MDM and Apple Business Manager (or Apple Business Essentials) allow for zero-touch deployment. IT does not even have to see a device; it can be shipped new in the box to an employee and it will automatically configure and enroll in MDM when querying Apple’s activation servers during startup.
By contrast, managing devices manually can be extremely time consuming because you have to set up each device by hand when installing configuration profiles — and you must touch it every time you need to make changes. Security updates (or any software updates) cannot be forced to install, leaving it up to each user to install them or not.
When a device is managed via MDM, there’s a constant back and forth communication between the device and your company’s MDM service. This allows a whole host of features, particularly security features such as being able to query the device status, lock/unlock the device, install software updates, and add applications and other content over the air.
CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) is the biggest tech convention of the year. It helps set the stage for all the wonderful gadgets we’re going to see over the next 12 months. However, among all the quadcopters, questionably benevolent robots and devices with fancy flexible screens, there’s a lot of small things that go into making CES a one-of-a-kind event. To highlight some of the silly, stupid and occasionally wholesome things we encountered at the show this year, we humbly present the very unofficial Dumb Fun awards for CES 2025.
Cutest digger – Komatsu PC01E-2
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Komatsu’s PC01E-2 looks like a children’s playground toy, except that it actually works and is really goddam cute. You almost want to walk over and pinch that little bucket until it turns pink. But it’s not all fun and games because this little digger is meant to help excavate things — even in tight spaces. In fact, it’s small enough to fit in most elevators, so if you run into a situation where you need to get some digging done, say, on the roof, Komatsu’s got you.
We generally try to be optimistic about new tech. But ever since Faraday Future announced its first concept car back in 2016, the company has made less than 20 cars in total. And for the massive accomplishment of producing less than two dozen vehicles, Faraday Future’s founder and CEO went and gave themselves raises. Now at CES 2025, the company is trying to make a comeback with its new line of FX EVs, except that it couldn’t even be bothered to paint them. That special camouflage automakers use is usually meant to help hide a vehicle’s design before it gets announced, not make it look like a half-finished product at its own press event. That said, calling it 50 percent done is probably way too generous. So while there’s always a chance a company turns it around, don’t be surprised if you never see a FX Super One on the road.
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
If you ever need someone to sacrifice their sartorial elegance for a story, he’s your man. And yet, even with a floppy photovoltaic-equipped, mess of a head ornament, there’s still no doubt he’s the most dapper Dan.
Everyone is always worried about when our robot overlords are going to come and conquer us. Except it’s the humans we should probably be worried about the most. That’s because during a demo for Unitree’s robot, its homo sapien operator fumbled the controller, resulting in the robot basically tackling our very own Karissa Bell. Human or robot, that’s just not OK.
Originally this list was meant to highlight interesting things we saw at CES that didn’t get a lot of praise (or hate) elsewhere, but then the Mirumi went and won an award. I don’t care, though. This robot is designed to do one thing — hold onto your arm and stare cutely at things as you walk around. It’s basically a puffball with eyes and a clingyness that can’t be denied. And I will protect and cherish it with my life.
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
Look, taking care of your skin is important. It’s the largest organ in your body after all! But if traditional moisturizers, creams and exfoliants aren’t enough for you, I’m not convinced Shark’s red light mask is the answer. If I’m at home and my significant other comes out of the bathroom looking like goddam Doctor Doom, I’m not getting in bed. I’m running out the door and calling Reed Richards for help.
Chillest booth: AARP
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The AARP describes itself as “the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age.” So instead of encouraging people to hustle around from booth to booth while checking out all the new-fangled gadgets during CES, the AARP went and decided to install a whole-ass pickleball court right on the show floor. Naturally, attendees both young and old stepped up to the net and causally batted balls back and forth with everyone seemingly having a relaxing time in the midst of the biggest tech convention of the year. Good on y’all.
Las Vegas is an affront to Mother Nature. It’s an unwalkable city in the middle of the desert filled with all manner of temptations and enough neon lighting to melt your brain. So when a company doesn’t feel like flying in to attend CES, we get it. But that doesn’t mean you can try to weasel your way into the spotlight by sending email pitches about being “perfect for CES, but smart enough to skip it.” Either stop fence sitting and suffer with the rest of us or shut up. So hey Jackrabbit, you say you’re fine not being at CES. That’s cool, we feel the same way.
