Category: National

(LOS ANGELES) — California has just experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons in years, despite the Golden State’s ample resources to combat the blazes once they spark.

The Palisades and Eaton fires, while both mostly contained as of Wednesday, are still active in Los Angeles County after starting on Jan. 7 and burning through tens of thousands of acres and killing at least two dozen people — and new fires have popped up as the region’s landscape remains dry and filled with fuel.

California is the best-equipped state in the country to combat wildfires, experts told ABC News. But even with the availability of personnel, equipment and the most advanced technology, other factors — some exacerbated by climate change — often make it impossible to contain fires before they cause widespread destruction.

Firefighting resources in California are abundant

The state often experiences the most fire activity in the U.S., leading the country with the most wildfires and the most acres burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) says it responds to an average of 7,500 wildfire incidents annually.

But California contains a “spider web” of different fire control, fire management and fire agencies that all come together to combat large wildfires, like the fires that decimated large portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties in recent weeks, Hugh Safford, a research fire ecologist at the University of California, Davis, told ABC News.

These agencies include local fire departments run by municipalities, which contain firefighters trained not only in urban, or structural, fires but wildland fires, as well. Combined with state and federal efforts — which include Cal Fire, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service — California contains not only the most firefighters in the country but also the most highly trained, Safford said.

“The Forest Service has, by far, the largest firefighting organization of all of those, because it manages most of the nation’s forests,” Safford said. “It deals with most of the areas in which fire risk to ecosystems and to humans is most extreme.”

Considering the wildfire risk to human lives, property and wildlands, California has a vast budget for fighting wildfires. Cal Fire was given a $4 billion budget for the 2025 to 2026 season, and operating budgets are always subject to increase in the event of a big fire year, Safford said. Of the Forest Service’s $3 billion annual fire suppression budget, most of it is spent in California, he added.

That budget allows for the best equipment, such as helicopters and other machinery, to be implemented during firefighting efforts, Safford said. With Silicon Valley in proximity, the latest technologies in firefighting are also readily available, he added.

“A lot of that new technology is being tested and used here to begin with,” Safford said.

Despite ample resources, putting out fires can still be difficult, experts say

Wildfires have been getting bigger and more extreme in the last several decades, research shows. The frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires have more than doubled in the last two decades, a study published last year in Nature Ecology & Evolution found. A climate that has caused warming and drying in regions already prone to wildfires is partly to blame.

In California, annual wildfires are burning five times more land than in the 1970s, according to a 2019 study published in Advancing Earth and Space Sciences.

“Climate change has made California hotter and drier,” said Emily Fischer, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University and a member of Science Moms, a nonpartisan group of climate scientists and mothers that says it aims to build a better future for kids. “That just makes it easier for fires to start and spread, and that means a larger area is burning every year,” she said.

While wildfires are a natural and necessary part of Earth’s cycle, climate change and other more direct human influences have increased their likelihood. Firefighters are battling blazes that could now be considered “unnatural” due to their severity, making them harder to contain before they cause widespread damage.

Safford, who used to work for the U.S. Forest Service, said he’s witnessed the rise in wildfires firsthand, in terms of cost. In the year 2000, fire suppression accounted for about 20% of the Forest Service’s annual budget, he said. Now, firefighting is taking up about 70% of the agency’s budget, he said.

That increase in fire suppression needs has taken away from the Forest Service’s other responsibilities, such as restoration, recreation, conservation and law enforcement, Safford said.

“We’re burning communities and forests down at a scary rate these days,” he said.

In the case of the Los Angeles wildfires, their inception was caused by a perfect storm of weather and climate conditions — including a Santa Ana wind event that brought hurricane-force winds to the region, as well as plentiful fuel left from two consecutive wet winters followed by months of drought conditions.

The co-occurrence of these events could potentially take place more frequently in the future, further increasing the risk of fires in California, Lei Zhao, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois, told ABC News.

