People living all over Los Angeles were urged Wednesday to conserve water after hydrants ran dry as major wildfires erupted around the city.Firefighters battling out-of-control blazes struggled with supplies in the ritzy Pacific Palisades area of the city, utility managers said, blaming an unprecedented challenge to the city’s reserves.Massive tanks supplying water to the area ran dry overnight as dozens of hoses were attached in an almost fruitless effort to save homes in a blaze that has leveled around 1,000 buildings.”We have three large water tanks, about a million gallons each,” Los Angeles Department of Water and Power chief executive Janisse Quinones told reporters.”We ran out of water in the first tank about 4:45pm yesterday, we ran out of water on the second tank about 8:30pm and the third tank about 3am this morning.”That’s where the hydrants went dry.”Quinones said more water was being pumped to the area to help keep the hydrants flowing, but the size of the supply lines and the fact that water had to be pumped uphill was complicating matters.”I need our customers to really conserve water, not just in the Palisades area, but the whole system, because the fire department needs the water to fight the fires,” Quinones said.”We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging.”Quinones said residents in certain areas should boil their tap water because of low supplies and pollution.”Because we’re pushing the water system so hard, our water quality is decreasing. So we’re going to be issuing a boil water notice this morning, and that will extend for about 48 hours,” she said.”The water quality is low. We have a lot of ash in the system, and so please, if you’re going to be drinking water, you need to boil the water.”Four major fires were burning around Los Angeles. Two people are known to have died, with a large number of people badly hurt, officials said.Tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, and firefighters are stretched extremely thin fighting blazes that remain entirely uncontrolled.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to publicly release the special counsel’s report on the prosecution of Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Justice Department said Wednesday.Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped the federal criminal case against Trump after he won November’s presidential election but Smith has compiled a report summarizing the findings.The Justice Department said Garland does not plan to publicly release Smith’s report on the other case brought against Trump — for removing large quantities of top secret documents after leaving the White House.Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the documents case against the former and future president last year but charges are still pending against two of his former co-defendants.Cannon, in a ruling on Tuesday, barred Smith and Garland from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report” until an appeals court hears arguments from the pair — Trump’s long-time valet and a Mar-a-Lago employee.The Justice Department asked the appeals court on Wednesday to overturn Cannon’s ruling but said Garland — “to avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants” — does not intend to publicly release the report on the documents case while it is ongoing.Trump, 78, was accused by Smith of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden and stashing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.Trump attacked Smith at a news conference on Tuesday, calling him a “deranged individual.””Why should he be allowed to write a fake report?” the Republican president-elect said. “It’ll be a fake report just like the investigation was a fake investigation.”Smith dropped the cases against Trump, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, after the election citing a Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.- ‘Political stunt’ -Trump’s attorneys have urged Garland not to release the reports.”Smith’s proposed plan for releasing a report is unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest,” they said in a letter to Garland.Releasing the report “would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump,” his attorneys said.Garland allowed the release last year of a report by another special counsel, Robert Hur, into Biden’s handling of classified documents while vice president.Hur declined to file any charges against Biden but in a politically damaging aside described him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”Trump additionally faced two state cases — in New York and Georgia.He was convicted in New York in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.Sentencing in that case has been set for Friday but Judge Juan Merchan has said he is not inclined to impose jail time. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a last-minute bid to block his sentencing.In Georgia, Trump faces racketeering charges over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, but that case will likely be frozen while he is in office.

