The number of missing people rises as the fires in Los Angeles continue
Firefighters made some progress Sunday in containing multiple wildfires across the city as more desert winds arrived. At least 16 people have died in the fires, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the number of missing was rising by the hour. Follow our live stream here.
Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, and the gusty winds that fueled the fires were expected to return after a possible break. Although crews were able to halt the momentum of the large Palisades Fire, the risk of wildfires in the region remained high. More than 100,000 residents were still ordered to evacuate.
The Eaton fire, which killed at least 11 people, is now among the fires the deadliest in California history. Search teams with cadaver dogs are scouring neighborhoods that have been leveled by the flames. Here’s what we know about fire victims.
Political criticism: California politicians face questions about their preparation. President-elect Donald Trump called state officials “incompetent” on his Truth Social page and renewed a long-running feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said that Trump is politicizing destruction.
A potential turning point in the Sudanese civil war
The Sudanese army this week recaptured the town of Wad Madani from the Rapid Support Force, or RSF, a paramilitary group that took over the town just over a year ago.
If the army manages to maintain control there, experts say, it would be the most significant victory since the beginning of the war almost two years ago and could reshape the battlefield. Gene. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the RSF, promised to take back the city soon.
Sudanese people took to the streets of Khartoum, the capital, to celebrate the victory as church bells rang in Port Sudan. They hoped the news could signal a turning point in a civil war that led to massacres, ethnic cleansing and widespread famine.
Related: Last week, the US found that the RSF committed genocide in Sudan.
Digital gambling is spreading in Brazil
The animal lottery, a gambling game, has been a daily occurrence for many Brazilians for decades and fueled bloody mob feuds. Digital gambling is, after all reshaping the way people bet and fighting organized crime.
Digital gambling, legalized in Brazil in 2018, has sparked a frenzy in the country and forced officials to decide how to regulate the industry. One frequent gambler, who grew up on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, estimates she lost roughly €78,000 over two years using a gambling app.
Digital alternatives now attract more than €22 billion in bets each year, 10 times the amount derived from the analogue game. Some of that money came from the animal lottery bosses themselves – who used legal betting sites to launder the proceeds.
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In Mozambique, a country known for its lush forests and emerald waters, Islamic State militants have been rampaging through a region the size of Austria for more than seven years. The government has said the crisis has stabilized, but residents, many of whom bear physical and psychological scars, say otherwise. Nearly 6,000 people were killed and up to half of the 2.3 million people in Cabo Delgado province were displaced.
Our colleagues traveled to the country in October to interview and photograph residents trying to find a sense of normalcy and deal with the conflict. Read what they learned here.
Lived lives: Mauro Morandi, known as the Italian Robinson Crusoe because he lived alone on a Mediterranean island for 32 years, died at 85.
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Ham politics
When a priest in St.-Flour, France struggled to raise funds to restore his cathedral’s antique organ, he came up with a new solution. He turned one of the bell towers into a drying room, where farmers could hang their hams to dry for almost two years. (After the meat has been blessed by the local bishop, of course.)
But an architectural heritage inspector who prefers bureaucracy to red meat stepped in and ordered the prosciutto removed after finding violations such as a grease stain on the floor.
The cathedral refused, and the dispute escalated to the table of the French Minister of Culture. The problem seemed hyper-local, but it raised a broader issue facing the nation: Who will pay for the maintenance of the vast religious heritage of the country?
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