Along the road to the airport as President Trump ended his holiday in Florida, people greeted the presidential motorcade with waving American flags, and signs reading “Puppies for Trump,” “Fire McMaster,” “Hillary for prison,” and “Trump Strong.” Then there were the others: “President Trump is fake news,” “Go away and don’t come back,” “Mr. Mueller is coming for [you]” and “Resign.”

Such is the moment in this divided nation.

Trump returned to Washington on Sunday for what will be a critical week for his legislative agenda. In the coming days, Congress must address immigration issues, children’s healthcare and continued funding for the government.

That’s not to mention the GOP tax cut plan that cleared the House and faces an uncertain future in the Senate. (Trump over the weekend said he hoped the Senate would “come through” and approve the plan.)

The bigger question will be how the storylines of sexual misconduct and harassment overshadow any policy discussion.

HARASSMENT STORIES CONTINUE

The long holiday weekend brought plenty of news on this topic.

Under pressure from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others, senior Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr., the No. 2 on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday he would step down from his post as he faces an ethics investigation into allegations he sexually harassed female staffers.

Conyers, 88, the Dean of the House elected last fall to his 27th full term, has denied the allegations. But he said the investigation and the allegations are a distraction to the “important” work of the committee, which he noted handles civil rights cases and voters’ access to the ballot box.

Sen. Al Franken issued another apology after new allegations from women.

We’ll be closely tracking what happens here in California when the Assembly begins its sexual harassment hearings Tuesday. The moment comes as one of its lawmakers has opted against reelection in the wake of accusations from six women. The Times’ report about Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra last week could become part of that legislative discussion. Likelier still is that the hearing will examine the process for people to come forward.

To that end, the California Legislature again denied records requests from The Times on sexual harassment complaints.

The issue has gotten attention locally as well. Despite its size, the city of Los Angeles has no centralized method for tracking sexual harassment complaints lodged against its workers. Nor are managers required to report such claims to the city’s Personnel Department. Dakota Smith reports that with dozens of different departments and a fragmented reporting system, two members of the Los Angeles City Council want to examine the city’s process for reporting abusive and inappropriate behavior.

SPOTLIGHT ON AN INVESTIGATION

At 73, Robert Mueller has a record that includes plenty of accolades. But it also shows a man of fallible judgment who can be slow to alter his chosen course. At times, he has intimidated or provoked resentment among subordinates, David Willman reports.

Mueller’s tenacious yet linear approach to evaluating evidence led him to fumble the biggest U.S. terrorism investigation since 9/11, Willman writes, and now, as he leads a sprawling investigation aimed at the White House, Mueller’s prosecutorial discretion looms over the Trump presidency.

Trump tweeted over the weekend that the Russia investigation is “phony.”

NATIONAL POLITICS LIGHTNING ROUND

The Senate Republican plan to use tax legislation to repeal the federal requirement that Americans have health coverage threatens to derail insurance markets in conservative, rural swaths of the country, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis. Noam Levey writes that the measure could leave consumers in these regions — including most or all of Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming, as well as parts of many other states — with either no options for coverage or health plans that are prohibitively expensive.

Voters just don’t seem to be that interested in the plan, either. Polls show most Americans view it as benefiting the wealthy and corporations, skeptical it will do much for middle-class taxpayers.

White House officials said Saturday that Trump was on solid legal ground in naming Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the battle over control of the CFPB escalated Sunday as the deputy director sued to stop Trump. Leandra English requested a temporary restraining order to block Mulvaney from taking the position.

Mark Z. Barabak looks at why the Alabama Senate race is far from over, even with all of the allegations against Roy Moore.

Trump, whose “he denies it” remarks kept cable news busy all last week, reiterated his support for Moore over the weekend.

The Supreme Court is set to decide whether corporate whistle-blowers are protected from being fired if they disclose wrongdoing to company officials rather than to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Catch up quickly on the president’s feud with LaVar Ball.

A Texas Republican congressman apologized for sending a nude selfie during the course of a consensual relationship. The image was posted on Twitter.

From the “you can’t make it up” files, we bring you Piegate.

Get the latest about these storylines, the tax plan developments and what’s happening in the nation’s capital on Essential Washington.

VILLARAIGOSA CAME OUT AHEAD

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the final top Democrat running for governor to release his tax returns, allowed reporters to view six years of filings the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The man who famously proclaimed that he left office with nothing has been busy making millions ever since then, Seema Mehta and Patrick McGreevy report.

LONGSHOT WITH A LONG LIST OF FRIENDS

Omar Navarro lost badly to Rep. Maxine Waters last fall, but he’s trying again, and he has a cadre of famous far-right friends to help him: Trump confidant Roger Stone, former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Plus, a group of major Republican donors plans to take on the long-serving Los Angeles congresswoman. As Sarah Wire reports, either Trump supporters see a GOP path to victory in a district that’s overwhelmingly Democratic or they just want to punish one of Trump’s most vocal detractors.

FORMER CLINTON AIDE FACES LOCAL CONTENDERS IN EAST BAY RACE

Buffy Wicks, who last year helped steer Hillary Clinton’s victory in California, started out as an antiwar community organizer in the Bay Area more than a decade ago before going to work on Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008. She eventually rose through the ranks to become one of his senior White House staffers.

Now, she is running for office herself — in the crowded race for Assembly District 15 in one of the state’s most diverse and politically progressive regions, covering Berkeley, Richmond and parts of Oakland. She says she jumped into the competition at an energetic time for Democrats, and with a desire to apply all she learned in Washington. But she is facing some popular local contenders who say they see her as an outsider trying to parachute in.

A reminder you can keep up with this and other important races in the moment via our Essential Politics news feed on California politics.

POLITICAL ROAD MAP: A PRIVACY BATTLE BREWS

If headlines about private information stolen or data bought and sold worry you, then a California ballot measure will catch your attention next year.

John Myers writes in this week’s Political Road Map column about a possible 2018 proposition that could fundamentally alter the balance of power over consumer privacy rights — a change that, if it makes the ballot and voters approve, would undoubtedly set a national precedent.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

— During his 39 years behind bars, Craig Coley maintained his innocence. Now, authorities say they agree with him. Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned Coley, 70, last week. Evidence once thought destroyed helped free him.

