Which Beyoncé song are you?

At USC’s Marshall School of Business, MBA students will have to pick one and explain why before they study her whiskey brand, hair-care line and entertainment company, not to mention her music. The assignment has a fitting name: the “BeyEssay.”

“The Business of Beyoncé,” a new course that puts a twist on the usual business school curriculum, “sold out” faster than a Renaissance World Tour presale after the class opened for registration this month ahead of its January kickoff. It follows Beyoncé’s career from childhood performances and Destiny’s Child to her solo stardom and business ventures, with the goal of preparing students for careers in entertainment, music management and branding.

Professor Shaun Harper, a Beyoncé superfan who designed the course, anticipates criticism that students should be learning practical skills rather than studying a pop star. But he sees it differently:

USC professor Shaun Harper will teach the “Business of Beyonce” MBA course.

(Grayson Adler / USC Marshall Communications
)

“My class is not going to be just a set of conversations about Beyoncé.”

Students will unpack how she transforms star power into a multimillion-dollar empire and how social media shapes her brand.

Besides, his class is a classic case-study deep dive. It’s also an answer to a long-running complaint that business schools’ case studies too often highlight white men and their ventures.

Celebrity-themed classes are hardly new. UC Berkeley offered one on Tupac Shakur’s poetry in 1997. The University of South Carolina announced a sociology course on Lady Gaga’s fame in 2010. Harvard has a class on Taylor Swift. Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, is slated to teach a course on music curation at USC’s Thornton School of Music next fall. At Marshall, former USC football coach Pete Carroll has taught “The Game Is Life” leadership course — its guests have included actors Rainn Wilson and Jason Sudeikis.

Now it’s Beyoncé’s turn and students are expected to work hard, or, as Beyoncé put it in “Schoolin’ Life”: “Just remember to stay relentless. … Don’t stop running until it’s finished.”

Inside the classroom

The 16-week spring semester class will meet Monday afternoons for nearly three hours.

Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child won’t have the syllabus to themselves.

Weekly topics will include child stars, girl groups and boy bands, Black artists, women in music, celebrity couples, privacy and scandal. Students will study the Pussycat Dolls, the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Supremes and BTS. Readings also look at how the Motown record label shaped pioneering Black artists.

One assignment traces a child performer’s path to adult stardom, with Janet Jackson among the suggested subjects. A week on crossing genres includes readings on “Cowboy Carter” — which won Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy in 2025 — and her acting in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls.”

Another puts students in the advisor’s seat, telling them to create a 700-to-1,000-word business guidance document for Beyoncé. The syllabus asks them to imagine it is “being delivered directly” to the star.

Fans and career plans

Kendall Ferguson, 30, a second-year MBA student and president of USC’s Graduate Marketing Assn., is among those who signed up. Raised in Ladera Heights, she worked in human resources in London before coming to USC. After graduating next year, she hopes to do brand management for a retail or beauty company.

She has gravitated toward courses in entertainment and marketing. “I’m definitely not the traditional stereotype of MBA,” Ferguson said.

She has been a Beyoncé fan since childhood. A friend’s mother performed with Destiny’s Child and taught Ferguson and her friends choreography to the group’s songs, Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who is Black, wanted to study a Black businesswoman with a Black professor who could identify with her experiences.

She has also been a customer beyond music, using a Cécred braid spray. She said she did not initially know it was Beyoncé’s brand.

Cécred offers an example of Beyoncé’s approach to financing. Her mother, Tina Knowles, told Fortune that Beyoncé funded the company herself after prospective investors pushed for less spending on research and development and more on marketing.

Beyoncé’s business ventures stretch back more than two decades. In 2005, she and her mother launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct clothing line. Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment, her management and production company, in 2010 and co-founded the Ivy Park athleisure line, which debuted in 2016. In 2024, she introduced the Cécred hair-care brand and SirDavis whiskey with Moet Hennessy. She later bought out Moet Hennessy’s stake.

She follows generations of artists-turned-entrepreneurs, including Sam Cooke, Dolly Parton and Madonna. Her husband, Jay-Z, expanded into entertainment beyond his own releases through Roc Nation, which executive-produces the Super Bowl halftime show. He will headline it at SoFi Stadium in February.

Maddie Gissler, a second-year MBA student from Naperville, Ill., also signed up. She aspires to work in entertainment marketing, branding or strategy when she graduates next year. She wants to learn how Beyoncé keeps audiences engaged as she moves into new businesses and reinvents her work.

Before business school, Gissler worked at EY, an accounting and consulting firm.

She has seen two Beyoncé concerts: the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in high school and Cowboy Carter in 2025. When Gissler took dance classes from age 4 to 18, her teachers often played Beyoncé. She remembers getting hooked on the album “B’Day.”

But she also likes other sides of the star. “One of the best things she did was when she kind of moved into acting,” Gissler said.

A professor and a fan

Harper was a fan long before Beyoncé became his teaching material.

As student body president at Albany State University, a historically Black college in Georgia, Harper helped book Destiny’s Child to perform at homecoming in 1997. He said he first saw Beyoncé perform solo at the 2003 Essence Awards.

Her best business decision? “Becoming a solo artist,” he said.

Harper expects students, many in their late 20s, to challenge his views. One likely debate: whether Beyoncé’s guarded public persona is smart brand management. He thinks it is.

“Beyoncé shows up when she needs to show up,” he said.

Her marketing decisions have received business-school scrutiny before. Her surprise 2013 album release, issued on iTunes without advance promotion, became a Harvard Business School case study the next year.

Harper’s admiration extends to her celebration of Black culture and traditions. In 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Her set evoked a football halftime show and homecoming celebration at historically Black colleges and universities, with a marching band, drum line, steppers and majorette-style dancers performing in front of bleachers.

On TikTok, Harper has been watching performances and old interviews and learning new facts. He said one clip taught him that Beyoncé reviews concert footage frame by frame afterward, like a football coach.

“That woman’s work ethic is unmatched,” he said.

Through third parties, Harper is trying to get the message to Beyoncé that she’s invited be a guest lecturer in the class. A spokesperson for Beyoncé did not respond to a request from The Times for comment on the course.

In July 2014, Harper’s husband surprised him with pit tickets to the On the Run tour in Philadelphia. Beyoncé danced over and briefly grabbed his hand.

“I have never met Beyoncé. We’ve held hands, but we’ve never met,” Harper said.

He hopes one day for a proper introduction.

A Los Angeles County judge who has been accused of sexual harassment, making racist remarks and mistreating fellow members of the bench was officially removed from office Tuesday, officials said.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance upheld 17 findings of misconduct against Judge Robert Draper, 84, according to a disciplinary document made public Tuesday.

“Judge Draper persistently violated the standards governing judicial behavior and engaged in extensive and severe misconduct,” the commission said in a statement. “Judge Draper’s misconduct reflected either a concerning lack of familiarity with ethical precepts, or an unwillingness to conform to those precepts.”

Earlier this year, Draper compared the commission to the “Russian Mafia” in an interview with The Times where he denied all wrongdoing and claimed the charges were political payback for his opposition to another judge’s bid to become L.A. County’s presiding justice.

In an e-mail to The Times, Draper said the commission’s ruling was “wrong” and that he plans to seek review from the California Supreme Court, which he said “will look at the actual facts and not simply the characterization of those facts by the Examiners.”

“Kind of like what every citizen is entitled to – a presumption of innocence, a fair opportunity to be heard by an unbiased panel, decision makers who are willing to actually look at the real facts in a complete way and apply the legally required standard of proof rather than simply reciting it, and then ignoring it,” he wrote. “It just amazes me that I have had to go this far in order to have these standards for the first time applied.”

The Commission has only ordered the removal of 14 judges across the state since 2002, according to its website.

The removal order was the final step in a years-long fall from grace for Draper. A well-respected veteran member of the bench, colleagues began expressing concern about his decline in 2022. In 2023, according to a letter sent to the state commission, he was barred from hearing cases and re-assigned to a Santa Monica Courthouse department that colleagues likened to a “closet.” When a Times reporter visited the building earlier this year, staff on site said Draper almost never came in.

In letters sent to the commission in 2022 and 2023, two of the L.A. County Superior Court’s top judges accused Draper of sending abusive e-mails to colleagues replete with racist and abusive language. In one letter, then-Presiding Justice Samantha Jessner said Draper was “unable to carry out the duties and responsibilities of a judge” due to deteriorating mental and physical health.

“He has demonstrated a flagging handle on reality,” L.A. County Superior Court Judge Eric Taylor wrote.

Draper was accused of sexual harassment, making racist remarks and callous behavior all over the course of one hearing in 2022.