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
You know what sounds safe? An electric moped that turns into a quadcopter, but only if you position the propellers and arms yourself. The base model also only has about 25 minutes of flight time. While the company claims there are a number of safety features, there’s also a built-in parachute. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we can’t have air taxis and other hybrid aerial vehicles. But this thing does not inspire confidence. However, if you have more guts and than sense, please give it a try and let us know how it goes.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Not every computer part needs to be about pumping out higher framerates and MSI proved that this year by making a CPU cooler with a built-in turntable. What’s the point, you ask? Well check out that happy little dragon sitting atop its throne. Just look at him. But really, you could put anything up there that makes you happy. The only sad part is that this water block is merely a concept and MSI has no actual plans to put it on sale. What a bummer.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
We couldn’t decide which one was more outrageous, so we ended up with a tie in this category. For Dell, its new unified branding is largely fine. After all, no one really cares about lines like Latitude, Inspiron and Optiplex. But killing off the XPS name, which is the only Dell sub-brand that has really ever meant something, is a step too far.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to woo younger buyers who might not have an affinity for its classic black laptops, Lenovo made a ThinkPad with no carbon fiber or a Trackpoint nub. That’s downright sacrilegious. Admittedly, if you’re younger than 50 you might not care, but any nerd who grew up using rotary phones is probably pissed.
Horniest booth: Handy
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
CES is home to all sorts of sex tech, but even among all the vibrators and various toys, the Handy booth somehow managed to be hornier than any other. That’s because in addition to having a selection of kinky gadgets on display, the company had guests lining up to spin a wheel for the chance to take home a prize of their own. And if people eagerly awaiting a chance to take away a pleasure device so they can get their rocks off isn’t horny, I don’t know what is. Just maybe keep it in your pants until you get home.
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As Republicans look to blame anyone and everyone for the LA wildfires, President Biden has mounted a vigorous federal response to assist the local communities that have been impacted and are still battling the fires.
A White House official summarized the support that the federal government is providing during the LA wildfires:
At the President’s direction, the Department of Defense is providing support to the firefighting efforts, including:
Overnight infrared imaging for perimeter maps,
The California National Guard is providing 1,000 personnel to support efforts, 250 of which have firefighting capabilities, and
The Department of Defense is making its bases in the area available as shelters for displaced personnel and families with over 1,000 beds and has established March Reserve Base as an incident response area.
Overnight – local, state, and federal firefighters continued their efforts to contain some of the fires.
The Hurst fire near Sylmar is now 70 percent contained.
The Sunset fire Hollywood Hills is now 100 percent contained.
The Kenneth fire near West Hills is now 50 percent contained.
As of this morning, more than 16,000 people have registered for the FEMA assistance made available by the President’s Major Disaster Declaration on Wednesday.
Today, President Biden spoke by phone with local officials, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Ventura County Supervisor Kelly Long.
While Biden is doing everything listed above, Donald Trump is hanging out on his social media platform, making staff announcements, posting memes of himself, and whining about “lawfare.”
Greg Gutfeld has returned to the airwaves after an extended break due to his wife having a baby.
On his FOX News show on Friday night, Greg opened by tearing into the media and the comedy world for covering for Joe Biden’s obvious decline over the last four years.
He notes that in many ways, the media is still trying to cover for Joe Biden on his way out the door.
GREG GUTFELD: Look out Tricky Dick. There’s a new worst president in town. According to a new Gallup poll, Biden is the lowest rated of any president in the last 65 years, other than Nixon. But to be fair to Nixon, compared to Biden’s scandals, Watergate looks like a broken taillight. Now, when you rate Biden the worst since Nixon, you’re saying he’s the worst ever, because pollsters only ask about presidents that people have lived under going back to Kennedy. Unless you’re some historian, you’re only capable of rating presidents in your memory. Hell, Biden himself doesn’t even remember his own presidency…
So the worst since Nixon is really the worst ever. And keep in mind, the public hates Biden, even with most of the press covering up his dementia for this whole term. And sure, they panicked and piled on him after that deadly debate. But they can’t make us forget how many times they lied for him. Hell, they’re still doing it even when he does stuff like this…
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It’s astounding what’s happening…with only one piece of good news. My son lives out here and his wife. They’re–They got a notification yesterday that their home was probably burned to the ground. Today, it appears that it may be still standing. They’re not sure. But the good news is I’m a great grandfather as of today…
GUTFELD: Way to read the room, you callous corpse. Sorry your city is burning, but I brought cigars. Anyone got a match? I’m going to be a great granddaddy. ****, what a clown. I guess we can be grateful he didn’t ask Jimmy Carter to stand up at the eulogy.
