Welcome to the weekend!

And the end of a busy week. Here are a few questions to get you thinking. 

• What’s next for Israel and Gaza? The ceasefire deal is a first step toward ending the war, but the only part that’s agreed on concludes in just six weeks. 

• Why did these homes withstand the LA fires? In destroyed neighborhoods, some houses still stand. Architects explain why in this week’s top story.

• How cold is too cold for an inauguration? Ronald Reagan’s second ceremony was the coldest ever, but Trump’s will be up — er, down — there. 

• What do CEOs do on the weekend? From kitesurfing to audiobook-bingeing to beating their kids at sports, nine C-suiters told us how they like to unwind.

You can enjoy Bloomberg’s Weekend Edition online or in the app, where you can listen to select stories. Don’t miss Sunday’s Forecast email, on the Trump 2.0 economy. For unlimited access to Bloomberg.com, subscribe.

Low Expectations

The fires in Los Angeles are a disaster foretold: Firefighters, insurers, policymakers and scientists have long warned against these kinds of conflagrations. But while catastrophe should change how we plan for cities, structures and risk, US history holds few examples of that kind of follow-through, writes Eating Smoke author Mark Tebeau. Calamities are more often forgotten, and bad practices unaltered. 

To hear Meta’s critics tell it, the company’s decision to eliminate fact-checkers in the US is another disaster foretold. Meta will leave it to users to add context to misleading posts, taking inspiration from the Community Notes used on X. There are hazards to this tactic, writes professor Adam Kucharski. But Community Notes do often reach the correct conclusion, and removing posts has downsides, too. 

Not everything is a clear true/false dichotomy. Whether an electric car can be a muscle car, for example, is part technology and part perception. Flat, heavy batteries complicate the weight distribution required for superior performance, but the bigger obstacle might be love for the noise and quake of internal combustion. To test the theory, Bloomberg’s Hannah Elliott took the Dodge Charger Daytona for a spin. 

Dispatches

Bangkok
In an upscale neighborhood, near a cluster of high-end shopping malls, the Christian Dior Gold House shines brighter than most. Its exterior is adorned with one million handmade gold tiles, and customers can enjoy sweet treats inside from a Michelin-starred chef. It’s just one example of how the world’s biggest luxury labels are turning their attention to Thailand as sales of such brands crater in China.

Photographer: Ulf Svane for Bloomberg

Mumbai 
Three times a week, Shantanu Nalavadi and his running group gather at 5:30 a.m. to stretch in the pre-dawn darkness, before pounding the city streets for the next two hours. It’s a scene repeated across the sprawling Indian megacity every morning, as rising prosperity, an expanding affluent class, a greater focus on health and fitness, and the growth of the Mumbai Marathon drive record interest in running.

Illustration: Isabella Cotier for Bloomberg

Strength in Numbers

Weekend Plans

What we’re reading: Angela Merkel’s Freedom. With European politics in disarray, she might have used the book to polish her image. But the memoir is more like a guide to today’s Germany, written by a politician raised in the old East. 

What we’re watching: Florida. 25 years ago, it was a swing state that hung by a chad. Now it’s the center of a brand of Republicanism that marries MAGA with glitz and glamour — one that Trump is eager to export to the rest of America. 

What we’re side-eyeing: economic populism. Trump and Biden have staked their presidencies on lifting up the people and places struggling to keep pace with change. But MAGA and Bidenomics haven’t delivered for many of those distressed corners. 

What we’re considering: a non-invasive facelift? Hundreds of thousands of foreigners are flocking to South Korea for cosmetic procedures, driving tourism and growth. But the nation’s 52 million citizens are left facing a health care crisis.

One Last Thing