— California’s cap-and-trade program saw strong results from its most recent permit auction, raising more than $800 million to help combat climate change.

— California business leaders urged Congress to reauthorize the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program without a government shutdown.

— California’s Republican candidates for governor will meet for their first debate in January in San Bernardino County, Mehta reports.

— In cycling-obsessed Colombia, he dreamed of glory. But first he needed a bike. Read Jazmine Ulloa’s story from Tunja, Colombia, produced as part of a fellowship with the International Center for Journalists. The exchange program centered on digital media institutions and is geared to allow journalists to gain insights into digital practices outside the U.S.

LOGISTICS

Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to [email protected].

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Thursday, 1:30 p.m. TV: CBS.

Line: Chiefs by 3½. O/U: 52½.

The Chiefs finally broke through last week, but Dallas looks like the more complete team right now: healthier, faster on defense, and leaning into a locker room identity. Kansas City will land some shots, but the Cowboys rally at home in their traditional Thanksgiving game.

Pick: Cowboys 28, Chiefs 24

Nov. 27 (UPI) — A federal judge who oversaw the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday demanded prosecutors explain how they are protecting victims’ privacy after the release of unredacted documents.

New York-based Judge Richard Berman issued the order in response to a letter raising alarm about how the names of some of Epstein’s victims were included in a trove of documents released by Congress earlier this month.

The order comes amid a recent push for more transparency into the investigation of Epstein, a now-deceased financier who had ties to the wealthy and powerful.

However, Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson, attorneys representing the victims, wrote in a letter to Berman on Tuesday that transparency cannot “come at the expense of the privacy, safety and protection of sexual abuse and sex-trafficking victims.”

“These women are not political pawns,” the attorneys wrote. “They are mothers, wives and daughters. These are women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein, and in some instances by others, and who have already had their rights violated in the past by the government.”

The House Oversight Committee has released dozens of documents from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate that exposed victims’ identities, causing them “significant emotional distress,” they wrote. Victims have already been approached by the press after their names were released, the attorneys wrote.

The attorneys called the situation “absolutely unacceptable and a problem that must be rectified prior to the release of any additional documents.” One victim described being unable to sleep or function after the release.

The Department of Justice unsuccessfully asked Berman to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits in Epstein’s case. However, the victims’ attorneys wrote in their letter that the documents reveal little compared to the department’s investigative files.

Earlier this month, Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a bill directing the DOJ to release files on its investigation into Epstein.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote to a separate judge Wednesday that the department “intends to redact or withhold victim information to the fullest extent permitted” by the recently passed law.

At least 10 injured as traffic and trains disrupted amid severe weather and rising floodwaters across multiple regions.

Landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains have caused more than 40 deaths in Sri Lanka, where the authorities have stopped passenger trains and closed roads in some parts of the country, officials say.

The government’s Disaster Management Centre on Thursday said 25 of the reported deaths occurred in the mountainous tea-growing regions of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya in central Sri Lanka about 300km (186 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.

Another 21 people were missing due to landslides in the same areas while 10 people were injured, the centre said.

Sri Lanka began experiencing severe weather last week, made worse by downpours over the weekend that wreaked havoc by flooding homes, fields and roads.

Reservoirs and rivers have overflowed, blocking roads. Some key roads connecting the provinces have been closed, officials said.

Authorities stopped trains in some areas in the mountainous region after rocks, mud and trees fell onto railway tracks. Local television showed workers removing the debris. In some areas, floods have inundated the tracks.

Local television showed an air force helicopter rescuing three people stranded on the roof of a house marooned by floods while navy and police used boats to transport residents.

Footage also showed a car being swept away by floodwaters near the eastern town of Ampara, about 410km (256 miles) east of Colombo, killing three passengers.

This week’s weather-related toll is the highest since June last year when 26 people were killed due to heavy rains. In December, 17 people were killed by flooding and landslides.

The worst flooding this century was in June 2003 when 254 people were killed.

Sri Lanka depends on seasonal monsoon rains for irrigation and hydroelectricity, but experts have warned that the country faces more frequent floods due to the climate crisis.

Hardcover fiction

1. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Crown: $28) A lifelong letter writer reckons with a painful past.

2. Brimstone by Callie Hart (Forever: $33) The deluxe limited edition continues the fantasy adventure begun in “Quicksilver.”

3. Heart the Lover by Lily King (Grove Press: $28) A woman reflects on a youthful love triangle and its consequences.

4. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (Knopf: $30) A genre-bending love story about people and the words they leave behind.

5. Queen Esther by John Irving (Simon & Schuster: $30) The novelist revisits his bestselling “The Cider House Rules.”

6. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hogarth: $32) The fates of two young people intersect and diverge across continents and years.

7. Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books: $28) An accomplished actor grapples with the varied roles she plays in her personal life.

8. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon (Penguin Press: $30) A private eye in 1932 Milwaukee is hired to find a missing dairy heiress.

9. The Black Wolf by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books: $30) The latest mystery in the Armand Gamache series.

10. Dog Show by Billy Collins, Pamela Sztybel (illustrator) (Random House: $20) The former U.S. poet laureate captures the essence of dogs in a collection of poems that includes watercolor canine portraits.

…

Hardcover nonfiction

1. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Viking: $35) An exploration of the most infamous stock market crash in history.

2. Bread of Angels by Patti Smith (Random House: $30) A new memoir from the legendary writer and artist.

3. Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre (Knopf: $35) A posthumous memoir by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim.

4. Something From Nothing by Alison Roman (Clarkson Potter: $38) More than 100 recipes that make the most of a well-stocked pantry.

5. The Uncool by Cameron Crowe (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $35) The filmmaker recounts his experiences as a teenage music journalist.

6. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense.

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8. Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday: $35) The author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” tells her story.

9. Good Things by Samin Nosrat (Random House: $45) The celebrated chef shares 125 meticulously tested recipes.

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1. On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) by Solvej Balle (New Directions: $16)

2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $22)

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8. On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle, Barbara J. Haveland (translator) (New Directions: $16)

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…

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9. The Best American Essays 2025 by Jia Tolentino and Kim Dana Kupperman (editors) (Mariner Books: $19)

10. Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (Picador: $19)

CARTHAGE, Tenn. — Vice President Al Gore’s father, Albert Gore Sr., who served in Congress for three decades and was a leading opponent of the Vietnam War and a key force behind the interstate highway system, died Saturday. He was 90.

