At 4.30pm last Tuesday afternoon, a dark grey smoke cloud loomed over North Mount Holyoke Avenue in Pacific Palisades, obscuring the setting sun.

The blazes which would become the most destructive wildfire in California’s history were racing up a nearby canyon.

The streets were almost deserted, the air choking, and most people had already evacuated. My team and I spotted an elderly woman at the end of a driveway.

“I don’t drive, I don’t have any relatives,” she said. “What do I do?”

It was 84-year-old Liz Lerner. She grasped my arm as the wind almost blew her off her feet. A neighbour showed up shortly afterwards, loading his Tesla with bags, and agreed to give Liz a ride to safety.

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A week on, she’s in hospital in Los Angeles and wants to tell the dramatic story of her escape and what came next.

“I thought I would die right there on the sidewalk,” she says. “I thought that was the end of my little life. I really thought that there’s nobody coming by here and I’ll just be a skeleton they find.”

As Liz was being driven by her neighbour, down the hill from Pacific Palisades to the coast, all around the neighbourhood, trees and buildings were catching fire.

“As we drove through the windy streets to get out, it was greyer and blacker and darker,” she says. “I felt a great heaviness pushing on my chest at that time. I’m gasping and gasping just trying to get some air. I was having a heart attack, I found out at the hospital.”

Liz is also being treated at Kaiser Permanente hospital in LA for smoke inhalation.

On the TV in her hospital ward she has been watching some of the news reports about the fire which has ravaged her community. She knows her home has been destroyed and wants to see pictures of it. “Wow,” she says, open-mouthed as she looks at a photograph. “There’s nothing left, nothing at all.”

It is a house her dad built in 1949, which she inherited and has made her own. Then she notices her wrought iron gate is still partially standing. “My gate,” she exclaims. “I designed that. I would like to get it back.”

Liz’s daughter, Skye, died 10 years ago and precious reminders of her life have also been lost with the fire.

“I saved all the paintings that she did in first grade. I lost all of those, all the stories she wrote, the birthday cards with the scribbles on them. It’s those normal things, that’s the worst of it.”

Because of the wildfire risk in her area, Liz says her home insurance was cancelled several years ago.

“I have no insurance, absolutely none, and no documents and no cheques and no credit cards. I don’t even have a pair of shoes.”

Liz hopes to be discharged from hospital soon, to a retirement home where she will share a room with another elderly woman. Her life is forever altered and she will never return to the place she once called her “forever home”.

The rebuilding of the decimated Pacific Palisades will happen, but for Liz it will take too long.

Donald Trump’s choice for US defence secretary has been accused of lacking the competence for the job, during a much-disrupted Senate confirmation hearing.

Senators are determining whether Pete Hegseth, a former combat veteran and TV news show host, is fit to lead the US military as Mr Trump’s choice for defence secretary.

He is a controversial choice because of past statements and actions, including allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking and derisive views about women in military combat roles and minorities.

During the hearing – which has been disrupted by three protestors – Republican Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: “Mr Hegseth has admitted to falling short as we all do from time to time.”

But he added: “I have no doubt Mr Hegseth will excel in a skill in which many of his predecessors have fallen short.”

In contrast, Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, told Mr Hegseth: “I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job

“Unfortunately, you lack the character and composure and competence to hold the position of defence.”

Mr Reed also commented on the FBI background investigation into Mr Hegseth: “I want to say, for the record, I believe the investigation was insufficient.”

Mr Hegseth’s opening statement was interrupted by three protesters, all of whom were arrested.

One could be heard calling Hegseth a “Christian zionist”, moments later another person began shouting about “bombing babies in Gaza”.

When Mr Hegseth addressed the committee he spoke about why he thought president-elect Donald Trump chose him for the position.

He said: “The primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the department of defence.

“He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on lethality, meritocracy, warfare, fighting, accountability and readiness to stop bombing that night in our homeland.”

Another Democrat on the committee, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, questioned Mr Hegseth about past comments suggesting women should not serve in combat roles.

He replied that, over time, the US military had seen an erosion of “certain duty positions, certain schools, certain places, which affects readiness, which is what I care about the most, readiness”.

Mr Hegseth added he would be “honoured” to serve alongside “men and women, black, white, all backgrounds with a shared purpose” and he would treat women and minorities fairly if he was confirmed for the job.

Mrs Shaheen replied: “I appreciate your 11th-hour conversion.”

But he added he would review military standards that prioritise gender or race.

President-elect Donald Trump engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, according to a report by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Prosecutor Mr Smith said Mr Trump “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence” in the January 6 riots and knowingly spread a false narrative about fraud in the 2020 election.

However, efforts to bring Mr Trump to trial over his attempt to hold on to power were thwarted by his re-election in November, the special prosecutor said in his report, which was released by the Department of Justice on Tuesday.

He also found charges could be justified against Mr Trump’s co-conspirators but reached no final conclusions.

Mr Smith resigned in the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory in November.

“Indeed, but for Mr Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” Mr Smith’s report said.

The release of the report comes a few days after Mr Trump was sentenced following his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

President-elect Mr Trump has consistently criticised Mr Smith and allies have suggested the special counsel should now face criminal charges for pursuing the case against him.

In the wake of the release of the report, Mr Trump called Mr Smith “deranged” and criticised the report’s “fake findings”.

Released alongside the report was a letter from lawyers for Mr Trump to the justice department, dated 6 January 2025.

In it, they called for Mr Smith to “terminate all efforts toward the preparation and release” of the report, which they said was “consistent with the bad-faith crusade” that they said Mr Smith conducted on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration.

The special prosecutor defended his investigation, saying: “The claim from Mr Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”

Read more:
January 6: The case against Donald Trump
January 6: How four hours of mayhem unfolded

Mr Smith’s case had faced legal hurdles even before it was clear that Mr Trump would be returning to the White House.

It was paused for months as the former president pursued a legal claim that he could not be prosecuted for official actions taken during his time as commander-in-chief.

The Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, largely agreed with him, granting former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

Other allegations in the report released today include:

• Mr Trump contacted legislators and executives at state level and “urged them to take action to ignore the vote counts and change the results”

• Mr Trump and co-conspirators launched a plan to use fraudulent electors in seven states that he had lost in the 2020 election to send false certifications to Washington DC

• Frustrated with the justice department because it had identified no evidence of substantial fraud in the 2020 election, Mr Trump “attempted to wield federal power to perpetuate his fraud claims and retain office”

• Mr Trump repeatedly pressed then vice president Mike Pence to use his ministerial position as president of the Senate to change the election outcome – something Mr Pence repeatedly refused to do.