Rampaging wildfires around Los Angeles have killed at least two people and caused a “significant number” of serious injuries, officials tackling the terrifying blazes said Wednesday.More than 1,000 buildings have burned in multiple wildfires that have erupted around America’s second biggest city, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.Hurricane-force winds have whipped up fireballs that have leapt from home to home in the upmarket Pacific Palisades area, torching a swathe of California’s most desirable real estate.”We have well over 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) that have burned, and the fire is growing,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told reporters.”We have no percentage of containment. We have an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed… and a high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate.”A second major fire was burning around Altadena, north of the city, where footage showed flames consuming whole streets.”We have over 2,000 acres burning at this time, and the fire continues to grow with zero percent containment,” Marrone said.”We have over 500 personnel assigned, and unfortunately, we have two reported fatalities to civilians, unknown cause at this time. And we do have a number of significant injuries. We have over 100 structures destroyed.”Two other blazes in the area were also stretching resources.Vicious gusts were pushing the flames, whipping red-hot embers hundreds of meters (yards), sparking new spot fires faster than firefighters could quell them.As dawn broke, a vast pall of smoke was visible over Los Angeles, with the acrid tang of burning in the air.City mayor Karen Bass warned that the “windstorm is expected to worsen through the morning” in a post on X early Wednesday.Some firefighters were facing water shortages at hydrants in the Palisades, the Los Angeles Times reported.Emmy-award-winning actor James Woods posted a video showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his home as he evacuated, adding all the fire alarms were going off.”I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.- ‘Ran to the car’ -The first wildfire erupted on Tuesday morning and spread quickly, taking many residents by surprise.Pacific Palisades resident Andrew Hires told AFP he got a text alerting him to the fire as his child was at the dentist about to have a tooth extracted.”We pulled off the mask and ran to the car,” he said.Trees and vegetation around the Getty Villa were burned, but the structure and collections were spared, the museum said.The Getty, set up by US oil billionaire and collector J. Paul Getty and one of the world’s richest art museums, houses Greek and Roman antiquities in a replica Roman country home.The fire came as the area was being hit by seasonal Santa Ana winds that forecasters said could develop into the worst windstorm in a decade, with gusts of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour.”This looks pretty concerning,” said meteorologist Daniel Swain.Wildfires are part of life in the US West and play a vital role in nature.But scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, which sparked furious vegetative growth — leaving the region packed with fuel and primed to burn.

World-famous actors, musicians and celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people affected by terrifying wildfires tearing through Los Angeles on Wednesday.The world’s entertainment capital was besieged by out-of-control blazes that were burning on multiple fronts, spread by hurricane-force winds that had left hundreds of firefighters almost helpless.Dozens of homes were known to have been lost in the swanky Pacific Palisades area, a favorite spot for celebrities where multimillion dollar houses nestle on beautiful hillsides.Emmy award-winning actor James Woods posted a video on X showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his home as he got ready to evacuate, and shortly afterward said all the fire alarms were going off.”I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.”Star Wars” star Mark Hamill told his followers on Instagram that he had fled his Malibu home on Tuesday.”Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH,” he wrote, referring to the Pacific Coast Highway, a scenic road that connects seafront settlements.The Luke Skywalker actor said he and his wife Marilou York, along with a pet dog, had gone to their daughter’s Hollywood home to escape what he dubbed the “most horrific fire since ’93.”Steve Guttenberg — star of 1984 comedy “Police Academy” — was among those helping get people out of Pacific Palisades as the fire began spreading on Tuesday.The “Cocoon” actor expressed frustration at how some of those fleeing the blaze had abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the ritzy neighborhood.”If you leave your car… leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there. It’s really, really important,” he told a live television broadcast.”This Is Us” actress Mandy Moore was also among those who fled, taking her children and pets with her, according to an Instagram post.”Praying and grateful for the first responders,” she wrote.Reality TV personalities Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from “The Hills,” an MTV show that ran until 2010, said they had lost their house after evacuating.”I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt wrote on Snapchat.

Joe Biden thinks he could have won reelection if he had stayed in the White House race, he said in an interview published Wednesday — while conceding he was unsure if he would have served another full term.The 82-year-old Democrat, who leaves office on January 20, was asked by USA Today if he believed victory over Republican Donald Trump was a realistic prospect last November, and he pointed to unspecified polling and said: “I think yes.””I really thought I had the best chance of beating him. But I also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old. And so I did talk about passing the baton,” Biden said.”But I don’t know. Who the hell knows? So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”Biden, the oldest US president in history, faced persistent questions about his mental fitness before withdrawing from the election after a calamitous televised debate against Trump in which he looked incapable of making the case for another term.He has given fewer sit-down interviews and press conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan, and USA Today was the only print outlet scheduled for a one-to-one before Biden leaves office.Biden was asked about regrets from the last four years but did not mention the presidential debate, or his decision to break his promise to be a single-term president and a “bridge” to next generation.Instead, he complained about misinformation — pointing to falsehoods to spread by Trump and others about two New Year’s Day attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas — and to the glacial pace of infrastructure projects.”I think we would’ve been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these projects in the ground quicker,” he said.Washington has been abuzz with discussion since Trump’s victory over potential preemptive pardons for those who may be in the Republican leader’s crosshairs when he returns to office.Biden confirmed that he was considering the idea but had not yet come to a decision.He described how he told Trump during their Oval Office meeting shortly after the election not to go after perceived enemies, warning that it was “counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores.”Trump listened but did not offer a response, Biden said.  For his legacy, the veteran Democrat said he wanted to be remembered for having a plan to restore the post-pandemic economy and reestablish American global leadership.”That was my hope. I mean, you know, who knows?” Biden said. “And I hope (history) records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind.”