AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Hollywood Hills fire breaks out as deadly wildfires burn out of control across Los Angeles area

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fast-moving fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night, threatening one of Los Angeles’ most iconic spots as firefighters battled to get under control three other major blazes that killed five people, put 100,000 people under evacuation orders and ravaged the city from the Pacific Coast to inland Pasadena.

The Sunset Fire was burning near the Hollywood Bowl and about a mile (kilometer) from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The streets around Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds were packed with stop-and-go traffic as sirens blared and low-flying helicopters soared by on their way to dump water on the flames. People toting suitcases left hotels on foot, while some onlookers walked towards the flames, recording the fire on their phones.

More than 1,000 structures, mostly homes, have been destroyed, and more than 130,000 people are under evacuation orders in the metropolitan area.

Winds eased up some Wednesday, a day after hurricane-force winds blew embers through the air, igniting block after block, and hundreds of firefighters from other states have arrived to help, but the four fires burning out of control showed the danger is far from over.

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It’s not really the right time for nasty California fires. What are the factors that changed that?

Southern California is experiencing it’s most devastating winter fires in more than four decades. Fires don’t usually blaze at this time of year, but specific ingredients have come together to defy the calendar in a fast and deadly manner.

Start with supersized Santa Ana winds whipping flames and embers at 100 mph — much faster than normal — and cross that with the return of extreme drought. Add on weather whiplash that grew tons of plants in downpours then record high temperatures that dried them out to make easy-to-burn fuel. Then there’s a plunging and unusual jet stream, and lots of power lines flapping in those powerful gusts.

Experts say that’s what is turning wildfires into a deadly urban conflagration.

“Tiny, mighty and fast” fires have blazed through America’s west in the last couple of decades as the world warms, said University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch. She published a study in the journal Science last October that looked at 60,000 fires since 2001 and found that the fastest-growing ones have more than doubled in frequency since 2001 and caused far more destruction that slower, larger blazes.

“Fires have gotten faster,” Balch said Wednesday. “The big culprit we’re suspecting is a warming climate that’s making it easier to burn fuels when conditions are just right.”

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Fire hydrants ran dry in Southern California just when they were needed most

The water system used to fight the Palisades fire in Los Angeles buckled under the demands of what turned out to be the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history. Some hydrants ran dry, hindering the fight against the flames, local water officials said Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was pumping more water from aqueducts and groundwater into the system, but demand was so high, that wasn’t enough to refill three one-million gallon tanks in hilly Pacific Palisades that help pressurize hydrants for the neighborhood. Many went dry and at least 1,000 buildings were engulfed in flames.

Experts said most water systems can’t handle big wildfires and in a forceful press conference, officials implored residents to conserve water and to not attempt to fight fire with garden hoses.

“I would ask that you turn off your water and turn off your gas, both things before you leave the residence so that we can continue to have that water supply for the hydrant system,” said Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

That prompted a swirl of criticism on social media against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water management policies.

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Monstrous wildfires blanket Southern California with smoky air, threatening the health of millions

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Massive wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area have filled the air with a thick cloud of smoke and ash, prompting air quality advisories across a vast stretch of Southern California.

Three major fires broke out Tuesday amid dangerously high winds, killing at least five people and destroying more than 1,000 structures. Tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate, many in harrowing conditions.

In Altadena where one of the major fires raged, the smoke was so thick a person used a flashlight to see down the street. A dark cloud hovered over downtown Los Angeles and smoky air and ash drifted well beyond the city to communities to the east and south.

Wildfire smoke increases tiny particles in the air known as particulate matter that can be harmful to people’s health. Children, the elderly and people with conditions such as heart and lung disease are more sensitive to the effects.

Dr. Puneet Gupta, the assistant medical director for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said wildfire smoke is known to cause heart attacks and worsen asthma, and that burning homes can also release cyanide and carbon dioxide. He said sickened patients are showing up in emergency rooms when hospitals already are full because of flu season, and some hospitals could also face evacuations due to the fires.

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Celebrities among those who lost homes as devastating Los Angeles fires

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wildfires that are burning in and around Los Angeles have burned the homes of several celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton.

California firefighters are battling wind-whipped fires tearing across the area, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled and straining resources as the fires burned uncontained Wednesday.

Crystal and his wife, Janice, released a statement Wednesday saying their home of 45 years in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood was lost.

“Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away. We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this,” the Crystals wrote in the statement.

