Good morning.
The wildfires tearing through Los Angeles have killed at least five people and burned almost 2,000 homes and buildings, with more than 130,000 people placed under evacuation orders.
Winds began to lessen as firefighters from across California replaced exhausted crews, which include hundreds of incarcerated firefighters. But the LA city fire chief Kristin M Crowley said the region was “absolutely not out of danger yet,” with a new fire erupting in the Hollywood Hills.
The LA county fire chief, Anthony Marrone, said on Wednesday morning there were “not enough firefighters in LA county” to address fires of the magnitude in question. The fires have burned an area close to the size of the city of San Francisco.
How close are they to putting the fires out? Here are the latest figures as of shortly after midnight in Los Angeles on the five big wildfires from California’s state fire department: Palisades fire, 17,234 acres, 0% containment; Eaton fire, 10,600 acres, 0%; Hurst fire, 855 acres, 10%; Lidia fire, 348 acres, 40%; and Sunset fire, 43 acres, 0%.
Trump shares inflammatory video with crude reference to Netanyahu
The president-elect, Donald Trump, has shared a video calling the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a “deep, dark son of a bitch,” against a backdrop of intensive diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the current US administration to reach a ceasefire deal that would entail the release of hostages.
The clip Trump posted to Truth Social features an interview by Tucker Carlson with the economist Jeffrey Sachs, who accuses Netanyahu of influencing US foreign policy and orchestrating “endless wars” in the Middle East.
The sentiment expressed in the video shared by Trump – far from the first time he has boosted inflammatory content – is in sharp relief to the positions held by the team of hardline Israel supporters he is assembling.
What’s the Trump-Netanyahu relationship like? Historically it has been one of mutual benefit, with Trump handing Netanyahu diplomatic wins such as recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019. But he then blasted Netanyahu for congratulating Biden for winning the 2020 election, saying: “Fuck him.”
Meta’s changes to moderating content will lead to clashes with EU and UK, say experts
Changes to Meta’s global policies on hateful content and the company’s firing of factcheckers mean the tech firm could clash with legislators in the UK and the EU, experts and political figures have said.
The changes to its platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram and Threads, include allowing social media users to call transgender people “it”. Meta’s guidelines now state: “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation.”
Factchecking has also been scrapped in the US for its products, with Meta saying it would instead rely on social media users to check each other’s posts in a system of “community notes”, like that adopted by Elon Musk on X.
How big a problem could this be? Meta has more than 3 billion users globally. Unchecked misinformation from users in the US about issues including conflicts, health and elections risks rapidly spreading globally.
In other news …
Robert F Kennedy Jr has been accused of voter fraud in November’s presidential election by casting his ballot from a New York address that a court had ruled was not his place of residence.
The peaceful period after the cold war is “well and truly over” and the UK must stand up to Russia to keep its people safe, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said.
Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, will extend his 12-year rule in his planned inauguration on Friday despite being widely believed to have stolen last year’s presidential election.
Stat of the day: Only 2% of health advice on social media aligns with public health guidelines
Despite only about 2% of the health advice disseminated online matching public health guidelines, 87% of millennial and gen Z TikTok users receive at least some of their health tips from social media, according to a survey. From the idea that “natural” is always best, and making sweeping statements based on anecdotal evidence, here’s how to check if you are falling for wellness misinformation online.
Don’t miss this: Why has the world turned taupe?
If you’ve spent any time on TikTok or Instagram recently, you’re likely to have noticed something eerie. Everything seems to have turned oat, taupe, fawn – or, to the untrained eye, beige. Why are a wave of influencers decorating their homes and dressing themselves, and their toddlers, entirely in neutrals? The trend forecaster and color specialist Keith Recker attributes it to the turbulent state of the world: “It’s a neutral zone – you don’t have to take a stand. It’s conservative.”
Climate check: The LA wildfires are climate disasters, compounded
The wildfires tearing through southern California are unprecedented in their scale and represent the beginning of an era of environmental disaster compounded by extreme weather events, writes the meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus. The blazes are the result of near-hurricane strength winds and drought, conditions that together overwhelm our ability to respond.
Last Thing: ‘Full bush in a bikini’ – the rise of pubic hair positivity
A new movement is here, heralded by the most unexpected of rallying cries: “Full bush in a bikini.” What’s this all about, you ask? In a statement that, granted, reads pretty bizarrely, a TikToker claims to have been “radicalized” by an Etsy review that features said “full bush in a bikini.” Is it the beginning of a movement of public hair positivity – or a new meme being born?
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