“Climate change trends, the extremes and climate variability contribute to this situation,” Zhao said. “All those things are likely to be exacerbated in the future.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Top white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell will represent President Donald Trump as he appeals his criminal hush money conviction in New York, according to court filings Wednesday.

The new attorneys filed a notice of appeal Wednesday, signaling their intention to appeal Trump’s conviction to New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.

Among Trump’s new lawyers is firm co-chair Robert J. Giuffra.

“President Donald J. Trump’s appeal is important for the rule of law, New York’s reputation as a global business, financial and legal center, as well as for the presidency and all public officials,” Giuffra said in a statement. “The misuse of the criminal law by the Manhattan DA to target President Trump sets a dangerous precedent, and we look forward to the case being dismissed on appeal.”

The change in attorneys followed Trump’s naming of his former lead attorneys, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Sauer, to top roles in the Justice Department.

Blanche has been nominated for deputy attorney general, Sauer as solicitor general, and Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.

Sauer led Trump’s successful appeals, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, that led to the dismissals of federal prosecutions in Trump’s Jan. 6 and classified documents cases.

Blanche and Bove led the defense team at Trump’s criminal trial in New York that ended in Trump’s conviction last May on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, sentenced Trump prior to his inauguration to an unconditional discharge, sparing Trump any prison time, fines or probation.

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(SAN DIEGO) — Even as the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented migrants was unfolding, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it had intercepted a boat packed with migrants off the California coast.

A 40-foot panga-style boat attempting to smuggle migrants into the United States was stopped by two Coast Guard cutter crews Monday night about 20 miles off the coast of San Diego, the Coast Guard said in a statement released on Tuesday.

“The boarding teams discovered 21 individuals aboard the panga. Initial interviews revealed that all individuals claimed Mexican nationality, although subsequent checks identified two passengers as Guatemalan and Salvadoran nationals,” Coast Guard officials said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents alerted the Coast Guard at about 10:45 p.m. local time on Monday that a boat was detected, prompting the Coast Guard to launch two cutters to find the vessel, authorities said.

The human smuggling boat was intercepted while it was traveling north about 40 miles south of the maritime boundary line, according to the Coast Guard.

The individuals aboard the boat were brought to shore and turned over to the custody of Border Patrol agents, according to the Coast Guard.

“These operations highlight the coordinated efforts between agencies to secure our maritime borders,” the Coast Guard said in its statement.

The Coast Guard reported a 400% increase in smuggling cases along the San Diego coast since 2018, including almost 150 cases in the last three months.

Monday’s incident came amid a massive nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants ordered by President Donald Trump.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have rounded up thousands of migrants this week in raids across the nation, including in New York City, Chicago and Miami. In one New York City raid, ICE agents arrested a 25-year-old purported Venezuelan gang member wanted in connection with a home invasion and kidnapping in Aurora, Colorado, officials said.

The White House said it is targeting migrants accused of violent crimes. But when asked by ABC News at a press briefing Tuesday to clarify how many of the migrants detained in the sweeps had criminal records as opposed to those who were only in the country illegally, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded, “All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws and therefore they are criminals.”

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed the raids during a news conference this week, saying, “My understanding is they had specific names of people who have committed crimes, serious offenders. And those are exactly the people that we want removed from the state of New York.”

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(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein begged a Manhattan judge on Wednesday to put him on trial earlier than planned, saying he isn’t sure he will live until the spring while incarcerated in the “hell hole” that is the New York City jail complex.

“Every day I’m at Rikers Island it’s a mystery to me how I’m still walking,” Weinstein told the court while seated in a wheelchair. “I’m asking and begging you, your honor, I can’t hold on anymore. I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with.”

Weinstein is scheduled to stand trial April 15. Judge Curtis Farber said he could not push it earlier because he is scheduled to preside over a murder trial that is “set in stone.”

Even so, Weinstein persisted.

“I beg you to switch your case and do so out of clemency,” Weinstein said. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”

He complained that the conditions he faces in jail are complicating his medical issues, calling Rikers Island “a medieval situation.”

Weinstein — who has cancer and underwent emergency heart surgery in September — is suing New York City and its Department of Correction, alleging “medical negligence.”

