blazes. In an urgent plea, the Los Angeles Fire Department called for assistance from all off-duty firefighters in the city. The Palisades Fire, which ignited around 10:30 am Tuesday, has already scorched about 4.5 square miles (11.6 square kilometers). The fire spread embers onto trees and rooftops in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, leading to massive evacuations. As residents rushed to escape, traffic jams on Palisades Drive blocked emergency vehicles, forcing crews to use bulldozers to clear the way. Photos from the area depict an apocalyptic scene. Other fires have also caused significant damage. The Eaton Fire, located north of Pasadena in Altadena, started around 6:30pm Tuesday and quickly spread across 1.6 square miles (4 square kilometers) by Wednesday morning. At a senior center, employees pushed dozens of residents in wheelchairs to safety. The Hurst Fire, igniting around 10:30pm Tuesday, forced evacuations in Sylmar, a neighborhood in northern Los Angeles. By Wednesday, the fire had grown to 500 acres (202 hectares). Thousands flee as wildfires devastate Los Angeles Authorities have issued evacuation orders for about 30,000 residents due to the Palisades Fire, with over 13,000 structures at risk. Additionally, the Eaton Fire prompted evacuations affecting more than 50,000 people. Areas impacted include Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Altadena. More than 180,000 people in Southern California are currently without power, with the majority of outages occurring in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutage.us. The forecast calls for continued extreme fire weather. Santa Ana winds are expected to increase late Tuesday and into Wednesday, potentially reaching speeds of 100 mph (160 kph) in mountainous and foothill areas. The National Weather Service has issued ongoing red flag warnings for critical fire conditions, driven by strong winds and dry conditions.

Thousands of residents have fled as wildfires ravage areas around Los Angeles, destroying homes and overwhelming roads, reports AP. Firefighters are battling intense winds that are propelling the flames, and several fires remain uncontained.One fire, which began Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the foothills northeast of LA, spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living centre had to evacuate residents, some of whom were over 100 years old. They waited in parking lots under a red sky until they could be transported to safety. Staying safe in a wildfire: What to pack and when to evacuate Another fire, which started earlier, ravaged the Pacific Palisades, an upscale coastal area. As people fled, the roadways became gridlocked, forcing many to abandon their cars and escape on foot, some carrying bags and children. Emergency vehicles struggled to reach the area, and a bulldozer had to clear a path through the abandoned cars. Destruction along the Pacific Coast Highway was widespread. A third fire broke out in Sylmar around 10:30 p.m., triggering evacuations. The fires were fanned by Santa Ana winds of up to 70 mph, with some areas experiencing gusts up to 100 mph. The Los Angeles Fire Department appealed for off-duty firefighters to assist, while high winds prevented aircraft from assisting with firefighting efforts. Governor Gavin Newsom reported that over 1,400 firefighting personnel were deployed, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided support. California will soon require insurers to increase home coverage in wildfire-prone areas Authorities haven't provided an estimate of the damage caused by the Pacific Palisades fire, but about 30,000 people were under evacuation orders, and 13,000 structures were at risk. Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency, and many homes in the area were destroyed. The fire spread through Temescal Canyon, a popular hiking area, and damaged parts of the Palisades Charter High School. By evening, the flames had reached Malibu, where several people were treated for burn injuries, and a firefighter sustained a serious head injury. By early Wednesday, three fires were still raging, including one that had burned 1.6 square miles, another that had scorched 500 acres, and the largest, which had consumed 4.5 square miles. Power outages affected over 200,000 people in Los Angeles County. The region's persistent dry conditions and strong winds, exacerbated by the Santa Anas, have contributed to the severity of the fires. Many areas have not received significant rain since May, heightening the risk of wildfires. The Pacific Palisades, located along the coast near Malibu, saw dramatic scenes of homes burning as residents fled. Actor James Woods shared footage of the flames near his home, and the Getty Villa reported some damage to its grounds. Wildfire tears through Southern California community after burning dozens of homes Amid the chaos, several events were cancelled, including movie premieres, and schools in the affected areas were temporarily relocated. The Getty Museum confirmed that its staff and collection remained safe despite the nearby fire.

