5 things to know for Jan. 9: Los Angeles wildfires, Carter funeral, Presidential immunity, School safety, Winter virus season
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Wind-driven wildfires are pushing through Los Angeles County, forcing residents to flee their homes by the tens of thousands. Learn how you can help the evacuees and firefighters impacted by this unprecedented disaster. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. At least five people have died as several major fires in Los Angeles County remain mostly uncontained. The seaside neighborhood of Pacific Palisades has been devastated, with many residents and reporters describing the area as “apocalyptic” and a “ghost town.” Officials say the Palisades Fire has exploded to more than 17,200 acres with zero containment. It has destroyed at least 1,000 structures, making it the most destructive ever in Los Angeles County. The other massive blaze, the Eaton Fire, is overtaking homes across Altadena and has ballooned to more than 10,000 acres. With wind speeds easing, crews say that air tanker planes will be better able to drop water and fire retardants today to hopefully contain the fires and protect property. Former President Jimmy Carter will be honored today in Washington, DC, at his official state funeral. Carter, the 39th president of the US, died at age 100 on December 29. President Joe Biden declared January 9 as a national day of mourning in an executive order and is expected to deliver a eulogy. President-elect Donald Trump told reporters that he plans to attend the service. Many businesses will be operating as usual but the US Postal Service will suspend regular operations. All federal departments and agencies will also be closed. As for the stock market, the New York Stock Exchange will not trade and the Nasdaq will close all of its equities and options markets. Donald Trump on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to pause his sentencing in the hush money case set for Friday, a highly unusual request that relies in part on the court’s decision last year to grant him broad immunity from criminal prosecution. Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records over payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse a $130,000 hush money payment made to an adult film star to keep her from speaking out about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affair. Trump’s request to the Supreme Court is unusual because his criminal case isn’t fully resolved by New York courts. A New York appeals court judge recently rejected Trump’s demands to stop the Friday sentencing. A 14-year-old student has been arrested after bringing a gun on Wednesday to Apalachee High School, the same Georgia high school where a shooting in September killed two teachers and two students and wounded others. The student was taken to a juvenile detention facility and charged with two counts of possessing a weapon on school grounds, theft and being a minor in possession of a gun. Wednesday’s arrest comes as students, teachers and parents across the US have urged local officials to enhance security on school campuses. More than 80 school shootings took place in 2024, surpassing 2023 for the most school shootings in a single year since CNN began tracking such incidents in 2008.
When Altagracia left Honduras to embark on the months-long journey to the US-Mexico border, she had two clear goals on her mind: reach the United States to claim asylum and reunite with her children living there.
Acrid smoke shrouded the sky in Altadena, California, as Gail watched flames from the raging Eaton Fire swallow her next-door neighbor’s house.
The Biden administration has announced the final tranche of military aid it will send to Ukraine, amounting to about $500 million.
Not a lot of men get to see what their own funerals are going to look like.
An alleged leader from Japan’s Yakuza crime syndicate has pleaded guilty to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar as part of a global web of trades in drugs, weapons and laundered cash, according to the US Department of Justice.
“If you need one word to describe Venezuela these days, it would be fearful.” That’s what one Latin American diplomat told CNN this week, reflecting on the strange atmosphere in the country.
President Joe Biden will no longer travel to Rome, Italy, the White House announced Wednesday, canceling a scheduled trip in the final days of his presidency to monitor raging wildfires across the Los Angeles, California, area.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump by phone this week in support of a former law clerk who is seeking a job in the incoming administration – but the justice said he did not discuss Trump’s pending effort to delay his sentencing.
The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.
A series of life-threatening fires, the largest of which is in the Pacific Palisades, are destroying homes as they race across Los Angeles County and surrounding areas. CNN is tracking the fires in maps and charts.
When President-elect Donald Trump mused about buying Greenland from Denmark during his first administration, the Danish prime minister called the idea “absurd” and rebuffed him outright.