Their neighborhood is a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin’ USA.” In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.

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Trump asks the Supreme Court to block sentencing in his hush money case in New York

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to call off Friday’s sentencing in his hush money case in New York.

Trump’s lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

Prosecutors were expected to file a response by Thursday morning.

Trump’s team sought an immediate stay of the scheduled sentencing, saying it would wrongly restrict him as he prepares to take office. While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump’s lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects.

The sentencing should be delayed as he appeals the conviction to “prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,” they argued.

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Justice Department says it plans to release only part of special counsel’s Trump report for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it intends to release special counsel Jack Smith’s findings on Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep under wraps for now the rest of the report focused on the president-elect’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The revelation was made in a filing to a federal appeals court that was considering a defense request to block the release of the two-volume report while charges remain pending against two Trump co-defendants in the Florida case accusing the Republican former president and current president-elect of illegally holding classified documents. Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge presiding over the classified documents case, granted the request Tuesday, issuing a temporary block on the report.

The Justice Department said it would proceed with plans to release the first of two volumes centered on the election interference case but would make the classified documents section of the report available only to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for their private review as long as the case against Trump’s co-defendants — Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira — is ongoing.

“This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants’ interests,” the filing said.

The decision lessens the likelihood that the report on the classified documents investigation, which of all inquiries against Trump had once seemed to carry the greatest legal threat, would ever be released given that the Trump Justice Department almost certainly will not make the document public even after the case against Nauta and De Oliveira is resolved.

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Body of an Israeli hostage is found in Gaza, possibly alongside his son’s remains, army says

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers recovered the body of a 53-year-old hostage in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said Wednesday, and the army was determining if another set of remains belongs to the man’s son.

The discovery of Yosef AlZayadni’s body comes as Israel and Hamas are considering a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages and halt the fighting in Gaza. Israel says about a third of the remaining 100 hostages have died, but believes as many as half could be dead.

Yosef and his son Hamzah AlZayadni were thought to still be alive before Wednesday’s announcement, and news about their fate could ramp up pressure on Israel to move forward with a deal.

The military said it found evidence in the tunnel that raised “serious concerns” for the life of Hamzah AlZayadni, 23, suggesting he may have died in captivity. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the circumstances behind Yosef AlZayadni’s death were being investigated.

AlZayadni and three of his children were among 250 hostages taken captive after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people.

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Jimmy Carter’s life intersected with slavery’s legacy. His record on Civil Rights is complicated

ATLANTA (AP) — Young Jimmy Carter and his friends were walking across a pasture after a day’s farm labor during the Great Depression. As they came to a gate, his companions stood aside and let Carter enter first.

This was no act of kindness or intuitive deference to a future U.S. president. The teens stopped because they were Black, and James Earl Carter Jr. was white, a 14-year-old whose father owned the Georgia land they all worked.

After years of playing and working as equals, his friends’ silent statement opened Carter’s eyes.

“We only saw it vaguely then, but we were transformed at the place,” Carter wrote in a poetry collection published years after his presidency. “A silent line was drawn between friend and friend, race and race.”

Carter, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, spent his life intertwined with America’s and the world’s enduring legacy of slavery. His approach revealed a dualism in Carter that, at least earlier in life, pitted his political ambitions against the idealism of his religious and social values.

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Meta rolls back hate speech rules as Zuckerberg cites ‘recent elections’ as a catalyst

It wasn’t just fact-checking that Meta scrapped from its platforms as it prepares for the second Trump administration. The social media giant has also loosened its rules around hate speech and abuse — again following the lead of Elon Musk’s X — specifically when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity as well as immigration status.

The changes are worrying advocates for vulnerable groups, who say Meta’s decision to scale back content moderation could lead to real-word harms. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that the company will “remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are out of touch with mainstream discourse,” citing “recent elections” as a catalyst.

For instance, Meta has added the following to its rules — called community standards — that users are asked to abide by:

“We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird.’” In other words, it is now permitted to call gay people mentally ill on Facebook, Threads and Instagram. Other slurs and what Meta calls “harmful stereotypes historically linked to intimidation” — such as Blackface and Holocaust denial — are still prohibited.

The Menlo Park, California-based company also removed a sentence from its “policy rationale” explaining why it bans certain hateful conduct. The now-deleted sentence said that hate speech “creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion, and in some cases may promote offline violence.”

The Associated Press