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I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with your worldwide news update.
Hundreds of mourners paid their final respects to Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. The one-term U.S. president was widely admired for his humanitarian work after leaving the White House. Reuters correspondent Freddie Joyner reports. Fellow Democratic President Joe Biden eulogized the 39th president. "Through it all, he showed us how character and faith start with ourselves and then flows to others." All five living, current and former U.S. presidents were in attendance. Before the ceremony began, Republican President-elect Donald Trump entered the cathedral with his wife, Melania. He shook hands with his former vice president, Mike Pence, before sitting next to former President Barack Obama, with whom he chatted as introductory music played. To Obama's right were Laura and George W. Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton. Tens of thousands of Americans over the past two days filed through the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol to pay their respects to Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981. Reuters correspondent Freddie Joyner. The worst wildfires in Los Angeles history are still burning. Reuters correspondent Jillian Kitchener reports. On Thursday, flames continued to tear through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, home to many celebrities. The massive wildfire there, together with the Eaton Fire to the east, has destroyed hundreds of homes. Several people have been killed and the death toll is expected to rise. Nearly 180,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. Firefighters managed to make gains overnight in battling the Sunset Fire, which had forced mandatory evacuations in Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills. Reuters correspondent Jillian Kitchener. This is VOA News. The outgoing U.S. defense secretary on Thursday urged Ukraine's allies to push ahead with vital security assistance for Kyiv as he wrapped up the 25th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. VOA National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his supporters meeting in Germany. "We've come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now." The U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group has so far given Kyiv more than $126 billion in weapons, training and equipment, including a just unveiled $500 million package from the United States. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says it's one of the great military success stories of our time. "This coalition has become the arsenal of Ukrainian democracy." And he voiced hope the work of the coalition will continue even after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month. Jeff Selden, VOA News, Washington. The Biden administration has doubled down on its unusual court battle to derail a plea deal that the government itself reached with accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It urged a federal appeals panel Thursday to block Mohammed's guilty plea from going forward as scheduled Friday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Defense lawyers described the attempts to throw out the agreement as the latest in two decades of "fitful" and "negligent" mishandling of the case by the U.S. military and successive administrations. The fight has put the Biden administration at odds with the U.S. military officials that it had appointed to oversee justice in al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people. Tech billionaire Elon Musk livestreamed his chat with the leader of Germany's far-right party on Thursday. AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports. He used the power of his social media platform, X, to amplify the party's message ahead of its upcoming national election. More than 200,000 accounts tuned into the livestream, which raised concerns across Europe about the world's richest man trying to influence foreign politics. The Tesla chief executive, who helped reelect Donald Trump in the United States, spoke with Alice Weidel, a co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party and its candidate for chancellor. Musk said he was strongly recommending that Germans vote for Weidel's party in next month's election. I'm Haya Panjwani. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website, voanews.com. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |