An alleged leader from Japan’s Yakuza crime syndicates has pleaded guilty to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar as part of a global web of trades in drugs, weapons and laundered cash, according to the US Department of Justice.

During an undercover investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2021, Takeshi Ebisawa tried to sell the materials – including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium – to someone he believed was an Iranian general who wanted them for a nuclear weapons program, the department said in a statement.

The 60-year-old Japanese national on Wednesday pleaded guilty in a New York court to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic the nuclear materials out of Myanmar, the department said in a statement.

He also admitted to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges.

In 2021, Ebisawa told an undercover DEA agent that an unnamed leader of an insurgent group in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, could sell nuclear material through Ebisawa to the fictitious Iranian general, to fund a large weapons purchase, the indictment says.

A year later, US authorities arrested Ebisawa on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and purchase American-made surface-to-air missiles. Early last year he was also hit with charges over the purported Iranian sale.

“As he admitted in court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma,” said acting US attorney Edward Y. Kim for the Southern District of New York.

“At the same time, he worked to send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy-duty weaponry such as surface-to-air missiles to be used in Burma and laundered what he believed to be drug money from New York to Tokyo.”

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been embroiled in a civil war since February 2021 when the Southeast Asian nation’s military ousted the democratically elected government. The country is awash with natural resources such as rare-earth metals and other materials vital for civilian and military technology, including uranium. It remains a major producer of narcotics and has long been a magnet for transnational crime.

During his dealings with the undercover DEA agent, Ebisawa sent pictures “depicting rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation,” according to the indictment, as well as pages of what Ebisawa said were lab analyses “indicating the presence of the radioactive elements thorium and uranium.”

The Department of Justice said Ebisawa “unwittingly introduced an undercover DEA agent…, posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker, to Ebisawa’s international network of criminal associates, which spanned Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the United States, among other places, for the purpose of arranging large-scale narcotics and weapons transactions.”

International trafficking of nuclear materials carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the department, which referred to Ebisawa as a leader in the Yakuza, the infamous network of Japanese crime families.

“This case demonstrates DEA’s unparalleled ability to dismantle the world’s largest criminal networks,” said administrator Anne Milgram of the DEA.

“Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

Rescue crews found the body of a British hiker buried in the snow of the Italian Alps and were continuing to search for his friend, who had also been missing since January 1, Italy’s rescue services said Wednesday.

Italy’s Alpine rescue service said it only received an alert about the men on January 6, five days after the men set out in the Adamello range near Trento, after they failed to make a scheduled flight home and relatives contacted authorities.

After the first two days of searches were hampered by snowfall, fog and avalanche warnings, rescue crews managed to get a helicopter in the air Wednesday and ground crews reached the pair’s last recorded location.

Guided by the hikers’ phone recordings, crews found the men’s backpacks and equipment, as well as the body of one of the hikers buried in the snow, the rescuers said in a statement.

British media quoted relatives and partners of the two men, Aziz Ziriat, 36, and Sam Harris, 35, as saying they were experienced hikers who had planned a New Year’s Day excursion, hiking from mountain hut to mountain hut.

“It wasn’t surprising that they had no signal as they like going off the grid,” said a university friend of Ziriat, Joe Stone.

A helicopter attempted a flyover on Tuesday, but fog and poor visibility forced it to return before reaching the affected valley and the search was suspended, the rescue crews said.

Additionally, ground crews of the fire rescue service were unable to work due to high risks of avalanches.

The Adamello range straddles Italy’s Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige regions and includes the highest peak, Mt. Adamello, at 3,539 meters (11,611 feet.)

Acrid smoke shrouded the sky in Altadena, California, as Gail watched flames from the raging Eaton Fire swallow her next-door neighbor’s house.

Each ember carried by powerful gusts of wind could be the spark that ignites the home she has lived in for the past decade – and all she can do is watch.

Several fires are raging around Los Angeles, devastating neighborhoods and straining firefighting resources. At least five people have died, and multiple others have sustained “significant injuries,” authorities have said.

As flames spread to Gail’s property, burning down her garage, community members came to help.

“I don’t know who all these guys are who are helping to save my house right now but I’m very grateful,” she says.

Volunteers have grabbed water hoses and are trying desperately to keep the flames at bay by dousing Gail’s roof and yard. But as the wind shifts, a sobering reality sets in.

“I’m happy that it’s standing right now, but I don’t have a lot of hope,” she admits.

