• Air travel is being disrupted by strong winds and wildfires in Los Angeles.
• Several airlines have waived change fees for flights to Los Angeles and Orange County.
• Some flights to Burbank were diverted, while passengers photographed the fires from the skies.

The wildfires devastating Los Angeles and the strong winds intensifying them are also disrupting air travel in and around the city.

After a lengthy dry spell in the region, the Santa Ana winds produced gusts up to nearly 90 mph.

These strong winds and the fires — which have led to five deaths and over 130,000 people being evacuated — have caused knock-on effects, with significant numbers of flights delayed and airlines issuing waivers to allow passengers to amend their flights.

American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines are among the carriers that have issued waivers for change fees. The affected airports are Los Angeles International, Hollywood Burbank, Ontario International, and Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport.

At LAX, the city's main airport, 153 flights, or 18%, were delayed on Wednesday, per data from FlightAware.

The airport says it is open and operating normally, but passengers should check their flight status with their airline.

Hollywood Burbank Airport is also facing some disruption, with 18% of Wednesday's flights canceled, per FlightAware.

On social media, the airport also told travelers to check their flight status before flying.

BBC reporter Ben Derico said his Wednesday flight to Burbank had to turn around and return to Las Vegas.

"After a bumpy attempt at touching down the landing was abandoned," he wrote. "The captain told us the winds were just too strong."

Tai Wright, from North Hollywood, told Newsweek her flight from Dallas to Burbank diverted to LAX.

"The heat inside the aircraft started to rise, and the smoke smell filled the cabin," she said.

"The entire landing was rocky, with the aircraft swaying and turning in all directions right up until touchdown, and everyone on board applauded with good reason after we touched ground."

Santa Monica Airport is the closest to the wildfires, about 3 miles south of an evacuation order resulting from the Palisades fire. It is a general aviation airport, which means commercial flights don't typically operate there.

Aviation is also playing a key role in fighting the wildfires. The Los Angeles Fire Department said 12 helicopters and six fixed-wing aircraft are in operation.

• A woman in Germany was sentenced to life for murdering her doppelgänger in 2022.
• The victim's family in Algeria found out about the verdict three weeks later.
• They say they were kept in the dark through the ordeal.

A woman and her male accomplice were sentenced to life in prison following an 11-month murder trial in Germany that sparked headlines across the world.

The case ended with their convictions for the August 2022 murder of the victim, described as her killer's doppelgänger.

But the family of Khadidja O., the victim, say they were kept in the dark while they were hundreds of miles away in Algeria.

"We didn't know anything," Khadidja's younger sister, Ahlem Boudjemaâ, told Business Insider of the trial.

She learned about the verdict only from BI's reporter getting in touch three weeks after the sentencing.

A language barrier and complex family dynamics contributed to German authorities falling short of their aim to communicate with the murder victim's relatives overseas.

The 'doppelgänger murder'

Khadidja, a 23-year-old beauty influencer who was living in Heilbronn, Germany, was killed two-and-a-half years ago.

While her father was part of the prosecution of her murder, the family she kept in touch with in Algeria found themselves shut out of the case.

Prosecutors said Khadidja was tracked down on Instagram by a woman who looked like her in a plot to fake her own death.

They said a 25-year-old Iraqi-German woman, identified only as Shahraban K., orchestrated the murder.

(In Germany, it is customary to refer to victims and defendants only by their first names and an initial.)

Prosecutors said that, along with an accomplice identified as Sheqir K., she lured Khadidja into a trap by pretending to offer her a free cosmetic treatment.

For a time, authorities indeed believed Shahraban was the one who died.

In August 2022, police discovered a bloodied body with dozens of stab wounds and initially identified it as hers.

However, an autopsy later revealed the body to be that of Khadidja, who police said bore a "striking resemblance" to Shahraban.

This discovery led to Shahraban and, later, Sheqir being named as suspects in the murder. The killing gripped the media, becoming widely known as the "doppelgänger murder."

Mid-way through the trial, prosecutors alleged that Shahraban previously tried to hire someone to murder a relative.

Both defendants were ultimately found guilty of murder, with Shahraban also facing an additional conviction of attempted incitement to murder her brother-in-law.

Thomas Schlappa, a press officer for Ingolstadt's regional court, confirmed that the two defendants were sentenced to life behind bars on December 19.

He said that Shahraban's case was deemed so severe that probation is "not an option."

Left in the dark

The victim's father, who lives in Germany and has had no contact with the Algerian family since a contentious divorce, was represented in court.

The rest of Khadidja's family in Oran, Algeria, had no legal representation and received little information throughout the trial.

They said they only learned about the verdict on January 8, 2025, nearly three weeks later, after Business Insider messaged them.

