Donald Trump said Greenland was "critical" for the US's national and economic security (file photo)
France has said the European Union will not allow other nations to attack its "sovereign borders", after US President-Elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland.
On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his desire to acquire the autonomous Danish territory, saying it was "critical" for national and economic security.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio "there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are".
Barrot said he did not believe the US was going to invade the vast Arctic island, but he was clear the EU should not let itself be intimidated.
Denmark, a long-time US ally, has repeatedly made clear that Greenland is not for sale and that it belongs to its inhabitants.
Greenland's prime minister, Mute Egede, is pushing for independence and has also made clear the territory is not for sale. He was visiting Copenhagen on Wednesday.
Trump made the remarks at a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, less than two weeks before he is sworn in for his second term as president.
Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump said: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two.
"But I can say this, we need them for economic security."
Greenland has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and has long been strategically important for Washington.
Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are "all over the place".
"I'm talking about protecting the free world," he told reporters.
Speaking to France Inter radio, Barrot said: "If you're asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no.
"Have we entered into an era that sees the return of the survival of the fittest? Then the answer is yes.
"So, should we allow ourselves to be intimidated and overcome with worry, clearly not. We must wake up, build up our strength."
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV on Tuesday that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders" and that only the local population could determine its future.
However, she stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US, a Nato ally.
Donald Trump JR visited Greenland on Tuesday in what he called a "personal day trip"
Greenland, which is the largest island in the world but has a population of just 57,000, has wide-ranging autonomy, although its economy is largely dependent on subsidies from Copenhagen and it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.
It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.
Danish Broadcasting Corporation senior international correspondent Steffen Kretz, who has been reporting in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, said most of the people he had spoken to were "shocked" by Trump's suggestion he could use military force to take control of the territory.
While a majority of people in Greenland hoped for independence in the future, he said there was widespread acknowledgment that it needed a partner who could provide public services, defence and an economic foundation, as Denmark did now.
"I have yet to meet a person in Greenland who is dreaming of the island becoming a colony for another outside power like the USA."
Kretz told the BBC that while the Danish government had sought to "downplay" any confrontation with Trump, "behind the scenes I sense the awareness that this conflict has the potential to be the biggest international crisis for Denmark in modern history".
The president-elect's son, Donald Trump Jr, paid a brief visit to Greenland on Tuesday, in what he described as a "personal day trip" to talk to people.
He then posted a photo with a group of Greenlanders in a bar wearing pro-Trump caps.
Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration via Reuters
Ukrainian officials described the attack as "cruel" and "cynical"
At least 13 people have been killed and another 18 injured in Russian shelling in Ukraine's southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local officials say.
"The Russians cynically attacked the city in the middle of the day," regional head Ivan Fedorov said, adding that two guided aerial bombs hit residential buildings.
Footage has emerged showing one high-rise building ablaze, and a number of vehicles on fire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies to put pressure on Russia "for its terror". The Russian military has not commented. President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In a video message from outside the bombed site, Fedorov said the Russian shelling began at about 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
He said that two guided bombs struck residential buildings. Earlier he had said "industrial infrastructure" had been targeted.
Graphic images posted online showed first responders treating casualties on the roadside, several vehicles on fire and a stationary tram with its windows shattered.
In one video, at least two minibuses are seen with their windows blown out and what appear to be casualties lying amid rubble and debris on the road.
Zaporizhzhia lies close to the front line.
In a statement later on Wednesday, President Zelensky said that "there is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer".
And appealing to Ukraine's allies for more support, he said "that only through strength can such a war be ended with a lasting peace".
A day of mourning will be declared across the Zaporizhzhia region on Thursday.
Yousef Zyadna was abducted by Hamas gunmen along with three of his children, two of whom have been released
The Israeli military says its troops have found the body of a Bedouin Arab hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as evidence that suggests another may also be dead.
The body of Yousef Zyadna, 53, was recovered from an underground tunnel in the southern Rafah area on Tuesday.
The troops also made what the military described as "findings... which raise serious concerns" for the life of his son, Hamza, 22, who was also abducted by Hamas gunmen during the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Two of Hamza's siblings, Aisha and Bilal, were seized alongside them near the Israel-Gaza perimeter fence that day. But they were among 105 hostages released during a week-long ceasefire that November.
The news about Yousef Zyadna came shortly before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators were "very close" to brokering a new ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.
"I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have," he said, referring to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on 20 January.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel says 95 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead.
More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza during the 15-month war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Journalist Cecilia Sala was detained in Iran on 19 December
An Italian journalist detained in Iran last month has been freed and is on a flight back to Rome, the Italian government says.
Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on 19 December, three days after an Iranian engineer was detained by Italian authorities in Milan on suspicion of supplying drone technology that led to the deaths of US soldiers.
Reports said she had been held in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
It is unclear what led to Sala's release, however the news was broken by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's officials who cited "intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels".
In the Italian statement, Meloni thanked "all those who contributed to to making Cecilia's return possible".
She had personally told Sala's parents of her release, it added. Sala's plane had already left Tehran and was due to arrive in Rome at 15:30 (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday, according to Ansa news agency.
Her partner, fellow journalist Daniele Raineri, told Ansa: "I spoke to her and she told me 'I'll see you soon', she was emotional and overjoyed."
Cecilia Sala's detention in prison in Tehran outraged Italians and has dominated headlines since her employer, podcast company Chora Media, broke the news of her arrest on 27 December.
Meloni is understood to have taken personal charge of her case and met US president-elect Donald Trump at the weekend, when the journalist's detention is thought to have been discussed.
Outgoing president Joe Biden is due to visit Rome later this week.
Iran said initially it had detained Sala for "violation of the Islamic Republic's laws", however US state department officials said it could be linked to the arrest of Iranian national Mohammad Abedini at Malpensa airport in Milan on 16 December.
He was arrested on a US warrant and one official told Italian media that Sala was being used as "political leverage".
Mohammad Abedini is due to go before a court in Milan on 15 January, and Tehran has in recent days played down any connection between the two cases.
The head of Italy's foreign intelligence service, Giovanni Caravelli, is said to have travelled to Tehran personally to bring Sala back to Italy.
Her father Renato Sala told Ansa news agency he was proud of her and praised the government for an "exceptional job".
He said he had had the impression that the situation had turned into a "game of chess, but with more than two players".
The sanctions imposed on Antal Rogan come in the final days of the US Biden administration
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on Antal Rogan, one of the most powerful men in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz government and the minister in charge of his cabinet office.
It is a rare move between Nato allies, and symbolic of the depth to which US-Hungarian relations have sunk since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago.
"Antal Rogan is a primary architect, implementer and beneficiary of this system of corruption," read the statement, made by outgoing US Ambassador David Pressman.
Pressman leaves Budapest next week, after two and a half years spent as an unusually active diplomat, travelling the country and frequently criticising the Orban government.
His departure comes days ahead of Donald Trump's return to the White House, and the president-elect has a far more positive view of Viktor Orban than the Biden administration, seeing him as a close political ally.
"While Minister Rogan's media megaphones will try to make this a story about partisan politics or an affront to sovereignty, today's decision is actually the reverse," Pressman told reporters in Budapest on Tuesday.
"It is not the United States that threatens Hungary's sovereignty, but rather the kleptocratic ecosystem Minister Rogan has helped to build and direct and that he has benefited from personally."
The ambassador's statement was immediately attacked by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
"This is the personal revenge of the ambassador who was sent to Hungary by the failed US administration, but left without success and in disgrace," Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.
"How good it is that in a few days' time the United States will be led by people who see our country as a friend and not as an enemy."
A former US ambassador to Hungary, David Cornstein, also came to Rogan's defence: "The move by outgoing ambassador David Pressman is an example of the current US administration's hostile stance towards Hungary, right down to the last hour."
The question for the incoming Trump presidency, and its chosen ambassador to Budapest, Matt Whitaker, is whether they will immediately overturn the sanctions against Antal Rogan.
The answer is not as obvious as might appear.
Rogan also oversees the domestic secret services, and there have been indications from several Nato countries that Hungary is no longer trusted with sensitive information because of the Orban government's close relations with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
And for all the expressions of outrage at the decision to impose sanctions on Orban's head of cabinet, several senior figures in the Fidesz establishment have long been privately upset by the lifestyle of Rogan and others, by the power he wields, and the distance from the conservative and Christian values that the party proclaims so loudly.
High winds and lack of rain are the main factors driving the Southern California fires, but climate change is altering the background conditions, increasing the likelihood of these conflagrations, say experts.
Researchers have shown that a warming world increases the number of "fire weather" days, when conditions are more suited to outbreaks of fire.
California is particularly vulnerable right now because of a lack of rain in recent months, following a very warm summer.
The powerful Santa Ana winds that naturally occur at this time of year, combined with the dry conditions, can result in fast moving and dangerous fire outbreaks.
