Good Morning! Today’s edition is 1,057 words, a 4-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Meta changes fact-checking rules

• Morning coffee lowers risk of all-cause mortality

• World’s most powerful passports in 2025

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Big Story

LA Wildfires

Massive wildfires have spread through Los Angeles, forcing at least 100,000 people to evacuate.

• The Palisades Fire alone has burned over 18 square miles and destroyed around 1,000 buildings between Malibu and Santa Monica — the most destructive blaze in Modern LA history. Two other fires, the Eaton and Hurst, are also causing significant damage.

• Officials reported five civilian casualties, but the cause of their deaths is still unknown. Many rescue workers and residents who didn’t evacuate have been injured in the fires.

• Los Angeles deployed over 1,400 firefighters and emergency workers to tackle the fires. However, hurricane-force winds have disrupted planes from dumping water from above, and some fire hydrants ran dry because of increased water demand. The fires were 0% contained as of Wednesday night.

• Strong Santa Ana winds and a severe eight-month drought are fueling the fires.

Big Story

Meta Fact-checking Changes

Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced major changes to its content moderation approach.

• Meta plans to use a "community notes" system, like the one used by Elon Musk's X, to address false claims. Automated systems will now focus only on severe violations, such as terrorism or child exploitation, while other content will be reviewed only if reported by users.

• The decision to drop fact-checking surprised partner organizations. Fact-checking groups argued their work added context and debunked false claims without censorship. Critics, including journalists and nonprofit leaders, worry the move weakens efforts to fight misinformation, especially as harmful content evolves rapidly.

• Meta plans to implement its community notes feature in the US over the next few months and improve it gradually. These changes currently apply only to the US. Meta will continue its fact-checking efforts in regions like the European Union, where stricter regulations require tech platforms to address misinformation.

Big Story

Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria Have “Achilles Heel”

Researchers in the US and Spain found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria have a hidden weakness.

• Traditional antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective as bacteria evolve, creating an urgent need for alternative approaches to fight bacterial infections.

• Some antibiotic-resistant bacteria require higher levels of magnesium to thrive compared to their non-resistant counterparts. This increased magnesium dependency affects crucial cellular processes, including ribosome stability and ATP production, creating an "Achilles heel" in these resistant strains.

• By limiting magnesium availability in bacterial environments, researchers might be able to target resistant strains while leaving beneficial bacteria unaffected. Not all resistant bacteria share this weakness, but the discovery opens the door to finding similar vulnerabilities in other strains.

Quick Stories

US News

• A record 24 million Americans signed up for Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage during the final enrollment period under the Biden administration — a 9% increase from the previous year. (More)

• A winter storm system will first bring 4 to 8 inches of snow to parts of Texas, Arkansas, and the Tennessee Valley through the weekend. As the system moves northeast, it could bring flurries to major cities, including Washington, D.C. (More)

• The DOJ plans to release only part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on cases against President-elect Trump. The first volume, about the 2020 election, may be made public pending court approval. The second, about classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, will be available to select congressional leaders as the case continues. (More)

World

• The UK government has announced that creating sexually explicit "deepfake" images will become a criminal offense. Deepfakes are digitally altered images or videos designed to mislead or harm someone's reputation. (More)

• Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has returned to Rome after being detained in Iran since Dec. 19. Sala was reportedly arrested for "violating Islamic Republic laws," though her detention may be linked to Italy's arrest of Iranian engineer Mohammad Abedini on Dec. 16 in Milan. (More)

• Lebanon's parliament will attempt to elect a president today. The post has been vacant since Michel Aoun's term ended in Oct. 2022 and has faced prolonged political deadlock. (More)

Business & Economy

• US stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday (S&P +0.16%, Nasdaq -0.06%, Dow +0.25%). The three major averages are on pace for a second straight weekly loss. (More)

• Used car prices are expected to stay steady in 2025 after years of big ups and downs. Cox Automotive predicts prices will rise 1.4% by the end of 2025, compared to a 0.4% increase in 2024. This follows price drops of 7% in 2023 and nearly 15% in 2022. (More)

• The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage on Tuesday, targeting six major landlords for allegedly colluding to raise rents. Together, these landlords manage over 1.3 million rental units across 43 states and Washington, D.C. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• College football’s first semifinal begins tonight at 7:30 pm ET with the No.7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish taking on the No.6 Penn State Nittany Lions. Neither school has won the national championship since the late 1980s. (More)

• The SAG Awards nominations are led by Wicked, with five nods. The Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown earned four nominations. Anora and Emilia Pérez each received three nominations (More)

• The TGL indoor simulator golf league debuted Tuesday night with The Bay Golf Club defeating New York Golf Club. The event reached over 3 million unique viewers and averaged 1.19 million viewers, making it the most-watched sporting event on TV that night. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• Last month, five CubeSats were deployed from the International Space Station, including LignoSat, a wooden satellite developed by JAXA. The mission aims to study the performance of wood in space. (More)

• Delta Air Lines announced upgrades to its in-flight entertainment with plans to install 4K HDR QLED screens and partnerships with YouTube and Uber. The airline also revealed a new AI chatbot for customer service (More)

• A study based on NHANES data suggests morning coffee drinkers had lower risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, particularly when consuming moderate to heavy amounts (more than 1 cup/day). (More)

Extra Credit

🐒 Police rescue a monkey in a pink tutu.

🛂 The world’s most powerful passports in 2025.

🧠 Your employer may want to monitor your brain.

🍎 A month-to-month guide to seasonal fruits and veggies.