Firefighters fight fires throughout the city, making the Palisades Fire the most damaging in L.A. history. Former President Jimmy Carter will be honored during a funeral in Washington, D.C., by President Biden and others. Furthermore, the conclusion of Meta’s fact-checking indicates that a new social media era is approaching.
What to know today is as follows.
As Palisades and Eaton fires keep spreading, smaller blazes add to a harrowing fight
In addition to fighting the deadly and destructive wildfires that were raging through portions of Los Angeles, firefighters were rushing to put out fresh ones that had started elsewhere, including in the famous Hollywood Hills. At least 43 square miles of the area are covered by the two main flames, and more than 100,000 people are under evacuation orders.
As of Sunday night, the Palisades Fire had spread to over 17,200 acres and was completely uncontained. It is the most damaging fire in the history of Los Angeles, having destroyed at least 1,000 buildings. Cal Fire predicts that winds of up to 60 mph will persist throughout the day. In the Pacific Palisades, entire blocks have burned down, destroying homes, shops, and schools. Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal, among other celebrities, claimed that their residences were gone.
As of last night, the Eaton Fire had spread to 10,600 acres and was completely uncontained. At least five people have perished in the Altadena and Pasadena fires, according to officials, and 200 to 500 buildings have been destroyed or damaged. Cal Fire predicts that windy weather will persist in the region until this evening. Desperate to preserve their homes from advancing flames, some locals disregarded evacuation orders and stayed behind to water their homes.
As of Wednesday, there was no containment on the 850-acre Hurst Fire in the San Fernando Valley, which is close to Sylmar.
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Smaller fires add to chaos
Firefighters had a difficult time since they had to deal with a limited amount of water in addition to bad weather. Other smaller fires that broke out during the day, such as the Woodley Fire in the Sepulveda Basin (30 acres, 100% contained) and the Lidia Fire near Acton (350 acres, 40% containment as of Wednesday), added to the pandemonium.
The Sunset Fire, which started yesterday evening in the Hollywood Hills close to Runyon Canyon, has forced yet another round of evacuations and raised concerns that the embers may spread to surrounding populated hillside areas. Crews were able to battle the fire from the air due to calmer conditions. With no containment as of Wednesday evening, the fire had expanded over 60 acres. The Hollywood Bowl, a well-known music venue, is under evacuation orders because to the fire, which is endangering monuments.
Today s forecast
Dangerous circumstances are predicted to endure even if the fierce winds that have fueled the fires were predicted to progressively lessen overnight. Parts of Southern California are under red flag warnings into at least Friday night. Forecasts call for wind gusts of up to 60 mph and wind speeds of up to 40 mph in some areas of greater Los Angeles, while humidity levels are predicted to stay low.
For updates, check out our live blog.
More coverage of the wildfires:
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Immense demand for water to fight the fast-moving Palisades Fire led all three of the community s water tanks and some fire hydrants
to temporarily dry up
.
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Panicked residents
had only minutes to choose
which of their possessions to save.
-
The Watch Duty app, which posts live updates about nearby fires,
has become a lifeline
for residents amid rapidly changing conditions.
-
President-elect Donald Trump
is blaming President Biden
and California Gov. Newsom for the deadly wildfires.
A funeral for Jimmy Carter
As the country bids farewell to former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on December 29 at the age of 100, today is a day of sorrow. Carter is attending today’s funeral service in the Washington National Cathedral, where he has been laying in state since Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol. The Carter family invited President Joe Biden to give a eulogy.
Following the funeral, Carter will go one last time to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, will be laid to rest.
For daily updates, check out our live blog.
Trump team considers high-profile immigration raid
According to three sources involved with the talks, the new Trump administration is thinking of launching a raid on undocumented immigrants in the first few days of the president-elect’s second term, possibly as early as Inauguration Day. According to the sources, the raid would target employees at a workplace in the Washington, D.C., area who are allegedly illegally present in the country. It might also target companies in the construction, hospitality, health care, and agricultural sectors.
It appears that the next administration is not just interested in immigrants with criminal records, based on the transition officials’ conversations regarding workplace raids. Instead, they want to make a lot of arrests and deportations, even if the migrants haven’t done anything wrong except come or work in the United States illegally. Such raids can be expensive and logistically challenging.
More politics news:
-
Justice Samuel Alito
said he took a phone call from Trump
one day before the president-elect asked the Supreme Court to halt his upcoming sentencing but insisted they didn t talk about the case.
-
European leaders
expressed their confusion and pushed back
against Trump s refusal to rule out using military force to take over Greenland. And
Mexico s president clapped back
after Trump proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
-
Some immigration rights groups and Democrats
are pushing for new policies
that would move the party to the right on the hot-button issue.
Read All About It
-
Tens of thousands of dockworkers
reached a tentative agreement
on a six-year contract with the company representing 14 major ports from Boston to Miami and along the Gulf Coast, avoiding a looming strike.
-
The Biden administration
has expressed optimism
that Israel and Hamas could be close to reaching a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
-
New Orleans
is bringing on Bill Bratton
, who has been the top cop in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, to counsel the city on its security measures after the deadly New Year s Day attack.
-
President Joe Biden
welcomed his first great-grandchild
after his granddaughter Naomi Biden gave birth.
Staff Pick:
What Meta s move suggests about the direction of social media
Most people assumed that Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that Meta will switch from traditional fact-checking to a community notes system, which he claimed was motivated by Elon Musk, was just the most recent move by a tech CEO trying to win over the incoming Trump administration. According to a former chairman of a disinformation board at the Department of Homeland Security, the fact-checking program was the final straw that brought about total mayhem on Facebook, but it was never going to salvage the company. Brandy Zadrozny, a senior reporter, discusses how Zuckerberg’s choice might signal the start of a new, unrestrained social media era.Deputy tech editor Ben Goggin
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