According to court records and testimony given at Draper’s six-day removal hearing earlier this year, the judge allegedly stroked a female lawyer’s hair after going on a tangent to a Black attorney about “Black history, Black football players, the Civil Rights Act, and the Black Lives Matter movement,” even though the case had nothing to do with those issues.

The commission described Draper’s misconduct as “extensive” and argued his alleged racist behavior continued while testifying in his May removal hearing. While testifying he referred two specific Black people as “very black in terms of pigmentation” and “way Black,” according to the commission.

He was also accused of making crude remarks to a group of female attorneys while in chambers. Reflecting on his time as a civil attorney, he recalled how male lawyers would deride female secretaries, insisting they learn to “f— better than they could type,” according to testimony given by attorney Janice Brown at Draper’s hearing earlier this year.

Draper lost his bid for re-election in June to former L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Tal K. Valbuena by nearly 13 points, after the L.A. County Bar Assn. rated Draper as “unqualified” for service.

The race highlighted the lengths the insular judicial community would go to protect their own from election challenges. Despite well-known concerns about Draper’s fitness, a political action committee run by fellow judges gave $72,500 to his campaign, state election finance records show. The PAC did not respond to prior inquiries from The Times.

A fellow judge, speaking on condition of anonymity because judges are not allowed to speak to the press, described the end of Draper’s career as a “super sad situation.”

“Perhaps it should spur California to consider enacting what most states have — a mandatory retirement age,” the judge said.

The Chargers traded linebacker Daiyan Henley to the Denver Broncos on Tuesday for a 2027 fourth-round draft pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick, according to a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to speak publicly.

Henley, who is in the final year of his rookie contract, was dealt just before the NFL’s 1 p.m. PST trade deadline. He has been a defensive fixture for the Chargers, who at 0-8 are the NFL’s only winless team.

The Chargers had indicated that they were not planning any dramatic moves at the deadline, such as trading defensive lineman Khalil Mack, injured safety Derwin James Jr. or receiver Ladd McConkey.

Henley presumably will add depth behind Denver starting inside linebackers Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad. The Broncos do not have a history of trades at the deadline under coach Sean Payton.

Henley started all eight games this season and collected 51 tackles, including a season-high 10 on Sunday against Houston. He also intercepted a pass in that game.

He played his best game of last season despite battling the flu. In a Monday night game at Las Vegas, he had 10 tackles, a sack, an interception, two tackles for loss and two passes defensed.

He has played through heartache too. Last season, his older brother, Jabari Henley, 34, was shot and killed outside a smoke shop in South Los Angeles on Halloween night. Henley learned of his brother’s death on Sunday morning, hours before the Chargers played the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

Henley started that game, a 27-20 Chargers win, and contributed a sack. After the game, he called it “the worst year of my life.”

Henley joins a 7-2 Broncos team that’s atop the AFC West and has won five in a row, the NFL’s longest winning streak. Defense has been a strength of the franchise.

The Broncos play host to the Chargers in the teams’ regular-season finale.

Trump administration awarded more than $60m each to St Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi, in crime push.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has said that it will award the cities of St Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi, more than $60m each to expand law enforcement resources as part of a bid to combat violent crime.

The White House stated in a social media post on Tuesday that the so-called “Model Cities Initiative” would help the municipalities increase their capacity for prosecutions and policing activities.

“The Model Cities Initiative reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to reducing crime across the country and ensuring the safety of every American,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release describing the programme last month.

The initiative has said that it will distribute nearly $300m for such efforts among the cities of St Louis and Jackson, along with Jacksonville, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Trump administration has promoted a largely punitive approach to combatting crime in cities across the country, including controversial steps such as the deployment of the National Guard to large, Democrat-led cities that have drawn accusations of executive overreach, civil liberties violations and political intimidation.

While Trump and his supporters have credited their policies with a drop in violent crime, that trend predates his return to office and has taken place in cities with a wide variety of approaches towards criminal justice across the country.

Homicides in St Louis, for example, have been falling for several years after a brief surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, and hit their lowest levels in more than a decade during the first half of 2026.

While Democratic officials have denounced Trump’s crackdowns, some Republican-led states have embraced them.

The government deployed members of several federal agencies to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, governed by Democrats at the local level but located in a Republican-led state.

The Trump administration has touted that effort as an inspiration for the Model Cities Initiative along with other cases, such as Washington, DC.

The government has hailed the Memphis deployment as a success, but some residents and civil liberties groups have accused the task force of widespread civil rights violations and excessive force.

A video released earlier this month as part of an investigation into a shooting by a member of the Tennessee National Guard, deployed in Memphis as part of Trump’s task force, showed the soldiers aiming their guns at a man as he lay dying on the street after being shot in the back.

The midterms are over, and Democrats have scored a decisive victory, exceeding even their most optimistic expectations. But does this result signal a country turning blue – or a country simply fed up with the status quo? And how much of this was a rejection of a system, rather than an endorsement of the Democratic Party?

Josh Rushing is joined by Emma Vigeland, cohost of The Majority Report, and Olivia Troye, who served as a national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, to unpack the results and what they reveal about the state of American politics.

Contributors:
Emma Vigeland – Cohost, The Majority Report
Olivia Troye – Former national security adviser to Mike Pence

In the 20th century, an age of print, photography was the primary medium through which we understood the world beyond our personal field of vision. Pictures recorded and sometimes changed history.

Once upon a time, mastering the technology of a camera and the chemistry of a darkroom provided proof of seriousness. A person shooting even with a Polaroid or Instamatic had to reckon with the cost of the film, developing and printing, and so you chose your shots; you composed them carefully. It was a commitment, whereas now, anyone with a phone can take endless pictures, with little thought, it’s a reflex. By dint of sheer numbers — Instagram processes some 500 million uploads a day — the practice has been devalued.

That isn’t to say you can’t take a good picture with a phone, or that there aren’t plenty of serious artists working today, in old or new formats. But we have passed the age of the culture-shaping superstar photographer (and the culture-shaping magazines that gave them work). Richard Avedon, who is the subject of an exhilarating new documentary, “Avedon,” directed by Ron Howard and streaming Wednesday on Netflix, was among the greatest of them, with a career stretching from 1947 — when, in his early twenties, he was sent by Harper’s Bazaar to Paris — almost until the day he died in 2004 while working in San Antonio, on a photo essay for the New Yorker titled “Democracy.” (He was the magazine’s first staff photographer; “Dick was a great magazine man,” says Tina Brown, the editor who hired him.) James Martin, executive director of the Richard Avedon Foundation, reckons it amounted to “about 16,000 sittings.”

Even if you don’t know the name Avedon, it’s a good bet you’ve encountered his much reproduced 1955 “Dovima with Elephants” — “I think we sold one for $2 million,” says the gallerist Larry Gagosian — or his psychedelic Beatles portraits. Many of his celebrity portraits, from Samuel Beckett to Buster Keaton to Judy Garland to Nastassja Kinski (naked, wrapped in a snake) to Marian Anderson to Malcolm X, and the enormous murals of Andy Warhol’s Factory gang and the Chicago Seven defendants, will be the images we remember them by. None are pretty; most are striking; many are beautiful; some are disturbing.

“I’ve been called a cruel manipulator, existential hero and to top it off, agent of death,” says the photographer, whose suite of pictures of his dying father is explored here.

Avedon began in fashion photography, which he revolutionized, bringing motion and implied narrative into a previously static form; he moved to portraiture, which he remade by removing any vestige of flattery. As a commercial photographer — with Doon Arbus, daughter of Diane, he also created television commercials for Calvin Klein and Chanel — who would come to insist that he was an artist, he was not always well received, reviewed or understood. But he approached everything with the same democratic curiosity, and many museum shows later, it’s hard to argue against his claim.

Although in earlier years, he shot on location, either for magazine spreads or personal work — he photographed in the psychiatric ward at New York’s Bellevue hospital — he came to be known for placing his subjects against a white background, stripping out everything that would distract from the “geography” of the face, and settling finally on using an 8×10 camera, which would allow him to come out from behind the lens. He took the white paper from the studio out into the field — to Saigon in 1971 and for the controversial project that was displayed and published as “In the American West.”

His goal was to eliminate the distance between the sitter and himself, and he was not interested in merely recording surfaces, though many of the surfaces he recorded were interesting, but of finding a way past the skin to the person inside. (“I had to go within to who I really am and that’s when I saw him come alive,” says model Beverly Johnson.) He viewed a portrait session as an “exchange of energy,” a collaboration with the sitter in which he had the final say. “Photography is the marriage of the imagination and reality of a situation,” he said. “Every photograph is accurate and none of them is the truth.” He was interested in photographing what frightened him, in vulnerability, tension and (a favorite word) contradiction.

Confident and insecure, fun-loving and haunted, he was a contradiction himself: “I’ve lived in a state of anxiety my whole life. [I’m]as addicted to that as I am to coffee.” “His whole life was an existential crisis,” says curator Jane Livingston. “That’s a hard way to live.” Like many successful artists, he prioritized work (“the one thing that doesn’t turn on you”) over family; his studio, instead, was familial. The troubled family he grew up in edited their photo albums to suggest all was well, but his younger sister, Louise, Avedon’s first model and the model for later models, died in an institution. (“Beauty of that kind is isolating.”)

Howard’s interview subjects include Avedon’s son John, photographer Joel Meyerowitz; Isabella Rossellini; models Lauren Hutton, Penelope Tree and Twiggy Lawson; Twyla Tharp; and New Yorker writers Hilton Als, Adam Gopnik and John Lahr, whose father Bert was one of Avedon’s celebrated subjects, seen in a pose of pain (as Estragon from “Waiting for Godot”).

The film is sleek and energetic and looks fantastic, offering a bounty of images, including many of the most famous ones; it has something of the feel of a magazine layout without ever trying to look like a magazine. (Many of the same images, and some of the interview subjects, are present in the 1996 documentary, “Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light,” which makes a great companion piece to “Avedon” and can be found online.) Working with the cooperation of the Richard Avedon Foundation, Howard has had access to a many shots of Avedon at work — he’s a dancing, leaping sprite. Fun was important to him; on a fashion shoot, they might socialize for most of a session “and five minutes before the hour is over we go on to the paper and — bam!”

That Avedon was very good looking, with a great crest of hair he brushes back off his forehead almost as a signature, a cleft chin and bright, piercing eyes, is a visual plus, and possibly contributed to his celebrity, if not to his actual career, which was, after all, all about talent and vision. As the character Dick Avery — Dick was what friends called Avedon — Fred Astaire played an echo of him in the fashion-world musical film “Funny Face”; Avedon’s own screen credit reads “Special visual consultant and main title backgrounds.”

“It’s almost as if I’m writing my autobiography with the faces of people I photograph,” Avedon said, and indeed, his big 1993 monograph is titled “Autobiography.” There’s a copy of it on the shelf behind me.

Randall Winston has declared victory in his campaign for Seat 6 on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, in what was the closest of three races in last week’s election for the seven-member board.

Second-place finisher Gabriel Buelna has conceded.

According to the count released Monday, Winston had 38.7% of the vote and Buelna had 31.7%, followed by community college professor Roberto David LaCarra in third place and realtor Tonia Arey in fourth.

To win a seat on the seven-member board, candidates need only a plurality of votes, not a majority.

Winston declared victory in an email to supporters over the weekend.

“You voted and told your friends and family why this race mattered,” Winston told supporters on Saturday. “Because of you, the Los Angeles Community College District will have a trustee who believes our colleges are where this city builds opportunity.”

In a brief interview Monday, Buelna said he called Winston to concede and wished him the best in his new role.

Seat 6 turned out to be the most contentious of the races for the Board of Trustees, which oversees the largest community college district in the country with some 200,000 students, most of whom are low-income.

During the campaign, Buelna and Arey accused Winston of misleading the public by describing himself as an architect and an educator, when his full-time job is deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Winston responded by saying his first professional degree is in architecture, he is licensed in the field and he will be teaching a leadership class at West L.A. College this fall.

Helping boost him to victory was a key endorsement from the community college district’s faculty union, which put significant financial resources behind his candidacy.

Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 17, the union contributed $800,000 to a committee supporting Winston and the two other winning candidates, helping produce slate mailers that hit the doors of voters, according to campaign filings.

James McKeever, president of the faculty union, AFT Local 1521, declined to discuss many details of the union’s decision, but told The Times that the executive board wanted to go “in a different direction” and saw Winston as the best candidate.

In the race for Seat 2, incumbent Steve Veres held a 40.91% to 33.48% lead over educator Adriana Cabrera, who was in second.

Cabrera did not return emails seeking comment, and Veres said she had not called to concede. As of Monday afternoon, Veres had nearly 97,000 more votes than Cabrera with an estimated 44,000 more ballots to be counted county-wide, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

In Seat 4, Darryn Harris, a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health, has the biggest lead of all.

According to the latest numbers, Harris had 57.3% of the vote in a seven-person race. Healthcare workforce specialist Elaine Alaniz was in second place with 14.4%.

Kirk Cousins is returning to the Minnesota Vikings more than two years after the team allowed the veteran quarterback to leave as a free agent.

The Vikings acquired Cousins from the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday before the NFL’s 1 p.m. PST trade deadline in exchange for a third-round draft pick in 2027, according to multiple media outlets.

A 15-year player, Cousins played for the Vikings from 2019-2023, going 50-37-1 as their starting quarterback and making three Pro Bowls during that span. After two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, Cousins has played well for Las Vegas this season, completing 64% of his passes for 2,340 yards with 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

After dropping to 4-5, however, the Raiders appear ready to move on with 2026 No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza at quarterback.

The Vikings are 6-2 this season behind a stellar defense that is giving up 14.5 points (best in the NFL) and 280 yards (second to the Seattle Seahawks) a game. Minnesota’s defense is also tied with that of the Houston Texans for most sacks (29) with each team having played eight games.

Meanwhile, the Vikings offense is one of the league’s worst, averaging just 266.8 yards (31st) and 160.8 passing yards (31st) a game.

The trade comes a day after a disastrous “Monday Night Football” outing by backup quarterback Carson Wentz, who completed eight of 25 passes for 81 yards with three turnovers while starting for the injured Kyler Murray in a 23-6 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Minnesota selected quarterback J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft, but he suffered a season-ending knee injury during the preseason.

Sam Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 record that year, but he left as a free agent the following offseason and won Super Bowl LX with the Seattle Seahawks in February.

Last season, McCarthy started 10 games for Minnesota, with Wentz getting five starts and Max Brosmer two. This past offseason, the Vikings signed former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Murray as their starter and kept Wentz as his backup. McCarthy was traded to the New York Giants in late September.

A new poll shows that the majority of Americans want the Democrats in Congress this January to deliver an end to the war in Iran, reverse US President Donald Trump’s trade policies, and bring down the high cost of living.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found that 71 percent of Americans supported Congress passing legislation to end the war with Iran, including 93 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of Republicans. About 62 percent backed repealing Trump’s import tariffs, while nine in 10 respondents said Congress should focus on the cost of living during its first 100 days.

The war with Iran and Trump’s tariffs have both contributed to economic pressures, linking voters’ concerns about living costs to the administration’s foreign and trade policies.

Americans also expect some degree of cooperation between the White House and the incoming Congress. Large majorities of respondents from both parties said it was important for Trump to work with Democrats, and for Democratic leaders to try to work with the president.

Political retaliation against the Trump administration is a lower priority. Forty-two percent said it would be bad for the country if the new Congress tried to impeach Trump, compared with 33 percent who thought it would be good.

Democrats will have between 54 and 56 Senate seats next year, depending on results from uncalled races in Mississippi and Alaska. But delivering on voter priorities could still be difficult. Most bills need 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, and Trump can veto legislation that passes both chambers.

Repealing tariffs or reversing other administration policies would therefore require either sufficient Republican support or a willingness to confront the president politically.

Seth Masket, a political science professor at the University of Denver, said voters are motivated by opposition to the Trump administration on several fronts, including the economy, the war, corruption and immigration enforcement.

“They want to see Democrats working to fix these things. And also to some extent, to hold the Trump administration accountable,” Masket told Al Jazeera.

A fight over who leads the Democrats

The pressure to deliver on those priorities is unfolding alongside a growing dispute over who should lead the Democratic Party.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll did not measure public support for individual congressional leaders. It did, however, find that the Democratic Party itself remains unpopular, with 45 percent of respondents viewing it favourably and 51 percent unfavourably.

Hakeem Jeffries is widely expected to become speaker of the House, despite calls for an alternative. No challenger has publicly emerged, but a Change.org petition urging Democrats to reject his leadership has attracted more than one million signatures. House Democrats are due to hold leadership elections on November 18 and 19.

The Senate contest is less settled. Chuck Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017, faces calls to step aside. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen has said Schumer should not receive a “blank check” and is considering a possible challenge. Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed has backed Van Hollen.

The backlash reflects broader dissatisfaction with the party’s direction. Jeffries and Schumer have been criticised over their positions on Israel and Gaza, their relationships with corporate donors and pro-Israel lobbying groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and what voters see as a failure to confront the Trump administration forcefully.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which counts several elected officials among its members, has not backed Jeffries or Schumer for their respective leadership posts. In a statement to Al Jazeera, the DSA said Democrats must reject “half-measures” and deliver on popular policies.