Watch the whole thing below:
Greg’s cast of sidekicks did a great job filling in for him over the past few months, but it is great to have him back in the host’s chair.
The official cause of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires, fuelled by powerful winds and drought-like conditions, is yet to be determined.
But with the blazes still raging, who has been blamed for the devastation that has seen hundreds of homes destroyed homes and at least 16 people killed?
President-elect Donald Trump was quick to point the finger at Joe Biden and California’s governor Gavin Newsom – a Democrat he refers to as “Gavin Newscum”.
He blamed water conservation priorities for causing hydrants to run dry in parts of Los Angeles.
“It’s a mistake of the governor, and you can say the administration,” he said.
“They don’t have any water. They didn’t have water in the fire hydrants.
More on California Wildfires
“The governor has not done a good job.”
Image: Resident berates Newsom
Without specifically naming Mr Trump, Mr Biden reacted to the claim during a briefing at the White House, passing the question to his deputy energy secretary David Turk.
He explained why power lines were shut down in the fire and how that impacted hydrants, saying it was down to a power and pressure issue.
Hydrants need power to pump water up, he said, but during times of disaster power lines are cut to curb the risk of power surges and line breakdowns.
Mr Trump went as far as to call Mr Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass’ leadership “gross incompetence” and blamed them for “a total wipeout” in Los Angeles.
Mr Newsom, who has also been the target of criticism from residents hit by the devastating wildfires, has invited Mr Trump to survey the area and meet with those affected.
In a letter, he said: “In the spirit of this great country, we must not politicise human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines.”
He has also called for an independent investigation into the issues of water pressure and supply, saying “we need answers to ensure this does not happen again”.
More than 90,000 people have signed an online petition calling on Ms Bass to resign, accusing her of a “failure” to respond to the fires gripping the city.
Image: Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. File pic: AP
The city mayor, who was on a visit to Ghana when the fires broke out, is also facing fierce criticism for $17.8m (£14.5m) in budget cuts for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Fire chief Kristin Crowley said they had “negatively impacted” her team’s ability to tackle the fires.
She told CNN “the fire department needs help” and there are not enough staff or fire stations, and in an interview with KTTV if the city had failed the LAFD she responded, “yes”.
Ms Bass has denied that the reduction had an impact on firefighting efforts during this week’s crisis and sought to ease the tension amid rumours Ms Crowley would be sacked.
“The fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives, and any differences that we might have will be worked out in private,” Ms Bass said at a news conference.
Ms Crowley, who is gay and the city’s first female fire chief, had herself been swept into the national political debate with conservatives claiming diversity, equity and inclusion policies have gone too far in US institutions.
She has made diversifying the overwhelmingly male department a priority, but there’s no evidence that her efforts have hampered the fight.
With barely a week until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is packing up his office and preparing for his return to civilian life.
It will be quite a shift after managing the dispersal of billions of dollars in funds as part of President Biden’s infrastructure legislation, and managing crises in the airline and railroad sectors.
As he prepares to step down, Buttigieg spoke with All Things Considered host Scott Detrow about some of his accomplishments and the challenges he faced on the job.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Scott Detrow: I want to start by talking about the thing that probably got the most attention throughout the course of the administration – all the infrastructure spending. I think that’s a good example of something that seems to do all of the things that a lot of people think that the voters want from government: investing in communities, fixing problems, coming together to fix those problems, spending at historic levels. You and others in the administration spent years getting the message out there, [and] putting this project into place. I know how many airports you visited to tout these accomplishments, and yet a lot of different metrics, including the election results, suggest that maybe voters didn’t quite appreciate, that it didn’t seem to land, it didn’t seem to be a reaching a consensus of, ‘Wow, the Biden administration did this for me.’ I’m wondering how you make sense of all of that.
