Daily Briefing: Malibu burning

A raging wildfire in Southern California has prompted evacuations and damaged homes in celebrity-studded Malibu. What's next for the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing. College Football Playoffs is facing an unprecedented leak.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Here's how to magically open your curtains from your bed.

Red flag warnings in Malibu

A red flag warning will remain in effect in Malibu, California, through at least Wednesday and maybe longer as a fire fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity persists. The fast-moving wildfire sprang up late Monday had exploded in size early Tuesday, forcing firefighters to go door-to-door to evacuate parts of Malibu. By Tuesday night, the Franklin Fire was over 3,000 acres, spreading through the Santa Monica mountains to the Malibu coast with 0% containment, CalFire officials said.

Universities and colleges said Malibu-area campuses will be closed on Wednesday. And even for residents outside the direct path of the blaze there is risk: local officials issued a wildfire smoke advisory until Wednesday afternoon. Here's what to know if you're in the area.

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing fights extradition 

The suspect charged with murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will fight extradition to New York as new details about the possible motive were coming to light.

The latest: Through attorney Thomas Dickey, Luigi Mangione, 26, indicated he would contest extradition during a hearing Tuesday at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania. Mangione was denied bail, which the judge said he could contest as well within 14 days. Dickey told reporters Mangione planned to plead not guilty to the charges.

• Handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit: Mangione arrived at the courthouse on Tuesday in a police vehicle and yelled out a statement that appeared to include the phrase "completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people" as sheriff's deputies led him away.
• McDonald's customer recalls spotting suspect Mangione: He said he initially thought his friend was joking while saying, "Don’t that look like the shooter from New York?"
• Mangione on a mug?. From T-shirts and hoodies to coffee mugs and shot glasses, Online sellers, looking to cash in on the sympathies that some have expressed for suspect Mangione, have drawn criticism.

More news to know now

• "I have been waiting 8 years to tell the truth": Netanyahu took the stand in his corruption trial.
• A bankruptcy judge rejected the sale of Alex Jones' Infowars to The Onion.
• Federal authorities say Chinese hackers stole Americans' call data. Here's how to keep safe with encrypted apps.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Syria and the ousting of Assad: is it good or bad for the United States?

From the White House, President Joe Biden on Sunday called the collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime “a moment of historic opportunity” for the country’s long-suffering people. What he didn’t say: it’s also potentially good news for the United States.

Here's why: Assad’s fall not only ends his family’s bloody, half-century reign, it weakens Russia’s and Iran’s standing in the Middle East, provides the U.S. with another partner in its campaign to contain the Islamic State and opens the door for the U.S. to finally secure the release of missing journalist Austin Tice, who was captured more than a decade ago in Syria. But there are some risks involved.

Hospitals gave patients meds during childbirth, then reported them

Amairani Salinas was 32 weeks pregnant with her fourth child in 2023 when doctors at a Texas hospital discovered that her baby no longer had a heartbeat. As they prepped her for an emergency cesarean section, they gave her midazolam, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed to keep patients calm. A day later, the grieving mother was cradling her stillborn daughter when a social worker stopped by her room to deliver another devastating blow: Salinas was being reported to child welfare authorities. A drug test had turned up traces of benzodiazepine — the very medication that staff had administered before wheeling her into surgery. Read this story, published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, Reveal and Mother Jones.

Today's talkers

• Jay-Z's lawyers claim his rape accuser's lawyer pressured a woman to lie about Diddy.
• Kylie Kelce is now a top podcaster.
• Did your boss give you more work for the same salary this year?
• The Washington Nationals will have the No. 1 pick in the 2025 MLB draft.

The first leak of a team chosen for the College Football Playoffs

Brett McMurphy of the Action Network posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that SMU would be given the final at-large spot ahead of Alabama - 30 minutes before the Mustangs were revealed as the 11th seed in the playoff. But how did he know? The Alabama-SMU debate was the biggest decision by the 13-member selection committee, and created controversy before and after the selection. Never in the history of the College Football Playoff had a leak occurred, and now there will be an investigation to determine how the information was leaked. Finding who released the information will be a difficult process.

Photo of the day: The best voice of them all

"The Voice" crowned Team Bublé singer Sofronio Vasquez as the Season 26 winner.

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at Paste BN, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.