“We the people must be a counterweight both to the internal politics of Congress and the corporate donors who want to keep business as usual,” DSA spokesperson Priscilla Yeverino wrote to Al Jazeera.

Political commentator Bea Neilson said some progressives see the two leaders as representing an older Democratic establishment that is out of step with the party’s base.

“They want an avatar of a fighter,” Neilson told Al Jazeera.

But Neilson argues that the role of the House speaker is not simply to dictate the party’s legislative agenda. Rather, they respond to the positions of lawmakers across the caucus, working with policy committees and other groups to identify legislation that can secure enough votes to pass.

Individual members or blocs of lawmakers can withhold their support, making the job an exercise in negotiating competing interests as much as setting political direction.

Masket agreed that the effectiveness of congressional leaders is often measured less by their public speaking than by their ability to manage their caucuses and get legislation through Congress.

“People wanting their speaker or a Senate majority leader to be a more inspiring leader, I think they’re just asking for the wrong person,” Masket said. “That’s the wrong title for that role.”

That role, he suggested, may fall more naturally to the next generation of presidential contenders, who are expected to begin emerging early next year.

The leadership elections will take place before the new Congress begins in January. The larger question for Democrats is whether their leaders can turn a sweeping electoral mandate into tangible change.

China has provided us with the clearest look yet at its GJ-11 stealth uncrewed combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), with new official footage revealing previously unseen details of the flying-wing drone, including its internal weapons bays, landing gear, nose-mounted sensor installation, and distinctive exhaust arrangement.

The release also comes alongside a claim from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) that the GJ-11 has completed its first live-fire strike mission, scoring a hit. This is somewhat puzzling, since the UCAV has racked up test sorties for years already, including at forward operating locations, and it seems almost inconceivable that a live weapons delivery would not have been conducted before now. Perhaps this is a case of something being lost in translation, such as the use of a new internal sensor or a new type of weapon delivery.

The footage, broadcast by Chinese state television’s CCTV yesterday, comes two days ahead of the 77th anniversary of the founding of the PLAAF. Accompanying reporting provides additional details about the aircraft’s intended mission set, including airstrikes and suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), as well as its integration into manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) operations with crewed fighters.

The new disclosures offer the most comprehensive public look yet at the GJ-11’s configuration and provide further insight into how China intends to employ the stealthy flying-wing aircraft, which is named Xuanlong — Chinese for Mystery Dragon.

A closer look at the GJ-11

One of the most revealing views shows the underside of the GJ-11, clearly exposing its two internal weapons bays. Located within the aircraft’s blended wing-body, the ventral bays have separate sets of doors with distinctive serrated edges — a common feature on low-observable aircraft. The internal arrangement and dimensions of the bays remain unclear, as does the precise range of weapons the aircraft can accommodate. However, it would appear likely that each bay can accommodate at least a 1,000-pound-class and likely a 2,000-pound-class weapon.

According to CCTV, the two bays can carry a variety of air-to-ground/surface munitions. The weapons bay configuration had previously been revealed in a model of the GJ-11 displayed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) at Airshow China in 2021, but the new footage provides a much better look at the actual aircraft.

Internal weapons carriage is central to the GJ-11’s low-observable design, allowing it to carry munitions without the radar signature (and aerodynamic) penalties associated with external pylons and stores.

Previous footage released in November 2025 showed the GJ-11 in flight with its landing gear remaining extended. However, one of the new sequences shows the aircraft taking off, with subsequent side and rear views capturing its landing gear retracting after liftoff. The landing gear itself is notably robust, including a heavy-duty twin-wheel nose unit. With that in mind, it may be the same landing gear as used in the GJ-21, a naval variant capable of operating from aircraft carriers and big-deck assault ships.

The new imagery also offers a closer look at a trapezoidal glazed fairing beneath the nose. This appears consistent with an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor installation. Its precise configuration and capabilities have not been disclosed, but it’s worth noting that similar-looking installations also appear on the crewed J-20 and J-35 fighters, with these systems apparently being analogous to the electro-optical targeting system, or EOTS, found on the F-35. If the sensor on the GJ-11 works like an EOTS, it would provide the drone with precision targeting and identification, lasing, as well as a secondary infrared search-and-track emulation function.

Perhaps the most distinctive external feature remains the GJ-11’s exhaust arrangement, for what is reported to be a WS-13 turbofan engine. A close-up of the rear of the aircraft shows the flattened exhaust outlet, shielded and integrated into the upper rear portion of the flying-wing airframe. Combined with the dorsal air intake and the absence of conventional exposed engine nozzles, this configuration is intended to reduce the aircraft’s radar and infrared signatures, especially from the most critical view aspects. The GJ-11’s tailless, blended-wing configuration is by now a defining feature of low-observable UCAV designs.

At least some of the GJ-11s shown have an air data boom on the nose. While normally associated with early flight testing, the GJ-11 is now far beyond that. The booms could still be fitted for some envelope expansion and other flight test work, although it may also simply involve earlier footage.

Airstrikes and suppression of enemy air defenses

Beyond the new imagery, one of the more interesting aspects of the CCTV coverage is its description of the GJ-11’s intended operational role.

The broadcaster identified airstrikes and SEAD among the aircraft’s mission sets. The latter is particularly significant, as penetrating or operating within heavily defended airspace to locate and suppress or destroy enemy air defense systems is the most dangerous mission for a crewed combat aircraft.

A stealthy uncrewed aircraft could contribute to these operations by carrying precision-guided weapons into more contested areas, providing additional sensing and targeting capacity, or forcing an adversary to expend valuable air defense resources.

The two internal weapons bays provide the means to carry air-to-surface munitions while retaining the aircraft’s low-observable configuration. However, we don’t know which specific weapons have been integrated, their quantities, or whether the GJ-11 can employ dedicated anti-radiation weapons for SEAD missions. Alternative SEAD/DEAD loads could include multiple Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) equivalents, including those that are networked, as we have seen in previous concept videos. Many other types of standoff weapons could also be carried, with the platform itself using onboard sensors for fixing the target or acquiring targeting information from other sources via a tactical data network.

First live-fire strike claim

According to CCTV, the GJ-11 has completed its first live-fire strike mission, with two members of the PLAAF’s initial batch of female drone operators participating in the operation.

One of the operators, Shi Xiaoran, described encountering cloud cover that initially obscured the target. After circling once more, she located it and released the weapon, scoring a hit.

One aspect that remains unclear is the extent to which the aircraft can independently identify and engage targets. A successful strike would demonstrate weapons employment, but not necessarily autonomous targeting or engagement.

Manned-unmanned teaming with J-16 and J-20 fighters

Perhaps the most strategically important aspect of the new coverage is its emphasis on manned-unmanned teaming.

The CCTV footage showed mission planning involving a GJ-11 operating alongside J-16 Flanker multirole fighters and, in a separate sequence, J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighters.

This provides a more explicit indication of the role China envisions for the GJ-11 within its broader combat aviation ecosystem.

The J-16 provides a powerful multirole platform for strike and electronic warfare-related missions, while the J-20 offers a stealthy crewed counterpart for operations in highly contested airspace. An uncrewed aircraft operating alongside either type could extend the formation’s sensor coverage, carry additional weapons, conduct reconnaissance, or undertake particularly hazardous missions.

As a loyal wingman, the GJ-11’s role would extend beyond simply carrying weapons, with the UCAV able to act as an additional airborne sensor and strike platform, allowing crewed aircraft to distribute tasks across a larger formation.

At the same time, the footage does not establish how the UCAVs communicate with their crewed counterparts, how targeting information is shared, or the level of autonomy available to the GJ-11. The new footage shows the drone being flown under man-in-the-loop (MITL) direct control, but it likely features, or will feature, semi-autonomous control modes, especially for teaming applications, which will require a high degree of onboard autonomy.

We do know that China expects the UCAV to be controlled by crewed aircraft, as part of its basic concept. The PLAAF has at least trialed crewed aircraft as drone controllers, and this is one mission set that has frequently been ascribed to the two-seat J-20S.

From prototype to operational platform

After years of development involving the experimental Sharp Sword design, the much more evolved GJ-11 platform was publicly unveiled during China’s National Day military parade in Beijing in October 2019. Its development is associated with Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, part of the broader AVIC aviation-industrial structure.

A model displayed by AVIC at Airshow China in 2021 provided an early indication of the aircraft’s internal weapons-carrying arrangement.