Pete Buttigieg: Well, a lot of the things that we work on are worth doing, whether they’re getting a lot of political credit or not. We do safety work to save people from losing their lives on our roadways or in the aviation system. We don’t expect people to cheer for us. We just do it because it’s the right thing to do, and our infrastructure is something that should just work. That said, I do think that as more and more of these projects go to completion, we’re going to see more and more of an appreciation for what this infrastructure era has done to make people better off. We’re already seeing levels of employment in construction, building, trades, and manufacturing that we haven’t seen in my lifetime. Think about the Affordable Care Act. Took years before people fully appreciated them, and the very nature of infrastructure work is, it takes some time. That said, I’m going to keep telling the story and waving the flag, because it is extraordinary what we did and what will continue to happen in this country. It didn’t happen on its own. It was a bipartisan achievement at a time when anything bipartisan is pretty rare in this town. And I think we’re going to be benefiting from it for the rest of our lives.
Detrow: That being said, this idea that Americans wanted to see their government working for them more was such a concrete thesis of the Biden administration. It’s something that you campaigned and wrote about before you joined this administration. Given where we are at this point in time, the transition of power that’s happening, has that made you rethink anything, whether it was the way that this was approached, or the way that it was communicated?
Buttigieg: We always knew that part of what we were doing is turning a very big ship in terms of the condition of American infrastructure and the condition of a lot of things that Americans count on government to do. But that’s going to take a lot of time. And the best thing that could come of that, is a higher baseline level of public trust in what government can do for them.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel North Portal in January 2023 in Baltimore. The tunnel, which is more than 150 years old, will be replaced with funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Detrow: Do you think you achieved that?
Buttigieg: Well, I think we set things on a different trajectory, but we’re also operating in a different information environment. We’re now living in a time where some dude on the internet has as much authority as somebody holding themselves to the highest journalistic standards of fact-checking and research. And that is something that I think can swamp a lot of our more traditional calculations about what makes for good policy and good politics.
Detrow: This very week, there’s a concrete moment of stepping away from fact-checking, stepping away from regulations on Facebook in particular. Do you think that’s the answer, or do you think it makes us all worse?
Buttigieg: Well, what we’ve seen so far is that places that have abandoned fact-checking or editorial responsibility have not become a paradise of free speech. Things have taken a pretty dark turn. And so I think we need to continue to find ways to help people sort through and make sense of all of this information that’s coming at us. Because right now, we’ve never had more information in my lifetime, and we’ve never been less informed.
Detrow: You, up until this point, are the most high-profile millennial to hold national office. I guess Vice President-elect [J.D.] Vance will join that club in a matter of weeks. But as we talk about this, I’m wondering, you came of age with the internet — do you think it’s done more harm or good for government, for public policy, at this point in time?
Buttigieg: I think at best it has cut both ways. One thing that I think it has made possible is it’s empowered everybody to be a reporter. And there are things that we find out about, including things that have happened in our communities or on our streets that no one would have known about if it weren’t possible to record and publicize them through the internet. On the other hand, what we’ve found is that everybody is a reporter, but nobody’s an editor. And the idea that you do in fact have a responsibility to separate fact from fiction, to make judgments about what deserves real scrutiny or real attention, that’s something that has really weakened in our society as a result of some of these technologies. Also, for my entire lifetime, you could use a photograph usually to settle a question about whether something was true or false. That’s less and less true. And adapting to things like that is really going to test our capacity as a society, as a species.
Detrow: I want to talk about social justice and transportation. You at times talked about Robert Moses — and got the attention of nerds who love “The Power Broker“ — but to get to these broader examples of the way that infrastructure and transportation projects were often built in a way that furthered injustice instead of helping to fix it. You talked early on about wanting to take that head-on. Are there areas where you feel like you accomplished that goal?