Reaching 60-70 mph, these strong, dry winds blow from the interior of Southern California towards the coast and this month has seen the worst high wind event in the area in over a decade.
The winds are drying out the lands, and researchers say that while the strongest winds will occur at the start of this outbreak, the driest vegetation will come at the end, meaning these fires could drag on for quite some time.
The high wind speeds are also altering the location of the fires. Many outbreaks occur high up on mountains, but these recent fires have rapidly moved down into the valleys and into areas where more people live.
"That's where there are more potential ignition sources," said climate researcher Daniel Swain from UCLA in a social media post.
"It's also where it's harder to turn off the power pre-emptively than it is in other locations where these public safety power shut offs are more common and are prepped for at a more regular basis. So there's going to be some potential challenges there."
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The impact of a changing climate is evident in the bigger picture for the state.
California has experienced a decades-long drought that ended just two years ago. The resulting wet conditions since then have seen the rapid growth of shrubs and trees, the perfect fuel for fires.
However last summer was very hot and was followed by dry autumn and winter season - downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches of rain since October, more than 4 inches below average.
Researchers believe that a warming world is increasing the conditions that are conducive to wildland fire, including low relative humidity.
These "fire weather" days are increasing in many parts of the world, with climate change making these conditions more severe and the fire season lasting longer in many parts of the world, scientists have shown.
In California, the situation has been made worse by the topography with fires burning more intensely and moving more rapidly in steep terrain. This area of California is also dominated by naturally very fire-prone shrub vegetation.
"While fires are common and natural in this region, California has seen some of the most significant increases in the length and extremity of the fire weather season globally in recent decades, driven largely climate change," said Professor Stefan Doerr, Director of the Centre for Wildfire Research, at Swansea University.
"That said, it is too early to say to what degree climate change has made these specific fires more extreme. This will need to be evaluated in a more detailed attribution analysis."
An aircraft carrying President-elect Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Junior, arrives in Nuuk, Greenland on 7 January 2025
US President-elect Donald Trump has repeated his intention to take control of Greenland, the Arctic territory controlled by Denmark.
Why is Trump talking about this - and why now?
Where is Greenland?
Greenland, the world's largest island, is located in the Arctic.
It is the world's most sparsely populated territory. About 56,000 people live there, mostly indigenous Inuit people.
About 80% of its territory is covered by ice, meaning most people live on the south-western coast around the capital, Nuuk.
An autonomous territory of Denmark, it is also home to Danish and US military bases.
The economy is mainly based on fishing. Large subsidies from the Danish government account for about a fifth of GDP.
In recent years, there has been increased interest in Greenland's natural resources, including mining for rare earth minerals, uranium and iron. These may become more accessible as global warming leads to some of the ice covering Greenland to melt.
What is Greenland's status?
Located geographically within North America, Greenland has been controlled by Denmark – nearly 3,000km (1,860 miles) away – for about 300 years.
The island was governed as a colony until the mid-20th Century. For much of this time, it remained isolated and poor.
In 1953, it was made part of the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenlanders became Danish citizens.
In 1979, a referendum on home rule gave Greenland control of most policies within the territory, with Denmark retaining control over foreign affairs and defence.
Why does Greenland matter to the US?
The US has long maintained a security interest in Greenland. After Nazi Germany occupied mainland Denmark during World War II, the US invaded Greenland, establishing military and radio stations across the territory.
After the war, US forces remained in Greenland. Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, has been operated by the US ever since.
In 1951, a defence agreement with Denmark granted the US a significant role in the defence of the territory, including the right to build and maintain military bases.
"If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland," said Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College.
"That's why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the US."
Trump is also likely interested in the mining potential across Greenland's vast landmass, Mr Jacobsen added.
"Today, of special interest are the rare earth minerals, which have not yet been mined but are in the southern part of Greenland. These are immensely important in all kinds of technologies, from cell phones to wind turbines."
Does the US want full control of Greenland?
Trump has claimed that control of Greenland is essential to US national and economic security.
Though the president-elect's rhetoric may seen unusual, for over a century a succession of US presidents have tried to gain control of Greenland.
"The US has tried a few times to push the Danes out of Greenland and take it over as part of the US, or at least to have full security tutelage of Greenland," said Lukas Wahden, the author of 66° North, a newsletter on Arctic security.
In 1867, after buying Alaska from Russia, US Secretary of State William H Seward led negotiations to buy Greenland from Denmark, but failed to reach any agreement.
In 1946, the US offered to pay $100m (equivalent to $1.2bn; £970m today) for the territory, judging that it was vital for national security, but the Danish government refused.
Trump also tried to buy Greenland during his first term. Both Denmark and the Greenlandic government rejected the 2019 proposal, saying: "Greenland is not for sale."
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Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, has been operated by the US since World War Two
What do the people of Greenland think?
Kuno Fencker, a member of the Inatsisartut, the Greenlandic parliament, said on Wednesday that he didn't see Trump's comments as a threat.
Fencker, who supports Greenlandic independence, told the BBC that a sovereign Greenland could choose to co-operate with the US on defence.
But when Trump first raised the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, many locals told the BBC they were opposed to the proposal.
"This is a very dangerous idea," said Dines Mikaelsen, a tour operator who was born and raised in Tasiilaq, east Greenland.
"He's treating us like a good he can purchase," said Aleqa Hammond, Greenland's first female prime minister.
"He's not even talking to Greenland - he's talking to Denmark about buying Greenland."
The affluent Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades typically has strangers walking around, trying to catch a glimpse of celebrities' houses.
Now, though, its streets are filled with firefighters battling a 3,000-acre wildfire that is ravaging the area.
Across the city, more than 30,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes as winds stoke three fires. A state of emergency has been declared, leaving roads gridlocked as people flee.
Among them, a number of famous faces have been forced to flee their usually idyllic California homes, including Star Wars' Mark Hamill and Schitt's Creek actor Eugene Levy.
James Woods, who has starred in films including Nixon and Casino, described evacuating his home on social media, and said he was not sure if it was still standing.
"It feels like losing a loved one," he wrote.
Pacific Palisades is known for being exclusive, with a house costing $4.5m (£3.6m) on average as of November 2024, according to Realtor.com.
The north LA neighbourhood is bordered on the south with a three-mile (4.8km) stretch of beaches on the Pacific Ocean, nestled between Malibu and Santa Monica.
It is a hub for trendy shops, cafes and a farmers' market.
But the Palisades fire - which grew from 10 acres to over 2,900 in a matter of hours - has shattered they area's idyllic nature.
Mark Hamill, of Star Wars fame, called the blaze the "most horrific fire since '93" - which burned 18,000 acres and destroyed 323 homes in nearby Malibu - in a post on Instagram.
He said he evacuated his home in Malibu "so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road".
Levy, who rose to fame for his role in film series American Pie, told local media he was forced to evacuate his home.
"The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very dark," he recounted to the Los Angeles Times.
Reality star's Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag lost their family home in the fire, his sister wrote on Instagram.
"I am beyond heartbroken for my brother, Heidi and the kids," she said. "Even the fire station in the Palisades has burned down."
Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife Keleigh, also live in the area.
Posting on Instagram, Mrs Teller shared a picture of the fires and a heart-break emoji. She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals as they evacuate their homes.
Meanwhile, Actor Steve Guttenberg, known for Police Academy, stayed to help firefighters by moving cars in order to make room for incoming fire trucks.
He urged residents to leave the keys to their abandoned cars so they could be moved out the way of firefighters.
"We really need people to move their cars," he told news outlet KTLA: "This is not a parking lot."
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It is not just famous residents affected by the wildfire - notable buildings in the area are under threat as well.
The Palisades Charter High School - which has served as a set for movies and counts several notable people as former students - has been damaged by fire, local media reports.
The fire-stricken school has been used in films including 1976 horror classic Carrie and Project X, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Former students include director JJ Abrams, musician Will.i.am, and actors Forest Whitaker and Katey Sagal.
The Getty Villa is an art museum in the Palisades that has a large collection of artworks and artefacts, including works by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.
The museum confirmed on Tuesday that it had closed to the public and that some trees and vegetation on site had burned - but said that "no structures are on fire, and staff and the collection remain safe".
Star studded events due to take place in the area have also been cancelled.
Film premiers for Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been called off, as has the Screen Actors Guild Awards live nominations event.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is now the co-chair of the Oversight Board, is the former Prime Minister of Denmark.
The co-chair of the independent body that reviews Facebook and Instagram content has said she is "very concerned" about how parent company Meta's decision to ditch fact checkers will affect minority groups.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, from Meta's oversight board, told the BBC she welcomed aspects of the shake-up, which will see users decide about the accuracy of posts via X-style "community notes".
However speaking on Today, on BBC Radio Four, she added there were "huge problems" with what had been announced, including the potential impact on LBTQ+ and trans people, as well as gender rights.
"We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully," she said.
In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the decision was motivated by "getting back to our roots around free expression".
He said third-party fact checkers currently used by the firm were "too politically biased", meaning too many users were being "censored."