In November 2025, as we reported at the time, the PLAAF released footage of the GJ-11 flying alongside a J-20 and a J-16D electronic warfare aircraft, suggesting that it may have entered service or was at least being integrated into the service’s broader air combat architecture.

Development and testing of the GJ-11 have been underway for years, with notable activity at China’s secretive Malan test facility in Xinjiang. Satellite imagery reviewed by TWZ has documented repeated, and at times near-daily, GJ-11 activity there, including multiple aircraft operating together. The deployment of three GJ-11s to Shigatse in Tibet between August and September 2025 provided an additional indication that the program was moving beyond test work toward operational evaluation.

Another image circulating on Chinese social media shows three additional GJ-11s parked alongside another example of the same type.

According to Andreas Rupprecht, an expert on Chinese aviation and contributor to TWZ, numbers that can be seen on the drones themselves likely point to these aircraft being low-rate initial production (LRIP) examples.

The new releases come less than a month after China announced that the GJ-21 naval derivative, October 2026, had completed its first launch and recovery aboard the new Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan, which is equipped with an electromagnetic catapult and arresting gear. The milestone would pave the way for the PLA Navy to field a shipborne stealth UCAV for strike and reconnaissance missions. However, China has yet to release actual footage of the claimed operation, leaving it independently unverified.

The broader significance of the GJ-11 lies in the fact that it’s a genuine UCAV, not simply a loyal wingman designed to accompany a crewed fighter. Free of the endurance limitations imposed by a human crew, a platform of this class could likely offer at least twice the combat radius of a comparable crewed fighter. More importantly, it is intended to have the autonomy to conduct tactical missions independently, as well as operate alongside crewed aircraft. That opens up the possibility of extending China’s strike and reconnaissance reach considerably beyond what its existing low-observable crewed combat aircraft can achieve.

The GJ-11’s flying-wing configuration, internal weapons bays, and emphasis on signature reduction suggest a platform approaching the very-low-observable (VLO) category. At the same time, China is now openly fielding a capability that the United States has conspicuously failed to bring into public operational service.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the United States appeared to be leading the way in stealth UCAV development, with programs such as the Boeing Phantom Ray, X-45, and X-47B demonstrating the potential of autonomous, long-range penetrating aircraft. Yet those ambitions effectively disappeared from the publicly acknowledged force-development agenda. The Pentagon has instead concentrated on lower-end and less capable Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), generally designed to operate in conjunction with crewed fighters.

As we argued in our earlier examinations of the American UCAV gap, the absence of a publicly acknowledged, sizeable force of independent, long-range stealth combat drones remains a significant weakness in U.S. airpower planning. Classified programs may exist, and the U.S. military certainly operates highly sophisticated stealthy uncrewed reconnaissance platforms, but even a small clandestine combat capability would be unlikely to make a decisive difference in a major, sustained conflict. China, meanwhile, is moving towards making this class of aircraft a central part of its military inventory.

Important questions about the GJ-11 remain, particularly regarding its actual weapons load, various specifications, its degree of autonomy, and its ability to operate in coordination with crewed fighters. However, the latest official coverage provides the clearest indication yet of how China intends to employ its stealth UCAV in a future conflict, and sheds a little more light on the Mystery Dragon.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Press Forward, the nonprofit launched in 2023 to strengthen local news as outlets struggle with economic and technological changes, announced Tuesday that it has completed investing nearly $600 million in journalism organizations, about two years ahead of schedule.

However, Press Forward Executive Director Dale Anglin said the organization’s work is far from complete. Not only will the group continue raising and investing money, it will also expand its range of initiatives to support journalism.

“The industry is going through an incredible transformation,” Anglin told the Associated Press in an interview. “It took 20 years to get to this point — if not longer. It’s going to take us a while to get out of it.”

According to “ The State of Local News 2026 ” from Northwestern University, the number of news deserts – counties that have no locally based professional sources of news – grew by 12% this year to 238, as advertising and audiences continued to decline. Though there were dozens of newsrooms started this year, more than two newspapers closed for each outlet launched.

Anglin said she has had success convincing more funders to support Press Forward, which launched in 2023 through donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Democracy Fund and 19 other funders. The nonprofit now has 144 funders and has explained how longer-term support for journalism is necessary, similar to arts or education funding in a community.

Press Forward has established a $21-million impact investing fund to support outlets with small loans they would likely not get elsewhere. It already has 50 local Press Forward chapters that have invested $87 million to strengthen journalism in their communities, including $53 million in the past year.

“The challenges in local news were really kind of universal,” Anglin said. “But it turns out, as we have learned over the last three years, that a lot of the solutions are local.”

Press Forward Chicago sees promise in pooled funds

Tracy Baim, executive director of Press Forward Chicago, said her chapter believes it has developed part of the solution to journalism’s funding problems.

In addition to accepting traditional donations, Press Forward Chicago has established a pooled fund, which uses donations from multiple organizations to support specific initiatives.

“It is a way to tiptoe into journalism funding,” said Baim, adding that many foundations, especially smaller ones, saw supporting individual news outlets as too intimidating. She said the potential pitfalls of being associated with a controversial project or being accused of influencing coverage because of their donations kept some foundations from getting involved.

“A pooled fund mitigates those risks,” Baim said. Chicago’s fund further minimizes risk for donors by distributing the donations to multiple outlets.

Its first pooled fund was used last year to fund increased immigration reporting. Nearly $1 million was collected from 12 donors and distributed to 12 organizations, ranging from national outlets like ProPublica and major local outlets like Chicago Public Media and Block Club Chicago to smaller outlets serving Latino and Chinese communities. The donations allowed the outlets to add reporting, editing and presentation capacity right before the Department of Homeland Security launched the immigration operation “Midway Blitz” in Chicago.

A second pooled fund focused on education and allowed outlets to increase coverage of the Chicago Board of Education elections.

“We are making these outlets stronger,” Baim said. “We’re not just giving an organization a grant to cover stuff. We are amplifying their work so that they can get new subscribers and that’s a pipeline of potential donors.”

Knight Foundation looks to local funding

Supporting that sort of sustainable growth is the next phase of Press Forward’s work. And Knight Foundation President and Chief ExecutiveMaribel Perez Wadsworth said that is more significant than co-founding the organization.

“Announcing half a billion dollars in national funding toward journalism was important in terms of demonstrating the urgency and the importance of supporting local journalism,” Wadsworth said. “But the more important thing, ultimately, is to really catalyze and create deeper awareness at the local level about the essential nature of access to reliable news and information as a public good.”

There are signs that donors, both big and small, are making journalism a priority because it provides an information base that supports other initiatives. Last month, the Ford Foundation, one of the world’s largest grantmakers, said that supporting journalism would become one of its priorities as it overhauls its giving to focus on the building blocks of democracy. The much smaller nonprofit Public Media Co. has made providing trustworthy local information a cornerstone of its work to keep public radio stations operating following ongoing federal funding cuts.

Perez Wadsworth said that having local and regional funders work together to keep local news outlets open in their communities is a more sustainable solution to many journalism outlets’ budgetary problems.

“Philanthropy writ large is not a business model,” she said. “And it’s not sustainable to believe that philanthropy is just going to always support whatever the thing is, no matter how important.”

‘No silver bullet’ for economic woes

Press Forward’s Anglin said there is “no silver bullet” to solve journalism’s economic problems. But philanthropy can help strengthen news outlets until they figure out a new business model that will make them sustainable.

Press Forward plans to promote solutions through public policy changes, encouraging cooperation and resource-sharing between outlets and supplying infrastructure and capacity-building grants. Its chapters, which operate independently, have met a wide spectrum of needs — from helping defray some Minnesota outlets’ cost of covering the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis earlier this year to training local residents in Kentucky to become reporters.

“You can’t nonprofit your way out of this problem,” Anglin said. “We understand that some things will still close. But we are building for the long term.”

Gamboa writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio won the race Tuesday to serve as House Republican leader as the GOP prepares for its new role in the minority.

Jordan, who serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defeated Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana in a secret ballot election of Republicans who will serve in the next Congress. The vote was 106-73.

Jordan, 62, is a co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and served as its first chairman. His candidacy appealed to those looking for new leadership in the wake of last week’s election debacle and to those who like his hard-hitting political style.

Jordan as minority leader will inherit a historically small House Republican conference that is only beginning to grapple with its loss of power as President Donald Trump serves out his final two years in office. Leading the party back to the House majority in 2028 is sure to be a stiff climb, given the scope of Democratic victories in the midterms.

Jordan warned of the coming Democratic efforts on oversight, with numerous investigations of the Trump administration expected.