Buttigieg: We were able, through so many of our projects, to empower the very kinds of people and homes and families and neighborhoods that used to get rolled over by transportation projects in the past. And that’s really twofold — both making neighborhoods better off with transit access to places that didn’t have it in the past or roads that are built with their neighborhood in mind. But also the jobs we created, I mean, the number of people getting good-paying jobs in the building trades, who are actually literally making these things happen and happened in the neighborhoods where they grew up, is extraordinary. And I believe it’s unprecedented. So we’ve really been able to make a big difference there. Still, a long way to go. It took decades to get the way we are, everything good and everything that needs to change. And it’s going to take a while to get to a new reality. But we’re well underway in what I like to call this infrastructure decade.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during an event to discuss investments in the U.S. electric vehicle charging network, outside Department of Transportation headquarters on February 10, 2022 in Washington, DC. Administration officials outlined the plans for a $5 billion network of electric vehicle chargers along interstate highways. The money is included in the recently passed and signed into law bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
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Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Detrow: When you made those comments, there was this parallel reaction of excitement from people who love thousand-page books and criticism and some of the right-wing press that this was yet another example of identity politics, social justice-type governing. And I’m asking that because in the months since the election, there has been all of this back-and-forth about ‘Did Democrats kind of veer too far in that lane? Did that hurt them politically?’ I’m wondering what you make about that general conversation, if you have any big takeaways on the policies of the last five or six years, and how people are interpreting them.
Buttigieg: I think it was a reminder of how some voices in the media can get people whipped up over anything, when we’re talking about measures that don’t make anyone worse off and make a lot of people better off. I will never be able to relate to the idea that it’s wrong to confront segregation that neighborhoods still have to live with because of some physical design decision that was made in the ’50s or ’60s. When we see that, we should put it right, and that’s what we set out to do.
Detrow: Do you think there’s something to the idea that your party needs to talk about these things in a different way to bring more people along?
Buttigieg: I think any way you come at it, the most important thing is the actions, not the words. I think that there has been a lot of hyperventilating about vocabulary. I think that this is something that you see in different flavors from all sides of the aisle. My side of the aisle gets lost in jargon sometimes, and there’s some really troubling things that you see in terms of vocabulary of what comes from the other side of the aisle, too. The bottom line is, we need to do the thing and then figure out how to talk about what we’re doing. And the thing that we’re doing is fixing roads and bridges across the country.
Detrow: You’re going to be a private citizen. You, along with many other Democrats, really raised deep, deep concerns about what a second Trump administration would mean on the rule of law, and democracy, [and] on many other fronts. How are you going to be approaching that? Whatever you do next, how are you going to be responding? Do you have any thoughts about what you will charge yourself with doing when you’re out of office?
Buttigieg: What I know is that most Americans believe in some basic values and some very important norms that hold our country together. Frankly, no matter how you voted, a strong majority of Americans believe in making sure that our country is a freedom loving place, that people have rights, and that we solve big problems together. And that’s something that I’m going to continue to care about and work on. I’ll be doing it as a citizen rather than as a policymaker … I’m going to do everything I can to work on the things that I care about and the things that are going to matter to our family, and [to] Michigan, and to so many people who I’ve gotten to know along the way in this work.
Craig Fugate, who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Obama administration, has seen a lot of natural disasters. He knows the difference between destruction and utter devastation, and puts the nation’s truly cataclysmic events — those that erase entire communities in a blink — in a category all their own.
“This is your Hurricane Katrina,” Fugate said in an interview with The Times. “It will forever change the community. It will be a touch point that everybody will remember, before and after. And for Los Angeles, this will become one of the defining moments of the community, the city and the county’s history.”
Many in L.A. and across California already understand the before: Bone-dry months with no rain. Deadly Santa Ana winds at hurricane strength. Built-out suburbs in one of the most densely populated regions in the nation, bumping up against kindling-dry forest and scrub land.
It is the after that remains unclear — that stirs worry and fear.
There are the immediate questions, like where people who have lost their homes will stay tonight, tomorrow and the rest of this week, and the longer-term ones, such as whether L.A. should rebuild in areas that remain vulnerable to the increasing cruelty of climate change.
Another question that has loomed large: As the region tries to move forward, will politics get in the way?
Scenes of sheer devastation in L.A. — from Altadena to the Palisades to Pacific Coast Highway — have been met with finger-pointing and barbs traded at the highest levels of government.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate with President Obama in the Oval Office in 2016.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
Could the recovery be hampered by President-elect Donald Trump and his spat with Gov. Gavin Newsom over fire and water management in the state? Could Trump, who takes office in just over a week, unilaterally cut federal aid already promised by President Biden?
