10 Dead, 10,000 Structures Burned In Los Angeles Area Inferno As Fire Damage Could Exceed $150 Billion

Update (1245ET):

Firefighters continued battling six wildfires across the LA County area. The two largest include Palisades (20,000 acres, 6% contained) and Eaton Fire (14,000 acres, 3% contained).

Here's a breakdown of all six fires (courtesy of LA Times):

Palisades Fire: Burned 19,978 acres and numerous homes, businesses and landmarks in Pacific Palisades and westward along Pacific Coast Highway, toward Malibu. As of 5 a.m. Friday morning, the fire was 6% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Eaton Fire: Burned 13,956 acres and many structures in Altadena and Pasadena. Additional evacuation orders were mandated Thursday afternoon when fire climbed toward Mt. Wilson. Other mandatory evacuations were lifted as city officials notified residents in Glenoaks Canyon and Chevy Chase Canyon that it was safe to return to their homes. Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X on Friday morning that the fire was 3% contained as of 7:30 a.m.

Kenneth Fire: Burned 960 acres near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.As of 6 a.m. Friday morning, the fire was 35% contained, according to Cal Fire. All evacuation warnings have been lifted for the fire.

Sunset Fire: Burned 60 acres and triggered mandatory evacuation orders in Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles Fire Department lifted evacuation orders Thursday morning.

Hurst Fire: Burned 771 acres in the area around Sylmar. Evacuation orders have been lifted. As of 8 p.m. Thursday night the fire was 37% contained, according to Cal Fire.

Lidia Fire: Burned 394 acres in Acton and is 75% contained, according to Cal Fire.

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/10-dead-10000-structures-burned-los-angeles-area-inferno-fire-damage-could-exceed-150

Hollywood star Mel Gibson and presenter Joe Rogan have claimed that former chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci should face prosecution

Gibson was a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Thursday. Both men wondered how Fauci was “still walking around,” or “at least free” after his actions during the pandemic.

”I drove up to San Francisco and I listened to it and I had road rage,” Gibson said, recalling his reaction to the book.

”If this is true, what the fk is going on and how is that monster still loose?” Rogan asked. Meanwhile, the outgoing Biden administration is considering “giving him a full pardon – it's like fking crazy.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1877512680077955427

70+ ‘Fact Check’ Organizations Are Furious at Mark Zuckerberg’s Decision to Bring Free Speech to Facebook

A coalition of more than 70 “fact checking” organizations have penned an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, expressing their outrage over Meta’s decision to move away from biased left-wing “fact check” organizations and toward crowdsourced moderation on its platforms in the United States.

Business Insider reports that the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has rallied support from 71 organizations worldwide to pressure Meta to walk back recent plans to end it’s fact-checking service. The IFCN, part of the nonprofit media organization Poynter Institute, published an open letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, emphasizing what they claim is the importance of biased left-wing fact checking in maintaining shared realities and evidence-based discussions.

The organizations claim that “Fact-checking is essential to maintaining shared realities and evidence-based discussion, both in the United States and globally.” They even believe that “If Meta decides to stop the program worldwide, it is almost certain to result in real-world harm in many places.”

Meta’s unexpected announcement on Tuesday revealed plans to replace third-party fact-checkers with crowdsourced moderation on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the U.S. The IFCN argues that this move is “a step backward for those who want to see an internet that prioritizes accurate and trustworthy information.” The decision could also have severe financial implications for the fact-checking organizations that rely on Meta for revenue — many of which will be left in financial crisis now if Meta stops bankrolling their leftist censorship operations.

Breitbart News reported on Zuckerberg’s announcement, writing:

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, is undergoing a major overhaul of its content moderation practices. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the company will end its fact-checking program, plagued by severe leftist bias, and replace it with a community-driven system similar to X’s Community Notes. The changes come as a response to what Zuckerberg perceives as a “cultural tipping point” towards prioritizing speech, influenced by the recent elections.

In his video, Zuckerberg states: “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.”

In a press release, Joel Kaplan, Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, stated, “Meta’s platforms are built to be places where people can express themselves freely. That can be messy. On platforms where billions of people can have a voice, all the good, bad and ugly is on display. But that’s free expression.”

Kaplan highlighted Zuckerberg’s 2019 speech at Georgetown University, where he argued that free expression has been the driving force behind progress in American society and around the world. “Some people believe giving more people a voice is driving division rather than bringing us together. More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes they think matter is more important than every person having a voice. I think that’s dangerous,” Zuckerberg said at the time.

Kaplan acknowledged that Meta had developed complex systems to manage content in recent years, partly in response to societal and political pressure. However, he admitted that this approach had gone too far. “As well-intentioned as many of these efforts have been, they have expanded over time to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable. Too much harmless content gets censored, too many people find themselves wrongly locked up in ‘Facebook jail,’ and we are often too slow to respond when they do,” he said.

