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Today — 12 January 2025Main stream

Gurman: Vision Pro 2 won’t release in 2025, but lower-cost headset is ‘ramping up’

12 January 2025 at 05:24

According to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is planning no sort of Vision Pro refresh in 2025. He mentions that it’s possible that Apple could theoretically unveil a headset ahead of a release next year, but all signs are pointing to new Vision Pro hardware launching in 2026 instead.

On the other hand, he reports that Apple’s more “urgent goal” is to create a cheaper headset, and Apple is ‘ramping up’ development for that headset.

more…

Two Arrested for Curfew Violations Near Kamala Harris' L.A. Home Amid Palisades Fire Evacuation Zone

By: TMZ Staff
12 January 2025 at 05:27
Two men were arrested for curfew violations within the Palisades Fire evacuation zone not far from Vice President Kamala Harris' Los Angeles property. The LAPD says they responded to the VP's Brentwood neighborhood around 4:30 AM on Saturday. Two…

Trump's Cabinet disruptors soften key views as hearings loom

12 January 2025 at 05:29

Three of President-elect Trump's most provocative Cabinet picks have reversed key positions ahead of next week's confirmation hearings, softening their edges for an establishment they've been charged with tearing down.

Why it matters: For as powerful as MAGA has become, the Senate's confirmation process remains a significant obstacle — at least nominally — to injecting fringe beliefs directly into the heart of government.


The big picture: In the initial weeks after Trump unveiled his Cabinet picks, some establishment-minded Republicans raised red flags in the records of three picks:

  • Tulsi Gabbard, tapped to lead the U.S. intelligence community, was deeply suspicious of the national security apparatus and publicly opposed Section 702 foreign surveillance authorities as a member of Congress.
  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chosen to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, falsely claimed in 2023 that the polio vaccine caused cancer that killed "many more people than polio ever did."
  • Pete Hegseth, an anti-DEI stalwart picked to be defense secretary, bluntly opposed women serving in combat roles in the military.

Flash forward: All three lightning-rod picks have spent weeks meeting with senators on Capitol Hill in an effort to secure 50 votes. The results are head-spinning:

Reality check: Their maximalist impulses may have been tamed, but that doesn't mean Gabbard, Kennedy and Hegseth won't be able to radically transform their agencies in the way MAGA envisions.

  • There's also been no indication yet that Trump's most controversial choice, Kash Patel for FBI director, will walk away from his incendiary promises to exact revenge on the president-elect's enemies.

Between the lines: Today's Republican coalition is diverse and unwieldy, and Trump's Cabinet reflects that reality.

  • While some have been playing nice with senators to win confirmation, others have had to harmonize with Trump himself.
  • Secretary of State pick Marco Rubio, for example, has long been a fierce critic of TikTok — but now appears to be deferring to Trump's interest in preserving the Chinese-owned app, according to Punchbowl.
  • Treasury Secretary pick Scott Bessent — a former George Soros adviser who warned against the inflationary effects of tariffs just last year — will now be a key member of the economic team tasked with carrying out Trump's protectionist agenda.

What to watch: Senate Democrats are salivating at the chance to create fireworks and exploit divisions at the blockbuster confirmation hearings, which begin with Hegseth on Jan. 14.

The psychological toll of California's catastrophic fires

12 January 2025 at 05:00

Entire neighborhoods in Southern California have been destroyed by deadly wildfires, displacing communities that don't know what — if anything — they'll have to return to.

The big picture: Researchers have linked wildfires to long-lasting anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors, in addition to the well-documented physical toll.


  • Both the loss and uncertainty surrounding wildfires are traumatic, Jeff Katzman, a Connecticut-based psychiatrist who grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, told Axios.
  • "There is the lingering, not knowing status of what happened," he said. "There's the experience of loss of an entire community that has generations of meaning."

Between the lines: Like other modern tragedies, destruction in California is being shared immediately on social media.

  • "There's something potentially positive about it that people who have suffered together or are in this together can connect and can share resources and can share experiences," Katzman said.
  • On another level, he added, it can be "difficult to integrate" seeing so much relatable, devastating information, leading to a sense of helplessness.

Context: Research published last year found a link between wildfires and worsened mental health by analyzing psychotropic prescription data on 7 million people over an eight-year period following 25 large fires on the West Coast.

  • People exposed to California's deadliest wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, showed greater chronic symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to research published in 2023.
  • "These findings dovetail with significant psychological impacts noted after extreme climate events," researchers wrote. "Warming temperatures have been further linked to greater suicide rates."
  • Another study from last year found that wildfires are associated with increased emergency room visits for anxiety disorders in the western U.S.

State of play: Sometimes pragmatism comes before grief during a disaster like the urban wildfires, Katzman said. People might first prioritize figuring out what a return to work or school will could like, before processing the loss.

