The sheriff of the nation’s fifth-largest county on Tuesday defied a new policy to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, setting up a showdown over a new obstacle to President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. Earlier Tuesday, San Diego County supervisors voted to prohibit its sheriff’s department from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the federal agency’s enforcement of civil immigration laws, including those that allow for deportations. California law generally prohibits cooperation but makes exceptions for those convicted of certain violent crimes.

South Korea’s previous defense minister was stopped from attempting suicide while in detention over last week’s martial law, officials said, as police were trying to search President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office Wednesday in their intensifying investigation. The main liberal opposition Democratic Party also plans to submit a new motion to impeach Yoon for his Dec. 3 declaration that imposed martial law in South Korea for the first time in more than 40 years. Its first impeachment attempt against Yoon last Saturday failed, with ruling party lawmakers boycotting a floor vote.

House Republicans teed up a vote this week on bipartisan legislation to gradually expand by 66 the number of federal judgeships across the country. Democrats, though, are having second thoughts now that President-elect Donald Trump has won a second term. The White House said Tuesday that if President Joe Biden were presented with the bill, he would veto it. A Congress closely divided along party lines would be unlikely to overturn a veto, likely dooming the bill’s chances this year. It’s an abrupt reversal for legislation that the Senate passed unanimously in August.

Evacuation orders and warnings have gone out to 20,000 Southern California residents Tuesday as firefighters battled a wind-driven wildfire in Malibu that burned near celebrities’ seaside mansions, horse farms and Pepperdine University, the sheriff’s department said. The “stubborn fire” is 0% contained and has drawn some 1,500 firefighters, Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony C. Marrone said at a news conference Tuesday night. He said a preliminary aerial assessment estimates that seven structures were destroyed and eight structures damaged. The blaze has grown to more than 2,800 acres (1,133 hectares) — 600 acres (243 hectares) alone on Tuesday, according to Marrone. “This has been a traumatic 20 hours for the city of Malibu,” said Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell fell and sprained his wrist while walking out of a GOP luncheon on Tuesday, the latest in a series of medical incidents for him in recent years. McConnell, who is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of the year, was walking out of his weekly party lunch with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso when he tripped and fell, Barrasso said, before walking back to his office on his own. Medical personnel were seen heading into his office minutes later. The longtime Republican leader, 82, also has a cut on his face, his office said, but “has been cleared to resume his schedule.” He did not attend a scheduled news conference immediately after the luncheon. Barrasso, the No.

HaRav Dovid Yosef on Wednesday was inaugurated as the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel at the Yochanan Ben Zakai shul in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, where all inaugurations of Chief Rabbanim take place. HaRav Dovid’s brother, HaRav Avraham Yosef, and HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Betzalel, placed the turban worn by HaRav Yosef’s illustrious father and former Chief Rabbi, HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef, z’tl, on HaRav Dovid’s head to the sounds of shofar blasts. The main ceremony, which will be broadcast live, will take place at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the presence of over 1,000 Rabbanim and public figures.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman The recent op-ed discussing financial disparities in our community raises important questions about responsibility and communal standards. While the author asks “Why is the burden to ‘tone down’ placed almost exclusively on those who have been blessed with material success?” and suggests that “the responsibility not [be] shared more evenly,” Our mesorah  actually does provide some guidance on this matter. The Gemorah in Moed Katan (27a-b) relates how Rabban Gamliel HaZaken directly addresses=d this issue. Seeing how burial expenses had become so burdensome that families would abandon their dead, Rabban Gamliel ordered across the board simple linen garments.

Dutch police said Tuesday that they have arrested three suspects who might have been involved in the explosion and fire that killed six people in an apartment building in The Hague over the weekend. Authorities had said they were investigating “all possibilities” that could have caused the disaster, and the arrests indicate there might have been a criminal intent. “More arrests are not excluded,” The Hague police said in a statement. It didn’t elaborate on any reason for the arrests and said the three were seen as “possibly implicated in the explosion.” Police also seized several vehicles, but they said that it was unclear whether they included the one which was seen driving away at high speed from the site shortly after the explosion.

As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration, Republican governors and lawmakers in some states are already rolling out proposals that could help him carry out his pledge to deport millions of people living in the U.S. illegally. Lawmakers in a growing number of states are proposing to give local law officers the power to arrest people who entered the country illegally, mirroring recent laws in Texas and elsewhere that have been placed on hold while courts weigh whether they unconstitutionally usurp federal authority.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is conscious and recovering in an intensive-care unit after undergoing unplanned surgery for an intracranial hemorrhage, doctors from the Sirio-Libanes hospital in Sao Paulo said on Tuesday. The procedure was performed after the 79-year-old leftist leader suffered complications resulting from a fall at home in October, doctors said. “He is in a stable condition, talking normally and eating. He will remain under observation for the next few days,” Dr. Roberto Kalil told a press conference. There will be no after effects, doctors said, adding that Lula expected to return to the capital Brasilia at the beginning of next week. In the meantime, he will not be working, they said.