Biden and current FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on Friday stopped short of guaranteeing the funding would continue under Trump, with Biden saying he hoped it would. Criswell said that Biden followed the law in declaring the disaster declaration and that “it shouldn’t be rolled back.”
Both Fugate and Peter T. Gaynor, a FEMA administrator in the first Trump administration, seemed more confident the aid would continue.
“That initial assistance is locked and loaded. It’s coming,” Fugate said.
“President Trump has been in office before and he’s seen disasters. He’s visited disasters. And so he knows how complicated these things are. He’s not new to this,” Gaynor said. “He’ll continue to support disaster victims no matter what state they are in or who they voted for, including in California.”
But, Gaynor said, “the way forward is going to be hard — and that’s an understatement.”
Fugate agreed. He also noted that much of the path forward won’t be up to FEMA or the federal government.
“There are going to be some big challenges that even the federal government is not prepared to deal with,” he said. “A lot of these decisions are going to have to be made at the local level.”
The scope of destruction is hard to fathom. All week, the numbers have risen — now to at least 16 dead and more than 10,000 structures damaged or destroyed.
Cost estimates have also continued to climb. JP Morgan on Thursday doubled its estimate from a day earlier, to about $50 billion, but a final total won’t be known until the true extent of the damage and reconstruction costs are known.
By comparison, Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that devastated New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 and cost about $200 billion, according to federal estimates.
According to Fugate and Gaynor, the full scope of the disastrous fires won’t set in for a while — but the marching orders are clear.
On Thursday, Biden pledged that the federal government will cover 100% of disaster assistance costs to California for the next 180 days, saying, “Climate change is real.”
For FEMA, they said, that means go time.
“The floodgates for federal assistance are now open, and there’s a method to request and receive those resources and pay for it all — so that’s the positive thing about what’s going on,” Gaynor said.
Every type of disaster has a unique footprint. In hurricanes and floods, everything is wet and much is ruined or destroyed, but belongings are still around to be found or salvaged. After fires, there are just barren landscapes where “the only things that are left are barbecues, engine blocks and propane tanks,” Gaynor said.
“With wildfires, there’s nothing left but ash. It’s almost like a total erasure of their history. So for a lot of people, that’s going to be the compounding trauma,” Fugate said. “It’s not only that they lost their home, they lost their memories.”
For FEMA, that can mean less physical debris to clear — though there is still plenty of that. But there is also next to no infrastructure left. “The only thing left are the roads,” Fugate said.
Part of the immediate task for FEMA and state and local officials is securing and cleaning up dangerous and environmentally degraded sites.
FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor with President Trump at a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in 2020.
(Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)
Biden’s declaration makes federal funding available to state, local and tribal governments for debris removal, hazard mitigation and other emergency measures.
The other immediate task — including for FEMA — is getting all of the people who have been displaced by the fires into shelter, Fugate and Gaynor said.
The federal funding approved by Biden can cover temporary housing and home repairs, as well as loans to cover uninsured losses. And part of what FEMA will be doing is coordinating temporary housing assistance for victims — including through hotel and motel vouchers.
FEMA can operate a temporary housing assistance program for up to 18 months, and state and local officials will be able to request that the president extend that time period if the need is still there.
The need for housing assistance in L.A. will likely remain an issue for a long time, Fugate and Gaynor said — especially given how much the region already struggled with affordable housing and homelessness before the fires erupted.
“If you had affordable housing challenges before the fire, it didn’t get better” with the sudden demand for housing among fire survivors impacting the broader affordable housing and rental market, too, Fugate said.
Hurdles ahead
In coming months and years, L.A. and its surrounding communities will likely ask for Housing and Urban Development funding for new affordable housing, Department of Transportation funding for rail and roadway projects and Small Business Administration funding for business loans and recovery efforts, the administrators said.
Examples abound of the federal government swooping in to rebuild American communities devastated by disaster. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, for example, billions in federal aid poured into the region to repair infrastructure. After a shipping vessel crashed into and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last year, the federal government said it would foot the entire bill to replace it — to the tune of billions.