The decision has prompted questions about the survival of the board - which Meta funds - and was created by then president of global affairs, Sir Nick Clegg, who announced he was leaving the company less than a week ago.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt - a former Prime Minister of Denmark - insisted the changes to fact checking meant it was needed more than ever.
"That's why it is good we have an oversight board that can discuss this in a transparent way with Meta", she said.
'Kiss up to Trump'
While Meta says the move is about free speech, others have suggested it is an attempt to get closer to the incoming Trump administration, and catch up with the access and influence enjoyed by another tech titan, Elon Musk.
The tech journalist and author Kara Swisher told the BBC it was "the most cynical move" she had seen Mr Zuckerberg make in the "many years" she had been reporting on him.
"Facebook does whatever is in its self-interest", she told Today.
"He wants to kiss up to Donald Trump, and catch up with Elon Musk in that act."
Is Mark Zuckerberg 'cosying up' to Donald Trump? Today's Emma Barnett speaks with Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the Today programme
The US free speech group Fire said: "Meta's announcement shows the marketplace of ideas in action. Its users want a social media platform that doesn't suppress political content or use top-down fact-checkers.
"These changes will hopefully result in less arbitrary moderation decisions and freer speech on Meta's platforms."
Speaking after the changes were announced, Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Mr Zuckerberg's decision and that Meta had "come a long way".
Asked whether Mr Zuckerberg was "directly responding" to threats Trump had made to him in the past, the incoming US president responded: "Probably".
Advertiser exodus
Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged on Tuesday there was some risk for the company in the change of strategy.
"It means we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down," he said in his video message.
X's move to a more hands-off approach to moderating content has contributed to a major fall-out with advertisers.
Jasmine Enberg, analyst at Insider Intelligence, said that was a risk for Meta too.
"Meta's massive size and powerhouse ad platform insulate it somewhat from an X-like user and advertiser exodus", she told the BBC.
"But brand safety remains a key factor in determining where advertisers spend their budgets - any major drop in engagement could hurt Meta's ad business, given the intense competition for users and ad dollars."
David Latt said they had just 10 minutes to prepare to leave their home
As firefighters in California battle three different blazes in and around Los Angeles, residents in the affluent suburb of Palisades have told the BBC how they fled the approaching flames.
Pacific Palisades resident David Latt said he and his wife had just 10 minutes to grab important documents and family photographs before being stuck in a traffic jam for two hours as they tried to escape.
Speaking to the Radio 4 Today programme Mr Latt said he had been unware of the fires until a neighbour warned him.
"I didn't know what he was even talking about until I went outside and I saw, about four blocks away up a hill, a very large plume of black smoke. And then I realised; 'oh, we need to get out of here!'"
Mr Latt said most people are aware of the need to pack a "grab-and-go bag" containing important documents like passports and other essential items. He wanted to make sure he had "all the receipts we needed to file our taxes… and we gathered more family photographs, albums, artwork, that we could get into our two cars".
After collecting their most important belongings, he took a moment to film the wildfires from his roof and check the direction of the wind. When he realised it was blowing in his direction, he knew it was time to move - just minutes after getting the warning.
With access to and from his area limited to just one road, Mr Latt said they were stuck in a traffic jam for two hours as they attempted to flee.
Bordering Malibu, Pacific Palisades is a haven of hillside streets and winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and extending down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.
Mr Latt is unsure of what has happened to his home, and does not believe they will know much more for at least a day; extremely high winds are forecast later on Wednesday night and into Thursday which could fan the flames to whip up more fires across Los Angeles.
"What we know from experience is that even though the firefighters are doing a remarkable job in putting out areas of fire, but some sparks remain... the wind picks it up, carries the embers which can go across the street or a mile away... That's what the concern is in LA tonight," Mr Latt said.
The speed of which he saw firefighting aircraft in the skies gave him some confidence in a "frightening situation", he added.
Watch: Timelapse footage captures rapid growth of Palisades wildfire in California
In Palisades, firefighters told people to get out of their cars as the blaze approached, fanned by gusts of winds sometimes topping 100mph (160km/h).
"The fire was right up against the cars," resident Marsha Horowitz told the BBC.
Celebrities were also among those fleeing.
Schitt's Creek actor Eugene Levy lives in the area and told local media he was forced to evacuate his home. "The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very dark," he told the Los Angeles Times.
Mr Latt and his wife made it to safety, but unease has gripped residents in the city as the three wildfires rage on its northern and western outskirts.
Whipped up by strong winds, the fires have destroyed homes, clogged roads and forced more than 30,000 people to flee.
With at least 50,000 homes without power, other people in affected neighbourhoods have been driving until they get a signal to try and make calls or connect to the internet, unsure what to do.
If they go to sleep, they worry they will not know when to evacuate. Many can see flames from their homes, but are unsure if they are close enough to leave.
Many people have have children and pets, and are unsure of where to go.
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Journalist Amrita Khalid lives in coastal city of Santa Monica, which is also being evacuated.
She told the BBC World Service's Newsday radio programme that the day began like any other.
"I can't stress to you how normal this morning was in Santa Monica. It just seemed like another nice winter morning. But then, I was walking home from the gym and I just noticed big black billowing clouds of smoke."
She then decided to leave her home for a safer location and says a photo of her neighbourhood that was shared with her affirmed her decision to leave.
"It looks like Mars, it looks bright red," she said. "So I'm kind of glad I left. I think better be safe than sorry."
Donald Trump said Greenland was "critical" for the US's national and economic security (file photo)
France has said the European Union will not allow other nations to attack its "sovereign borders", after US President-Elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland.
On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his desire to acquire the autonomous Danish territory, saying it was "critical" for national and economic security.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio "there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are".
Barrot said he did not believe the US was going to invade the vast Arctic island, but he was clear the EU should not let itself be intimidated.
Denmark, a long-time US ally, has repeatedly made clear that Greenland is not for sale and that it belongs to its inhabitants.
Greenland's prime minister, Mute Egede, is pushing for independence and has also made clear the territory is not for sale. He was visiting Copenhagen on Wednesday.
Trump made the remarks at a free-wheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, less than two weeks before he is sworn in for his second term as president.
Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump said: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two.
"But I can say this, we need them for economic security."
Greenland has been home to a US radar base since the Cold War and has long been strategically important for Washington.
Trump suggested the island was crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are "all over the place".
"I'm talking about protecting the free world," he told reporters.
Speaking to France Inter radio, Barrot said: "If you're asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no.
"Have we entered into an era that sees the return of the survival of the fittest? Then the answer is yes.
"So, should we allow ourselves to be intimidated and overcome with worry, clearly not. We must wake up, build up our strength."
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV on Tuesday that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders" and that only the local population could determine its future.
However, she stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US, a Nato ally.
Donald Trump JR visited Greenland on Tuesday in what he called a "personal day trip"
Greenland, which is the largest island in the world but has a population of just 57,000, has wide-ranging autonomy, although its economy is largely dependent on subsidies from Copenhagen and it remains part of the kingdom of Denmark.
It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.
Danish Broadcasting Corporation senior international correspondent Steffen Kretz, who has been reporting in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, said most of the people he had spoken to were "shocked" by Trump's suggestion he could use military force to take control of the territory.
While a majority of people in Greenland hoped for independence in the future, he said there was widespread acknowledgment that it needed a partner who could provide public services, defence and an economic foundation, as Denmark did now.
"I have yet to meet a person in Greenland who is dreaming of the island becoming a colony for another outside power like the USA."
Kretz told the BBC that while the Danish government had sought to "downplay" any confrontation with Trump, "behind the scenes I sense the awareness that this conflict has the potential to be the biggest international crisis for Denmark in modern history".
The president-elect's son, Donald Trump Jr, paid a brief visit to Greenland on Tuesday, in what he described as a "personal day trip" to talk to people.
He then posted a photo with a group of Greenlanders in a bar wearing pro-Trump caps.
Panama celebrated the 25th anniversary of the handover of the Panama Canal just over a week ago
Panama has insisted that its sovereignty over the Panama Canal is "non-negotiable" after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military force to seize it.
Trump made the remark during a news conference on Tuesday at which he also falsely stated that the Panama Canal was being operated by Chinese soldiers.
Panama's Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha responded by saying that "the only hands operating the Canal are Panamanian and that is how it is going to stay".
The Panama Canal was managed by the US for decades but under a treaty signed by the late US President Jimmy Carter in 1977, it was handed over to the Panamanians on 31 December 1999.
In his news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Trump described President Carter's decision to hand the Canal back as "a big mistake".
He also expressed renewed interest in buying the Arctic island of Greenland - which is a self-governing territory of Denmark - and the Panama Canal.
Pressed by journalists on whether he would rule out using military or economic force to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal, he said: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two."
Panama's foreign minister denied his country had received any kind of offer from the president-elect.