“Our job cannot be merely to spotlight how radical this new Democratic Party is — offense, not defense, wins elections,” Jordan said, a nod to his pugnacious reputation in committee hearings.

Trump said he was staying out of the race.

Scalise and Jordan were a familiar match-up

Scalise and Jordan had faced off before, both running to serve as House speaker after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the job a little more than three years ago. Neither was able to rally the support necessary to secure the position, which eventually went to Mike Johnson, who is stepping aside from the leadership in the new Congress.

Scalise, 61, has held key GOP leadership positions going back to 2014, serving as party whip and then as majority leader. In 2017, he was critically wounded when a gunman opened fire at a baseball practice where several Republican lawmakers and staffers were preparing for an annual charity baseball game against Democrats. In 2023, he was stricken with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that was successfully treated.

“Overcoming adversity is nothing new to me,” Scalise said in his pitch to colleagues.

He also emphasized his fundraising prowess, noting he raised $67.9 million for this year’s midterms, with about a third of that going directly to individual House campaigns and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

But the majority of Republicans opted for Jordan, who emphasized his experience battling with Democrats in committee rooms.

“I am battle-tested on the oversight front and I know the Democrats’ playbook,” Jordan said.

Other positions are also up for grabs

In addition to the race for minority leader, Reps. Tom Emmer of Minnesota and August Pfluger of Texas are vying to serve as Republican whip, the No. 2 position in the leadership hierarchy. Three candidates are seeking to serve as conference chair: Reps. Lisa McClain of Michigan, Erin Houchin of Indiana and Greg Steube of Florida.

The Republicans who will serve in the next Congress will hear from the candidates in the morning, followed in the afternoon by voting through secret ballot.

Democrats will hold their leadership elections next week.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is expected to become the next House speaker, the first African-American to hold the job, and Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts is expected to become the next majority leader. She would be the first woman to hold that position.

Freking writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

As he prepares to reach a personal milestone, Brennan Johnson says he is happy with what he has achieved in football – but would like to reach more major tournaments with Wales.

The 25-year-old Everton forward is set to make his 50th appearance against Norway in the Nations League on Saturday, becoming the third-youngest Welshman to reach the landmark after Ethan Ampadu and Chris Gunter.

Johnson has one major tournament under his belt – the 2022 World Cup – having missed out on selection for Euro 2020.

Wales failed to make this summer’s World Cup, but have huge incentive to qualify for Euro 2028 with Cardiff named as one of eight host cities.

“Even when I think about having a Euros here now, it is special,” said Johnson.

“We’ve got a good squad and a lot of players playing at a good level. Everyone knows it’s coming up and it motivates us to work hard and show what we can do.”

Rare bipartisan bill requires data centres to pay for infrastructure, but environmental groups say it falls short.

The United States Senate has voted to move forward on a bipartisan bill that would speed up the process to build new data centres and energy infrastructure in the country.

Nearly all of the chamber’s Republicans, as well as more than a dozen Democrats, voted 73-25 on Monday to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, which supporters, including US President Donald Trump, have said is necessary to meet the nation’s growing demand for electricity.

“This Bill is a BIG WIN for U.S. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and DOMINANCE”, Trump posted on social media Monday as he encouraged lawmakers to support it.

The legislation would overhaul the permitting process for major energy projects – both clean energy and fossil fuel-run – across the US, reduce deadlines for environmental reviews and impose restrictions on when projects can be challenged in the country’s courts. It would also force owners of energy-hungry data centres to pay for the infrastructure that is needed to power them.

Growing anger in the US over those facilities’ use in powering artificial intelligence (AI), which has resulted in rising electricity bills for customers across the country, helped fuel last week’s takeover of the US Congress by Democrats.

“The people sent us a very clear message on Tuesday that they expect us to lower the costs in their daily lives,” Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich, the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said on Monday. “We don’t have to wait for the new Congress to start lowering costs. We can do that today.”

Authors of the bill claim it will provide $19bn in savings on residential electricity bills through 2040. The number of solar and wind projects connecting to the US electric grid would be doubled, with data centres paying $55bn over the next 10 years to cover their power usage.

But despite the bill’s claims of increasing clean energy projects, environmental organisations are opposed to the legislation. They argue it would also lock in development of fossil fuels, weaken environmental laws and make it harder for US residents to challenge projects in their communities.

Earlier this year, a coalition of national groups – including the Climate Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network and Western Environmental Law Center – issued a joint statement opposing the bill.

“We cannot allow the lies to continue, as the facts are clear: If this backroom permitting reform deal is pushed through, it will enable a no-guardrails buildout of dangerous projects that will harm our health and environment, drive up energy costs, and violate our rights,” they said in September.

“This will be especially harmful for communities of color and lower income neighborhoods already overburdened by pollution and climate impacts.”

While the legislation received rare overwhelming support from both major political parties, the Democrats’ midterm win could complicate its final passage.

Some in the party argue that the legislation should be shelved until new Democratic majorities in the US House and Senate are sworn in early next year.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is on track to become the body’s new speaker in January, criticised the bill last week, warning it “falls short” in several areas.

“We must once again support the clean energy economy and combat the climate crisis with the fierce urgency of now,” a Jeffries spokesperson said in a statement released to the Associated Press.

Jeffries’s office added: “Leader Jeffries will not rubber-stamp legislation that emerges from the Senate without more constructive involvement with our Caucus as we fight to make life more affordable for the American people.”

The most famous 15-minute cruise around a miniature world is almost ready for its holiday close-up. Disneyland’s It’s a Small World Holiday opens Friday, and it’s a seasonal delight, a bright and wintry jaunt to the North Pole and then around the globe and back.

Closed from just before Halloween, the attraction has undergone nearly two weeks of round-the-clock work, with set dressing during the day, and maintenance and facade work at night. Hours before the boat ride was to be refilled with water on Monday afternoon, Disneyland team members gave me a walkthrough, providing me with a rare peek behind the scenes. As a devotee of Mary Blair and Rolly Crump, so much so that It’s a Small World is my favorite ride at the park, I was eager to see the attraction from a new perspective.

Here’s just some of what I learned as I strolled the dry waterway and took a brief jaunt into the ride’s attic, a maze of wooden paths with vintage automations and a handful of small openings into the magical world below.

If you’ve been on the ride during the regular season, you’ve glided right past the holiday fixtures without knowing it

Troy Romero, a Disneyland stage technician, left, and David Miller, director of entertainment tech services, give a tour of It’s a Small World Holiday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Disneyland teams of late have been focused on reducing ride downtime, and last year the It’s a Small World team was able to trim the refurbishment time from 18 days to 14 days. This was mostly accomplished by adding and shifting crew hours, but It’s a Small World is a delicate attraction, with the vast majority of its wooden set pieces dating to the mid-1960s. Navigating around such a fragile work is difficult, especially with much of the holiday version of the attraction stored on the ride itself.

That means that for most of the year, guests are gliding right past the Christmas-heavy overlays. They’re stationed behind the facades or tucked on the floor just under the elevated flume.

It’s a Small World Holiday is a Disneyland tradition that began in 1997.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Snowflake lights that glisten near the start of the attraction, for instance, had been kept in the South America section until someone suggested simply laying them down when they’re not in use. It’s a simple fix that has saved hours of time lifting props over and around set pieces. Additionally, four snow animals in the finale were previously housed in Africa, but have been moved closer to their winter homes, eliminating the process of lifting the animals or dissembling and reassembling set pieces to traverse around the attraction. That also means less risk, both to the staff and the delicate scenery.

Reducing the closure period by four days may not sound like much, but David Miller, Disneyland’s director of entertainment tech services, says that equates to 74,000 more guests being able to ride the attraction.

Miss the old finale of the Main Street Electrical Parade? A piece of it lives on in the Asia section

Details from the Asia section of It’s a Small World.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

In 2022, Disneyland changed the finale of its Main Street Electrical Parade. Gone was a patriotic float at its end, one in which fireworks twinkled over a red, white and blue tapestry. Those fireworks, however, found a new home. They now reside in the Asia section of It’s a Small World Holiday. Look for them near the end of the room, off to the left above a translucent, glowing dragon.

“We want to make sure we’re leveraging what we’ve got,” Miller says. “So when our finale float changed, the fireworks were moved and brought over to help us celebrate the season.”

Guess the weight of the candy arch

A Christmas critter in It’s a Small World Holiday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

One of the largest set pieces in It’s a Small World Holiday is the Christmas tree in the Europe section of the park, a towering monument of glowing candles and glistening ribbons that is replacing a chess board. The metal and aluminum tree is then raised in parts, all seven of them. The top is placed first, and each section is affixed underneath until it takes shape. A heavy piece, the back of the tree is wired up into the attic to ensure it stays in place.

