OUR PICKSThe Particular Horror of the Los Angeles Wildfires | The Latest Attacks on America Follow a Familiar Playbook | No Fact-Checking and More Hate Speech: Meta Goes MAGA, and more

Los Angeles Is Burning  (Economist)
Always vulnerable, the city is increasingly susceptible to fire.

The Particular Horror of the Los Angeles Wildfires  (Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic)
Southern California is no stranger to fires. But the dreadful blazes that began yesterday are potentially transformative.

Trump Has Promised Swift, Bold Actions as President. Will They Be Legal?  (John B. Bellinger III, CFR)
Donald Trump could take several early actions as president that could draw legal scrutiny, including on immigration, climate, and security policy. 

Cold Comfort: The Latest Attacks on America Follow a Familiar Playbook  (Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce Butterworth  (RAND / The Hill)
The tragic pickup truck ramming in New Orleans and the subsequent explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas remind us that terrorist threats remain a deadly reality in the United States.
There are no indications yet that the two attacks were coordinated. More likely, they are coincidental, although that will not prevent linking them to advance political agendas or conspiracy theories. The coincidence contributes to greater public apprehension.

The Climate Lockdown Conspiracy: You Can’t Fact-Check Possibility (Michael P. A. Murphy, Misinformation Review)
The climate lockdown conspiracies claim that a clandestine group of elites are planning to use climate change as a justification to enact widespread lockdowns and curtail freedoms. This conspiracy draws on a wide range of unconnected real-world events and suggests that their possibility of happening again is all the proof required.

Building Resilience: Risk Perception and Hurricane Preparedness in Florida  (Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, ScienceX)
Why do so many Floridians, despite living with the annual threat of storms, fail to take the steps that could one day save their lives or mitigate disaster-related losses?

Man Who Exploded Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas Used Generative AI, Police Say  (AP / VOA News)
The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday. A laptop, cellphone and watch are still under review nearly a week after 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger fatally shot himself just before the truck blew up.

Can America’s Economy Cope with Mass Deportations?  (Economist)
Production slowdowns, more imports and pricier housing could follow.

No Fact-Checking and More Hate Speech: Meta Goes MAGA  (Steven Levy, Wired)
Mark Zuckerberg has fully adopted the language of his former right-wing critics about what constitutes censorship.

Facebook and Instagram Ads Push Gun Silencers Disguised as Car Parts (Dhruv Mehrotra, Wired)
A network of Facebook pages has been advertising “fuel filters”that are actually meant to be used as silencers, which are heavily regulated by US law. Even US military officials are concerned.