"Mr Trump's opinions today, that he has talked about a certain amount of money, are not true. No kind of offer has been received, let it be clear," Martínez-Acha said.
He added that "our canal's sovereignty is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest".
Panama's president, José Raúl Mulino, has not yet reacted directly to Trump's latest remarks.
But at a colourful ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the handover of the Canal to Panama held on 31 December, he told attendees to "rest assured, it will stay in our control forever".
President Mulino has in the past appeared exasperated by Trump's claims that the Canal is under some sort of Chinese influence, saying "there are no Chinese soldiers in the canal, for the love of God".
His government also stressed that "until 20 January, the US government is led by Joe Biden. From 20 January we will deal with Mr Trump and his government".
"Panama is keen to co-operate and maintain excellent relations with the different governments."
Journalist Cecilia Sala was detained in Iran on 19 December
An Italian journalist detained in Iran last month has been freed and is on a flight back to Rome, the Italian government says.
Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on 19 December, three days after an Iranian engineer was detained by Italian authorities in Milan on suspicion of supplying drone technology that led to the deaths of US soldiers.
Reports said she had been held in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
It is unclear what led to Sala's release, however the news was broken by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's officials who cited "intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels".
In the Italian statement, Meloni thanked "all those who contributed to to making Cecilia's return possible".
She had personally told Sala's parents of her release, it added. Sala's plane had already left Tehran and was due to arrive in Rome at 15:30 (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday, according to Ansa news agency.
Her partner, fellow journalist Daniele Raineri, told Ansa: "I spoke to her and she told me 'I'll see you soon', she was emotional and overjoyed."
Cecilia Sala's detention in prison in Tehran outraged Italians and has dominated headlines since her employer, podcast company Chora Media, broke the news of her arrest on 27 December.
Meloni is understood to have taken personal charge of her case and met US president-elect Donald Trump at the weekend, when the journalist's detention is thought to have been discussed.
Outgoing president Joe Biden is due to visit Rome later this week.
Iran said initially it had detained Sala for "violation of the Islamic Republic's laws", however US state department officials said it could be linked to the arrest of Iranian national Mohammad Abedini at Malpensa airport in Milan on 16 December.
He was arrested on a US warrant and one official told Italian media that Sala was being used as "political leverage".
Mohammad Abedini is due to go before a court in Milan on 15 January, and Tehran has in recent days played down any connection between the two cases.
The head of Italy's foreign intelligence service, Giovanni Caravelli, is said to have travelled to Tehran personally to bring Sala back to Italy.
Her father Renato Sala told Ansa news agency he was proud of her and praised the government for an "exceptional job".
He said he had had the impression that the situation had turned into a "game of chess, but with more than two players".
Funerals were held in Khan Younis for those killed overnight, including eight children
At least 19 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza overnight, local health officials say.
A mother and her four children were reportedly killed when a tent camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi was hit, while another a couple and their children died in the nearby city of Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said it conducted several strikes targeting Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Deadly strikes were also reported in central and northern Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying a total of 51 people had been killed across the territory in the past 24 hours.
In the north, the bodies of at least six people, including a baby, were recovered from two houses in Gaza City which were hit, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.
Meanwhile, three people were killed in a strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah, while another infant was killed in the nearby, urban Bureij refugee camp, medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on those strikes.
Gaza's health ministry also issued an urgent appeal for fuel to operate the generators of hospitals in the south. It warned that the generators would stop functioning within hours, putting the lives of hundreds of patients at risk.
It came as indirect talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal continued in Qatar, where US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy said "a lot of progress" had been made.
Stephen Witkoff told a news conference in Floriday on Tuesday that he would soon travel to Doha to join the negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egyptian and US officials.
"I'm really hopeful that by the inaugural, we'll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president," he added.
Trump meanwhile repeated his threat that "all hell will break out in the Middle East" if Hamas does not release the 100 hostages it is still holding before he takes office on 20 January.
Hamas and Israel have accused each other of obstructing progress towards a deal.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman's sister, Ann Altman, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he regularly sexually abused her between 1997 and 2006.
The lawsuit, which was filed on 6 January in a US District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse started when she was three and Mr Altman was 12.
In a joint statement on X, with his mother and two brothers, Mr Altman denied the allegations, saying "all of these claims are utterly untrue."
"Caring for a family member who faces mental health challenges is incredibly difficult," the statement added.
"This situation causes immense pain to our entire family."
In the filing, which has been seen by the BBC, Ms Altman alleged that the abuse, which took place over many years, included rape.
The lawsuit added the last instance of the alleged abuse took place when Mr Altman was an adult but she was still a minor.
The lawsuit requested a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000 ($60,100).
Allies of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo accused the US of double standards
The US has accused the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing genocide and imposed sanctions on its leader.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, was being punished for his role in "systematic" atrocities against the Sudanese people during the 20-month conflict.
He said the RSF and allied militias were responsible for the murder of "men and boys - even infants", as well as brutal sexual violence against women on ethnic grounds.
The militias have also targeted fleeing civilians and murdered innocent people escaping the conflict, Blinken said.
"Based on this information, I have now concluded that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan," he said.
In response, the RSF has accused the US of double standards and for failing to effectively address the ongoing crisis.
"The decision… expresses the failure of the [US President Joe] Biden administration to deal with the Sudanese crisis and the double standards it followed [with regards to the crisis]," Hemedti's adviser, El-Basha Tbaeq, said in a post on his X account.
He added that this may complicate the Sudanese crisis and hinder negotiations to address the root causes of the conflict.
The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese military since April 2023, and there has been a growing outcry about its conduct during the war.
Both sides have been accused of atrocities, with the conflict leading to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
In May, US special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello said that some estimates suggested up to 150,000 people had been killed in the conflict.
Famine has been declared in several parts of the country, with 24.6 million people - about half the population - in urgent need of food aid, according to experts.
Mr Blinken said neither the RSF nor Sudan's military were fit to govern Sudan.
"Both belligerents bear responsibility for the violence and suffering in Sudan and lack the legitimacy to govern a future peaceful Sudan," he said.
The sanctions bar Hemedti and his immediate family members from visiting the US, and any personal assets there are blocked.
Seven RSF-owned companies based in the United Arab Emirates and one other individual are also being sanctioned for helping the paramilitary group procure weapons.
Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
The Duchess of Sussex has said she is "devastated" following the death of her dog, Guy.
In a post on Instagram, Meghan said had "cried too many tears to count" over the dog's passing and thanked him for "so many years of unconditional love".
The duchess said she had adopted the beagle from an animal rescue in Canada in 2015 and that he had been "with me for everything" ever since.
She did not say when the dog had died or its cause of death.
The post was accompanied by a montage of photos and video showing the duchess and her family playing with Guy.
In one, she is seen boiling fruit on a stove to make jam and telling the dog, "We're jamming, Guy". In another her husband, the Duke of Sussex, is seen running along a beach with him.
At the end, Meghan can be heard with one of the couple's children singing: "We love you Guy, yes we do".
The duchess said staff at the shelter from where she had adopted the dog "referred to him as 'the little guy' because he was so small and frail".
"So I named him 'Guy'. And he was the best guy any girl could have asked for," she said.
"He was with me at Suits, when I got engaged, (and then married), when I became a mom….
"He was with me for everything: the quiet, the chaos, the calm, the comfort."
Courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
Guy featured in the couple's Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan
The duchess added that Guy would feature in her upcoming Netflix series, titled With Love, Meghan.
"I hope you'll come to understand why I am so devastated by his loss. I think you may fall a little bit in love too," she said.
"I have cried too many tears to count - the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they're not there. But they are. And that's okay too.
"Thank you for so many years of unconditional love, my sweet Guy. You filled my life in ways you'll never know."
For many of those living with cerebral palsy in the country, their condition was caused by a common phenomenon among newborns - neonatal jaundice.
This is caused by a build-up of bilirubin, a yellow substance, in the blood, meaning the babies' skins have a yellow tinge.
Professor Chinyere Ezeaka, a paediatrician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, tells the BBC that more than 60% of all babies suffer from jaundice.
Most babies recover within days. More severe cases need further medical intervention - and even then the condition is easily treatable.
Children are basically exposed to ultra-violet light to dissolve the excess bilirubin in their red blood cells. The treatment lasts a few days depending on the severity.
However, in Nigeria this treatment is often not immediately available, which is why the country is among the five with the most neurological disorders caused by untreated jaundice in the world, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Any treatment for neonatal jaundice "must occur within the first 10 days of life, else [the condition] could cause permanent brain damage and severe cerebral palsy", says Prof Ezeaka.
To make matters worse, the West African country lacks facilities to care for those with neurological disorders. There are just three cerebral palsy centres, all privately run, in Nigeria, which has a population of more than 200 million.
Ms Nweke - a single mother - set up the Cerebral Palsy Centre after struggling to find support for her own daughter, Zimuzo.
"When I took her to a day-care [centre], they asked me to take her back because other mothers would withdraw their children. As a mum, I must say it was quite devastating," Ms Nweke tells the BBC.
