Families in shock begin to visit their charred homes in the Los Angeles area
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Many watched their homes burn on television in a state of shock.
Since the flames erupted in and around Los Angeles, scores of residents have returned to their still smoldering neighborhoods even as the threat of new fires persisted and the nation's second-largest city remained unsettled. For some, it was a first look at the staggering reality of what was lost as the region of 13 million people grapples with the gargantuan challenge of overcoming the disaster and rebuilding.
Calmer winds enabled firefighters to start gaining some control of the biggest blazes in metropolitan LA on Friday before gusty weather returns over the weekend to an area that hasn’t seen rain in more than eight months.
Bridget Berg, who was at work when she saw on TV her house in Altadena erupt in flames, came back for the first time with her family two days later “just to make it real.”
Their feet crunched across the broken bits of what had been their home for 16 years.
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LA wildfires destroy numerous houses of worship. Clergy and congregants vow to persevere
Flames were already attacking the campus of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center when the cantor, Ruth Berman Harris, and three companions rushed in to rescue its sacred Torah scrolls.
Physically, that’s now all that is left of the 80-year-old synagogue, destroyed by wildfires that also destroyed a mosque, a Catholic parish and a half-dozen Protestant churches. Many members of these congregations were among the thousands of Angelenos who lost their homes this week. As the threat of new fires persisted, clergy were left with the huge challenges of offering comfort and pondering paths toward rebuilding and recovery.
“There’s absolutely nothing except for a few walls and the empty space,” said the Pasadena Jewish Center’s executive director, Melissa Levy.
Nevertheless, hundreds of its congregants have gone to the site “to say, ‘Goodbye’” to the places where they celebrated milestones in their faith and family lives, Levy added.
Berman Harris — along with her husband, another congregant and a custodian — managed to get the Torah scrolls into their cars and whisked away to safety before the synagogue was engulfed in flames Tuesday night.
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Trump gets no-penalty sentence in his hush money case, while calling it 'despicable'
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday to no punishment in his historic hush money case, a judgment that lets him return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.
With Trump appearing by video from his Florida estate, the sentence quietly capped an extraordinary case rife with moments unthinkable in the U.S. only a few years ago.
It was the first criminal prosecution and first conviction of a former U.S. president and major presidential candidate. The New York case became the only one of Trump's four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will. And the sentencing came 10 days before his inauguration for his second term.
In roughly six minutes of remarks to the court, a calm but insistent Trump called the case “a weaponization of government” and “an embarrassment to New York.” He maintained that he did not commit any crime.
"It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and, obviously, that didn’t work,” the Republican president-elect said by video, with U.S. flags in the background.
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Biden extends time in US for 800,000 Venezuelans, Salvadorans as Trump readies immigration crackdown
MIAMI (AP) — About 600,000 Venezuelans and more than 230,000 Salvadorans already living in the United States can legally remain another 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday, barely a week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office with promises of hardline immigration policies.
Biden’s administration has strongly supported Temporary Protected Status, which he has broadly expanded to cover about 1 million people. TPS faces an uncertain future under Trump, who tried to sharply curtail its use during his first term as president. Federal regulations would allow the extensions to be terminated early, although that’s never been done before.
Homeland Security also extended TPS for more than 103,000 Ukrainians and 1,900 Sudanese that are already living in the U.S.
For José Palma, a 48 year-old Salvadoran who has lived in the U.S. since 1998, the extension means that at least for now he can still work legally in Houston. He is the only person in his family with temporary status; his four children were born U.S. citizens and his wife is a permanent resident. If TPS was not extended he could be deported and separated from the rest of the family.
“It brings me peace of mind, a breath of fresh air,” Palma said. “It offers me stability”.
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Venezuela latest: Maduro sworn in for third term as global backlash and sanctions mount
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term Friday despite international condemnation of his recent reelection as illegitimate, as his administration grows increasingly brazen in cracking down on opponents.
The country's legislative palace, where he was sworn in, was heavily guarded by police, military and intelligence officers. Crowds of people, many sporting pro-Maduro T-shirts, gathered in adjacent streets and a nearby plaza.
Here's the latest:
U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision not to toughen sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector, saying he was worried it could have created an opening to be filled by Iranian oil.
Despite sanctioning a number of Maduro officials, the administration did not end a license it granted oil giant Chevron to export Venezuelan oil to the U.S. That license has significantly boosted oil production, and state coffers, as a result.
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Judge holds Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for continued lies about Georgia election workers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court Friday for the second time in a week, as a federal judge warned him he could be sent to jail if he doesn't stop spreading lies about two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgement against him.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found the former New York City mayor and onetime attorney for President-elect Donald Trump violated court orders barring him from defaming Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. The judge ordered him to review trial testimony and other materials from the case, and warned him that future violations could land him behind bars.