"I don't know why they did this to us," Boudjemaâ, the younger sister, told BI of the German authorities, who had earlier said the relatives deserved access to that information.

Nonetheless, Khadidja's Algerian family felt consistently left in the dark through the trial.

"I waited every day for news, but nothing was new," Boudjemaâ said.

From the offset, they had felt sidelined — they say even the news of Khadidja's death took 10 days to reach them.

Boudjemaâ says she was contacted by Khadidja's friends on social media, and had to relay the news to her mother.

(Ingolstadt state prosecutor's office disputes this, saying files show that the family in Algeria was informed of the murder.)

The mother, Bouch, told BI last July that she felt German authorities had done little to help her. She said they gave an email address which turned out to be incorrect.

Frustrated by the lack of information, Bouch, who is disabled after a brain hemorrhage several years ago, went on a fact-finding mission to Germany herself but learned little.

Veronika Grieser of the Ingolstadt state prosecutor's office characterized the lack of communication as a misunderstanding in statements to BI at the time.

She said the state prosecutor's office generally seeks to provide information on significant developments in a trial when relatives inquire.

"We very much regret that the victim's mother feels inadequately informed by the authorities," she said. "Of course, the victim's relatives have a right to information about the status of the proceedings and, of course, about the dates of the main hearing."

This week, the state prosecutor's office said that nobody from the Algerian family had contacted their office.

Schlappa of Ingolstadt's regional court told BI in an email that the outcome of the proceedings had been shared in a press release and appeared to suggest that the Algerian family was excluded due to their lack of legal representation.

"The victim's father was a co-plaintiff in the main hearing and was represented by a lawyer appointed by the court," he said. "To what extent the father has or had contact with any relatives in Algeria is not known here."

Once news of the sentencing reached Algeria, Boudjemaâ's reaction to the sentencing was conflicted.

"I don't know if there is justice," she said. "My sister is dead, she is gone, and she will not return."

• North Korea is learning combat lessons fighting Ukraine, a US official said.
• It means the authoritarian state is more of a threat to its neighbors.
• North Korea has dispatched around 12,000 troops to fight for Russia.

North Korea is learning valuable lessons from fighting against Ukraine, making it an increased threat to its neighbors, a US official said.

In recent months, North Korea has sent around 12,000 troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine as part of a new security pact between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The fighting has been concentrated in the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine has seized and held swaths of territory.

In exchange, North Korea is receiving economic and diplomatic backing from Russia, as well as valuable military technology.

Dorothy Camille Shea, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, discussed the arrangement at the UN Security Council, Reuters reported.

North Korea "is significantly benefiting from receiving Russian military equipment, technology and experience, rendering it more capable of waging war against its neighbors," she said.

"In turn, the DPRK will likely be eager to leverage these improvements to promote weapons sales and military training contracts globally," she said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

After brokering its alliance with Russia, North Korea has taken a defiant posture and on Monday tested a ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead.

The test came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea. The timing seemed intended to showcase North Korea's capacity to overcome the defenses of the US and its regional allies.

South Korea has watched North Korea's involvement in the Ukraine war with growing concern. It said last year it could provide Ukraine with intensified support in response to the alliance with Russia.

The UN has long sought to constrain North Korea's military program, specifically its ability to deploy nuclear weapons, by imposing severe sanctions.

But Russia has used its place on the UN Security Council to stymie a committee formed to enforce them.

On Wednesday, Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, argued that North Korea's new missile tests were a defensive measure in response to military exercises by the US and its regional allies.

Under President Joe Biden, the US reaffirmed its commitment to help defend east Asian regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.

President-elect Donald Trump has suggested he may take a more transactional approach to broker a deal with Kim, a path he pursued in his first term.

• The Panama Canal Authority chief said giving preferential treatment to one country's ships would lead to "chaos."
• Ricaurte Vásquez Morales told The Wall Street Journal: "Rules are rules — and there are no exceptions."
• Trump has accused the canal authority of charging "exorbitant" fees to US ships.

Giving US ships preferential rates to navigate the Panama Canal would "lead to chaos," the head of the canal authority said.

"Rules are rules — and there are no exceptions," Ricaurte Vásquez Morales told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

"We cannot discriminate for the Chinese, or the Americans, or anyone else. This will violate the neutrality treaty, international law and it will lead to chaos."

In a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump demanded that US vessels be given preferential treatment.

He also accused the authority of overcharging US ships and of separately seeking funding from the US to repair the waterway. Vásquez Morales denied both those claims, telling the Journal that the authority funds maintenance from the fees it charges and that Panama hadn't requested funding from the US for improvements.

