The Dictatorship
The other devastating reality of the L.A. wildfires
I’ve lived in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood since I moved to the city in 2017. As a person who lives in L.A., I’m used to the fire season. It’s sad to see images of the city on firebut it’s rare that they have much impact on my life. However, the combined Eaton and Palisades fires that are currently ravaging the city have brought up a lot of feelings for me around safety and how money and resources affect decision-making.
Tuesday night, the fires had begun, but things were still slow-moving for the most part. Shortly before midnight, my wife’s father sent a message telling her and her sisters that the Eaton Fire was getting close to his home in Sierra Madre, about 20 miles away from our neighborhood. He decided to evacuate to Monrovia, in the San Gabriel Valley, where his partner lives. We felt comfortable going to bed knowing that he was going to be OK.
The idea of a go-bag was pretty abstract when we went to sleep. But when we woke up at around 7 on Wednesday morning, we saw that more friends had begun leaving their homes.
As we lay in bed, I suggested that we should think about making go-bags, just in case. But as we talked, I began to think about the logistics of what packing up and leaving our apartment would look like. My wife and I have an 11-year-old son. We also have five pets: two cats, a dog and two guinea pigs. The bigger pets have carrying cases, but it can be a real challenge to get them into the carriers. And could we even get the guinea pigs out? I couldn’t carry them in their cage; it’s too cumbersome and would take up the entire back seat of our car.
Thankfully, the idea of a go-bag was pretty abstract when we went to sleep. But when we woke up at around 7 on Wednesday morning, we saw that more friends had begun leaving their homes. My wife warned that it smelled like smoke as soon as she walked out of our front door, so I told my son to make sure he wore a mask any time he was going to be outside at school.
Around noon, we received a message from his school telling parents that the school was closing immediately, following decisions by the school district. Around 5 p.m., it was decided that school wouldn’t be held on Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, we were still waiting to hear about plans for Friday.
While I made dinner, my wife came into the kitchen, telling me that Runyon Canyon was on fire. We have a friend who lives close to Runyon, so I immediately texted her. Minutes later, I received a text back: “Runyon on fire. Forced evacuation. Packing.” My heart dropped.
We began to worry more. It would take some pretty strong winds to blow the fire our way, and there’s really no imminent threat of fire where we live — but should we pack anyway? Anything could happen. We decided it would be in our best interest to throw a few bags together.
But then, where would we go? The people we would normally stay with both had to evacuate. Additionally, the safest places are easily an hour or more away. On top of that, we couldn’t really afford to stay at a place that would accommodate our whole crew.
Ultimately, the Sunset Fire was put out before we could finish deliberating about packing more bags. We were lucky enough not to have to leave.
But what about people in similar circumstances to us who do have to leave?
According to a Bank of America survey reported by CNBCnearly half of Americans said they are living paycheck to paycheck. I work as a freelance writer, and my wife is an arts administrator at our son’s school. We don’t have a lot of money for sudden expenses like a hotel room or an Airbnb. And while Airbnb is offering free temporary housing to those displaced by the fires, we wouldn’t feel right taking space from people who are in far worse situations than we are. We could probably swing one night, but anything more could seriously affect our finances for the rest of the month. I’m sure most Angelenos are in the same boat, afraid of how these fires will affect their immediate finances, even if they don’t lose anything.
We’re hearing a lot of stories about people who are smartly evacuating when they’re being told to leave. But not many people are talking about the sacrifices they’re making in the name of safety. Los Angeles County has been setting up places for people to seek shelter, and even animal drop-off shelters. It’s encouraging to see the city looking out for its citizens that way, and everyone who needs those resources should absolutely be using them. Sadly, I can’t help but think about what gets left behind: pets, cherished items, even peoplebecause people don’t have enough resources to bring them along.
Less than half of the Americans polled were confident they could afford to leave. Nearly 24% believe that leaving is an unlikely possibility, even if it were only for a few days.
According to a YouGov poll released on X33% of Americans said they could definitely afford to leave their homes if they were forced to evacuate. That is an alarming reality: Less than half of the Americans polled were confident they could afford to leave. Nearly 24% believe that leaving is an unlikely possibility, even if it were only for a few days. One mom of six children with four dogs tearfully shared on TikTok that she could not afford to leave her Florida home during Hurricane Milton because she couldn’t afford an Airbnb to hold her large brood.
I have seen people sharing information on social media about what needs to be in your go-bag. A lot of the items are easy things to come by: a first-aid kit, a flashlight, batteries. But other things, like many gallons of water per person and days’ worth of nonperishable food items, are not always feasible if you don’t have a lot of storage space. And with grocery costs being what they are, people may not have the luxury of buying food items that they don’t have an immediate need for. Nonperishables with high nutritional value are expensive; you don’t want to let them go bad due to lack of use.
Safety is always the most important thing when making decisions about when to leave. But people have to be realistic about costs. How many people can afford thousands for a hotel room? How much gas can you get when you have only $100 and 40 miles to drive to safety? We’re all just trying to do the best with what we have. Offering people grace is going to go a lot further than judgment.
In an explosive interview with NBC aired Sunday, President Donald Trump cut the grilling short and left the set after peppering “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker with insults.
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump told Welker, who kept a cool demeanor despite the president’s barrage of disparaging slurs.
Moments before he attacked her, Trump — without providing any evidence — said he believes elections in the U.S. are rigged. Then he lambasted television news networks, singling out NBC, CBS and ABC.
“They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” Trump said.
“To be fair, I’m not crooked,” Welker shot back. “But let’s continue.”
“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” the president told Welker, who is the second woman and first Black journalist to helm the network’s flagship program.
Trump added, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
It was not the first time Trump has berated a female journalist on the job covering his presidency.
In November 2025, he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to stop talking, saying, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” One month later, he told ABC’s Rachel Scott she was “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.” Last month, he called MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner “a dumb person” for pointing out that the cost of his White House ballroom project had doubled since it was first announced.
He has also repeatedly lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collinscriticizing her for not smiling enough.
The wide-ranging interview, which was taped last week on a farm in Wisconsin, was interrupted by the loud sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the barn where they met. Welker questioned Trump on his war with Iran, his “anti-weaponization” fund and the upcoming midterm elections.
On his nearly $1.8 billion fund aimed at compensating people who say they were wrongly prosecuted, including Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, Trump said “people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated.”
He described the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as people who were “being ushered into the building” by law enforcement.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund last month and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week the administration would not be moving forward with the fundwhich faced bipartisan backlash.
When asked if the administration would pursue other avenues to revive it, Trump said he does not know what will ultimately happen and called Welker and her network “the fake dirty press.”
Despite campaigning on a promise to end foreign wars, Trump denied that he made such statements. He characterized the Iran war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, as necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
When asked about the rising cost of living as a result of the war, specifically gas and fertilizer, Trump chastised Welker.
“Are you ready? Am I allowed to talk? You keep asking questions and you don’t listen to the answers,” he said.
“I love the farmers and the farmers love me,” Trump said, adding that prices will come down after the war.
Welker suggested to her viewers Sunday that she and the president had a cordial conversation Saturday, saying they both “acknowledged the complications” posed by the rain. “He agreed to sit down with me for another ‘Meet the Press’ interview,” she said.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Iran said visas were denied to key members of its national soccer team ahead of the World Cupwhich a U.S. official insisted was necessary so that Iran does not try to “sneak terrorists into the United States.”
In a post on Xthe Iranian embassy in Turkey said “visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others” on its team.
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy said, accusing the U.S. of the “worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport” and “depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions.”
Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. government of violating FIFA regulations and breaching its obligations as one of the host countries of what is widely regarded to be the biggest sporting event in the world. The diplomatic standoff between the two countries comes just days before the World Cup is set to kick off and more than three months after the U.S. and Israel waged war against Iran.
A Trump administration official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the subject told MS NOW in a statement that the visas “necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”
The official added, however, “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
The statement from the Iranian Embassy in Turkey came in response to a post on X by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack praising embassy staff for processing visas for the Iranian national team.
According to The Associated Presssome of the team’s officials have not received visas to enter the U.S., which is co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Games are set to begin Thursday.
Problems with getting U.S. visas had already led Iran to move its World Cup training base from the U.S. to Mexico. But Iran is still listed on the official World Cup schedule to play its first two games in Los Angeles on June 15 against New Zealand, and against Belgium six days later before heading to Seattle to face Egypt.
The Iran Football Federation’s secretary-general and its vice president were among 14 staff and officials without U.S. visas, AP said, citing Iranian state television. The federation reportedly accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior.”
Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
A shooting near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, wounded at least 12 people, and police said a search for the suspects was ongoing following an outbreak of gunfire that sent crowds scrambling for cover.
Two of the wounded were in critical condition, Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said. He said it appeared there were at least two people firing weapons who were “probably shooting at each other.”
The Toledo Police Department said the shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual gathering of live music and home tours in a historic district of the city.
The department said an active search was underway for those responsible.
“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight. Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running over the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded.
Kevin Berry said he was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with his friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.
“Everybody hit the deck,” he said.
When he looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet (15 meters) away from him. Police officers who were already on-site for the festival immediately responded to the scene.
Berry, who has medical training and served in the U.S. Navy, said he walked around the area looking for potential victims who might need help.
He said he saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.
“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.
The Old West End Festival is a two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping.
Berry described it as the “kick-off to Toledo’s summer festival season.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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