The wildfires in Los Angeles County together consumed thousands of acres in just over a day, with the blaze near Altadena quadrupling in size in a matter of hours Wednesday. To the west, the Palisades Fire is already among the most destructive fires in California history – and none of it has been contained.

But even as the fires rage, stories of heroism are beginning to emerge.

Thousands of local firefighters and first responders are trying to contain the flames and evacuate residents – even as their own homes ignite.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said several of his employees have lost their homes to the flames.

His deputies were forced to evacuate the Altadena sheriff’s station in the middle of the night, he said at a Wednesday news conference. As they fled, “residents were running up from different locations … asking them for assistance in getting them out of their structures,” Luna said.

“They were barely able to get people out before these structures started burning.”

Working under immense heat and thick smoke, some firefighters and first responders are pulling 48-hour shifts, pivoting their efforts between battling the flames and evacuating residents and protecting lives.

As the fires burn throughout Los Angeles County – and edge closer to historic Hollywood symbols – the National Guard has been deployed to help with the response to the fires.

“This is a tragic time in our history here in Los Angeles, but a time when we’re really tested and see who we really are,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

The infernos were fueled by powerful gusts of wind of up to 100 miles per hour that grounded flights and briefly halted any efforts to douse the flames from the air.

Some firefighters have had to take shelter from the flames in vehicles as winds picked up, McDonnell said.

“The winds were like something that I’ve never seen before. Firefighters, police officers, deputies, they’re out there sheltering in their vehicles, in their trucks and their cars, so that they don’t end up getting burned from the fire,” McDonnell said.

“They were there until they could get out of the car and go back to doing their work.”

As the Eaton Fire advanced on homes, police officers went door to door to evacuate people, including elderly residents and people with mobility limitations, officials said Wednesday.

“They saved many, many lives in the last 22 hours,” Pasadena City Manager Miguel Marquez said at a news conference. “Their efforts were heroic.”

Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said the department responded to over 3,600 calls for service in 24 hours – more than double the number of calls received on an average day.

Harsh winds have made the fires unpredictable. Driving through neighborhoods in Altadena, homes on either side of the street can be seen engulfed in flames, while others sit untouched. Then, in a matter of minutes, everything changes. Trees, cars and buildings ignite, and the air becomes heavy and metallic, filled with chemicals and smoke.

Tires pop, gas tanks explode and power lines crumple, all while residents stand by helplessly and watch as their entire lives are swallowed by the blaze.

“Last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we’ve seen in any part of our city, at any part of our history,” Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles City Council, said at the news conference Wednesday.

“Fire literally jumping roads, taking out structures, and our public safety professionals created an environment where injuries were kept to a minimum. Fatalities were kept to a minimum,” he added.

“We wake up this morning with a renewed spirit that we can defeat this fire and move on to a brighter day.”

Mozambique’s main opposition leader returned from exile Thursday as security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of his supporters who gathered near the main international airport to welcome him home.

Venancio Mondlane was seen walking off a plane at Mavalane International Airport in the capital, Maputo. He had left the country in October following a disputed election that has sparked months of violent protests and thrown the country into turmoil.

Mondlane said he left Mozambique fearing for his life after two senior members of his opposition party were killed in their car by unknown gunmen in a late-night shooting in the aftermath of the election.

Police on Thursday also blocked roads leading to the airport after Mondlane said on social media earlier this week he would return to the southern African country. Tear gas drifted over the airport and surrounding roads and a helicopter hovered overhead.

Thousands of Mondlane’s supporters were expected to gather in Maputo for his return, prompting the clampdown by security forces.

More than 100 people have been killed by security forces since Mozambique erupted in protests that Mondlane called for after the long-ruling Frelimo party was declared the winner of the Oct. 9 election.

Mondlane and other opposition candidates accused the ruling party of rigging the election and international observers reported irregularities in the vote and the alteration of some results.

Mozambique’s Constitutional Council upheld Frelimo’s victory last month, making its candidate, Daniel Chapo, the president-elect. He is due to be inaugurated next week to succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who has served the maximum two terms.

Frelimo has been in power in Mozambique for 50 years since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The party has often been accused of rigging elections since Mozambique held its first democratic vote in 1994. The latest street protests in several major cities have been the biggest threat to Frelimo’s rule.

Walls of fire devoured neighborhoods, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee for their lives. But as a cataclysm fueled by windstorms charred swathes of Los Angeles, Donald Trump spotted an opportunity.