Zimuzo is now 17, and Ms Nweke's Cerebral Palsy Centre provides full-time support for others with similar experiences.
On the day I visit, colourful playtime mats and toys are neatly arranged on the floor. Mickey Mouse and his friends converse on a wide-screen television in the lounge.
Twelve youngsters, some as young as five, gaze at the TV, their bright environment ignored for a moment. They are all immobile and non-speaking.
Joyce Liu / BBC
The Cerebral Palsy Centre cares for 12 children
At lunchtime, caregivers help the youngsters eat. Some take in liquified food through tubes attached to their stomachs.
Carefully and slowly, the carerssupport their heads with pillows and push the contents of their syringes into the tubes.
The youngsters are fed every two hours and require regular muscular massages to prevent stiffness.
But they are the lucky 12 receiving free care from the Cerebral Palsy Centre, which is funded exclusively by donors.
The facility has a long waiting list - Ms Nweke has received more than 100 applications.
But taking on more youngsters would require extra financial support. The cost of caring for someone at the centre is at least $1,000 (£790) a month - a huge amount in a country where the national minimum wage is about $540 a year.
"As a mum, I must say it's quite overwhelming. You have moments of depression, it gives you heartaches and it is quite expensive - in fact it's the most expensive congenital disorder to manage," Ms Nweke says.
"And then of course, it keeps you away from people because you don't discuss the same things. They are talking of their babies, walking, enjoying those baby moments. You are not doing that. You are sad," she adds.
Ms Nweke explains that she adopted Zimuzo from an orphanage.
A few months after taking her new daughter home, Ms Nweke realised Zimuzo was not developing in the same way as the children around her were. She was assessed at a hospital and diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Ms Nweke was told she could take Zimuzo, who was then just a few months old, back to the orphanage and adopt another baby instead, but she refused.
"I decided to keep her and I began researching what the disorder was about, the treatment and type of care my child would need - she's my life.
"I was also told by the doctors she won't live beyond two years. Well here we are - 17 years later," says a smiling Ms Nweke.
A lack of awareness and adequate medical support hinders the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice in Nigeria.
Ms Nweke also says the common local belief that children with congenital disorders are spiritually damaged or bewitched leads to stigmatisation.
Some children with neurological disorders - mostly in Nigeria's rural areas - are labelled witches. In some cases, they are abandoned in prayer houses or cast out of their families.
Joyce Liu / BBC
Babatunde Fashola (above) has been at the centre for 10 years
Ms Nweke is not alone in her mission to dispel myths and improve care.
The Oscar Project - a charity aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice - recently began operating in Lagos.
The project is named after Vietnamese-born British disability advocate, Oscar Anderson, whose untreated jaundice caused his cerebral palsy.
"We're equipping health facilities at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels with the equipment to treat jaundice, primarily light boxes, but also detection and screening equipment," Toyin Saraki, who oversaw the launch, tells the BBC.
Project Oscar, backed by consumer health firm Reckitt, is training 300 health workers in Lagos. The hope over the first year is to reach 10,000 mothers, screen 9,000 children and introduce new protocols to try and prevent babies with jaundice from developing cerebral palsy.
In a country where the public health system is overstretched, the government has little to say about the disorder, although it lauded the Oscar project's goals.
Treatment for neonatal jaundice is significantly cheaper than the cost of lifelong care, doctors say.
First launched in Vietnam in 2019, Project Oscar has helped about 150,000 children in the Asian country.
Mr Anderson, 22, says he wants to prevent other children experiencing what he has been through.
"People with disabilities are not to be underestimated," he tells the BBC.
He is working to ensure screening for every newborn infant for neonatal jaundice, and, with the support and courage of mums, midwives and medical professionals, ensure there is better understanding and quicker treatment.
However, achieving this is a hugely ambitious goal in Africa's most-populous country, where thousands of babies are born each year with neonatal jaundice.
Regardless, Mr Anderson is determined to defy the odds.
"The work doesn't stop until every baby is protected against neonatal jaundice," he says.
The region, which lies on a major fault line, is home to frequent seismic activity
At least 32 people have been confirmed dead after a major earthquake struck China's mountainous Tibet region on Tuesday morning, Chinese state media reported.
The earthquake that hit Tibet's holy Shigatse city around 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), according to data from the US Geological Survey, which also showed a series of aftershocks in the area.
Tremors were also felt in neighbouring Nepal and parts of India.
Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on a major geological fault line.
Shigatse is considered one of the holiest cities of Tibet. It is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key figure of Tibetan Buddhism whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama.
Chinese state media reported the earthquake as having a slightly lesser magnitude of 6.8, causing "obvious" tremors and leading to the collapse of many houses.
Social media posts show collapsing buildings and there have been several strong aftershocks.
"After a major earthquake, there is always a gradual attenuation process," Jiang Haikun, a researcher at the China Earthquake Networks Center, told CCTV.
While another earthquake of around magnitude 5 may still occur, Jiang said, "the likelihood of a larger earthquake is low".
The Chinese air force has launched rescue efforts and drones to the affected area, which sits at the foot of Mount Everest and where temperatures are well below freezing.
Both power and water in the region have been cut off.
While tremors were felt in Nepal, no damage or casualties were reported, a local official in Nepal's Namche region, near Everest, told AFP.
Tibet's earthquake bureau told the BBC on Tuesday that they were unable to provide estimates on casualties as they were still verifying the numbers.
The region, which lies on a major fault line where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided, is home to frequent seismic activity. In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killed nearly 9,000 people and injured over 20,000.
There are nearly 3,000 elephants in Thailand's tourists attractions
Thai police have charged a mahout after an elephant in his care gored a Spanish tourist to death last week.
Theerayut Inthaphudkij, 38, was charged with negligence causing death, local authorities said Monday.
The tourist - 22-year-old Blanca Ojanguren García - was bathing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in southern Thailand when she was attacked by the animal.
This has renewed concerns over Thailand's booming elephant tourism industry, which animal rights groups have long criticised as unethical and dangerous.
Activists say that elephant bathing is disruptive to natural grooming behaviours and could injure the animals, exposing them to unnecessary stress.
After the attack, experts weighed in to say that the elephant might have been stressed because of the interaction with tourists.
García sustained a head injury - and later died in the hospital - after the elephant, 45-year-old female Phang Somboon, pushed her with its tusk. Her boyfriend, who was travelling with her, witnessed the attack.
There are nearly 3,000 elephants held in tourist attractions across Thailand, according to an estimate by international charity World Animal Protection.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) told the BBC in a statement that "such incidents highlight the dangers to both humans and animals alike."
"Any 'sanctuary' that allows humans to touch, feed, bathe, or closely interact with elephants in any way is no place of refuge for elephants and puts the lives of tourists and animals in critical danger," said Peta senior vice president Jason Baker.
Similar charges of negligence have previously been pressed against mahouts whose elephants killed tourists.
In 2017, an elephant camp owner and a mahout were charged with recklessness causing death and injuries after an elephant killed a Chinese tour guide and injured two tourists in the Thai beach town, Pattaya. In 2013, a 27-year-old elephant had its tusks cut after it attacked and killed a woman.
García, a law and international relations student at Spain's University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme. She and her boyfriend arrived in Thailand on 26 December 2024.
Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was assisting García's family.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman's sister, Ann Altman, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he regularly sexually abused her between 1997 and 2006.
The lawsuit, which was filed on 6 January in a US District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse started when she was three and Mr Altman was 12.
In a joint statement on X, with his mother and two brothers, Mr Altman denied the allegations, saying "all of these claims are utterly untrue."
"Caring for a family member who faces mental health challenges is incredibly difficult," the statement added.
"This situation causes immense pain to our entire family."
In the filing, which has been seen by the BBC, Ms Altman alleged that the abuse, which took place over many years, included rape.
The lawsuit added the last instance of the alleged abuse took place when Mr Altman was an adult but she was still a minor.
The lawsuit requested a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000 ($60,100).
There are nearly 3,000 elephants in Thailand's tourists attractions
Thai police have charged a mahout after an elephant in his care gored a Spanish tourist to death last week.
Theerayut Inthaphudkij, 38, was charged with negligence causing death, local authorities said Monday.
The tourist - 22-year-old Blanca Ojanguren García - was bathing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in southern Thailand when she was attacked by the animal.
This has renewed concerns over Thailand's booming elephant tourism industry, which animal rights groups have long criticised as unethical and dangerous.
Activists say that elephant bathing is disruptive to natural grooming behaviours and could injure the animals, exposing them to unnecessary stress.
After the attack, experts weighed in to say that the elephant might have been stressed because of the interaction with tourists.
García sustained a head injury - and later died in the hospital - after the elephant, 45-year-old female Phang Somboon, pushed her with its tusk. Her boyfriend, who was travelling with her, witnessed the attack.