Fresh from pouring his money and energies into helping Donald Trump win re-election, Elon Musk has trained his sights on Europe, setting off alarm bells among politicians across the continent. The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany, demanded the release of jailed UK anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson and called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer an evil tyrant who should be in prison. Many European politicians have been left concerned by the attention. Musk’s feed on his social network X is dotted with abusive language — labeling politicians “stupid cretin” and “sniveling cowards” — as well as retweets of far-right and anti-immigrant accounts. Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University, said Musk is using X “a bit like an old-style newspaper mogul,” to promulgate his political views. “We’ve seen Musk start to align himself much more obviously with an international movement of the far right,” Chadwick said. ”If you look at the kinds of people who Musk himself is boosting on his platform … he’s increasingly started to assemble a group of different right-wing influencers, many of them with large followings, and presenting their evidence as a basis for his interventions into European politics.” Musk has inserted himself into politics in Germany, which is headed for a Feb. 23 election after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious three-party coalition government collapsed. Elon Musk sparks speculation with name change on X; this is the name he chose On Dec. 20, Musk wrote on X: “Only the AfD can save Germany,” a reference to the Alternative for Germany party, which is under observation by the domestic intelligence agency for suspected extremism. He doubled down on support for the AfD in an article for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, claiming Germany is “teetering on the edge of economic and cultural collapse.” Later this week Musk is due to hold a live chat on X with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel. Scholz’s response embodies the dilemma faced by European politicians — should they ignore and let Musk’s comments go unchallenged, or engage and risk amplifying them? Scholz has said it’s important to “stay cool” over personal attacks, but called Musk’s involvement in German politics worrying. In a new year message, Scholz pointedly noted that Germany’s way forward “will not be decided by the owners of social media channels” but by German voters. French President Emmanuel Macron warned Monday about the risks posed by unchecked power in the hands of tech billionaires and the destabilizing impact they could have on democratic institutions. “Who could have imagined, 10 years ago, that the owner of one of the world’s largest social networks would intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” Macron said. Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said Musk’s behavior was “troubling and far from amusing.” “Someone cannot simply use their platform, wealth and connections to try to dictate how governments are formed in each nation,” he told Parapolitika Radio. “This is becoming increasingly dangerous.” Musk has increasingly focused on British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July, calling Starmer an “evil” leader presiding over a “tyrannical police state.” Musk’s recent focus is on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns several years ago, in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of mostly white girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration and Islam. Musk has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013 — a charge Starmer strongly denies. “Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain,” Musk tweeted. Chadwick said “there’s been a hesitancy on the part of the political elite in the U.K. to engage” with Musk’s “incredibly inflammatory remarks.” But Starmer changed tack Monday, condemning “lies and misinformation” and accusing U.K. Conservative politicians who have echoed some of Musk’s points of “amplifying what the far right are saying.” “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies,” the prime minister said. Starmer is facing calls to tighten Britain’s laws on foreign interference, and governments around the world are under pressure to leave X. Both the U.K. and German governments say they have no plans to quit the platform. Elon Musk envisions ‘direct democracy’ for future ‘Mars Colony’ Musk’s X is under investigation by European authorities attempting to curb hatred, disinformation and other toxic content on social media. The European Union has launched infringement proceedings against X under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, and EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said it will look at whether Musk's livestream interview Thursday with the AfD's Weidel gives inappropriate “preferential treatment” to the party during a pre-election period. Musk, a self-styled free-speech advocate, is critical of efforts to regulate social media. He has compared British attempts to weed out online misinformation through the Online Safety Act to censorship in the Soviet Union. Musk clearly enjoys baiting mainstream politicians on social media, but Chadwick said it “remains to be seen” whether his posting changes public attitudes or helps the causes he champions. And the political interventions carry risk for him. His comments are being watched closely by Tesla investors for signs he could be turning off car buyers who don’t agree with his politics. Tesla is already struggling in Europe, where new registrations for Musk’s electronic vehicles fell 13% in the first nine months of 2023, according to auto researcher Jato Dynamics. In Germany, Tesla registrations dropped 44%. Jato senior analyst Felipe Munoz said that Musk's outspokenness is rare and risky for the owner of a publicly traded company — though it may pay off in the end. Elon Musk wants to turn SpaceX's Starbase site into Texas “Europe is going to (the) right,” he said, pointing to politicians including France’s Marine Le Pen and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni. “Look at what happened in the US His bet on Trump worked. He is playing the same game in Europe.”