Ships are charged between $300,000 and $1 million depending on their size and type to pass through the canal.

Those charges "apply to all ships from around the world and there are no exceptions," Vásquez Morales told the Journal.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of retaking control of the canal, calling the fees "exorbitant" and a "rip-off."

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," he said on Truth Social in December.

At Tuesday's news conference, Trump also downplayed Panama's control of the canal and refused to rule out using military force to retake control of the trade route, expanding on a threat he made last month.

"China's basically taken it over. China's at both ends of the Panama Canal. China's running the Panama Canal," the president-elect said.

Vásquez Morales told the Journal: "China has no involvement whatsoever in our operations."

In response to Trump's comments, Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha said on Tuesday that only Panamanians operated the canal, adding: "Our canal's sovereignty is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest."

Trump has also refused to rule out using military force to take control of Greenland, which he said the US needed for "national security purposes."

The 51-mile Panama Canal was officially opened in 1914, creating a new trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The US transferred control to the state-owned Panama Canal Authority in 1999 in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, initiated in 1977 by the Carter administration.

Under the treaty, the US has the right to defend the canal from any change to its neutrality.

• Hundreds of prisoners are helping to battle the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
• Incarcerated firefighters earn $26.90 to $34 for each 24-hour shift.
• It's far below California's minimum wage of $16.50 an hour.

Hundreds of Californian prisoners have been deployed to help battle the fires raging across the Los Angeles area, with some working 24-hour shifts for as little as $26.90, or just over $1 an hour.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told The Guardian that it had deployed 395 incarcerated individuals to help battle the blazes.

The firefighters, who have "minimum custody" status, have been embedded with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which has deployed thousands of firefighters to the area.

The CDCR, jointly with Cal Fire and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, runs 35 "fire camps" across 25 California counties. Participation is voluntary, with inmates using hand tools to aid in fire suppression and other emergency responses.

The camps are considered minimum-security facilities.

California, which is grappling with longer and more destructive fire seasons amid the climate crisis, has long relied on incarcerated people for its response. In fact, the CDCR crews have, at times, accounted for as much as 30% of the state's wildfire force.

According to the CDCR, fire crew members earn between $5.80 and $10.24 a day, depending on their skill level, with an additional $1 per hour for active emergency assignments.

Crews can work 24-hour shifts during emergencies, followed by 24 hours of rest, it said, with the lowest-skilled firefighters earning $26.90 and the highest-skilled maxing out at about $34.

For context, California's minimum wage is $16.50 per hour, with some areas, such as West Hollywood, offering higher minimum wages.

In California, inmates are not guaranteed the state's minimum wage, and some earn as little as 16 cents per hour.

The $10.24 basic rate for the highest-skilled incarcerated firefighters ranks among the best daily rate for incarcerated people in the state.

In addition to pay, fire crews helping out during emergencies like this receive "time credits" on a two-for-one basis, meaning that for each day they serve on the crew, they receive two additional days off their sentence.

Participation can also lead to criminal record expungement and the ability to seek professional emergency response certifications.

The CDCR did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

• American Airlines flight attendants were sent a union memo about leaving passengers on empty planes.
• The AFPA said cabin crew members should check lavatories and under seats for sleeping passengers.
• A union spokesperson said it "routinely" issued such reminders to members.

The union for American Airlines flight attendants has issued a memo reminding cabin crew not to leave sleeping passengers on board after flights land.

Aviation news site Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported that the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) recently warned members there had been an increase in such incidents.

"This communication serves as a reminder for flight attendants to complete required post-flight security checks to ensure all passengers have deplaned upon arrival," a spokesperson for APFA, which represents more than 28,000 American Airlines cabin crew members, told Business Insider.

They added that the union "routinely releases communications reminding flight attendants of the importance of conducting these checks."

Leaving a passenger on an empty plane is not only a security concern but can also violate safety rules that mandate a minimum number of flight attendants per passenger.

APFA's recent memo reminded cabin crew to "check lavatories, and make sure no passengers are sleeping in or under seats," Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported.

"These procedures are required to ensure that no passenger is ever left onboard," the memo continued. "This is a critical final check to confirm that no one has been overlooked, and this ensures that you and your crew aren't at risk of violating a [federal aviation regulation]."

The lead flight attendant is also supposed to perform a walk-through of the cabin as a final check, the memo reportedly said.

"Leaving passengers on the aircraft unattended is a significant safety and security concern and we appreciate everyone's shared efforts in ensuring this doesn't happen."

In 2019, an Air Canada passenger woke up alone on a cold and dark plane.

Tiffani O'Brien said she fell asleep on the 90-minute flight from Quebec City to Toronto and woke up hours later after the plane had been parked.