But it’s not the heaviest set piece in the Europe section of the attraction. That would be the candy arch, detailed with candy canes, gingerbread and frosting. While Miller didn’t know its total weight, just the top of that arch is more than a ton. As one can imagine, moving it is no easy feat. It’s stored nearby, and slotted into place by a series of stitched-together chain motors. Theme park attractions often utilize tricks of old-fashioned theater, such as painted Styrofoam or hollowed-out wood. But not here. “It is built to withstand much,” Miller says.

“Funny thing, I heard one of the riggers say, if there was an earthquake, I’d run to the candy arch,” says Georg Schanz, an entertainment tech manager with the resort.

Numerous scents are piped in throughout It’s a Small World Holiday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Anyone smell gingerbread?

As boats glide under the candy arch, don’t be surprised if you start craving a cookie. That’s because Disneyland is piping in a gingebread aroma. There are at least five scents throughout It’s a Small World Holiday, says Schanz, but the gingerbread was the only one I detected, so you’re on your own to count the rest.

Elvis is back in the building

A small Elvis Presley toy stands on a surfboard with Lilo and Stitch.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

A guest favorite of It’s a Small World Holiday is the tiny Elvis Presley figure affixed to a surfboard featuring the characters of Lilo and Stitch. The Elvis toy only comes out for the holiday edition of the attraction. The figure was not part of the initial design of It’s a Small World Holiday, and was added, Miller says, by a stage technician.

“Every once in a while there are little moments that can influence an attraction,” Miller says.

Watch the bells in the opening room

The bells inside It’s a Small World Holiday are outfitted with motion sensors.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

One of the most complex builds of It’s a Small World Holiday is actually its opening scene, which the team calls the “hello room.” Composed of mostly flat figures — toy soldiers, a rocking horse, doll-like characters holding balloons — it may not look like one of the most intense scenes to construct, but these are large wooden pieces that have to navigate places with low ceilings. This space alone takes three days to empty and repopulate.

Pay attention to the bells that lead out of the room and into the North Pole. Those operate only by motion sensors as a boat approaches.

A holiday adornment for nearly every doll — all 300 of them

The It’s a Small World dolls are ready for the holidays.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

The brightly lit finale — an explosion of whites and lights — is another tricky scene to construct. That’s because each and every doll in the room is touched up. Disney says there are about 300 dolls on the entire ride, and it feels like a large percentage are in this closing scene. “Every doll in here gets something,” Miller says of the grand finale room. “Whether it’s holly, a choir book or just a sparkle, every doll in here gets something.”

Consistency from year to year is important. That’s why the entire ride is 3D-scanned. The teams can call up a room to compare images from earlier editions. “It’s a lot like a real estate tour, where you see little point-to-points throughout the house,” Miller says. “That helps us make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

Like a real estate tour? I know I’m ready to move in. We just may have to turn down the music, though.

This week in SoCal theme parks

Christmas decorations have arrived at the Disneyland Resort.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

• Christmas is upon us. Disneyland’s holiday season begins Friday, although many of the decorations are already in place. Come the end of the week, however, there will be new foods to sample, and a number of returning shows. Don’t miss the terrific “¡Viva Navidad!,” or “World of Color — Season of Light,” back after a hiatus due to Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
• Calling all Tinker Bell fans! “Tinker Bell’s Neverland Adventure: An Illuminated Adventure” opens Friday at South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates. The illuminated night walk will take guests on a journey through numerous locales from the fairy tale, ranging from the rooftops of London to the Lost Boys’ secret hideout to Captain Hook’s pirate ship. The trail is designed for all ages.
• A new pass for Universal fans. Universal Studios Hollywood has introduced a new “Diamond Pass,” now its highest tier annual passport. Selling for $999, the pass has no blockout days and includes daily access to the park’s line-skipping express pass as well as a ticket to after-hours events Halloween Horror Nights and Fan Fest. The pass also includes access to an Universal VIP tour.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

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OUR Spotlight On column gives you the lowdown on what to see and do in some of the most popular holiday destinations – as well as some lesser-known areas.

This week, we’re shining a light on the lively Spanish resort of Playa de las Américas in Tenerife.

MUST SEE/DO

Tenerife’s crystal-clear waters are abundant with marine life, and a turtle, whale or dolphin-watching tour is a must.

You can book a whale-watching pirate cruise for as little as £17 on Get Your Guide, with options that include a stop for a snorkel or a buffet and drinks on board.

If you’re wanting something a little more active, Get Your Guide also offers surf lessons from £30 or parasailing to view the seas from the sky.

HIDDEN GEM

Tenerife is one of the world’s top destinations for stargazing.

SI, PAR FAVOR

The Spanish resort with 325 days of sunshine & EU’s biggest saltwater lagoon

FLY ON

TUI to launch 8 new flight routes from UK including winter sun Spanish city

A certified Starlight Destination, the island’s low levels of light pollution means you get exceptionally clear views of the Milky Way at night time.

This is what makes the island perfect for spotting some key sky-based landmarks with year-round visibility of 83 of the 88 officially recognised constellations.

BEST VIEW

Tenerife’s highest peak, Mount Teide, is the best spot to head for those jaw-dropping views over the island.

Experienced hikers can tackle the 8.3km trail up to La Rambleta, where you can continue to the summit with a permit, bookable for free on the National Park’s website.

Alternatively, the scenic cable car will take you through a blanket of clouds to the top for €23.50.

The panoramic views from the Pico Viejo viewpoint are especially striking, with glimpses of islands La Gomera, El Hierro, and La Palma on clear days.

RATED RESTAURANT

For authentic Castilian cuisine, prime cuts of meat, and excellent wine, look no further than Meson Castellano, sat on a row of bustling bars.

With an unassuming exterior, inside it is a warm and inviting traditional restaurant serving dishes with bold Spanish flavours.

Here, you can sample perfectly cured jamon iberico, a classic ribeye steak served to your liking or juicy legs of lamb.

Wash it all down with a glass of local wine. And you  won’t want to miss the baked cheesecake.

BEST BAR

Tenerife’s nightlife is varied. For a lively night, Magic Bar in Las Americas is  a local favourite, known for its colourful cocktails – better still, its in a central location.

For something off the beaten track, head up the mountain to Finca Tres Roques, a cosy bar with local charm serving carafes of house red, farm-to-plate food, and  stunning views.

HOTEL PICK

The 5H Sir Anthony, on Tenerife’s southern coast, is a boutique hotel with exceptional service, and direct access to El Camisón Beach.

Many rooms feature private plunge pools. Guests looking to unwind can even enjoy private rooftop spa treatments.

The decor is elegant, the atmosphere is peaceful and the location is excellent. Rooms cost from around £250 per night.

WASHINGTON — The midterm elections already upended national politics. Due to the number of state governments that have flipped to Democratic control, they also could change the way the U.S. elects a president.

The sudden blue tint to so many more statehouses opens the door to enough states joining 18 other Democratic-run states in a deal that would effectively neuter the Electoral College. It would remake the battle for the presidency into one for the most votes nationwide, rather than candidates concentrating on a half dozen or so swing states.

The states that have joined what is known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact account for 222 Electoral College votes. Once the number of states involved hits the 270 needed to win the presidency, the arrangement would effectively require a candidate to win the national popular vote to get an Electoral College majority.

It’s not clear that the strategy has support from all the newly elected lawmakers and governors in the key states, and it’s almost certain to draw legal challenges from conservative groups. If it does go forward, it could land before the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

Yet the sweep of the Democratic wins for governor and in state legislatures has the plan’s supporters optimistic. In Tuesday’s elections, Democrats won full control in six states representing 71 Electoral College votes: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Minnesota, with its 10 electoral votes, had joined the compact when it was previously under full Democratic control in 2023.

Some governors express support while others are noncommittal

“We can do away with it,” Wisconsin’s new Democratic Gov. David Crowley said of the Electoral College, now that he has a legislature in his party’s hands for the first time in 16 years. “I am interested in having those conversations with the state Legislature.”

Over the weekend, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely 2028 contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he would like his newly Democratic legislature to take steps toward making the Electoral College obsolete.

“I think that the national popular vote makes sense. My views on that have not changed,” Shapiro said on a liberal podcast. “I’ll work with lawmakers to figure out what the right mechanism is for moving forward on that.”

If Pennsylvania and Wisconsin supported the compact, reaching the 270 threshold would require Michigan and either Arizona or Nevada to join. Michigan’s new Democratic governor, Jocelyn Benson did not respond to a request for comment.