The Biden administration is set to announce a massive, final weapons aid package for Ukraine as part of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Germany on Thursday to meet with representatives of about 50 partner nations who have come to Ukraine’s defense since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, two senior defense officials said. The officials did not provide an exact dollar amount but said the package was expected to be “substantial," although it would not include all of the roughly $4 billion left in the congressionally authorized funding for Ukraine. There likely would be “more than a couple billions dollars” remaining for the incoming Trump defense team to provide to Ukraine if it chose to do so, the officials said Tuesday in briefing reporters traveling with Austin. Ukraine is in the midst of launching a second offensive in Russia's Kursk region and is facing a barrage of long-range missiles and ongoing advances from Russia as both sides seek to put themselves in the strongest negotiating point possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Ukraine will ask allies to boost its air defenses at a meeting in Germany: Zelenskyy Austin's trip to Ramstein Air Base will be his final meeting with the group he organized to come to Ukraine's defense after Russia's invasion in February 2022. Together those nations have provided more than $126 billion in weapons and military training and assistance. Those packages have included millions of rounds of ammunition, advanced fighter jets, air defense systems, counter-UAV systems and even tanks. The US has provided $66 billion of that total. The package to be announced on Thursday will be drawn from existing stockpiles with a goal of getting most of the weapons pledged to Ukraine by the time Trump is sworn in., one of the defense officials said. On Dec. 30, the administration announced a separate $1.25 billion aid package, part of a series of aid announcements as it hurried to get as much military assistance to Ukraine as it can before President Joe Biden leaves office.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion investment for data centers in the United States by an Emirati company led by billionaire Hussain Sajwani, a close business partner of the Trump family. The investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates is intended to highlight Trump's personal ability to attract new money for big projects. The announcement follows a pledge made last month by the Japanese billionaire investor Masayoshi Son, while at Trump's side, to invest $100 billion in the United States. Trump said at a news conference that he believed Sajwani made the commitment because “he was very inspired by the election and wouldn't do it without the election.” The president-elect emphasized his plans to get investments of $1 billion or more through the environmental regulatory review process quickly. Following Trump, Sajwani briefly joined the news conference and said: “It’s been amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in November.” Sajwani's promised investment feeds into an existing boom for constructing data centers used in the development of artificial intelligence and expansion of cryptocurrency, as well as in other elements of an increasingly digital economy that relies on having greater sources of computer processing power. Trump tries again to get Friday's hush money sentencing called off While Trump has sought to portray these announcements as a source of newfound energy in the U.S. economy, the $20 billion commitment is also a sign that wealthy investors close to Trump can profit off that relationship, given the already significant investment in new data centers. In October, the financial company Blackstone estimated that the U.S. would see $1 trillion invested in data centers over five years, with another $1 trillion being committed internationally. The commitment made by Sajwani could represent just 2% of the total expected domestic investment in the sector. Sajwani would gain data centers in the United States, which thus far have not been part of his company's EDGNEX data center portfolio. According to the company's website, it already has or plans to build data centers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Spain, Thailand and Indonesia. DAMAC Properties is one of the top private developers in the skyscraper-studded city-state in the United Arab Emirates. The property developer has been a Trump partner. Under Sajwani, DAMAC built the Trump International Golf Club at a massive development in the city’s desert outskirts just before Trump first entered the White House. DAMAC also paid a licensing fee worth millions back to the Trump Organization, following a pattern the president-elect's company has used in developments both in the U.S. and abroad. There had been plans for another DAMAC development further in the desert that would have a Trump-named golf course. However, DAMAC later dropped plans for the golf course at the development. Also, discussions for a promised $2 billion in deals between DAMAC and the Trump Organization after his first electoral win in 2016 never materialized. Sajwani has said that Trump's initial election to the presidency helped increase the profile of his company. Since Trump’s re-election in November, Sajwani has been seen at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He posted a picture standing between a seated Trump and billionaire Elon Musk at a New Year’s Eve celebration. However, the Trump Organization since has been involved with Dar Global, a Saudi-funded real estate firm that’s building a Trump-branded golf course in Oman and Trump projects in Saudi Arabia. There are plans for a Trump Tower in Dubai as well, though previous plans for a Trump Tower on Dubai’s man-made Palm Jumeirah archipelago fell apart during the city’s financial crisis that began in 2008.