There are nearly 3,000 elephants held in tourist attractions across Thailand, according to an estimate by international charity World Animal Protection.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) told the BBC in a statement that "such incidents highlight the dangers to both humans and animals alike."
"Any 'sanctuary' that allows humans to touch, feed, bathe, or closely interact with elephants in any way is no place of refuge for elephants and puts the lives of tourists and animals in critical danger," said Peta senior vice president Jason Baker.
Similar charges of negligence have previously been pressed against mahouts whose elephants killed tourists.
In 2017, an elephant camp owner and a mahout were charged with recklessness causing death and injuries after an elephant killed a Chinese tour guide and injured two tourists in the Thai beach town, Pattaya. In 2013, a 27-year-old elephant had its tusks cut after it attacked and killed a woman.
García, a law and international relations student at Spain's University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme. She and her boyfriend arrived in Thailand on 26 December 2024.
Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was assisting García's family.
The lay offs come at a time of growing losses and turmoil over editorial decisions at the storied US newspaper
The Washington Post announced it will lay off nearly 100 workers, or 4% of its staff, in an attempt to stem growing losses, according to media reports.
The cuts reportedly will affect mainly employees on the business side of the storied US newspaper owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The publication is among many news outlets struggling in the digital age as a growing number of online platforms compete for advertising revenues.
The layoffs, announced on Tuesday, come at a time of turmoil at the company after Mr Bezos broke with tradition and blocked an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the US presidential election in November.
In 2023, the Washington Post reported losses of $77m (£45m) and falling readership on its website. That same year, the newspaper announced it was offering workers voluntary buyouts in a bid to cut headcount by 10%.
Mr Bezos wrote an opinion piece explaining that blocking the endorsement was necessary because of growing public perception that the "media is biased."
Still, the newspaper said 250,000 of its readers canceled their subscriptions in protest.
Since then, several high-profile journalists, including investigative reporter Josh Dawsey, who confirmed on X that he was taking a job at The Wall Street Journal, have also left the newspaper. Managing editor Matea Gold is joining Post competitor The New York Times, the Times confirmed.
The apparent conflict between Bezos and the newspaper's top talent took a turn for the worse on Saturday when Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, said she was resigning from the Washington Post.
That came after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon that showed Mr Bezos and other tycoons kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump.
Last month, Mr Bezos announced Amazon would donate $1m to Trump's inauguration fund and make a $1m in-kind contribution. Mr Bezos also described Trump's re-election victory as "an extraordinary political comeback" and dined with him at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Watch: LA reporter battles heavy winds and flying ash during broadcast
Screaming Los Angeles residents left their cars behind to flee a fast-moving wildfire as it closed in on a picturesque celebrity enclave, eyewitnesses said, describing scenes straight out of a Hollywood disaster movie.
A windstorm whipped a seemingly typical brush fire into a raging inferno within a matter of hours on Tuesday, sending the blaze racing towards the Pacific Palisades area.
Thirty thousand people were ordered to evacuate as the conflagration surrounded the neighbourhood in the west of the city, exploding rapidly from 10 acres to several thousand in size.
Bordering Malibu, Pacific Palisades is a haven of hillside streets and winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and extending down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.
Watch: Firefighters suppress blaze approaching home
But the Pacific Coast Highway, the main route in - or out - quickly became gridlocked, leading many motorists to ditch their vehicles near Sunset Boulevard as the flames drew near.
One resident, Marsha Horowitz, said firefighters told people to get out of their cars as the blaze, fanned by gusts sometimes topping 100mph (160km/h) in the mountains and foothills, approached.
"The fire was right up against the cars," she said.
Another Pacific Palisades resident told ABC News that she rushed home from her job in Hollywood once she heard about the evacuations.
After abandoning her car, she went home to grab her cat. While running to safety, flaming pieces of palm tree fell on her.
"I'm getting hit with palm leaves on fire, I ran into a car," said the woman, who did not give her name.
"It's terrifying. It's like a horror movie. I'm screaming and crying going down the street."
Getty Images
Some evacuees described seeing homes burn as they fled.
Hollywood actor James Woods was among celebrities forced to flee their properties.
Actor Steve Guttenberg, also a Pacific Palisades resident, urged people who abandoned their cars to leave their keys inside so the vehicles could be moved to make way for fire trucks.
"This is not a parking lot," Guttenberg told KTLA. "I have friends up there and they can't evacuate."
Bulldozers later cleared abandoned vehicles to open the route for emergency vehicles.
Watch: Bulldozers used to move abandoned vehicles in Palisades fire
Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper, Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler and Michael Keaton also have homes in the Pacific Palisades, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
People fled wildfire flames in the nearby Los Angeles suburb of Topanga Canyon, where Ewan McGregor has a home.
One resident named Melanie told KTLA she tried to get out, but the path was engulfed by flames and she was forced back home.
She was trying to take Palisades Drive down to the Pacific Coast Highway and said had to make "a very fast U-turn because there were flames coming down the hill to the road".
"I would have been driving right into the fire," she said. "We're stuck up here. I don't see any flames but I know they're close by."
Residents in Venice Beach, some six miles (10km) away, reported seeing the flames, too.
Kelsey Trainor said ash fell all around as the fire jumped from one side of the road to the other.
"People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming," she told the Associated Press news agency.
"The road was just blocked, like full-on blocked for an hour."
Ellen Delosh-Bacher told the Los Angeles Times how she rushed from downtown Los Angeles to her home, where her 95-year-old mother and their two dogs live.
She, too, hit gridlock at Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive.
Ms Delosh-Bacher described fire exploding behind a nearby Starbucks and police rushing down the road shouting to stuck motorists: "Run for your lives!"
She left her car, keys still in the ignition and ran half a mile down to the beach.
A prominent Nigerian atheist, who has just been freed after serving more than four years in prison for blasphemy, is now living in a safe house as his legal team fear his life may be in danger.
Mubarak Bala, 40, was convicted in a court in the northern city of Kano after, in a surprise move, he pleaded guilty to 18 charges relating to a controversial Facebook post shared in 2020.
"The concern about my safety is always there," he told the BBC in an exclusive interview as he tucked into his first meal as a free man.
Nigeria is a deeply religious society and those who may be seen as having insulted a religion - whether Islam or Christianity – face being shunned and discriminated against.
Blasphemy is an offence under Islamic law – Sharia - which operates alongside secular law in 12 states in the north. It is also an offence under Nigeria's criminal law.
Bala, who renounced Islam in 2014, said there were times during his incarceration that he felt he "may not get out alive". He feared he could have been targeted by guards or fellow inmates in the first prison he was in, in Kano, which is a mainly Muslim city.
"Freedom is here, but also there is an underlying threat I now have to face," he said. "All those years, those threats, maybe they're out there."
He could have been inside for much longer if it was not for an appeals court judge who reduced the initial 24-year sentence last year, describing it as "excessive".
Walking out of the prison in the capital, Abuja, Bala looked tired, but cheerful dressed in a white T-shirt, khaki shorts and flip-flops. He emerged with his beaming lawyer by his side.
"Everything is new to me. Everything is new," he said as he took in his new-found liberty.
Bala, an outspoken religious critic, was arrested after a group of lawyers filed a complaint with the police about the social media post.
He then spent two years in prison awaiting trial before being convicted in 2022.
At the time Bala's guilty plea baffled many, even his legal team, but he stands by his decision, saying that it relieved the pressure on those who stood by him, including his lawyers, friends and family.
"I believe what I did saved not only my life, but people in Kano," he said.
"Especially those that were attached to my case, because they are also a target."
His conviction was widely condemned by international rights groups and sparked a debate about freedom of speech in Nigeria.
His detention also sent shockwaves across Nigeria's small atheist and humanist communities, and his release has come as a relief to many, but there are still concerns.
"It's thanks and no thanks," said Leo Igwe, the founder of the Humanist Association of Nigeria.
"Thanks, that he's out, thanks that he's a free man. But no thanks, because there is a dent on him as if he committed a crime. For us at the Humanist Association, he committed no crime."
As for Bala, he is keen to catch up on lost time – including getting to know his young son who was just six weeks old when he was imprisoned. But he said he had no regrets.
"My activism, my posting on social media, I always knew the worst would happen, When I made the decision to come out, I knew I could be killed. I knew the dangers, and I still decided to do it."
For many of those living with cerebral palsy in the country, their condition was caused by a common phenomenon among newborns - neonatal jaundice.
This is caused by a build-up of bilirubin, a yellow substance, in the blood, meaning the babies' skins have a yellow tinge.
Professor Chinyere Ezeaka, a paediatrician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, tells the BBC that more than 60% of all babies suffer from jaundice.
Most babies recover within days. More severe cases need further medical intervention - and even then the condition is easily treatable.
Children are basically exposed to ultra-violet light to dissolve the excess bilirubin in their red blood cells. The treatment lasts a few days depending on the severity.