But while much of the funding may be federal, local and state officials will face a massive lift to coordinate the recovery and rebuild, Fugate and Gaynor said.
A huge hurdle is home insurance. Before the fires, California was already facing a home insurance crisis. Insurers were already dropping customers statewide, citing increasing wildfire-related losses — and the latest fires will only compound that issue.
There are also questions about how many of the homeowners who lost everything in the latest fires had insurance policies, or may have been recently dropped and are between policies, Fugate said.
Many people may be left in the lurch, and the state may have to start considering standing up a new program for insuring homes in the fire-ravaged state, he said.
Then there is the issue of physically reconstructing communities that have been wiped out across a wide swath of urban and semi-urban landscape, Fugate said. With nothing left but the roadways, there will be huge amounts of clearing to do, as well as new utilities to be installed and environmental impact assessments to be done.
When L.A. finally does get to the point of construction, a new ream of issues related to labor and supplies will likely crop up.
“Just the sheer construction effort to rebuild enough homes to get people out of shelters” will be a massively challenging undertaking, Fugate said. “Construction workers, supplies, materials — those are all going to be huge challenges, even if people do have insurance to get rebuilt.”
And that’s if rebuilding is the goal.
Some have already questioned whether some of the devastated areas should be rebuilt, given the ever-increasing threats of a warming planet — especially in the pathway of the Santa Ana winds.
Fugate said the L.A. region is too valuable to imagine such vast swaths of land sitting vacant forever. “They’re going to rebuild,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean rebuilding exactly what existed before, he said.
State and local officials should already be in the process of considering the future communities they want to build, and the building codes they want to implement in order to ensure those communities are more resilient.
“The question is how do you rebuild these communities that make them not fireproof, but more resilient and more resistant to these types of fires,” Fugate said.
On Wednesday, he set many Californians further on edge by reigniting the spat with a muddled and inaccurate post on his Truth Social platform in which he again suggested he had demands for Newsom — whom he called “Newscum.”
Both Fugate and Gaynor said it was not a surprise that the fires have sparked political debate.
“Every disaster has a political element to it. It’s just the nature of the beast,” Gaynor said. “There’s always somebody who has some grievance that they want to air or take advantage of in the moment, whether it’s a local official or a governor or a president.”
Gaynor said such remarks are “not useful,” but also aren’t cause for alarm — at least when it comes to the federal government’s immediate aid to L.A.
Gaynor said he worked with both Trump and Newsom on emergency responses during Trump’s last term, including responding to past California fires alongside the governor and that “in the moment, in response, in recovery, I think — again, from my firsthand experience — everyone is trying to do the right thing.”
And regardless of the posturing of politicians, FEMA officials have a “pretty clear” charge they stick to, he said: “Help people before, during and after a disaster.”
Fugate agreed. He said Trump has often made alarming comments about disasters in the past, but they have rarely translated into action.
“He communicates in this bombastic manner to get you to at least pay attention to what he’s trying to address, but doesn’t necessarily always follow through on that. It’s just a communications style,” Fugate said.
More important politically, both former administrators said, will be future discussions in Congress about the types and scope of aid to be funneled to L.A.
Will there be major infrastructure projects funded in the lead up to the 2028 Summer Olympics, which are set to be hosted by L.A.? Will HUD funding be allocated to build new affordable housing or will only mansions be rebuilt? How many businesses have been destroyed, and how much will the government be willing to spend to get them back on their feet?
There are bound to be major environmental impacts — and huge costs to mitigating them. How will the government fund those projects?
Fugate said all of those questions will be taken up by Congress, and it will be up to California’s sizable delegation — and especially its Republican members — to advocate for as much funding as possible.
Similar discussions in the past have led to “rigorous debate,” Fugate said. But funding ultimately went out — and will again, he predicted.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “Americans come to other Americans’ aid in their time of need.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Faith E. Pinho contributed to this article.
Synchrony Pay Later can soon be used to complete purchases in installments via Apple Pay.
Synchrony joins existing companies such as Affirm and Klarna, both of which offer buy-now, pay-later services via Apple Pay. They act as a replacement to Apple Pay Later, an installment service Apple abandoned in 2024.
