Fast-moving wildfires raged across large swaths of Los Angeles for a third day, burning down neighborhoods, killing at least five people and upending the lives hundreds of thousands of residents. The county’s sheriff said some areas “look like a bomb was dropped in them,” adding that he expected the death toll to rise.
The photographs from the area are devastating. These maps show the current state of the blazes.
Officials expressed hope this afternoon that decreased winds would finally give firefighters a chance to try to gain control of the roaring wildfires. Helicopters and planes dropped water from the sky.
However, forecasters warned that winds — which have fueled the fires and made them challenging to contain — were expected to pick up this evening, and that heavy winds could return over the weekend or next week. Read more on the latest forecast.
President Biden said that the federal government would pay for 100 percent of the firefighting needs in the Los Angeles area for the next 180 days. He urged victims to begin contacting federal officials to request funds to help cover essentials like shelter, prescription drugs and food.
For more: Many residents blamed Mayor Karen Bass for failing to sufficiently prepare. She defended the city’s response.
On the ground: Several of the deaths caused by the wildfires occurred in Altadena, a neighborhood known for its racial diversity and bohemian history.
Carter was remembered as a humanitarian and public servant
The nation bade farewell today to former President Jimmy Carter at a pomp-filed state funeral in Washington. His coffin was then flown back to his hometown, Plains, Ga., for a final private service at the church where he taught Sunday school deep into his 90s. He will be buried outside the modest ranch house where he lived most of his life and died last week.
The five living presidents and a broad array of other leaders attended the Washington service in a rare moment of unity. In a eulogy, President Biden described Carter as a man who was driven by a relentless desire to make the lives of other people better. Read his remarks.
One by one, the attendees paid tribute. Carter’s grandson Jason described a humble man he called Pawpaw who kept his fishing trophies, and hung used Ziploc bags to dry. He also stressed his grandfather’s unending love of his fellow humans.
For more: Here is Jimmy Carter’s life in 17 objects.
Trump looks for a health threat to justify his border crackdown
Donald Trump is likely to justify his plans to seal off the border with Mexico by citing a public health emergency from immigrants bringing a deadly disease into the U.S. He invoked the restriction, known as Title 42, in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. He just has to find an illness to blame.
The president-elect’s advisers have spent months trying to find the right disease to build their case. They have looked at tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases, and have asked former immigration officials and allies in the Border Patrol for illnesses being detected among migrants.
In related news, a bill to deport unauthorized immigrants charged with minor crimes cleared a critical hurdle in the Senate, indicating that it could soon become law.
The rule change would have generally prohibited schools and their staff from rejecting a student’s gender identity in most everyday contexts. In the opinion, the judge said that the Education Department could not lawfully expand Title IX to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.
More top news
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Housing: The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. rose to 6.93 percent, the highest since July.
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Weather: A stretch of the South from Texas through Arkansas faces ice and heavy snow today and tomorrow.
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Venezuela: The country’s popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, was detained during an antigovernment protest in Caracas, her party said.
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Lebanon: After two years of gridlock, the fractured Parliament chose Gen. Joseph Aoun, the commander of the military, as president.
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Congress: Rebuking its move to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes, the House passed a bill that would sanction officials at the International Criminal Court.
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Politics: Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, will be first woman in the position. Her intention is to last four years, but the post was a precarious job in his first term.
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Tibet: Hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children are being separated from their families and placed in boarding schools by the Chinese government.
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Climate: After staying flat for nearly two decades, electricity use started to rise again, and America’s efforts to cut its climate change pollution stalled in 2024.
An ode to a disappearing Las Vegas
Gia Coppola’s new film, “The Last Showgirl,” is a generous ode to a fast-disappearing Las Vegas and to the women who helped build that gaudy oasis. It arrived in theaters this week, and it’s a Times Critic’s Pick.
The star of the movie is Pamela Anderson, playing the kind of woman who, once upon a time, would have been relegated to the background. “Her ability to be wholly vulnerable onscreen is rare and wonderful,” our critic Manohla Dargis writes.
As art sales fall, auction houses pivot
Over the last two years, interest in buying and selling eight- and nine-figure artworks has slumped. That has prompted the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, to make major bets on selling luxury items.
That includes holding auctions for classic cars, dinosaur fossils, designer handbags, jewelry, fine wines and game-worn N.B.A. jerseys. Sotheby’s has also begun selling niche experiences to wealthy buyers who are buying vacations rather than paintings.
Live music runs on seniors
It sometimes appears that the music business devours the young and ignores the old. But there’s a fascinating exception: Many of the industry’s most respected and consistently employed roadies, instrument techs and live sound people are well into their 60s and even 70s.
Many of them have been on the job for half a century, experience that typically makes them preferable to their younger colleagues. “I’ll do this until I can’t crawl in there,” said Betty Cantor-Jackson, 76, who first worked a soundboard for the Grateful Dead in 1968.
Have a smooth-sounding evening.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew
Sean Kawasaki-Culligan was our photo editor today.
We welcome your feedback. Write to us at evening@nytimes.com.