“I’m begging the court to move your date so we can have that date instead and proceed with this trial as quickly as we can and get out of this hell hole,” Weinstein said Wednesday.

The disgraced film producer asked to start the trial even a bit earlier, April 7, because, he said, “every week counts.”

Farber said he would consider the request.

“If the lawyers report to me they can do it sooner then I’ll make myself available,” Farber said.

On Wednesday, Farber denied Weinstein’s bid to dismiss a new sexual assault charge from a woman who alleged Weinstein forced oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in 2006. Weinstein argued that prosecutors unduly delayed charging him.

“The application to dismiss denied,” Farber said. “The court has inspected the grand jury minutes and found them to be sufficient.”

Weinstein will stand trial on the new sexual assault charge at the same time he is retried on two other sexual assault charges after an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal.

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(WASHINGTON) — Officials in the Trump Justice Department have ordered a temporary freeze on any ongoing cases being litigated by the Civil Rights Division, according to a new directive reviewed by ABC News.

The memo to the current acting head of the Civil Rights Division, Kathleen Wolfe, says that current career officials in the division must not file any new civil complaints or other civil rights-related filings in outside ongoing litigation. The memo was first reported by The Washington Post.

Wolfe was separately directed to notify Trump-appointed department leaders of any consent decrees — court-enforceable agreements to reform police agencies — the Biden administration reached with cities in the final 90 days leading up to the inauguration.

The Biden administration finalized consent decrees with officials in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis during the former president’s final weeks in office.

The consent decrees involve two high-profile police-involved killings. In Louisville, Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in a botched police raid in 2020. In Minneapolis, George Floyd was killed while being taken into police custody on Memorial Day 2020.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump represents the Taylor and Floyd families in their civil lawsuits. He spoke with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on Tuesday to offer his thoughts on the move by the Trump administration regarding civil rights investigations and consent decrees.

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.

ABC NEWS: Just days ago, Trump officials paused all Department of Justice civil rights investigations and froze court-ordered police reforms. For a look at what that means for ongoing and potential future cases, civil rights attorney Ben Crump joins us now.

Thank you so much, Mr. Crump, for joining us. Just want to start with your reaction to this pause on, on civil rights investigations.

BEN CRUMP: This is very disturbing. Talking with Breonna Taylor’s mother, who was still waiting the prosecution of the officers that were involved in the killing of her daughter, who was in her own apartment. They lied on the probable cause affidavit to get a no knock warrant to go into the apartment in the first place. She’s devastated, but we know that we’re not giving up.

We’re going to be strategic in talking with the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, who entered into the consent agreement, to say that “Hopefully you won’t condone what happened to Breonna,” just like we’re talking to the mayor of Minneapolis saying, “Do you condone what happened on that video when they kept a knee on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds?”

Because the families see this freezing of the DOJ’s prosecutions as condoning these criminal actions. And we call them criminal because officers have been convicted for those crimes.

ABC NEWS: You mentioned both those families. Have you heard from them, how they’re reacting to this?

CRUMP: Well, you know, as I said, Breonna’s mother is very heartbroken, Linsey. Very heartbroken. She’s fought so hard to get whatever measure of justice and accountability she could. Her daughter had her body mutilated with eight bullet holes. And she doesn’t believe that the Department of Justice would stop the consent decree that was agreed to by the city in the aftermath of her daughter’s death.

She is just shocked that they would do this, just like George Floyd’s family is shocked. When you look at that video, how could you say that you want to halt the prosecution of all the agreements that were made by those cities and their police departments to try to prevent this from ever happening again?

ABC NEWS: As you know, the Justice Department recently reached an agreement with the city of Louisville to reform the city’s police department. It’s one of several such consent decrees reached in the final days of the Biden administration. What happens to those agreements now?

CRUMP: Well, the cities have a say so in it. Obviously, we have been told that the Department of Justice isn’t going to do anything to go forward with those consent decrees. And it’s very troubling because we think this and many of the things that this administration have done in just its first week is going to test the elasticity of the constitutional protections that many Americans enjoy.