  • "Like when we lose our loved ones, there's stuff to do that often shields or distracts us from the underlying experience of loss," he said. "That can be a really tender experience."
  • Surviving can help people rationalize their situation, too, he said. Material objects might become secondary, but memories and all existing notions of the future are still tainted.

Zoom out: Survivors in California could even grapple with feelings that they have to move out of their home state to stay protected from future extreme weather events — which could bring upon loneliness and further instability.

  • "Solastalgia" has been used to describe the chronic distress of seeing negative environmental change in one's home environment.
  • "With this increase in the pace of these events, which one would imagine will keep growing, anxiety and all mental health issues will increase," Katzman said. "Mental health issues following a single event are nothing compared to an exposure to multiple events."

Case in point: Los Angeles families calling into Parents Anonymous, a nonprofit helpline, have been expressing extreme overwhelm this week, said CEO Lisa Pion-Berlin, CEO of Parents Anonymous.

  • For those whose houses were destroyed, "it's not just the things in the building you lost, you lost a home," she said. "And that's a safe place where you're raising a family, where you go to relax, where you go to cry, where you go to celebrate, where you have birthday parties."
  • "A home is much more than a building, a home is part of your heart, and that's been totally cut out."

Go deeper:

Not everyone in the Palisades is wealthy. I'm a 22-year-old renter with multiple jobs who evacuated.

12 January 2025 at 05:17
Tabitha Snavely with her dog
Tabitha Snavely, a 22-year-old renting an apartment in the Palisades, grew up in California.

Tabitha Snavely

  • 22-year-old Tabitha Snavely evacuated her apartment ahead of the Palisades wildfire.
  • Snavely, who works multiple jobs, said many in her building were blue-collar workers or older people.
  • She evacuated to her parents' house and told BI she needs to find a new place to live that is closer to work.

This as-told-to essay is based on interviews with Tabitha Snavely, a 22-year-old living in the Palisades. Her identity and employment has been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm 22 years old, and I live alone in a rented medium-sized apartment building in the Palisades. I've lived in California my whole life so this isn't my first time dealing with a fire.

On Tuesday night, I woke up to the alert of an evacuation. I had about 45 minutes to pack and feed my dog really quickly because I didn't know when we'd be in a safe area. As I was packing up, I started smelling smoke in my unit. As soon as I started smelling the smoke, I was like, "OK, I need to leave now."

I threw some clothes in a suitcase, grabbed my dog, loaded up my car, and started driving. I grabbed everything that I had the instinct to get out in an emergency, like my phone, laptop, some clothes.

When I pulled out of the parking garage, I could see so much smoke and then hundreds of cars trying to get out. Luckily, I am closer to the Pacific Coast Highway, so I was able to get out pretty quick.

I evacuated to San Diego. My family thought it was a better idea for me to evacuate here with them than to go to a friend's in Santa Monica or Hollywood because as the fire keeps growing, more people seem to keep getting evacuated.

The aftermath

I saw on the Watch Duty app on Wednesday that my apartment building was in a bright red zone — indicating it was in the path of the fire. My unit specifically is tucked away on the inside of the building, so I was hoping that not everything in my unit was demolished.

I planned to check on it over the weekend. Now, I've seen news footage showing my street and buildings that burned, including my apartment building.

Everything I left behind may now be gone: photos, books, my college diploma. I had my great-grandmother's quilt that she made for me before she passed away. I also had a set of plates and mugs that my grandma gave to me when she died. A lot of my things are thrifted or are hand-me-downs so they're not easily replaceable.

At the same time, my parents are selling their house, so the place I could stay for evacuation, although it isn't close to my job, is very temporary. I feel like a floater with nowhere to go because I don't want to impose on my friends too long without a secure plan for where to go.

A lot of my friends live in Santa Monica, Brentwood, or Malibu, and they have been starting to get evacuated now, but some of them have been able to return to their homes.

I'm close with a lot of the older people who have lived in the Palisades for decades. I would hang out with them at the coffee shops for hours. I don't know how any of them are doing because many of them only have home phones and not cellphones.

I have a hard time feeling at home, but this apartment finally felt like home. I loved everything about it.

It's not only wealthy people living in the Palisades

I know also that a lot of people think that the Palisades is very wealthy, but I don't feel rich. I have multiple jobs. A lot of the people in my building are blue-collar workers, and there are a lot of older people in the Palisades.

I work at a coconut water company, which allowed me to work remotely for the next week before returning in person. I also am a personal assistant for someone who owns a film production company, which also gave me the week off.

Luckily, I have renter's insurance, but I don't know where I will be living. Airbnb has offered a free week to people who have lost their homes, but I filled out the form and haven't heard anything back yet.

I have friends who have offered their couches for me to sleep on while I figure out what to do next, but I still do not have a definitive plan because I've been so scatterbrained since the fire evacuation alert woke me up.

I think we need to keep more compassion alive at this time because online, I've been seeing a lot of people say that the Palisades is very rich and they can all just afford to rebuild.

No one deserves to lose their home.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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