Gore died of natural causes at his home, a statement from the vice president’s office said. The vice president and his wife, Tipper, were at his bedside.

A leader among Democrats, Gore served in the Senate from 1953 to 1970. Gore was a key opponent of the Vietnam War as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His son, however, enlisted in the Army after his graduation from Harvard and spent two years in Vietnam as an Army journalist.

An unabashed liberal who made few concessions to the will of Tennessee voters, Gore voted against two of President Nixon’s Southern Supreme Court nominees: Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. and G. Harrold Carswell. His votes earned him then-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew’s famous epithet, “Southern regional chairman of the Eastern Liberal Establishment.”

His opposition to the war and his liberal positions were blamed for his defeat in 1970 by Republican Bill Brock, scion of a wealthy candy-making family. Gore retired from public life after his defeat.

Six years later, his son was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, then to the Senate in 1984. After a failed presidential try in 1988, the younger Gore was elected vice president as Bill Clinton’s running mate in 1992.

President Clinton paid tribute Saturday night to the senior Gore, calling him a valuable public servant “who helped connect the South with the rest of America.”

Gore himself had briefly been a vice presidential candidate to Adlai E. Stevenson III during the 1956 Democratic national convention. He withdrew in favor of fellow Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver, who won the nomination. The Democratic ticket lost to the Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower.

When Gore was first elected to the Senate, in 1952, he had already served 14 years in the U.S. House, taking time out for Army service during World War II.

In the 1950s, the elder Gore introduced legislation to create the interstate highway system, promoting it as a national defense network modeled on the German autobahn that he had seen during World War II service. The bill was passed in 1956.

“The multiplication of automobiles and trucks made our narrow, free-access highways completely out of date,” Gore said. The interstate system now totals 44,000 miles.

After his defeat in the Senate, the onetime schoolteacher-farmer was named to the board of Island Creek Coal Co., a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., by Armand Hammer. Gore’s farm at Carthage also contains extensive copper, zinc and germanium ore.

The former senator’s life was not always comfortable. Born Dec. 26, 1907, in the mountain community of Granville, Gore moved with his family to the Carthage area when he was 2.

He received his early education in the one-room Possum Hollow school and later became a teacher in one-room schools himself. That gave him the money to put himself through Middle Tennessee State College, from where he graduated in 1932.

His first elective office was Smith County school superintendent. While serving in that job, he studied law at Nashville’s YMCA Law School and operated a tobacco-grading barn.

Gore and his wife, Pauline LaFon Gore, were married in 1937. Besides their son, the vice president, they also had a daughter, Nancy, who died of lung cancer at age 45 in 1984.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

“It feels almost like a loss,” Tavernier conceded. “Being a Rangers player, you have to win every single game. That’s what we have to do from now to the end of this competition.

“It’s definitely not over, but we have to build from this.”

Djiga contrived to head the ball into Martinez’s path under no pressure to gift Braga a point, the defender appearing to lose the flight of the ball in swirling conditions.

With John Souttar and Derek Cornelius injured, Djigi was paired with Emmanuel Fernandez, with the former ultimately costing Rangers a vital win.

“I’ve got no complaint with Nasser, everyone makes a mistake, but we ultimately should have that game tied up before that even happens,” Tavernier added.

“We have to be more patient, probing around their final third instead of trying to shoot maybe when it’s not on. I’ve spoken about it before, about being clinical in both boxes, and we’ve got to do that.

“If we keep it clean sheet, we win. That’s our aim as a team, to keep clean sheets. We should have had that in our pocket with the 10 men that we were playing against.”

Nov. 27 (UPI) — Foreign nationals from 19 nations of concern will undergo reviews of their visas following Wednesday’s attack on two National Guard members in Washington.

President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials to review the visas held by individuals from those nations.

“At the direction of [the president], I have directed a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said on Thursday in a social media post.

“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount,” Edlow continued in another post.

“The American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” he said. “American safety is non-negotiable.”

Edlow on Wednesday announced USCIS has stopped all processing of immigration requests from Afghan nationals after West Virginia National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot about two blocks from the White House while patrolling the capital.

The suspect, Rahmanulla Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 through the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome that was intended to protect Afghans who assisted the U.S. military.

Trump and others in his administration have accused the Biden administration of improperly vetting visa applicants.

When asked which nations’ citizens will undergo additional scrutiny, USCIS officials directed NBC News to the president’s related executive order made in June.

The Trump administration identified a dozen nations as national security and public safety risks and potential sources of terrorism and suspended or limited visa approvals for their respective citizens.

They include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea. They also include Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The Trump administration also identified seven nations for partial suspension of visa approvals.

Those are Barundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Tofo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Here are the key events from day 1,373 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Friday, November 28.

Fighting

• Russian forces have “completely surrounded” the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and control 70 percent of it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
• Putin also said that once Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas, then the fighting will stop. But if they do not, then Russian forces will achieve their objectives by force.
• The Russian president added that the pace of Russia’s advance in all directions on the front line was “noticeably increasing”.
• Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine’s top commander, painted a different picture, saying on social media that Ukrainian troops had been blocking attempts by Russian forces to stage new assaults on Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. Syrskii also said that Russia had been forced to bring reserve forces into the fight.
• Russia’s air defences shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 52 over Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said.

Peace process

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian delegations will meet with those from the United States this week to work out a formula discussed at talks in Geneva to bring peace and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.
• Putin said that the draft peace proposals discussed by the US and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine, but if not, that Russia would fight on.
• Putin also called the Ukrainian leadership illegitimate and said it was senseless to sign any peace documents with them.
• The Russian president said the Ukrainian leadership lost legitimacy after refusing to hold elections when Zelenskyy’s elected term expired. Kyiv says it cannot hold elections while under martial law and defending its territory against Russian attacks.
• Zelenskyy will not agree to give up land to Russia in exchange for peace, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told the US magazine The Atlantic.
• “As long as Zelenskyy is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory,” Yermak said.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that even after a peace agreement with Russia, Ukraine will need strong armed forces and security guarantees, while no territorial concessions should be forced on the country.
• “We view the efforts of the US government to find a solution here very positively. However, we also say that the security interests of Europeans and also the security interests of Ukraine must be safeguarded,” Merz said.
• Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine’s membership in NATO remains unacceptable to Moscow.
• “For us, the threat is still the expansion of NATO,” she told reporters. “NATO’s desire to pull Ukraine into its orbit remains a threat to us.”