The president-elect responded to six massive blazes by reopening his long-term feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, landing an early jab on a Democratic governor and a state likely to emerge as a major opponent to his second term plans.

Trump and Newsom have clashed bitterly in the past, including over fire prevention, environmental policies, climate change, green vehicles and immigration.

And the incoming president wasted no time in laying the blame for simultaneous wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area that have so far killed at least five people.

Trump slammed “the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo,” in a post on his Truth Social network. He claimed that California environmental policies that divert fresh water to preserve wetlands and wildlife were to blame for hydrants running dry. “I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this,” Trump wrote as part of a flurry of social media posts, later writing that Newsom should resign.

In Trump’s misinformation game, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s true that Newsom is responsible for diverting water to protect the delta smelt – “a worthless fish” in Trump’s words – and that, as a result, homes of Angelenos were burned down. The president-elect just needs enough people to believe it might be the case to inflict political damage on the governor, who’s one of the nation’s most high-profile Democrats and a possible 2028 presidential hopeful.

California is also a perfect target as a liberal state that went for Vice President Kamala Harris in last year’s election. The conceit of a state and city inflicting self-defeating environmental policies is a perfect fit for Trump’s narrative that liberal governance in blue states and cities invites chaos, crime and misery.

“This is not Government. I can’t wait till January 20th!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Newsom: ‘This guy wanted to politicize it’

There will be legitimate questions about California’s and Los Angeles’ level of preparedness for the fires. Newsom and city officials will be called to account for any failures – like many politicians tested in the crucible of natural disasters. But in such dire situations, blame usually awaits the ebbing of the crisis.

“I have a lot of thoughts about what I want to say, and I won’t,” the governor added.

In this specific case, Trump’s complaints about the freshwater issue being to blame for difficulties in responding appeared to be at best a vast simplification of complex factors at play.

But after a meeting with Republican senators on Thursday, the president-elect doubled down.

“This is a true tragedy, and it’s a mistake of the governor,” Trump told reporters. “They don’t have any water. Millions and millions of gallons of water that they have, and they send it out into the Pacific.”

But water officials said that while hydrants in Pacific Palisades did run dry early Wednesday, there was sufficient water in Southern California to fight the fires. The logistics of getting enough of it to Pacific Palisades – and at the rate overwhelmed firefighters need to control the blazes – were prohibitive.

Trump again showcases erratic response to national crises

Normal practice for a national leader when disaster strikes is to bury partisan grievances, unite behind Americans in need and pledge to stand with the victims for as long as it takes.

Even Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has often locked horns with Newsom and California in the past – especially over pandemic lockdowns – offered prayers and assistance to California. “When disaster strikes, we must come together to help our fellow Americans in any way we can,” DeSantis wrote on X.

Newsom praised his fellow Democrat, President Joe Biden, for quickly bringing the might of the federal government to bear as the infernos gathered strength with a major disaster declaration.

“It’s impossible for me to express the level of appreciation and cooperation we received from the White House in this administration,” Newsom said, standing alongside the president in Santa Monica on Wednesday. “So on behalf of all of us, Mr. President, thank you for being here.”

Biden said the federal government was prepared to do “anything and everything” to contain the fires and listed multiple military deployments to fight the disaster. He, however, ended the media availability on a jarring tonal note by marking the arrival of a new family member, after his granddaughter Naomi gave birth at an area hospital. “The good news is, I am a great-grandfather as of today,” he said.

The White House announced late Wednesday that Biden will no longer travel to Rome, Italy, this week as scheduled, canceling the trip in the final days of his presidency to monitor the wildfires.

Trump’s attacks on Biden and Newsom are his latest attempt to portray the outgoing administration as incompetent, apparently designed to flatter his own incoming White House team by comparison.

His comments suggest that his second administration, which begins in 11 days, will be just as unorthodox and turbulent as his first, and will be punctuated by angry outbursts on social media against his opponents even during crises.

A long history of bitter clashes

Trump and Newsom have a deeply antagonistic relationship, which is exacerbated by their sharply differing ideologies and the fact that mighty California has the power to frustrate some of the president-elect’s political priorities.

Trump is also fixated on the management of forests and fire prevention, including his view that Democratic jurisdictions conduct insufficient clearance of fallen foliage, which he insists is to blame for many fires.