And that is what’s so heartbreaking about all of these matters. We fight so hard for people, all America, to be able to get the constitutional protections that were promised to them as an American citizen. And so the question, Linsey [is]: What will happen to the Constitution during these perilous times when, as it relates to all of us, especially the least of us?

ABC NEWS: All right, Ben Crump. So appreciate you, civil rights attorney, for your time and insight. Thank you.

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(NEW YORK) — Last year, 2024, was the warmest year on record for the planet, easily breaking the previous record set just a year earlier.

Scientists say the unfolding El Niño event superimposed on long-term global warming is a primary driver of this huge spike in global surface temperatures since mid-2023. But the magnitude of the increase shocked many experts, leaving them somewhat puzzled about what else could be behind the remarkable temperature.

NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem), is expected to provide new data to help scientists understand how changing levels of different atmospheric aerosols impact Earth’s energy balance.

New research published in Environmental Research Letters investigated some of the factors contributing to the spike in global temperature. Researchers focused specifically on the things that impact the amount of energy entering and leaving the Earth, known as the planet’s energy balance.

Their findings show that atmospheric aerosol levels could be partly to blame for an energy imbalance that’s causing our accelerating warming rate.

This new data joins a growing list of research that points to atmospheric aerosols as a potentially significant contributor to our record-breaking surface temperatures. It also underscores the importance of better understanding how various atmospheric aerosols behave and interact with each other.

Atmospheric aerosols are tiny particles that can reflect sunlight back into space and reduce global temperatures. However, their concentrations have greatly diminished due to international efforts to reduce air pollution in recent decades. Now, more sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface, creating a heating effect.

For decades, we’ve been removing aerosols from our air without fully realizing the potential cascading effects of these actions.

To help solve this puzzle, climate scientists are eagerly awaiting the first batch of operational data from NASA’s PACE, launched nearly a year ago.

According to NASA, the PACE satellite can map atmospheric aerosols and differentiate how they absorb light and heat, characterizing them as “light” or “dark” in nature. Climate scientists say this will help them understand how changing levels of different atmospheric aerosols impact the planet’s energy balance and global temperature trends.

While satellite data has been publicly available since April, the satellite isn’t fully operational yet, according to NASA. That’s because the data is still undergoing verification and quality control, deeming it unusable in climate models and academic research. However, that will likely change later this year, as the data is currently undergoing its final validation stage.

ABC News’ Matthew Glasser contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice, now under new leadership following Donald Trump’s inauguration, has moved to drop its appeal of the classified documents case that once accused Trump of mishandling some of the country’s most sensitive secrets.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Hayden O’Bryne on Wednesday moved to dismiss the appeal against Trump’s former co-defendants in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Trump pleaded not guilty in 2023 to 40 criminal counts — including violations of nine separate federal laws — for allegedly holding on to classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and thwarting investigators’ efforts to retrieve the documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Along with longtime aide Walt Nauta and staffer Carlos De Oliveira, Trump pleaded not guilty in a superseding indictment to allegedly attempting to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage.

In July, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — who Trump appointed to the bench — dismissed the indictments, deeming that special counsel Jack Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed.

While Smith appealed Cannon’s decision, he was forced to drop the appeal against Trump after Trump won the November election, due to a longstanding policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. However, Smith continued to pursue the appeal against Nauta and De Oliveira prior his resignation earlier this month.

The DOJ’s motion to drop the appeal signals an end to its prosecution of Nauta and De Oliveira.

Cannon on Tuesday cited the DOJ’s ongoing appeal against Nauta and De Oliveira in her decision to block the release of Smith’s final report on the case to select members of Congress.

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(NEW YORK) — Private prison company CoreCivic reported in a lobbying disclosure that it donated $500,000 to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee in December, underscoring the close relationship between President Donald Trump and the private prison industry.

As ABC News has previously reported, CoreCivic and private prison company GEO Group, both which have both long supported Trump, saw their stock prices immediately spike after Trump’s victory in the November election.