Moss and Freeman sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation for falsely accusing them of committing election fraud in connection with the 2020 election. His lies upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
Giuliani smiled and chuckled as the judge explained why she was holding him in contempt of court. Howell, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, said it is “outrageous and shameful” for Giuliani to suggest that he is the one who has been treated unfairly in this case.
“This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani,” she said.
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Biden levies new sanctions against Russian energy sector, but it's up to Trump whether to keep them
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration announced Friday that it's expanding sanctions against Russia's critically important energy sector, unveiling a new effort to inflict pain on Moscow for its grinding war in Ukraine as President-elect Donald Trump gets set to return to office vowing to quickly end the conflict.
The outgoing Democratic administration billed the new sanctions as the most significant to date against Moscow's oil and liquefied natural gas sectors, the driver of Russia's economy. Officials said the sanctions, which punish entities that do business with the Russians, have the potential to cost the Russian economy upward of billions of dollars per month.
More than 180 oil-carrying vessels that are suspected to be part of a shadow fleet utilized by the Kremlin to evade oil sanctions as well as traders, oil field service firms and Russian energy officials are also targeted by the new sanctions. Several of the vessels targeted are also suspected of shipping sanctioned Iranian oil, according to the Treasury Department.
“Putin is in tough shape right now, and I think it’s really important that he not have any breathing room to continue to do the god-awful things he continued to do,” Biden told reporters.
In the move coordinated with Washington, the U.K. also slapped sanctions on Russian energy firms. The U.S. and Britain are both targeting two of Russia’s major oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, and dozens of the companies’ subsidiaries.
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Prosecutors seek 15 years in prison for former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez after bribery conviction
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors say former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez should be imprisoned for 15 years for a “grave abuse of his power,” after the New Jersey Democrat became the first person to be convicted of abusing a Senate committee leadership position and the first U.S. public official to be convicted of serving as a foreign agent.
In papers filed late Thursday in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors called for the lengthy prison term for the 71-year-old Menendez when he is sentenced on Jan. 29.
Menendez was convicted in July of 16 corruption charges brought after an FBI raid on his home in 2022 turned up $150,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in cash, much of which prosecutors alleged was the result of bribes paid by three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator to use his power to protect their interests and make them money.
When he was charged in the fall of 2023, Menendez was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was forced out of that position that year and gave up his Senate seat last August.
In presentence arguments last week, defense lawyers called for Judge Sidney H. Stein to be lenient, saying Menendez's conviction had "rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit.”
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Powerful winter storm dumps heavy snow, causing flight delays, slick roads and school closings
ATLANTA (AP) — A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into Southern U.S. states Friday, making for dicey travel and a rare snow day for many students.
Arkansas and North Carolina mobilized their National Guards for tasks such as helping stranded motorists, as governors in multiple states declared states of emergency. School was canceled for millions of children from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina.
The storm piled up more than a year’s worth of snowfall on some Southern cities. As much as a foot (about 31 centimeters) fell in parts of Arkansas. There were reports of nearly 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) in Little Rock, a city that averages 3.8 inches (9.7 centimeters) a year.
More than 7 inches (about 18 centimeters) fell at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee since late Thursday. The city usually sees 2.7 inches (6.9 centimeters) a year. In some areas where snow tapered off, such as Memphis, the worry was that wet roads would freeze overnight.
Farther south and east into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, a wintry mix of sleet, snow and ice made travel treacherous. The sleet and snow that fell over parts of Atlanta into South Carolina and North Carolina was changing to freezing rain, and forecasters warned that if the ice accumulation gets heavy enough, power lines and trees could topple.
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Lamar Jackson repeats and Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson are unanimous choices for AP All-Pro
Lamar Jackson beat out Josh Allen, and Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson are unanimous choices for The Associated Press 2024 NFL All-Pro Team.
Saquon Barkley received 48 of 50 first-place votes and Patrick Surtain II got 49 from a nationwide panel of media members who regularly cover the league.
“Wow, that’s crazy. That’s respect right there. That’s love,” Jefferson said of his unanimous selection and second overall.
Jackson received 30 first-place votes to Allen’s 18, making the team for the second straight year and third overall. Peyton Manning (7) and Aaron Rodgers (4) are the only quarterbacks with more All-Pro nominations in the Super Bowl era than Jackson.
Linebacker Roquan Smith, slot cornerback Marlon Humphrey and fullback Patrick Ricard joined Jackson from the Ravens (12-5).
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