Not every Democratic governor is embracing the push yet. In a television interview on Monday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs declined to say whether she favored her state joining the compact. She said she’s focused on other things, like the cost of living.

Nevada’s previous experience with the issue also is a cautionary tale for supporters.

In 2019, then-Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak vetoed a measure that would have committed Nevada to joining the compact after it was passed by Democratic majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Sisolak said at the time that the popular vote idea would diminish the influence of smaller-population states like Nevada in national elections.

Democrats passed another measure to join the compact in 2023, but couldn’t figure out a way around the state’s then-Republican governor. The incoming administration of its new Democratic governor, Aaron Ford, did not respond to requests for comment.

Republicans will use their diminished power to push back.

“Our Constitution gives states a voice in choosing the president for a reason,” Tyler August, the Republican leader in the Wisconsin Assembly, said in a statement Tuesday. “This would undermine that balance and disenfranchise Wisconsin voters by letting results in other states override their choice.”

Two presidents 16 years apart lost the popular vote

The idea of shifting to a national popular vote gained traction among Democrats after Republican George W. Bush won the 2000 presidential election by inching ahead of Democrat Al Gore in the Electoral College even while losing the popular vote. It became turbocharged after Republicans again won the White House that way in 2016 with Donald Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Under the National Popular Vote plan, the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide would receive the Electoral College votes from the states that have joined the compact.

There’s nothing inherently partisan about the idea, said Patrick Rosenstiel, a Republican strategist in Minnesota who is a senior consultant to the popular vote movement. Occasionally GOP-majority legislative chambers, including the Oklahoma Senate, have passed proposals to join the compact, but the bills haven’t gone further.

He said his own presidential vote is essentially meaningless because Minnesota has reliably voted Democratic in presidential elections for decades, leaving him with no say in the outcome and steering the vast majority of the candidates’ attention elsewhere.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been relevant in the outcome of a presidential election,” he said. “National popular vote forces campaigns to focus on every persuadable voter in every precinct across the nation.”

Rosenstiel said the national popular vote campaign has been revving up to push the issue when the newly Democratic state legislatures convene at the start of the year. He said the organization has already lined up legislative sponsors.

The compact could create constitutional concerns

Republicans no longer have the power to stop the change in the Democratic-controlled states, but some conservative groups are prepared for a fight. The change “disenfranchises voters in member states if enacted, violates the United States Constitution, and undermines America’s Founders’ intent,” wrote analysts for the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank, in September.

There also is no guarantee the proposals will pass. Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who is skeptical of the idea, said some might have second thoughts now that it’s gone from a symbolic protest vote to a real possibility. He said there will be constitutional concerns, as well, that will likely lead to legal challenges.

The Constitution lets states run elections, and the Supreme Court in a case stemming from electors who sought to find a substitute for Trump in 2016 has ruled that states can require electors to vote for the presidential candidate they’re pledged to.

Muller flagged potential legal hurdles to the popular vote plan. States have the power to run their elections but not set rules that will determine the outcome in other states’ contests. Additionally, each state ballot is different, and some would potentially have third-party candidates who wouldn’t appear elsewhere, leading to the dilution of a vote for a Democrat or Republican in one state compared to another.

That could violate the 14th Amendment’s requirement that everyone have “equal protection of the laws.” The U.S. Supreme Court also might decide that states can’t join a compact to change one of their core constitutional duties, unless they get congressional approval.

“I think the Supreme Court will be interested,” Muller said.

Riccardi and Bauer write for the Associated Press. Bauer reported from Madison, Wis. AP writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Mich., Jessica Hill in Las Vegas and Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix contributed to this report.

In the hours before Game 1 of the World Series, as the Violent Femmes played “Kiss Off” before their hometown fans in Milwaukee, Bruce Meyer talked about getting blown off by baseball’s owners.

He didn’t put it quite that way. But Meyer, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., expressed his frustration that months of collective bargaining over dozens of issues has boiled down to what he sees as one gigantic, inflexible roadblock: “They’ve made clear they’re not willing to talk about anything outside of their cap system.”

The league and its owners are willing to talk about key issues for the union: higher minimum salaries, fewer years to free agency, an end to the qualifying offers that can dampen the market for free agents. But the price would be a salary cap.

The players have made clear they’re not willing to consider the salary cap that owners insist would underpin everything else in what would be a radical new economic system. That could backfire: a wonky provision in labor law could give the owners the option to adopt a salary cap no matter what the players want.

With three weeks left before the current collective bargaining agreement expires — and with the owners planning to lock out players immediately thereafter — player representative and former Philadelphia Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs called the negotiations “a complete waste of time” and “a charade.” He told the Philadelphia Inquirer the owners continue to present proposals “with the salary cap attached to every single proposal.”

So why wouldn’t the union just walk away from the bargaining table and tell the owners to call when they get serious?

Under labor law, parties in collective bargaining must negotiate in good faith. If the union refuses to discuss a salary cap, the owners could at some point declare an impasse. That would mean the owners would end the lockout by imposing their last offer as a new labor agreement — including a salary cap — and claiming the players would not negotiate in good faith.

That would not be a risk-free strategy. The players could ask the National Labor Relations Board to intervene, arguing they had offered solutions to the owners’ economic concerns — expanded revenue sharing, for instance — that the owners would not consider.

In the 1994-95 strike, the last time the league sought a salary cap, the owners played the impasse card. However, the NLRB found that the owners were the party that had failed to negotiate in good faith. United States District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor agreed — you know her as a Supreme Court justice now — and ordered the old collective bargaining agreement reinstated.

In this moment, with the NLRB generally considered more business-friendly under President Trump, the union might not find the board as receptive to its positions as it did then.

“I could certainly imagine a scenario where the owners get into his ear how it’s going to destroy baseball and America and everything else, and he puts his thumb on the scale or otherwise reaches out to the decision makers at the NLRB and says, ‘You’re not finding a violation here,’” Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB general counsel during the Biden administration, told The Times.

Ivan Smith, a partner in labor and employment law at Seyfarth Shaw and leader of the firm’s sports and entertainment division, said the short-term gain of declaring an impasse might not be worth the potential long-term pain for the owners.

“Ultimately, they want to be able to put enough pressure on the players to get them to give them (the cap) for their business,” Smith said. “But, if you impose, you’re now giving players more tools to fight you. Why go through that?”

Jennifer Abruzzo, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel during the Biden administration, said it’s entirely possible that the NLRB under President Trump might not be as receptive to the positions of the players’ union.

(Amanda Andrade-Rhoades / Associated Press)

One powerful tool, according to Abruzzo and Smith: If the owners go the impasse route — hey, we’re putting in a new labor contract and we’re ending the lockout! — the players could simply respond by going on strike.

The players would have another card to play too, separate from the impasse question. They could vote to decertify their union, which would be something of a chaos option: Hello, owners, who ya gonna negotiate with now?

Under a collective bargaining agreement, the league and the union negotiate various restrictions on negotiation by individual players — draft pick signings, international player signings, minimum salaries, arbitration, free agency, and more.

“If there is no union in place, then they’re not represented by anybody,” Abruzzo said. “So there would be a free-for-all. You would have independent employment agreements with every player.”

On the one hand, that could flood the market with players forced to take whatever salary an owner offered. On the other hand — and this likely would be the objective of decertification — individual players could sue for antitrust violations and the triple damages that can accompany them, pursue a judge’s order to end the lockout, and/or leverage those options toward a new collective bargaining agreement. (And, if the union quickly reassembles, the owners could then argue in court the decertification was a sham.)

Trump is the wild card in all of this. In the 1994-95 strike, President Clinton appointed a federal mediator, although the mediator was unsuccessful in leading the two sides to an agreement.

After Americans largely rebuked his leadership by thumping Republicans in last week’s midterm elections, Trump might well savor an opportunity to get involved and portray himself as the guy who saved baseball.

“He might say, ‘Hey, let me focus on anything else,’” Smith said.

In September, Trump said he would welcome a chance to bring labor peace to baseball.

“If I could help, I’d love to help,” he said.

What do the league and the union have to say about all this? Both sides declined comment for this column.

But baseball runs on deadlines, and the one for missing games next season is about four months away. The options for impasse, decertification and presidential involvement all could require longer than that to resolve.

That means the quickest route to resolution could be Plan A: Actual bargaining, with give and take.

“I’m not prepared to write the process off as ending in a really ugly labor battle,” Manfred said at the World Series. “I believe in the process of collective bargaining. I believe, if people approach the table not with preconceived notions about what has to happen and commit to the process, that we can make an agreement without having a disruption.”

On Kalshi, the “official and exclusive prediction market partner” of the Dodgers, only 39% of bettors say the full 162-game schedule will be played next year.