The industry is expected to grow under Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

On his first day back in the White House, Trump reversed former President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order that eliminated DOJ contracts with private prisons.

Both CoreCivic and the GEO Group donated to Trump’s first inaugural committee in 2016, with a subsidiarity of each company donating $250,000, according to past inaugural disclosures.

Several top executives at CoreCivic and GEO Group have also been longtime Republican and Trump donors, Federal Election Commission records show.

Representatives for CoreCivic did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Among other Trump-Vance inaugural committee contributions disclosed in new filings, the Florida-based HVAC company Carrier Global Corporation donated $1 million in what records suggest is the company’s first major political contribution.

Chemical company Syngenta Corporation, now owned by China National Chemical Corporation — known as ChemChina — gave $250,000 to the committee in what was its first inaugural donation in recent years.

The Coca-Cola Company gave $250,000, after giving to both the Biden inaugural committee and Trump’s first inaugural committee, and identify verification company Socure gave $100,000.

Overall contributions to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee set an inauguration record by surpassing the committee’s $150 million goal, boosted by $1 million donations from several major tech firms including Meta and Amazon.

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(NEW YORK) — A storm is bearing down on the southern Plains and Texas, where residents are bracing for severe weather, including flash flooding.

On Wednesday evening, when the storm moves in, there’s a chance for damaging winds, hail and even an isolated tornado in Texas.

On Thursday, the storm will fully blossom in the South, bringing the threat of tornadoes and damaging winds from Houston to Jackson, Mississippi.

Flash flooding could be an issue from Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Paducah, Kentucky.

A flood watch has been issued for three states — Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri — where some areas could see up to 5 inches of rain from Wednesday night to Thursday night.

The same storm system will move into the Northeast on Friday, bringing rain to the Interstate 95 corridor and the potential for ice and snow to higher elevations in Pennsylvania, New York and New England.

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(PHILADELPHIA) — An 18-year-old man who was celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles victory over the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game on Sunday has died after he fell from a light pole during the celebrations, officials said.

Temple University announced the death of first-year student Tyler Sabapathy, 18, who sustained critical injuries over the weekend and died on Tuesday.

The tragedy happened Sunday night at 15th and Market streets in Center City Philadelphia where video shows the teen above on the street pole before he fell onto the concrete sidewalk flat on his back, hitting his head, according to ABC News’ Philadelphia station WPVI.

He was taken to Jefferson Hospital with a brain injury and pronounced dead two days later.

Sabapathy was a Toronto native and accomplished gymnast with over 120 medals, was majoring in exercise and sport science at Temple’s College of Public Health, school administrators said. He was also a dedicated member of the university’s club gymnastics team.

“It is with deep sadness that we write to share news of the death of first-year student Tyler Sabapathy. Over the weekend, Tyler sustained critical injuries and ultimately passed away this afternoon,” said John Fry, Temple’s president, and Jodi Bailey, vice president for student affairs, in a statement obtained by ABC News.

“The loss of a promising 18-year-old man like Tyler is both tragic and traumatic. There are no words that can make sense of it, and the entire Temple community mourns his passing. Our hearts go out to Tyler’s family, friends, classmates and all who knew and loved him,” the statement continued.

“He no doubt had a bright future ahead of him, and it is so tragic that we will not be able to see how he would have made his mark on the world,” school administrators said. “As a member of the university’s club gymnastics team, Tyler displayed exceptional self-discipline and work ethic, spending countless hours a week training and honing his craft. He was loved by his teammates, friends and coaches here in Philadelphia.”

Philadelphia police had an internal briefing on Tuesday to review Sunday’s response and discuss what strategies they will use during the next possible celebration, which could be in just two weeks, according to WPVI.

City officials did not say if they greased the poles on Sunday, adding that they don’t want to release public safety tactics, WPVI said.

Meanwhile, Temple University said grief counselors will be available for students and staff.

“We extend our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to those closest to Tyler, especially his parents and siblings,” school officials said. “He will be deeply missed.”

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