Today’s Big Story

‘Explosive Fire Growth’

SoCal faces fresh wildfire threats as L.A. area marks a week of blazes

The threat of strong wind gusts remained high Tuesday evening going into this morning as firefighters battle to contain the deadly blazes that have killed more than 25 people and churned through more than 40,000 acres.

Resurgent winds could cause “explosive fire growth,” according to the National Weather Service, and authorities have issued “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warnings for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties until Wednesday at 3 p.m. local time. The gusty Santa Ana winds are expected to subside Thursday into the weekend. But fire concerns will continue until the area gets significant rainfall, with each dry day further exacerbating the potential for peril. Firefighters are attempting to prevent the flames from reaching the city’s Brentwood neighborhood, home to the Getty Center museum, and Interstate 405.

Many of the new fires were brought under control, even as the two largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, were far from contained, burning through brush and the remains of scorched neighborhoods. Officials warned that it might take weeks, or longer, to fully extinguish those fires. The largest blaze, the Palisades Fire, has burned more than 23,000 acres and was only 18% contained as of Tuesday afternoon as it threatened Brentwood, Encino and Westwood. On the city’s east side, near Pasadena, the Eaton Fire has killed at least 16 people—making it one of the deadliest fires in California’s history—and burned through 14,117 acres. It’s currently at 35% contained.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday issued an executive order barring speculators from making unsolicited, undervalued offers to purchase property in 15 zip codes affected by the Los Angeles wildfires for three months. While visiting Altadena, Newsom said the order will protect wildfire victims from predatory land developers seeking to take advantage of a tragedy. “Make no mistake—this is a prosecutable crime,” he wrote on X.

As people in Los Angeles return to their devastated neighborhoods, now marked with burn scars and ruins, toxic hazards will persist long after the fires have been put out and the smoke has settled. Since last Tuesday, more than 40,000 acres have burned in five different fires, killing at least 24. The blazes have reduced homes, cars and power lines to ash, releasing toxic chemicals into the air that will eventually settle onto the soil.

Americans’ Faith in Most Professions Dwindles

Nurses still easily top list of 23 occupations; clergy and judges have fallen the most, long-term

Americans have consistently viewed medical workers, K-12 teachers and military officers as the most ethical professions, but even their ratings have dropped considerably, a new Gallup poll shows. Americans' opinion of the ethics of various professions has stalled at its lowest point—reflective of declining confidence in U.S. institutions overall.

The least trusted professions, with more than half of U.S. adults saying their ethics are low or very low, are lobbyists, members of Congress and TV reporters. As Gallup points out, “notably including bankers, lawyers and business executives, are now seen more negatively than positively, with no more than 50% rating their ethics low.” And despite being among the highest in the list, trust in medical doctors and pharmacists has dropped below pre-pandemic levels.

The average honesty and ethics ratings for 11 core professions was 30% in the report, down from 40% in 2005. “Americans interact with numerous professionals in their daily lives, while depending on others they've never met to maintain an efficient, fair and secure society,” per the annual survey data. “Whether reflecting personal experience or secondhand reports, Americans' sense of how much they can trust each profession varies widely, likely influencing how they engage with each.”

A New NSA Warning

They’re suggesting iPhone and Android users disable location tracking

Our phones know where we are and they know where we have been—the problem is they have a nasty habit of sharing that information with others. And the latest location tracking nightmare to hit phone users shows the threat remains, despite new protections built into our iPhone and Android devices. NSA has warned users to stop this secretive tracking—and they say we need to make this change now.

As first reported by 404media, hackers have compromised location aggregator Gravy Analytics, stealing “customer lists, information on the broader industry, and even location data harvested from smartphones which show peoples’ precise movements.” This has dumped a trove of sensitive data into the public domain. This data is harvested from apps rather than the phones themselves, as EFF explains, “each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called real-time bidding’ (RTB). This process does more than deliver ads—it fuels government surveillance, poses national security risks, and gives data brokers easy access to your online activity. RTB might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of.”

This particular leak has spawned various lists of apps, allegedly “hijacked to spy on your location.” As WIRED reports, these include “dating sites Tinder and Grindr; massive games such as Candy Crush, Temple Run, Subway Surfers, and Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells; transit app Moovit and popular fitness app MyFitnessPal.” Which is why the NSA is telling Americans that apps “should be given as few permissions as possible: Set privacy settings to ensure apps are not using or sharing location data.”

Is Spotify Going to Be Okay?

Everyone uses it, but has it been as good as it could be?

I’m worried about Spotify. And not just after that underwhelming “Wrapped” last year. As Vulture’s Nicholas Quah put it: “As a consumer-facing product, Spotify has sucked for years. Whatever utilitarian elegance the platform might’ve had in its early days has given way to a confusing, ugly algorithm blob of videos, podcasts, and audiobooks you don’t want as you mosey about trying to find the music you do.”

Yes, the streaming behemoth has over 626 million users, but it’s clear the Swedish company is well in the midst of the tech-platform cycle one WIRED writer calls “enshittification.” Specifically, having captured a massive user base and facing pressure to actually make money, Spotify no longer worries about its quality as it tries to suck as much marrow from the user’s bones as possible.

Throw in Spotify’s continued layoffs, and one has to worry about their future. So, it seems, the release of Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist is well timed. A veteran music journalist, Pelly was early in treating Spotify with some healthy skepticism. Here she draws from over a hundred interviews with a mix of former Spotify employees and actors from different corners of the music ecosystem to produce a work that illustrates what the streaming world it helped usher in has done to the music industry, but also to the culture of music consumption.

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