However, in Nigeria this treatment is often not immediately available, which is why the country is among the five with the most neurological disorders caused by untreated jaundice in the world, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Any treatment for neonatal jaundice "must occur within the first 10 days of life, else [the condition] could cause permanent brain damage and severe cerebral palsy", says Prof Ezeaka.
To make matters worse, the West African country lacks facilities to care for those with neurological disorders. There are just three cerebral palsy centres, all privately run, in Nigeria, which has a population of more than 200 million.
Ms Nweke - a single mother - set up the Cerebral Palsy Centre after struggling to find support for her own daughter, Zimuzo.
"When I took her to a day-care [centre], they asked me to take her back because other mothers would withdraw their children. As a mum, I must say it was quite devastating," Ms Nweke tells the BBC.
Zimuzo is now 17, and Ms Nweke's Cerebral Palsy Centre provides full-time support for others with similar experiences.
On the day I visit, colourful playtime mats and toys are neatly arranged on the floor. Mickey Mouse and his friends converse on a wide-screen television in the lounge.
Twelve youngsters, some as young as five, gaze at the TV, their bright environment ignored for a moment. They are all immobile and non-speaking.
Joyce Liu / BBC
The Cerebral Palsy Centre cares for 12 children
At lunchtime, caregivers help the youngsters eat. Some take in liquified food through tubes attached to their stomachs.
Carefully and slowly, the carerssupport their heads with pillows and push the contents of their syringes into the tubes.
The youngsters are fed every two hours and require regular muscular massages to prevent stiffness.
But they are the lucky 12 receiving free care from the Cerebral Palsy Centre, which is funded exclusively by donors.
The facility has a long waiting list - Ms Nweke has received more than 100 applications.
But taking on more youngsters would require extra financial support. The cost of caring for someone at the centre is at least $1,000 (£790) a month - a huge amount in a country where the national minimum wage is about $540 a year.
"As a mum, I must say it's quite overwhelming. You have moments of depression, it gives you heartaches and it is quite expensive - in fact it's the most expensive congenital disorder to manage," Ms Nweke says.
"And then of course, it keeps you away from people because you don't discuss the same things. They are talking of their babies, walking, enjoying those baby moments. You are not doing that. You are sad," she adds.
Ms Nweke explains that she adopted Zimuzo from an orphanage.
A few months after taking her new daughter home, Ms Nweke realised Zimuzo was not developing in the same way as the children around her were. She was assessed at a hospital and diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Ms Nweke was told she could take Zimuzo, who was then just a few months old, back to the orphanage and adopt another baby instead, but she refused.
"I decided to keep her and I began researching what the disorder was about, the treatment and type of care my child would need - she's my life.
"I was also told by the doctors she won't live beyond two years. Well here we are - 17 years later," says a smiling Ms Nweke.
A lack of awareness and adequate medical support hinders the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice in Nigeria.
Ms Nweke also says the common local belief that children with congenital disorders are spiritually damaged or bewitched leads to stigmatisation.
Some children with neurological disorders - mostly in Nigeria's rural areas - are labelled witches. In some cases, they are abandoned in prayer houses or cast out of their families.
Joyce Liu / BBC
Babatunde Fashola (above) has been at the centre for 10 years
Ms Nweke is not alone in her mission to dispel myths and improve care.
The Oscar Project - a charity aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice - recently began operating in Lagos.
The project is named after Vietnamese-born British disability advocate, Oscar Anderson, whose untreated jaundice caused his cerebral palsy.
"We're equipping health facilities at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels with the equipment to treat jaundice, primarily light boxes, but also detection and screening equipment," Toyin Saraki, who oversaw the launch, tells the BBC.
Project Oscar, backed by consumer health firm Reckitt, is training 300 health workers in Lagos. The hope over the first year is to reach 10,000 mothers, screen 9,000 children and introduce new protocols to try and prevent babies with jaundice from developing cerebral palsy.
In a country where the public health system is overstretched, the government has little to say about the disorder, although it lauded the Oscar project's goals.
Treatment for neonatal jaundice is significantly cheaper than the cost of lifelong care, doctors say.
First launched in Vietnam in 2019, Project Oscar has helped about 150,000 children in the Asian country.
Mr Anderson, 22, says he wants to prevent other children experiencing what he has been through.
"People with disabilities are not to be underestimated," he tells the BBC.
He is working to ensure screening for every newborn infant for neonatal jaundice, and, with the support and courage of mums, midwives and medical professionals, ensure there is better understanding and quicker treatment.
However, achieving this is a hugely ambitious goal in Africa's most-populous country, where thousands of babies are born each year with neonatal jaundice.
Regardless, Mr Anderson is determined to defy the odds.
"The work doesn't stop until every baby is protected against neonatal jaundice," he says.
The region, which lies on a major fault line, is home to frequent seismic activity
At least 32 people have been confirmed dead after a major earthquake struck China's mountainous Tibet region on Tuesday morning, Chinese state media reported.
The earthquake that hit Tibet's holy Shigatse city around 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), according to data from the US Geological Survey, which also showed a series of aftershocks in the area.
Tremors were also felt in neighbouring Nepal and parts of India.
Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on a major geological fault line.
Shigatse is considered one of the holiest cities of Tibet. It is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key figure of Tibetan Buddhism whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama.
Chinese state media reported the earthquake as having a slightly lesser magnitude of 6.8, causing "obvious" tremors and leading to the collapse of many houses.
Social media posts show collapsing buildings and there have been several strong aftershocks.
"After a major earthquake, there is always a gradual attenuation process," Jiang Haikun, a researcher at the China Earthquake Networks Center, told CCTV.
While another earthquake of around magnitude 5 may still occur, Jiang said, "the likelihood of a larger earthquake is low".
The Chinese air force has launched rescue efforts and drones to the affected area, which sits at the foot of Mount Everest and where temperatures are well below freezing.
Both power and water in the region have been cut off.
While tremors were felt in Nepal, no damage or casualties were reported, a local official in Nepal's Namche region, near Everest, told AFP.
Tibet's earthquake bureau told the BBC on Tuesday that they were unable to provide estimates on casualties as they were still verifying the numbers.
The region, which lies on a major fault line where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided, is home to frequent seismic activity. In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killed nearly 9,000 people and injured over 20,000.
Immigration has long been a polarising issue in the West but Canada mostly avoided it - until now. With protests and campaign groups springing up in certain quarters, some argue that this - together with housing shortages and rising rents - contributed to Justin Trudeau's resignation. But could Donald Trump's arrival inflame it further?
At first glance, the single bedroom for rent in Brampton, Ontario looks like a bargain. True, there's barely any floor space, but the asking price is only C$550 (£300) a month in a Toronto suburb where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom flat is C$2,261. Inspect it more closely, however, and this is actually a small bathroom converted into sleeping quarters. A mattress is jammed up next to the sink, the toilet is nearby.
The ad, originally posted on Facebook Marketplace, has generated hundreds of comments online. "Disgusting," wrote one Reddit user. "Hey 20-somethings, you're looking at your future," says another.
But there are other listings like it - one room for rent, also in Brampton, shows a bed squashed near a staircase in what appears to be a laundry area. Another rental in Scarborough, a district in Ontario, offers a double bed in the corner of a kitchen.
While Canada might have a lot of space, there aren't enough homes and in the past three years, rents across the country have increased by almost 20%, according to property consultancy Urbanation.
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Justin Trudeau cited 'internal battles' when he resigned as prime minister on 6 January following nine years in office
In all, some 2.4 million Canadian families are crammed into homes that are too small, in urgent need of major repairs or are seriously unaffordable, a government watchdog report released in December has suggested.
This accommodation shortage has come to a head at the same time that inflation is hitting Canadians hard - and these issues have, in turn, moved another issue high up the agenda in the country: immigration.
For the first time a majority of Canadians, who have long been welcoming to newcomers, are questioning how their cities can manage.
Politics in other Western countries has long been wrapped up in polarised debates surrounding immigration but until recently Canada had mostly avoided that issue, perhaps because of its geography. Now, however, there appears to be a profound shift in attitude.
In 2022, 27% of Canadians said there were too many immigrants coming into the country, according to a survey by data and research firm Environics. By 2024, that number had increased to 58%.
Campaign groups have sprung up too and there have been marches protesting against immigration in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary, and elsewhere around the country.
"I would say it was very much taboo, like no one would really talk about it," explains Peter Kratzar, a software engineer and the founder of Cost of Living Canada, a protest group that was formed in 2024. "[But] things have really unfrozen."
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For the first time more than half of Canadians believe immigration to be too high
Stories like that of the bathroom for rent in Brampton have fuelled this, he suggests: "People might say, like, this is all anecdotal evidence. But the evidence keeps popping up. You see it over and over again."
"People became concerned about how the immigration system was being managed," adds Keith Neuman, executive director at Environics. "And we believe it's the first time the public really thought about the management of the system."
