Fireworks Disaster: At least 27 people were killed and 50 injured in an explosion at a large fireworks market in Tultepec, 20 miles north of Mexico City. Firefighters were forced to stand back as the fireworks cooked off and exploded for hours, levelling the outdoor market. Fireworks are a big deal in Mexico over the Christmas and New Year holidays and the market was jammed with shoppers.

Last Minute: Attempting to seal his environmental record, President Obama yesterday issued what he called a permanent ban on offshore oil drilling along much of the Alaskan coast and the Atlantic Seaboard from Virginia to Maine.

He’s leaning on a little-used 1953 law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to make it difficult or impossible for Donald Trump and the Republican Congress to reverse his order. Trump has promised to make drilling for oil and digging for coal central to his energy plans.

Manhunt: Police in Germany released an immigrant detained after truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market and have identified a new suspect who killed 12 people and injured 48. They are looking for a Tunisian man who left identification documents in the truck. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

In Transition: In another signal that the Trump administration may make radical changes in environmental policy, the transition team has asked the State Department to report how much money it gives each year to international environmental groups. The State Department has been working with international groups to cut emissions of climate-warming gases. Trump declared during his campaign that he would cut wasteful spending on climate initiatives.

The Trump team earlier issued an ominous demand to the Department of Energy for the names of employees who had attended climate-change conferences. They later said the memo was not properly authorized.

Dirty Water: Four former officials in Flint, Mich. were charged yesterday with conspiring to operate the city’s water system when it was no longer safe.

Attorney General Bill Schuette said, “Flint was a casualty of arrogance, disdain and failure of management, an absence of accountability.”

Those indicted included two former emergency managers and two city employees. In all, thirteen state and local employees have been indicted in connection with the water crisis and there could be more.

To save money, state emergency managers disconnected Flint from the Detroit water system and began taking water from the polluted Flint River, which leached lead into the water supply. Many children were found to have elevated levels of lead in their systems.

Hindsight: Documents revealed as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request show that the FBI did not have probable cause to subpoena the laptop computer that belonged to Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin just two weeks before the election. The subpoena made it look like there was still some substance to the Clinton email investigation and damaged Clinton in the closing days of her campaign. The laptop revealed nothing new.

Los Angeles lawyer Randy Schoenberg, who made the FOIA request, told USA Today, “Why they thought they might find evidence of a crime, why they felt it necessary to inform Congress, and why they even sought this search warrant … I am appalled.”

Wigged Out: Alec Baldwin talked to NY Times reporter Sarah Maslin Nir about playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live and described it as almost a civic duty to keep doing the gig. Escribing the character he plays he said, “I see a guy who seems to pause and dig for the more precise and better language he wants to use, and never finds it,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin will have to work around his schedule with other acting jobs, but he’s going to be Trump for a while. “Whoever it is, wouldn’t it be great to be the person who pulls the sword out of the stone? Who gets rid of this guy?” Baldwin said. “Wouldn’t that be thrilling?”

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