Sanctions

• The United Kingdom issued a temporary licence allowing companies to continue doing business with Lukoil International, a subsidiary of Russia’s sanctioned Lukoil, which is based in Austria. The licence, effective until February 26, permits payments and other transactions under certain conditions, including that funds due to Lukoil remain frozen.
• Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said the European Union’s plan to use frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine stay solvent could endanger the chances for a potential peace deal to end the nearly four-year war.
• “Hastily moving forward on the proposed reparations loan scheme would have, as a collateral damage, that we as EU are effectively preventing reaching an eventual peace deal,” De Wever said in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, seen by the Financial Times.
• Putin said Russia is preparing a package of retaliatory measures in response to potential seizures of Russian assets in Europe. He warned that any move to confiscate Russian assets would be “a theft of property” and harm the global financial system.

Regional security

• A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 has arrived in Germany after Italy’s top court approved his extradition last week, German federal prosecutors said. The explosions that destroyed the pipeline in the Baltic Sea three years ago largely severed Russian gas transit to Europe.
• Hungarian President Viktor Orban said he plans to hold talks on Friday to ensure that Hungary gets adequate Russian crude and gas supplies, which would also allow it to provide crude to neighbouring Serbia.
• Russia said it will shut the Polish consulate in Irkutsk at the end of December in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision to close the Russian consulate in Gdansk.

Russian politics

• A Russian military court sentenced eight men to life in prison over their purported role in a deadly Ukrainian truck bomb attack on the bridge that links southern Russia to Crimea.
• The eight men, convicted on terrorism charges, were accused of being part of an organised criminal group that helped Ukraine carry out the bombing.
• Ukraine’s SBU domestic intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the attack, which in October 2022 ripped through part of the 19km (11.8-mile) bridge, killing five people and damaging what was a key supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

One of the most acclaimed indie films of the year from the winner of last year’s Best Picture Oscar will be streaming on Netflix from Friday

Netflix is adding one of the best films of 2025 that you may not have heard of but is definitely worth your attention this week.

From director Shih-Ching Tsou and co-written by her long-time collaborator Sean Baker, Left-Handed Girl is a brilliantly understated family drama that will leave you breathless.

Baker is the most recent recipient of the Best Picture trophy at the Academy Awards for his masterful modern epic Anora, starring Mikey Madison, while Tsou has worked with him on his other films such as Tangerine and The Florida Project.

Tsou has now made her solo directorial debut with Left-Handed Girl, a heartfelt portrait of single mother Shu-Fen (played by Janel Tsai) who moves back to Taipei with her two daughters.

When her five-year-old I-Jing (Nina Ye) develops a dominant left hand, the family struggles to come to terms with her newfound quirk when her superstitious grandpa calls it her “devil hand” and forbids I-Jing from using it.

Set to stream on Netflix from Friday, 28th November, the film has already received critical acclaim and will be Taiwan’s submission for best international film at next year’s Oscars.

The Guardian has awarded it five-stars, writing this “striking Taiwanese family drama is a real marvel”.

They went on: “Tsou and Baker’s script sharply examines what it really means to lose face: which shames are noble, which are indulgent and what should be passed from one generation to the next?”

“Above all else, this film features what may be one of the best child performances that I’ve seen in recent memory,” one Letterboxd reviewer claimed after seeing Left-Handed Girl at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Where this movie goes from one innocent little assumption passed by family escalates into something unexpected. It’s enough to prove Shih-Ching Tsou is on her way to becoming a great filmmaker in her own right too.”

Someone else shared: “Genuinely a very strong contender for the best film of the year. So glad I took the time to see this.

“It was so nice to hear the incredibly positive reactions from the other folks around me in the theatre when the credits rolled. It’s been a minute since I’ve been in a theatre where the audience clapped at the end. So lovely!”

A third wrote: “It does not surprise me that Sean Baker is one of the screenwriters on this film. It is a beautifully nuanced depiction of family dynamics, and family secrets.

“The wonderful performances, sometimes very raw, also felt very flawed and real. This film and also their other collaborations all worth revisiting!”

Watch Bridgerton on Netflix for free with Sky

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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.

This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Bridgerton.

And a final fan said: “What a remarkable film. One of the most charming kid performances I’ve seen.

“The stories/struggles of each character in this family are so well balanced. Every heartwarming and heartbreaking moment just lands perfectly.”

Will you be checking out this lesser-known gem from Taiwan now it’s becoming available to stream at home?

Left-Handed Girl is streaming from Friday, 28th November on Netflix.

Francis Hellyer, the founder and CEO of tickadoo, claims to have “been everywhere twice, and have some properly controversial opinions about Europe’s “best” cities”

A seasoned traveller and experienced jet setter has warned against travel to three places where “locals hate you” and food is “overpriced”.

Francis Hellyer, the founder and CEO of tickadoo, claims to have “been everywhere twice, and have some properly controversial opinions about Europe’s “best” cities.” When it comes to the “overrated” that he thinks are best to avoid, he highlighted three classic cities that receive millions of visitors each year.

Paris

“Unless you enjoy paying €15 for terrible coffee while dodging selfie sticks at the Eiffel Tower. The locals hate you, the metro smells like regret, and don’t get me started on Gare du Nord,” Francis told the Mirror.

If Francis isn’t alone in his dislike of the French capital, then the City of Love is responsible for a lot of very disappointed tourists. Paris received 48.7 million visitors in 2024, a post-pandemic high that surpassed the 2023 figure of 47.5 million.

Do you agree with Francis’s list? Let us know in the comments below or by emailing [email protected]

READ MORE: I found a pretty UK village ‘taken over by tourists’ as locals say they’ve been forced outREAD MORE: Warning to Brits as Canary Islands placed on ‘no travel’ list

One cohort that has a famously difficult relationship with the city is the Japanese. A phenomenon called Paris Syndrome refers to the severe form of culture shock that affects some Japanese tourists. Visitors with highly idealized expectations, often fueled by media portrayals, can experience extreme disappointment and psychological distress when confronted with the realities of Paris, such as less polite service and dirtier streets than they’re used to back home.

“Everyone loves Paris because of the Eiffel tower, the Mona Lisa, and the late 1800s architecture. In all honesty, most of the people I encountered there were the rudest, most miserable people I’ve ever had to deal with. The food in Paris was subpar, and there was nothing good about the food. London has a lot better cuisine than Paris,” one unhappy customer wrote on Reddit.

Venice

“Venice in summer is basically Disneyland with pigeons,” Francis said.

He is not alone in feeling like this. A popular protest Instagram page called ‘Venice is not Disneyland’ calls out the bad behaviour of tourists. “In the beginning, it was kind of a joke between friends. It started because we would see the wildest things happening around Venice! Like tourists taking a bath in the canal or eating and sleeping anywhere,” the anonymous person behind the page told Spotted by Locals.

“It is not just about tourists though! Many locals are also behaving inappropriately, like leaving old electrical appliances in the streets. So we decided that we need to talk about this on social media to show just how far that would go.”

When asked what common tourist issues occur in the city, they said: “A very common one is taking a bath in the canals! You might think it’s an innocent activity, especially on a hot summer day, but we should really avoid this. To begin with, the water is unsafe and dirty, so it’s not ideal for sanitary reasons especially if you’re going to a restaurant or hotel afterward! And also, canals are used for transportation, so taking a bath can be very dangerous for you and others. It’s really like chilling in the middle of the street – you wouldn’t do that in any other city.”

Amsterdam

According to Francis, “Amsterdam is just stag dos and overpriced chips.”

The Dutch capital is one of the most-visited cities in Europe. Its 800,000-person population welcomes up to 20 million tourists a year. It is clear to see why, given its world-class museums, beautiful green spaces and tranquil waterways.

However, in recent years, Dutch locals have grown increasingly tired of Amsterdam’s reputation as a destination for stag dos and bad behavior. To such an extent that authorities have taken steps to mitigate the effects of rowdy visitors. Smoking marijuana and drinking in public is illegal and considered poor etiquette by Amsterdam natives. Similarly, taking photos of sex workers in the Red Light District is strictly prohibited.

In 2023, the city council banned cruise ships from its city centre in July to prevent overtourism in its most popular areas. The same year it launched a “stay-away” digital campaign, targeting men aged 18 to 35 in the UK, attempting to curb visitors coming for drugs, alcohol and sex.

As for the cost of chips, a portion goes for between €3.50 and €6.50, according to Amsterdam Tips.

Some alternatives

As much as Francis isn’t a fan of the Dutch, French and Italian heavy hitters, there are some European cities he loves. They include:

• Prague – All the beauty of Paris, half the price, triple the beer quality. Try the fried cheese.
• Porto – Lisbon’s cooler older brother who doesn’t need to show off. Proper city. Great locals.
• Cardiff – Yes, Cardiff. Arcades, castle, rugby, brilliant nights out. Fight me.
• Ljubljana – Slovenia’s capital that nobody can pronounce but everyone falls in love with. Like a fairytale that serves excellent wine.
• Birmingham – Genuinely. More canals than Venice, curry better than Bradford, and they’ve finally sorted the Bullring out.
• Ghent – Bruges without the coach parties. Medieval as hell, students keep it lively.
• Split – Where Romans built a palace and Croatians turned it into the world’s best bar crawl.

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer traveled to Delaware last weekend to meet with Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s first known in-person session with a potential running mate as he nears a decision.

Whitmer visited Biden on Sunday, according to two high-ranking Michigan Democrats who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The first-term governor of the battleground state has long been on his short list of possible running mates.

Flight records show a chartered plane left Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport for Delaware Coastal Airport at 5:33 p.m. and returned at 11:16 p.m.

The governor’s office declined to confirm or deny the trip.

“We don’t discuss her personal schedule,” spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said.

Biden’s campaign declined to comment.

He has spent months weighing who would serve alongside him if he wins in November. Biden has pledged to select a woman and has conducted an expansive search, with finalists including Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, California Rep. Karen Bass and former Obama national security advisor Susan Rice.

Biden is facing calls to select a Black woman to acknowledge the crucial role of Black women in Democratic politics and in response to the nation’s reckoning with systemic racism.

Whitmer has sought to address racism and racial inequity. In April, she created a task force to address the pandemic’s racial disparities and later proposed police reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. On Wednesday — days after visiting Biden — she declared racism a public health crisis, created an advisory council of Black leaders and required implicit bias training for all state employees.

If Whitmer is chosen to join the ticket and Biden wins, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II would become the country’s only Black governor.

Biden and Whitmer formed a bond after he campaigned for her in the 2018 gubernatorial election. She is a co-chair on his campaign.

Her profile has grown since delivering the Democrats’ response to President Trump’s State of the Union address in February and especially amid the pandemic. She has taken aggressive steps to curb the coronavirus in a state that was a hot spot nationally early on and — after she criticized the federal response — has drawn criticism from Trump, who in March urged Vice President Mike Pence not to call “the woman in Michigan.”

For as long as most of us can remember, the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions have played games on Thanksgiving Day. But why?

Let’s start with the Lions. They have played every Thanksgiving since 1934, with the exception of 1939-44, despite the fact they haven’t been a good team most of those years. The Lions played their first season in Detroit in 1934 (before that, they were the Portsmouth Spartans). They struggled their first year in Detroit, as most sports fans there loved baseball’s Detroit Tigers and didn’t come out in droves to watch the Lions. So Lions owner George A. Richards had an idea: Why not play on Thanksgiving?

Richards also owned radio station WJR, which was one of the biggest stations in the country at that time. Richards had a lot of clout in the broadcasting world, and convinced NBC to air the game nationwide. The NFL champion Chicago Bears came to town, and the Lions sold out the 26,000-seat University of Detroit field for the first time. Richards kept the tradition going the next two years, and the NFL kept scheduling them on Thanksgiving when they resumed playing on that date after World War II ended. Richards sold the team in 1940 and died in 1951, but the tradition he started continues today when the Lions play the Green Bay Packers.

The Cowboys first played on Thanksgiving in 1966. They came into the league in 1960 and, as hard as it is to believe now, struggled to draw fans because they were pretty bad those first few years. General manager Tex Schramm basically begged the NFL to schedule them for a Thanksgiving game in 1966, thinking it might get them a popularity boost in Dallas and also nationwide since the game would be televised.

It worked. A Dallas-record 80,259 tickets were sold as the Cowboys defeated the Cleveland Browns 26-14. Some Cowboys fans point to that game as the beginning of Dallas becoming “America’s team.” They have missed playing on Thanksgiving only in 1975 and 1977, when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle opted for the St. Louis Cardinals instead.

The games with the Cardinals proved to be losers in the ratings, so Rozelle asked the Cowboys if they would play again in 1978.

“It was a dud in St. Louis,” Schramm told the Chicago Tribune in 1998. “Pete asked if we’d take it back. I said only if we get it permanently. It’s something you have to build as a tradition. He said, ‘It’s yours forever.’ ”

Dallas takes on the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

US president says second National Guard member is ‘fighting for his life’ after the attack a day earlier in Washington, DC.

United States President Donald Trump said that one of the two National Guard troops shot a day earlier near the White House has died, while the other soldier is “fighting for his life”.

Trump said on Thursday evening that West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom died from wounds following the double shooting on Wednesday, a short distance from the White House.

The president hailed Beckstrom as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” and said the second member of the National Guard targeted in the gun attack was critical.

“He’s in very bad shape,” Trump said as he addressed troops in a video call to mark the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow soon. 

BBC

Handout

‘Was it as glamorous as it looked? No!’

ITV/ Shutterstock

‘I had no idea why I picked Sue – it was just eenie meeny miny moe’

Handout

‘Blind Date Wedding of the Year’

Handout/Alex and Sue Tatham

ITV/ Shutterstock

‘I am just lucky to have picked her’

Handout/Alex and Sue Tatham

“LADIES and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones!”

For decades, those six simple words have heralded the arrival on stage of the world’s greatest rock and roll band.

The announcement most likely paves the way for the raw, staccato thrill of Start Me Up, followed by at least two more hours of music mayhem.

It is the moment when all the work put in by the band’s creative director and lighting designer, Patrick Woodroffe, comes to fruition.

Since the 1982 tour supporting the Tattoo You album, Woodroffe and his team have been tasked with shining the spotlight on the Stones — literally.

It has been their job to showcase the swagger of Mick Jagger, the laid-back riffing of Keith Richards, the playful interaction of Ronnie Wood and the effortlessly cool drumming of the late Charlie Watts.

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Things always go wrong on some level!

Woodroffe

We know ever-energetic Jagger struts across cavernous stages in front of vast crowds, but Woodroffe says: “Keith once told me that Mick could perform on a coffee table, and it would still be great. Our job is simply to provide a setting in which he can work.”

Although the Stones’ age-defying shows continue to this day, fans and casual observers alike are being invited to step back in time to 1990 for what the band calls “a bigger, louder and more immersive” experience.

From December 10, the fabled film, Rolling Stones — At The Max, returns to select IMAX and Cineworld venues across the UK.

‘Visual narrative’

First released in 1991 and now remastered, it captures the previous year’s Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour in all its raging glory and is also notable for the final performances with the band of bassist Bill Wyman.

The film was shot in three European cities, London (Wembley Stadium), Turin and, less than two months before the reunification of Germany, East Berlin.

Using eight IMAX cameras, it was the first full concert movie to be shown on the giant screens and featured a typically storming set.

Rocking live staples were present and correct — Honky Tonk Women, Sympathy For The Devil, Street Fighting Man, Brown Sugar and the Stones’ favourite finale (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

Jagger gives a vocal masterclass on mid-Sixties classics, Ruby Tuesday and Paint It Black, while Richards takes his customary turn at the mic for a rousing Happy.

There’s room for live rarity 2000 Light Years From Home, which first appeared on the Stones’ psychedelic 1967 outing, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

And for several tracks on newly minted Steel Wheels — Sad Sad Sad, Rock

And A Hard Place, and a wild, experimental sonic adventure called Continental Drift.

So, which songs in the live repertoire make for particularly dramatic visuals?

“Certain numbers are considered production numbers,” says Woodroffe.

“Sympathy For The Devil is a good example as is Gimme Shelter.

I met Mick for the first time that night in a tiny dressing room under the stage just before the show

Woodroffe

“These are powerful songs, typically longer than most, which allow time to build a visual narrative. For Sympathy, we set the stage on fire! Not literally of course, but smoke machines, flame effects and pulsing red lights give a pretty good impression of it.”

To celebrate the 2025 At The Max refresh, I’m speaking to Woodroffe about his association with the Stones, which stretches back to the early Eighties.

He recalls his initial dealings with Jagger and Co: “The first show I ever made for the Rolling Stones was at the Capitol Theatre in Aberdeen in the summer of 1982.

“It was also the first show for our musical director, Chuck Leavell. So he and I share the distinction of being the longest- serving Stones employees, something we are both very proud of.”

Woodroffe remembers a fateful encounter in that north-eastern corner of Scotland: “I met Mick for the first time that night in a tiny dressing room under the stage just before the show.

“His only direction to me then was, ‘Bright for the first numbers and darker for the ballads’. Not bad advice and something I have followed for the last 45 years.”

So, I venture, how involved have the band members been in the process of designing, lighting and staging a show?

He replies: “Mick and Charlie have been the most involved with helping our set designer Mark Fisher to develop designs for tours. But Ronnie and Keith have also been very aware of the stages on which they perform.

“Keith always refers to the stage as ‘The Office’.”

I always watch a Stones show in two very distinct ways

Woodroffe

Next, Woodroffe talks of the strong rapport he has built up over the years: “Much of the success of the relationship I have with the band is simply based on longevity.

“There is a real shorthand and understanding of what we’re all doing to create these shows, so communication is easy.

“But I’m also genuinely enthusiastic about my work and I think that probably has some resonance with the band.

“I’ve always loved their music — and having a job that allows me to be a part of their world is hugely gratifying.”

Over the years, Woodroffe has learned how to highlight the band in different settings.

“I always watch a Stones show in two very distinct ways,” he says.

“The first is to make sure that our part of it is right in terms of the lighting, the staging and the video content.

“The second is to understand the audience who come to watch the band — and that changes every night.

“An audience of 60,000 in a giant stadium in Tokyo is a very different beast from a club show in Paris or a run of shows at Madison Square Garden.

“It is how an audience acts, how they respond to the band emotionally and, more to the point, how the band responds to them.

“That is something that’s unique from show to show.”

This brings us to the challenges of staging the 1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours with At The Max in mind.

Woodroffe says: “Stones shows are often filmed for either live broadcast or simply as a record of a tour.

“Each time, lighting and the staging is adjusted to capture the show on film but, for the IMAX project, we were in unknown territory.

“No one had done anything like this before and everything was different, particularly the cameras themselves, which were enormous and took three people to run them.

“The film cartridges also only lasted 12 minutes, at which point another three people had to reload the film canisters.

‘Huge spectacle’

“Unlike a normal video shoot where a TV monitor can show us instant results and can therefore be adjusted on the fly, the IMAX system had no facility for this.

“Instead, we would shoot something one night, the film would then be flown to the States to be processed, then flown back again to Europe where we would have to find an IMAX cinema near wherever we were touring.

A Stones performance is an interesting mix of huge spectacle — sound, light, video and pyrotechnics — with intimate performance where the heart and soul of this extraordinary band is there for all to see

Woodroffe

“Then we’d go to watch the rushes at one o’clock in the morning when the theatre was empty!”

Next, I ask Woodroffe how he and his team went about achieving the right atmosphere for such big screens?

He answers: “A Stones performance is an interesting mix of huge spectacle — sound, light, video and pyrotechnics — with intimate performance where the heart and soul of this extraordinary band is there for all to see.

“Getting that balance right is key to a successful concert and, on the IMAX film, we achieved that with real success.

“With all the talk of immersive experiences, At The Max is as immersive as it gets.

“You really do feel as if you were there and the Rolling Stones are performing just for you!”

Like the rest of us, the Stones and their production team are only human, so I’m keen to find out if things ever go wrong.

“Things always go wrong on some level!” says Woodroffe. “But it’s usually quite easy to hide them. Even something as obvious as a microphone going down can easily just be considered part of the energy of a live performance.

“But, in the 45 years I’ve worked with the band, we’ve never lost a show because of a technical issue.

“After all, that famous mantra ‘the show must go on’ applies to us as much as anyone.”

Woodroffe’s career goes back to 1973 and he has lit and directed shows for many artists who sit at rock and pop’s top table.

Among them are AC/DC, The Police, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and Lady Gaga — but who are his favourite artists to work with, aside from the Stones, of course?

‘My soundtrack’

Woodroffe tells me: “All an audience ever wants to see from an artist or a performer is authenticity.

“However staged or considered or planned a concert might be, it is that connection between the artist and audience that matters — more than any special effect or fancy costume. And the Stones are nothing but authentic.

“I think Stevie Wonder is probably the one other artist that I felt the most connected to other than the Stones, which is of course ironic as Stevie has never seen my work.

“But his music was the soundtrack of my life and growing up. So, to be a part of interpreting that with light and colour, helping him to share it with an audience, was a privilege.”

Woodroffe reserves his final comment for the Rolling Stones, giving a clue to his strong and enduring relationship with them.

“I consider myself a fan and a friend.”

Like the rest of us, the Stones and their production team are only human, so I’m keen to find out if things ever go wrong.

I consider myself a fan and a friend

Woodroffe

“Things always go wrong on some level!” says Woodroffe. “But it’s usually quite easy to hide them. Even something as obvious as a microphone going down can easily just be considered part of the energy of a live performance.

“But, in the 45 years I’ve worked with the band, we’ve never lost a show because of a technical issue.

“After all, that famous mantra ‘the show must go on’ applies to us as much as anyone.”

Woodroffe’s career goes back to 1973 and he has lit and directed shows for many artists who sit at rock and pop’s top table.

Among them are AC/DC, The Police, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and Lady Gaga — but who are his favourite artists to work with, aside from the Stones, of course?

‘My soundtrack’

Woodroffe tells me: “All an audience ever wants to see from an artist or a performer is authenticity.

“However staged or considered or planned a concert might be, it is that connection between the artist and audience that matters — more than any special effect or fancy costume. And the Stones are nothing but authentic.

“I think Stevie Wonder is probably the one other artist that I felt the most connected to other than the Stones, which is of course ironic as Stevie has never seen my work.

“But his music was the soundtrack of my life and growing up. So, to be a part of interpreting that with light and colour, helping him to share it with an audience, was a privilege.”

Woodroffe reserves his final comment for the Rolling Stones, giving a clue to his strong and enduring relationship with them.

“I consider myself a fan and a friend.”

NAPA, Calif. — The Buena Vista tasting room is not just another downtown Napa wine bar.

It is a conspicuously indulgent place, where epicureans can fill their glasses with cabernet and sink into the carefully restored mezzanine’s dark velvet lounges for a tasting of fine caviar and artisan chocolates resembling museum pieces.

One vibe this nook of luxury does not give off is that of a community in distress. Its neighbor in the ornate 1920s Italianate edifice known as the Gordon Building is an Anthropologie store.

The redevelopment of the building, damaged in an earthquake, was bankrolled using a tax shelter created in 2017 for the wealthiest Americans on the promise it would bring opportunity to the most downtrodden places.

Billions of dollars’ worth of tax breaks for the wealthy are being generated by the Opportunity Zone program, often in pursuit of luxury high-rises, high-end hotels and swank office space. It has subsidized hulking self-storage units nestled alongside freeways and upmarket apartments for employees of the hottest Bay Area tech firms.

One thing the tax break has fallen short on: creating opportunities in low-income communities.

Opportunity zones were supposed to encourage investment in low-income communities. But billionaires are building luxury hotels and high-rises, instead.

“This has been perverted into a huge gift for people who did not need it,” said Aaron Seybert, managing director of social investment at the Kresge Foundation, which has found it difficult to put the tax break to work toward its effort to bring opportunity to America’s struggling communities.

“They are spending my money and yours. They said they would do that because these low-income areas are falling behind and they want to help people who live there,” Seybert said.

“The places I work in every day have raised virtually nothing” through the program, he said.

The same grievance can be heard from mayors of struggling towns throughout the nation. Among those declaring the program a bust is the East Baltimore pastor who went to the White House in 2018 to help President Trump unveil it. His community has been passed over as investors chase the double-digit returns that accompany the tax shelter in upscale markets.