President-elect Donald Trump tried again Tuesday to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush money case, asking a New York appeals court to intervene as he fights to avoid the finality of his conviction before he returns to the White House. Trump turned to the Appellate Division of the state's trial court a day after the trial judge, Judge Juan M Merchan, rebuffed his bid to indefinitely postpone sentencing and ordered it to go ahead as scheduled on Friday. Trump is seeking an immediate stay that would spare him from being sentenced while he appeals Merchan's decision last week to uphold the historic verdict. Oral arguments were expected before a single judge later Tuesday, with a decision likely soon thereafter. The scheduling drama is playing out less than two weeks before his inauguration. Trump is poised to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. If Trump's sentencing doesn't happen before his second term starts January 20, it may have to wait until he leaves office in 2029 because of the widely held belief, endorsed by Merchan, that a sitting president is immune from criminal proceedings. Merchan has signaled that he is not likely to punish Trump for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and will accommodate his transition by allowing him to appear at sentencing by video, rather than in person at a Manhattan courthouse. Still, the Republican and his lawyers contend that his sentencing should not go forward because the conviction and indictment should be dismissed. They have previously suggested taking the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. Trump reignites proposal for US-Canada 'merger' Merchan “is without authority under the law to proceed to sentencing while President Trump exercises his federal constitutional right to challenge these rulings,” Trump's lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a filing with the Appellate Division. Last Friday, Merchan denied Trump’s bid to throw out his conviction and dismiss the case because of his impending return to the White House. He previously refused to toss the case on presidential immunity grounds. Trump’s lawyers are challenging both rulings. Merchan wrote that the interests of justice would only be served by “bringing finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said giving Trump what’s known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.” Manhattan prosecutors have pushed for sentencing to proceed as scheduled, “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.” The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong. The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison. Trump’s sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at the defense’s request. After Trump’s November 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at a South Florida airport, authorities said. The bodies were located in the wheel well area Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said in a statement to The Associated Press. They were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection, JetBlue said. The aircraft had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. "At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation," JetBlue's statement said. “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline added. Paramedics declared both of them dead at the scene, the Broward County sheriff's office said Tuesday. The agency's homicide and crime scene units are investigating, it said. The individuals' names were not immediately released. It's the second time over the past month that a body has been found in the wheel well of an airplane. In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago. The airline industry in recent months has also been dealing with unticketed passengers found in cabins. In November, a Russian national who did not have a ticket boarded a Paris-bound Delta Air Lines flight in New York and was arrested when the plane touched down in France. She had somehow bypassed security to board the flight, authorities said. Then on Christmas Eve, a passenger without a ticket boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Honolulu. The passenger was discovered while the plane was taxiing for departure, Delta said at the time.

The Pentagon said Monday it had transferred 11 Yemeni men to Oman this week after holding them for more than two decades without charge at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The transfer was the latest and biggest push by the Biden administration in its final weeks to clear Guantanamo of the last remaining detainees there who were never charged with a crime. The latest release brings the total number of men detained at Guantanamo to 15. That's the fewest since 2002, when President George W. Bush's administration turned Guantanamo into a detention site for the mostly Muslim men taken into custody around the world in what the U.S. called its “war on terror." The U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and military and covert operations elsewhere followed the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks. The men in the latest transfer included Shaqawi al Hajj, who had undergone repeated hunger strikes and hospitalizations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in prison, preceded by two years of detention and torture in CIA custody, according to the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights. Rights groups and some lawmakers have pushed successive U.S. administrations to close Guantanamo or, failing that, release all those detainees never charged with a crime. Guantanamo held about 800 detainees at its peak. The Biden administration and administrations before it said they were working on lining up suitable countries willing to take those never-charged detainees. Many of those stuck at Guantanamo were from Yemen, a country split by war, with its capital held by the Iranian-allied Houthi militant group. The sultanate of Oman, on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, did not acknowledge taking in the prisoners early Tuesday. Officials in the country did not respond to questions from The Associated Press. The key Western ally has taken in some 30 prisoners in the past since the founding of the prison. However, those prisoners have since been released in circumstances unexplained by Oman. Two Afghans once held by Oman returned to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in February. One Yemeni died in Oman after being told he and 27 others would be repatriated to Yemen, the British activist group CAGE International said. “Faced with little choice, 26 of the men and their families returned to Yemen after being pressured by the Omani government, which offered each $70,000 as compensation,” the group said. It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the 28th prisoner. The transfer announced Monday leaves six never-charged men still being held at Guantanamo, two convicted and sentenced inmates, and seven others charged with the 2001 attacks, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia.