By Alexandra Banner, CNN

(CNN) — Tesla is under investigation for a self-driving feature that allows owners to summon a car from a parking space without anyone being in the vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is launching a probe into around 2.6 million Tesla vehicles following “multiple crash allegations.”

Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

1. California wildfires

Powerful winds are fueling dangerous wildfires in Los Angeles, where tens of thousands of residents in the Pacific Palisades and other seaside neighborhoods have been ordered to evacuate. The Palisades fire has burned over 3,000 acres and destroyed homes and businesses. Dozens of drivers abandoned their cars on Tuesday as some chose to flee the flames on foot. California’s governor is urging residents to heed the evacuation warnings that extend from Malibu to Santa Monica. Energy providers are also shutting off power in high-risk areas to prevent damaged infrastructure from igniting more blazes. Many southern California residents are evacuating from the Eaton fire as well — a 400-acre blaze that erupted in Altadena, in eastern LA County.

2. Winter storm

While wildfires spread through parts of the West Coast, a winter storm is set to take an unusual path across the frigid South with heavy snow and ice. The storm will hit just days after the most impactful storm of the season so far killed at least four people, caused hundreds of crashes and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands. Spotty wintry weather will begin today in western Texas with snow and freezing drizzle as the storm organizes. Thursday will be a crucial day for much of the southern Plains as the storm hits its stride. A wide area of 3 to 6 inches of snow is possible from northern Texas to southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas.

3. Trump transition

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if the hostages still being held in Gaza are not returned by his inauguration on January 20. “It will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” Trump said at a news conference. Also in his wide-ranging remarks, Trump did not rule out using the military to acquire control of the Panama Canal and Greenland as he discussed his second-term agenda. Additionally, Trump said he could use “economic force” to turn Canada into the United States’ 51st state and floated the idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”

4. Cybertruck explosion

A driver who authorities say exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas last week used artificial intelligence to plan the blast, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The active-duty US Army Green Beret used ChatGPT to get information on how to conduct his plot, police said. Authorities did not say what answers the chatbot gave to his searches about explosives, firearms and how to buy a cell phone without providing personal information. The soldier fatally shot himself shortly before the truck exploded and seven other people were injured. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, told CNN the company is “saddened by this incident and committed to seeing AI tools used responsibly.”

Editor’s Note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

5. Meta

Meta announced sweeping changes to how it moderates content on Facebook and Instagram, including getting rid of fact checkers and replacing them with user-generated “community notes,” similar to Elon Musk’s X. “Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far.” Zuckerberg, however, acknowledged a “tradeoff” in the new policy, noting more harmful content will appear on the platform as a result of the changes. The company also quietly updated its hateful conduct policy, adding new types of content users can post, effective immediately.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

‘This keeps happening’: Airplane stowaway incidents raise alarm
A string of stowaway incidents has raised concerns about airport safety and security. Read about the latest incident involving a JetBlue flight this week.

The Washington Post lays off roughly 100 staffers as star journalists exit
The Washington Post on Tuesday laid off roughly 100 employees across its business division, the latest indication of the newspaper’s financial woes.

Coffee-drinking health benefits
Limit your coffee intake to this time window to help decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, a new study suggests.

CNN photo gallery: The golden lion tamarin
Deforestation and the illegal pet trade drove these charismatic monkeys to the brink of extinction. Now, they’re bouncing back.

Hello Kitty’s $80 billion kingdom
CNN’s Hanako Montgomery meets the designer responsible for the economic powerhouse we know today. Watch the video here.

IN MEMORIAM

Peter Yarrow, who was one-third of the popular folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, and co-writer of the song “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” died Tuesday. He was 86. During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No. 1 albums and won five Grammys.

TODAY’S NUMBER

$7.7 billion
That’s up to how much it could cost to return crucial samples from Mars to Earth, according to NASA. The NASA Perseverance rover has been gathering rocks and dust since it landed on Mars in February 2021. Scientists believe those samples might be one of the only ways to determine whether life ever existed on the red planet.

TODAY’S QUOTE

“People are increasingly looking for practical, cost-effective ways to manage their grocery bills.”

— Amy Klein, CEO of Capital Roots, a nonprofit organization that runs 55 community gardens in New York. Klein says more Americans are gardening as Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China could increase the cost fresh produce.

TODAY’S WEATHER

AND FINALLY …

Watch woman celebrate winning $250K on scratch-off ticket
Security cameras captured a woman in South Carolina celebrating after winning big on a scratch-off ticket! See the video here.

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