“The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management,” Trump wrote on what was then Twitter in November 2019. “I told him from the first day we met that he must ‘clean’ his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers…..”

Trump’s tweet, during a previous California wildfire crisis, seemed incongruous at the time since it followed praise from Newsom for his efforts to help his state.

Environmentalists argue that the real problem that makes California so susceptible to worsening fire seasons is something that Trump refuses to accept exists – climate change. In the current crisis, parched earth and unseasonal heat made Los Angeles a tinderbox that was deeply vulnerable to the added catalyst of roaring high winds that spread fires.

During another California wildfires crisis, as millions of acres burned in 2020, Trump dismissed an appeal from Wade Crowfoot, the state’s natural resources secretary, to acknowledge the impact of global warming.

“It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch,” Trump said. When Crowfoot asked him to look at the science, he added: “I don’t think science knows, actually.”

Trump insisted on Capitol Hill Wednesday that he “got along well” with Newsom despite their differences.

But their renewed estrangement could be a problem for California as it will potentially soon be seeking hundreds of millions in dollars in federal disaster aid from the Republican-controlled White House and Congress.

“It looks like we are going to be the ones having to rebuild it,” Trump said after meeting the senators.

And Trump and Newsom will be at odds over more than fires. The governor has already pledged to act if Trump seeks to wipe out electric vehicle tax credits. And his state is likely to be at the vanguard of legal efforts to thwart Trump administration policies in many areas, including immigration and reproductive rights.

There are many previous examples of Trump politicizing national crises.

In 2017, he was criticized for his handling of Hurricane Maria that devastated Puerto Rico and killed nearly 3,000 people. There is blame to go around when relief efforts fall short, and the then-president was not solely responsible for the missteps in the federal and local responses. But he repeatedly blamed local leaders and complained about the level of aid that was required, falsely claiming that the operation was an “an incredible, unsung success.”

And Trump’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic contained multiple examples of him trying to preserve his political fortunes that ironically helped seal his defeat in the 2020 election.

More recently, Trump seized on the terror attack that killed 14 people in New Orleans on January 1, falsely implying on social media that the suspect was an undocumented migrant who recently crossed the southern border.

It was a reminder that in times of national stress, the president-elect’s first response has sometimes been to seek political gain instead of promoting unity and facts-based responses.

The mayor of a small town in southern Italy has issued an unusual proclamation: “Getting sick is prohibited.”

Residents of Belcastro in the southern region of Calabria have been “ordered to avoid contracting any illness that requires medical assistance, especially an emergency,” a decree from Mayor Antonio Torchia stated.

Torchia told local television that while “we take (the decree) with a bit of irony,” it is intended to highlight the town’s inadequate access to healthcare.

Belcastro, a town of about 1,300 people of whom half are elderly, has a health center that is often closed, and on-call doctors are not available on weekends, holidays or after hours, the mayor said.

The closure of nearby healthcare centers, and the fact that the nearest emergency room is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) away in the city of Catanzaro, led the mayor to believe it necessary to “adopt an urgent and non-deferrable act of a precautionary nature,” he said.

“This is not just a provocation, the ordinance is a cry for help, a way to shine a spotlight on an unacceptable situation,” Torchia told local news outlet Corriere della Calabria.

In his decree, the mayor asked people not to “engage in behaviors that may be harmful and to avoid domestic accidents,” and “not to leave the house too often, travel or practice sports, and to rest for the majority of the time.”

It’s not clear if, or how, the ordinance will be enforced.

The mayor said the order was aimed at provoking regional authorities and health officials to address the issues. The ordinance will stay in effect until the town’s public health center is open regularly, the mayor said.

“Come and live a week in our small village and try to feel safe knowing that in the event of a health emergency the only hope is to get to Catanzaro in time,” he said while speaking to local media. “Try it and then tell me if this situation seems acceptable to you.”

The sparsely populated Calabria region is one of Italy’s poorest and has been susceptible to desertification and brain drain, with many young people moving out of rural communities to live in cities.

Over 75% of Calabria towns – roughly 320 – currently had fewer than 5,000 residents in 2021, sparking fears that some communities could die out completely without regeneration. Some towns have even started offering to pay people to live there in an effort to reverse their population decline.

Belcastro’s mayor knows that many of the towns face similar healthcare access issues.

“I am a drop in the ocean,” Torchia told local broadcaster LaC News24. “The province of Catanzaro has 80 municipalities, and I believe that most of them suffer from the same problems.”