LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — An explosion inside a maintenance hole on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock set off fires and power outages, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week, university police said.

The explosion happened Wednesday evening at the Engineering Key section of campus, which was evacuated.

“I heard an explosion and then saw a smoke ring, almost like a cartoon or something,” doctoral degree student Robert Gauthreaux III told KCBD-TV. “It traveled about 200 feet in the air.”

Gauthreaux said he went inside the architecture building, which lost power. He said he and others tried to help someone who was trapped inside an elevator.

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian activists and residents of this northern West Bank town gathered on Monday to plant an olive grove in memory of the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter, describing him as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Abbas Melhem, executive manager of the Palestinian Farmers Union, said the 10 dunam (2.5 acre) grove, called the “Freedom Farm,” consists of 250 newly planted olive trees. The farm is to be fenced in to protect the trees from wild animals or extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian olive trees in the past, he said.

Carter’s legacy “will have been rooted among people, mainly in Palestine, because he was one of those only who stood firmly supporting the struggle of the Palestinians for independence and for freedom,” Melhem said.

The advocacy group, based in the West Bank, launched the project in collaboration with Treedom for Palestine, a U.S. nonprofit that promotes projects to empower Palestinian farmers by planting trees.

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian activists and residents of this northern West Bank town gathered on Monday to plant an olive grove in memory of the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter, describing him as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Abbas Melhem, executive manager of the Palestinian Farmers Union, said the 10 dunam (2.5 acre) grove, called the “Freedom Farm,” consists of 250 newly planted olive trees. The farm is to be fenced in to protect the trees from wild animals or extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian olive trees in the past, he said.

Carter’s legacy “will have been rooted among people, mainly in Palestine, because he was one of those only who stood firmly supporting the struggle of the Palestinians for independence and for freedom,” Melhem said.

The advocacy group, based in the West Bank, launched the project in collaboration with Treedom for Palestine, a U.S. nonprofit that promotes projects to empower Palestinian farmers by planting trees.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fires tearing through the Los Angeles area have killed at least 24 people, displaced thousands of others and destroyed more than 12,000 structures in what might be the most expensive conflagrations in the nation's history.

The blazes started last Tuesday, fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds that forecasters expect to kick back up through at least midweek. Cal Fire reported that the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires have consumed about 62 square miles (160 square kilometers).

The Palisades Fire, along the coast, has been blamed for eight deaths, while the Eaton Fire further inland has been blamed for 16 others, the LA County medical examiner's office said. At least 23 people are missing, and authorities said that number is expected to rise.

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fires. They could be the nation's costliest ever. Government agencies haven't provided preliminary damage estimates yet, but AccuWeather, a company that provides data on weather and its impact, puts the damage and economic losses at $250 billion to $275 billion.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the waning days of the Biden administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended his agency's work to tamp down border-crossing numbers and argued against breaking apart the sprawling department in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press.

President-elect Donald Trump, who promised an aggressive Day 1 effort to stop illegal immigration and remove people in the country illegally, has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to take over the agency responsible for border and airport security, disaster response, protections for high-level dignitaries and more. She faces a confirmation hearing Wednesday.

As he prepares to leave office, Mayorkas said he has spoken repeatedly to Noem, including about the Jan. 1 truck attack in New Orleans and the wildfires in California, calling the conversations “meaningful, very productive, very positive.”

Here are some takeaways from AP's interview with Mayorkas: