Good morning.
The death toll from the Eaton and Palisades fires that have consumed swathes of Los Angeles county – and are still less than 30% contained – has risen to 24 people.
Officials in California warned on Sunday that strengthening winds through Wednesday could expand the destruction. Several neighborhoods in the city have been erased and thousands of structures destroyed.
Kristin Crowley, the LA fire chief since 2022, has criticized the budget cuts that she said made it harder for firefighters to tackle blazes. She blamed the city authorities for running out of water on Tuesday. About 20% of the hydrants tapped to fight the Palisades fire went dry.
The California governor, Gavin Newsom, said he would suspend a number of environmental laws to allow rebuilding across southern areas of the state destroyed by the wildfires.
What’s the latest on the firefighting efforts? The Palisades fire was 11% contained; the Eaton Fire, 27%, officials said.
What risk do the winds pose? The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50mph and mountain gusts reaching 70mph.
Steve Bannon says Elon Musk is ‘racist’ and ‘truly evil’ as Maga rift deepens
Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has called the incoming president’s newest favorite, Elon Musk, “racist” and a “truly evil guy”, pledging to “take this guy down” from the Maga movement. It marks a deepening of discontent among the high-profile figures in the American far right, days before Trump begins a second term on 20 January.
The feud is partly related to Musk’s embrace of H-1B visas, which allow companies – such as Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla – to hire skilled foreign professionals, which has been taken badly by some Maga acolytes who oppose nearly all immigration. Musk, born in South Africa, once had an H1-B.
What did Bannon say? Musk “is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” he told an Italian newspaper. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more.” He added: “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by inauguration day.”
What about Musk? At the time of writing, the usually vocal Musk has been conspicuously silent on Bannon’s comments on X.
Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke on Sunday by phone about efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Israel’s war on Gaza.
The White House said the president discussed the “fundamentally changed regional circumstances” after Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the rapid rebel offensive that toppled the former president Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month and the dilution of Iran’s regional power.
Momentum for a ceasefire deal seems to be building but uncertainty remains over key aspects of the potential agreement.
What is the latest with the Israeli hostages? Western intelligence services estimate that at least a third of the remaining 95 or so Israeli captives in Gaza have been killed, after about 250 people were taken hostage in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.
In other news …
Syria’s new rulers have invited Bashar al-Assad-era security officials to turn themselves in, in centers where they receive slips of paper saying they have officially surrendered and reconciled with the new administration.
The Swedish prime minister said his Nato-member country was neither at war nor at peace, as he announced sending armed forces into the Baltic Sea amid suspected sabotage of undersea cables.
George Orwell will be honored in the UK with a £2 coin ($2.44), designed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the author’s death.
Biden criticized Meta’s chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, calling the decision to replace Facebook fact-checking with community notes “really shameful”.
Stat of the day: Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, study in the Lancet finds
Research published in the Lancet medical journal suggests the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of war was about 40% higher than estimated. Academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions found, from 7 October 2023 to 30 June 2024, there were 64,260 people killed due to traumatic injury by Israel’s bombardment, rather than 37,877 then-estimated by Gaza health officials.
Don’t miss this: Björk on comedy, darkness and her most flamboyant tour
The Icelandic musician describes herself as many things: artist, introvert, activist, Scorpio, matriarch, punk, joker, optimist. Recently, she has been remixing her old albums. “It was weird to sit in the same chair and in the space of a week, to hear all of them back to back, which I’d never done,” she tells Rebecca Nicholson.
Climate check: ‘I was in despair about the environmental crisis. Then I volunteered to clean up my local park’
“I was feeling profoundly distressed about the ecological and climate crises,” Sam Pyrah writes. But “every time I volunteered, I would come home bolstered by the fresh air, the natural environment and the company – and, perhaps most of all, by having acted in accordance with what I valued and cared about.”
Last Thing: Rescuing strangers, cooking for firefighters – LA residents find hope among the ashes
Across Los Angeles, dozens of residents, businesses and nonprofits have rallied to assist wildfire evacuees. “We were like … How can we help?” said Rudy Beuve, a chef and restaurant owner in Santa Monica. Within hours Beuve was making thousands of breakfast burritos, sandwiches and bowls of rice with salmon and chicken for firefighters and evacuees.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
