Watch Ron Song in "Unbroken Blossoms" at the David Henry Hwang Theater at East West Players from June 27 to July 21. This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on June 25, 2024.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day. KTLA 5's Omar Lewis reports. (Sept. 28, 2024)

Homicide detectives have launched an investigation into a deadly overnight shooting in South Gate. (Sept. 28, 2024)

Fire crews were dispatched to a historical building in Pomona after it caught fire overnight.  KTLA 5's Carlos Herrera reports. (Sept. 28, 2024)

Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in “Downton Abbey” and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89.

Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital.

“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs.

KTLA's Scott Mantz reports on September 27, 2024.

Details: https://ktla.com/entertainment/maggie-smith-star-of-downton-abbey-and-harry-potter-films-dies-at-89/

With accidents killing more than 60 people since 2010, the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu will soon have speed cameras. KTLA's John Fenoglio talks to local residents, some who say these cameras couldn't come soon enough.

Hurricane Helene left an enormous path of destruction across Florida and the southeastern U.S. on Friday, killing at least 44 people, snapping towering oaks like twigs and tearing apart homes as rescue crews launched desperate missions to save people from floodwaters.

Among those killed were three firefighters, a woman and her 1-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press tally, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

The Category 4 hurricane knocked out power to some hospitals in southern Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp said authorities had to use chainsaws to clear debris and open up roads. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) when it made landfall late Thursday.

KTLA's Chris Wolfe reports on September 27, 2024.

Details: https://ktla.com/news/ap-us-news/ap-helene-makes-landfall-in-northwestern-florida-as-a-category-4-hurricane/

A woman is dead after a school bus and a car crashed in Lakewood, near the border of Cerritos, sending the car onto the sidewalk and into the woman's bicycle.

The crash at Norwalk and Del Amo boulevards occurred at about 8:25 a.m. when the bus tried to run from westbound Del Amo to southbound Norwalk, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

At that point, a black Honda sedan headed east on Del Amo ran a red light and hit the bus, then veered onto a sidewalk, where it hit an elderly woman on a stopped bicycle.

KTLA's Rachel Menitoff reports on September 27, 2024.

Details: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/woman-killed-after-school-bus-car-collide-in-lakewood/

Officials are working to clear the wreckage the day after a semi truck carrying lithium ion batteries caught fire, closing the 47 Freeway and Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro. At least one battery being transported by the semi exploded, creating flames 5 to 10 feet long.

The fire raged on Thursday, but by Friday afternoon, it appears the scene has cooled, as multiple tow trucks arrived to move the remnants of the semi and assorted debris.

KTLA's Ellina Abovian reports on September 27, 2024.

Details: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/workers-clearing-burned-out-semi-from-san-pedro-freeway/

Even as Helene was downgraded from a powerful Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm, it continued to dump heavy rain as it blew through the South Friday. Emergency crews were rushing to rescue people trapped in flooded homes amid a massive storm surge and millions of customers in several states were left without power.

As officials and residents took stock of the damage, the death toll mounted to at least 41 victims Friday. At least seven people were killed in Florida, Nexstar’s WFLA reported. At least two of the people killed appeared to have drowned.

Kristen Currie reports for KTLA on September 27, 2024.

Details: https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/death-toll-rises-after-helene-slams-the-south/

An Inland Empire resident is warning others after thieves targeted and destroyed her vehicle just to steal gasoline. She discovered her truck had been damaged after thieves drilled two holes into her fuel tank to empty it.

KTLA's Shelby Nelson reports on September 27, 2024.

Details: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/southern-california-thieves-drill-into-vehicles-to-steal-gasoline/

An Inland Empire resident is warning others after thieves targeted and destroyed her vehicle just to steal gasoline. She discovered her truck had been damaged after thieves drilled two holes into her fuel tank to empty it.

A man is in the hospital, and another is in custody after a stolen box truck led police on a high-speed chase through Los Angeles on Friday. Locals familiar with the intersection expressed little surprise about the accident to KTLA's Angeli Kakade.

Full story: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/man-hospitalized-another-in-custody-after-stolen-box-truck-pursuit-in-los-angeles/