The support page for Apple Pay lists Synchrony under the pay with installments section, first discovered by MacRumors. The service should appear under the “Other Cards & Pay Later Options” at checkout when using Apple Pay.
Apple Pay is a digital payment service launched by Apple over a decade ago in 2014. Apple Pay makes it possible to complete payments on an iPhone without the use of a physical card, offering added convenience.
While Apple had ambitious plans for Apple Pay Later, the company discontinued the pay-later service in favor of third-party options. It isn’t clear why the change was made beyond Apple not wanting to continue to financially back the loans with its own capital.
Because of this, companies such as Synchrony make it possible to split Apple Pay purchases into smaller installments, which is effectively what Apple Pay Later used to offer. However, users will have to apply through the individual processors rather than relying on a service that was built into their Apple Card service.
The Synchrony Pay Later service doesn’t appear to be available in Apple Pay at the time of publication. It being listed on Apple’s support page is a good sign that it will appear soon.
UFC Vegas 101 delivered the goods across the board last night (Sat., Jan. 11, 2025) live on ESPN+ from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the company’s violent start to the new year left a few fighters needing a trip to the hospital.
Following the conclusion of UFC Vegas 101, company officials confirmed with MMAmania.com that two fighters, welterweight Abdul Razak Alhassan and middleweight Ihor Potieria, were sent to the hospital for a precautionary CT scan for head and face injuries. The results of those CT scans are unknown at this time.
Potieria, who lost his third-straight trip to the Octagon on Saturday night, suffered a clobbering knockout at the hands of middleweight newcomer Marco Tulio. Oddsmakers heavily leaned on Tulio coming off two successful appearances on the Contender Series, especially with Potieria missing weight by a few pounds.
Check out Tulio’s brutal finish below that left Potieria needing additional medical attention:
As for Alhassan, the welterweight veteran suffered one of the most brutal knockouts you’ll ever see so it’s understandable why he required a trip to the hospital for further examination. The knockout blow occurred during UFC Vegas 101’s main card at the hands of former GLORY kickboxer, Cesar Almeida.
Alhassan was in full command of the fight after scoring an early-round knockdown on Almeida, but things quickly changed after Almeida launched a perfectly-timed left hook counter along the cage. The punch clipped Alhassan directly on the chin and sent him violently crashing to the canvas. It was a scary few minutes as Alhassan was extremely slow to come to.
Check out the stoppage below:
For complete UFC Vegas 101 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
The New York Times offers everyone quite a few addicting — yet educational — word games. “Connections” is among the most popular, and we’ve got the hints and final solution to the puzzle for today, January 12, 2025. Since the answer is usually a tough code to crack, we know the frustration that comes with playing the game!
Below, see our hints and the answer to today’s “Connections” game.
How to Play ‘Connections’
“Connections” starts with a set of 16 words in a grid. Players — who can access the game on The New York Times‘ website — must separate the words into four related groups. The difficulty of each category is marked in different colors: yellow, green, blue and purple. Yellow is the easiest one, and purple is considered the most difficult one.
After a player selects each group’s four related words, they click “submit.” Upon submission, it should become the category’s color if it’s correct.
‘Connections’ January 11 Hints
The following are our hints for today’s “Connections” puzzle:
The yellow group can be a made-up story or a lie.
The green group can be related to dating, or simply when a person can move another one emotionally.
The blue group is video games.
The purple group points to something that is on the end of an object, a person or an animal.
“Connections” editor Wyna Liu is well aware of the massive frustration that players have when they can’t solve a day’s puzzle. But it can’t be an easy game to create. While speaking with Slate in July 2024, Liu described the process behind developing each puzzle for the publication.
“The process is I have a notebook where I keep down category ideas. And when I sit down to make boards, I’ll take one of those ideas, I’ll take those words, and then I’ll start spinning off of them,” Liu said at the time. “And then, the boards will be built from that, and sometimes it goes in surprising directions. I feel like that’s sort of one of the most joyful things about making games. I don’t know what the categories are gonna be. I start with like a seed. And then I’m just like, ‘Oh, what does this word do?,’ and then maybe like a dozen categories of possibilities and then you kind of see if any of those words are playing off each other, and the brain builds from that.”
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