As an alternative, the IFCN proposed a “new model” for collaboration, suggesting that community notes could be used in conjunction with professional fact-checkers. The organization emphasized the importance of this approach, stating, “The need for this is great: If people believe social media platforms are full of scams and hoaxes, they won’t want to spend time there or do business on them.”

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/01/10/70-fact-check-organizations-are-furious-at-mark-zuckerbergs-decision-to-bring-free-speech-to-facebook/

CIA Front National Endowment For Democracy Quietly Removes Online Database

The NED spent decades overtly funding the subversive operations of the intelligence community the world over, but now is erasing it's tracks.

In recent months, a remarkable development in the Empire’s decline has gone almost entirely unnoticed. The National Endowment for Democracy’s grant database has been removed from the web. Until recently, a searchable interface allowed visitors to view detailed records of Washington-funded NGOs, civil society groups, and media projects in particular countries - covering most of the world - the sums involved, and entities responsible for delivering these initiatives. This resource has now inexplicably vanished, and with it, enormous amounts of incontrovertible, self-incriminating evidence of destructive US skullduggery abroad.

Take for example NED grant records for Georgia, the site of recent repeated colour revolution efforts, at the forefront of which were Endowment-bankrolled organisations. While still accessible via internet archives, they were deleted during the summer. Today, visitors to associated URLs are redirected to a brief entry simply titled “Eurasia”. The accompanying text describes in very broad terms the Endowment’s aims regionally and the total being spent, but the crucial questions of where and on what aren’t clarified. In a comic hypocrisy too, the blurb boldly states:

“The heart of NED’s work in the region is the need to maintain access to objective information for local populations. Across the region, government actors are attempting to limit the space for citizens to distribute information and communicate freely online.”

Resultantly, independent academics, activists, researchers, and journalists have been deprived of an invaluable resource for tracking and exposing the Empire’s machinations. Yet, the Endowment incinerating its public paper trail can only be considered a significant victory for these same actors. NED’s explicit and avowed raison d’être was to do publicly what US intelligence did - and in many cases still does - covertly. Now, after 40 years of wreaking havoc worldwide in service of the Empire, the CIA front has been forced underground, defeating its entire purpose. How long can it now survive?

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-corruption/cia-front-national-endowment-for-democracy-quietly-removes-online-database

Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 70 Palestinians Over 24 Hours

“A number of victims remain under rubble and on the roads that ambulance and civil defense teams cannot reach them,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.

A few months ago, a group of American healthcare workers estimated in an open letter to President Biden that the US-backed Israeli onslaught has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, a total that includes those missing and presumed dead under the rubble and indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.

Conditions for Palestinians living under the siege have only gotten worse since the letter was published on October 2, 2024. The IDF has imposed a total siege on northern Gaza as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign, and babies living in tents have begun dying of hypothermia due to the cold weather.

Israeli attacks on Thursday included the bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which killed a father and his three children, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Al Jazeera reported at least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks on Jabalia in the north, and several others were killed by strikes on Gaza City. The Israeli military also launched heavy strikes across Gaza City, but the number of casualties is unclear.

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/01/09/israeli-attacks-on-gaza-kill-70-palestinians-over-24-hours/

Over 800 soldier parents accuse Netanyahu of sacrificing their children for personal benefit

"We accuse you of sacrificing the lives of both the hostages and the soldiers," the letter read.

"We, the parents of combat soldiers in the IDF, who have been fighting since October 7 on several fronts," the letter began.

"We accuse you of a neverending war… that goes on and on only to serve your political survival," the letter read.

"We accuse you of sacrificing the lives of both the hostages and the soldiers," it continued.

"We call on you to stop the war immediately, bring home the hostages, and spare the lives of our soldiers. Let us rebuild the ruins you and your government are responsible for," the letter went on.

Describing the background of the situation, the letter read, "Our sons and daughters had to fight a war that was justified at its initial stages. It was an attack stemming from your years-long policy."

The letter then describes the loss the families have experienced since the start of the war.

"Our sons and daughters have lost many friends in the war, and every day, there are more and more lives taken and wounded in body and soul. They fought to achieve the consensual goals of the war, first and foremost the return of the hostages."

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-836978

Bolsonaro explains how he closed war crimes case against IDF reservist in Brazil - interview

A joint online campaign spearheaded by the Israeli Diaspora Affairs Ministry and Bolsonaro led Brazilian authorities to announce they would not pursue the case.

Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro played a pivotal role in securing the dismissal of war crimes allegations against Israeli soldier Yuval Vagdani, who returned to Israel on Wednesday after Brazilian authorities officially closed the investigation.

Bolsonaro, a congressman and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, discussed the case’s dismissal in an interview with Maariv, published on Friday.

The 500-page complaint accused Vagdani of demolishing residential buildings with explosives last November. The pro-Palestinian Hind Rajab Foundation, known for pursuing legal action against IDF soldiers abroad, claimed the demolitions occurred outside active combat and targeted shelters for displaced Palestinians.

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-836966