Once the golden boy of Canadian politics, prime minister Justin Trudeau, resigned on 6 January during a crucial election year, amid this widespread discontent over immigration levels.
His approval levels before his resignation were just 22% - a far cry from the first year of his premiership, when 65% of voters said they approved of him.
Though immigration is not the main reason for his low approval levels nor his resignation - he cited "having to fight internal battles" - he was accused of acting too late when dealing with rising anxiety over inflation and housing that many blamed, in part, on immigration.
"While immigration may not have been the immediate cause of the resignation, it may have been the icing on the cake," says Professor Jonathan Rose, head of the department of political studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
Under Trudeau's administration, the Canadian government deliberately chose to radically boost the numbers of people coming to the country after the pandemic, believing that boosting quotas for foreign students and temporary workers, in addition to skilled immigrants, would jumpstart the economy.
The population, which was 35 million 10 years ago, now tops 40 million.
Immigration was responsible for the vast majority of that increase - figures from Canada's national statistics agency show that in 2024, more than 90% of population growth came from immigration.
As well as overall migration levels, the number of refugees has risen too. In 2013, there were 10,365 refugee applicants in Canada - by 2023, that number had increased to 143,770.
Voter dissatisfaction with immigration was "more a symptom than a cause" of Trudeau's downfall, argues Prof Rose. "It reflects his perceived inability to read the room in terms of public opinion."
It's unclear who might replace Trudeau from within his own Liberal Party but ahead of the forthcoming election, polls currently favour the Conservative Party, whose leader Pierre Poilievre advocates keeping the number of new arrivals below the number of new homes being built.
Since Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November, Poilievre "has been speaking much more about immigration", claims Prof Rose - "so much that it has become primed in the minds of voters".
Certainly Trump's arrival for a second term is set to pour oil on an already inflamed issue in Canada, regardless of who the new prime minister is.
He won the US election in part on a pledge to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants - and since his victory, he has said that he will enlist the military and declare a national emergency to follow through on his promise.
He also announced plans to employ 25% tariffs on Canadian goods unless border security is tightened.
Drones, cameras and policing the border
Canada and the US share the world's longest undefended border. Stretching almost 9,000km (5,592 miles), much of it crosses heavily forested wilderness and is demarcated by "The Slash," a six-metre wide land clearing.
Unlike America's southern border, there are no walls. This has long been a point of pride between Ottawa and Washington - a sign of their close ties.
After Trump first entered office in 2017, the number of asylum claims skyrocketed, with thousands walking across the border to Canada. The number of claims went from just under 24,000 in 2016 to 55,000 a year by 2018, according to the Canadian government. Almost all crossed from New York state into the Canadian province of Quebec.
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The 6 metre wide clearing called "The Slash" is all that marks out thousands of miles of the Canada-US border
In 2023, Canada and the US agreed to a tightened border deal that stopped most migrants from crossing the land border from one country to another. Under the agreement, migrants that come into contact with the authorities within 14 days of crossing any part of the border into either the US or Canada must return to whichever country they entered first — in order to declare asylum there.
The deal, reworked by Trudeau and Joe Biden, is based on the idea that both the US and Canada are safe countries for asylum seekers.
This time around, Canada's national police force – the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) – says it began preparing a contingency plan for increased migrant crossings at the border well ahead of Trump being sworn in.
This includes a raft of new technology, from drones and night vision goggles, to surveillance cameras hidden in the forest.
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Biden and Trudeau: In 2023, the pair agreed to a tightened border deal that stopped most migrants from crossing the land border
"Worst-case scenario would be people crossing in large numbers everywhere on the territory," RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier warned in November. "Let's say we had 100 people per day entering across the border, then it's going to be hard because our officers will basically have to cover huge distances in order to arrest everyone."
Now, the national government has committed a further C$1.3bn (£555m) to its border security plan.
'We want our future back!'
Not everyone blames the housing crisis on the recent rise in immigration. It was "30 years in the making" because politicians have failed to build affordable units, argues Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.
Certainly the country has a long history of welcoming newcomers. "Close to 50% of the population of Canada is first or second generation," explains Mr Neuman. "That means either they came from another country, or one or both of their parents came from another country. In Toronto, Vancouver, that's over 80%."
This makes Canada "a very different place than a place that has a homogeneous population," he argues.
He has been involved in a survey examining attitudes towards newcomers for 40 years. "If you ask Canadians: what's the most important or distinctive thing about Canada, or what makes the country unique? The number one response is 'multiculturalism' or 'diversity'," he says.
Nonetheless, he says the shift in public opinion - and the rise in concerns about immigration - has been "dramatic".
"Now there is not only broader public concern, but much more open discussion," he says. "There are more questions being asked about how is the system working? How come it isn't working?"
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Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow rejects the suggestion that anti-immigrant sentiment will spread in Canada
At one of the protests in Toronto, a crowd turned out with hand-painted signs, some proclaiming: "We want our future back!" and "End Mass Immigration".
"We do need to put a moratorium on immigration," argues Mr Kratzar, whose group has taken part in some of them. "We need to delay that so wages can catch up on the cost of rents."
Accusations against newcomers are spreading on social media too. Last summer, Natasha White, who describes herself as a resident of Wasaga Beach in Ontario, claimed on TikTok that some newcomers had been digging holes on the beach and defecating in them.
The post generated hundreds of thousands of views and a torrent of anti-foreigner hatred, with many arguing that newcomers should "go home".
Tent cities and full homeless shelters
People I interviewed who work closely with asylum seekers in Canada say that the heightened concerns around the need for more border security is making asylum seekers feel unsettled and afraid.
Abdulla Daoud, executive director at the Refugee Center in Montreal, believes that the vulnerable asylum seekers he works with feel singled out by the focus on migrant numbers since the US election. "They're definitely more anxious," he says. "I think they're coming in and they're feeling, 'Okay, am I going to be welcomed here? Am I in the right place or not?'"
Those hoping to stay in Canada as refugees can't access official immigration settlement services until it has been decided they truly need asylum. This process once took two weeks but it can now take as long as three years.
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began preparing a contingency plan for increased migrant crossings at the border in late 2024
Tent cities to house newly-arrived refugees and food banks with empty shelves have sprung up in Toronto. The city's homeless shelters are often reported to be full. Last winter, two refugee applicants froze to death after sleeping on Toronto's streets.
Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, an immigrant herself having moved to Canada from Hong Kong at age 13, says: "People are seeing that, even with working two jobs or three jobs, they can't have enough money to pay the rent and feed the kids.
"I understand the hardship of having a life that is not affordable, and the fear of being evicted, absolutely, I get it. But to blame that on the immigration system is unfair."
Trudeau: 'We didn't get the balance quite right'
With frustrations growing, Trudeau announced a major change in October: a 20% reduction in immigration targets over three years. "As we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth, we didn't get the balance quite right," he conceded.
He added that he wanted to give all levels of government time to catch up – to accommodate more people. But, given that he has since resigned, is it enough? And does the Trump presidency and the increasing anti-immigrant sentiment on that side of the border risk spilling further into Canada?
Mr Daoud has his own view. "Unfortunately, I think the Trump presidency had its impact on Canadian politics," he says. "I think a lot of politicians are using this as a way to fear-monger."
Others are less convinced that it will have much of an impact. "Canadians are better than that," says Olivia Chow. "We remember that successive waves of refugees helped create Toronto and Canada."
Politicians wading into the debate around population growth ahead of the next election will be conscious of the fact that half of Canadians are first and second-generation immigrants themselves. "If the Conservatives win the next election, we can expect a reduction in immigration," says Prof Jonathan Rose. But he adds that Poilievre will have to walk "a bit of fine line".
Prof Rose says: "Since immigrant-heavy ridings [constituencies] in Toronto and Vancouver will be important to any electoral victory, he can't be seen as anti-immigration, merely recalibrating it to suit economic and housing policy."
And there are a large number of Canadians, including business leaders and academics, who believe that the country must continue to pursue an assertive growth policy to combat Canada's falling birth rate.
"I really have high hopes for Canadians," adds Lisa Lalande of the Century Initiative, which advocates for policies that would see Canada's population increase to 100 million by 2100. "I actually think we will rise above where we are now.
"I think we're just really concerned about affordability [and] cost of living - not about immigrants themselves. We recognise they're too important to our culture."
Top picture credit: Getty Images
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US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened "very-high" tariffs on Denmark if it resists his effort to take control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.
Asked on Tuesday if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take control of the strategically-important island, he said: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two."
"I can say this, we need them for economic security," he said.
Trump's remarks came as his son, Donald Trump Jr, visited Greenland on the same day.
Before arriving in the capital Nuuk, Trump Jr said he was going on a "personal day-trip" to talk to people, and had no meetings planned with government officials.
When asked about Trump Jr's visit to Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders" and that only the local population could determine their future.
She agreed that "Greenland is not for sale", but stressed Denmark needed very close co-operation with the US, a close Nato ally.
This is a developing story. More updates to follow.
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