The story of how this all happened has deep California roots, sprouting from the vision of a Silicon Valley billionaire who inserted himself into the machinations of federal policymaking.

The Opportunity Zone program was the vision of Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker, shown here in 2018.

(Michael Brochstein / Getty Images)

Sean Parker — founder of Napster, Facebook’s first president and the Silicon Valley bad boy depicted in the film “The Social Network” — seemed a stretch for this role.

Parker began working the Washington circuit late in the Obama era, when it was still hospitable to super-rich tech innovators but few had the patience or humility to navigate it. Washington is not about moving quickly and breaking things. Long, slow insider games of horse-trading precede almost every big new federal policy.

Yet Parker’s plan had bipartisan appeal. It focused on the wealth of Americans loath to reinvest their stock market, real estate and other capital gains profits because of the hefty tax bills that come when that money is moved. The idea was to give them a break on those taxes if they steered the money to communities desperate for investment.

“He really went to school on how Washington works,” said David Wessel, author of “Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age,” which chronicles Parker’s quest and what became of the program he championed. “He hired a couple of Washington insiders, one a Democrat and one a Republican, and they created this think tank with the goal of getting Opportunity Zones into law…. They laid the foundation by making the case that we have a problem with geographic inequality in the United States, and it is not just incremental.”

Parker held private dinners with lawmakers of competing ideological loyalties, and he donated generously across the aisle.

“The idea initially sounded great,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a Silicon Valley Democrat who had been approached by Parker to run the think tank, called the Economic Innovation Group. “I was quite enthusiastic about it.” Khanna passed on the job offer, as he was gearing up for a congressional run at the time, but once elected, he would join the push behind the tax break.

Downtown Napa’s Opportunity Zone.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The historic Franklin Station postal building, a site proposed for a boutique hotel, is in downtown Napa’s Opportunity Zone.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

It allows investors to park their capital gains in Opportunity Zone projects. When they do, they can put off paying taxes on those gains for years, and cut that tax bill by as much as 15% when it does come due. The bigger draw: If they keep their money in the Opportunity Zone project for a decade, they don’t pay any taxes at all on the potentially large profits they make off that investment. The cumulative cost of the incentive is $1.6 billion in foregone tax revenue per year, which the Urban Institute says makes it one of the largest federal programs for steering investment into distressed places.

It seemed a price worth paying for even some progressive Democrats like Khanna if the end result was a flourishing of opportunity in the nation’s economic deserts.

But the California dreaming was disrupted by Washington deal-making. There was no hearing or any public vetting of the measure by lawmakers before it got quietly tucked into the Trump tax cut package of 2017. The final regulations were astoundingly permissive, full of provisions that allowed census districts in some of the nation’s wealthiest places to qualify as Opportunity Zones.

“It has not been used in ways that actually ended up creating jobs,” Khanna said. “It has been gamed.”

The money often has flowed to projects promising big financial returns that analysts — including those on then-President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors — conclude would have happened without the tax break.

While Parker and his think tank remain bullish that with some tweaks Opportunity Zones will be the “Marshall Plan for the heartland” they promised, many erstwhile backers are angry about what the program has become.

Angel Barajas, a Yolo County supervisor, walks through an Opportunity Zone in Woodland, west of Sacramento, that he says has been left behind by the program.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

“Woodland needs housing, it needs infill development,” said Enrique Fernandez, the former mayor of the heavily Latino city west of Sacramento, which persuaded the state to designate two of its census tracts as Opportunity Zones. The tax break has drawn none of it.

“I am really skeptical about the true intentions of this law and how it was implemented,” Fernandez said.

The city of Woodland’s Opportunity Zone district is only an hour’s drive from Napa’s Gordon Building but is in a different universe economically, riddled with vacant lots and litter. It could be a ripe canvas for development as the nearby main street comes alive with new small businesses bolstered by home buyers and renters moving to the town in search of a cheaper alternative to Sacramento, but the tax break is doing nothing to speed that transition.

Jose Ahumada Ruelas gathers recyclables to help his daughter, who collects them for income, at Yolano Village, a low-income housing development in Woodland’s Opportunity Zone.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

On a recent tour of the area, local officials said the investment needed to revitalize the blighted swaths of their community might have come if lawmakers had made good on their promise to steer the incentives only to struggling communities.

There are 8,764 census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones nationwide. Only 16% of them attracted any projects in the gold rush for rich investors in the program’s first year, when the tax breaks were most lucrative, according to an April 2021 UC Berkeley report based on aggregate data from the IRS.

Nearly half the cash invested went to the richest 1% of Opportunity Zones — places that rarely fit the conventional definition of distressed. Data from the consulting firm Novogradac reveal California cities are getting more of that cash than anyplace else.

In Oakland, Opportunity Zone tax breaks are being used to build high-rise apartments on the waterfront; they’ll rent at market rate, far out of reach for most locals. The situation is the same in downtown Long Beach and in Los Angeles neighborhoods like Koreatown and Little Tokyo. In Portland, Ore., the tax break was used to build a Ritz Carlton hotel.

In January, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) launched an investigation into several of these projects, including one in Palm Beach, Fla., where the incentive is being used to build a marina for “super-yachts.”

Todd Zapolski used the Opportunity Zone program to draw investors to his renovation of the Gordon Building in downtown Napa, which is now home to an Anthropologie store and a wine bar.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The Gordon Building developer said its renovation was possible because downtown Napa qualified as economically distressed under the Opportunity Zone program.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Back in Napa, the developer of the Gordon Building said the project will spur growth in a part of Northern California where underlying challenges of joblessness and housing affordability are obscured by the influx of wine vacationers. “We have some of the wealthiest in the country, and we have some of the poorest in the country,” Todd Zapolski said.

The landmark building was badly damaged in the 2014 South Napa earthquake, and Zapolski said repairing it was possible only because of the Opportunity Zone sweetener.

“We couldn’t make it work unless we had that incentive,” he said. “That gave us the extra oomph for investors to say, all right … we’ll take the risk.”

Parker declined to be interviewed, but the leader of the think tank he created took issue with scathing reviews of the program from community leaders, advocates and lawmakers who once saw promise in it. John Lettieri, president and chief executive of the Economic Innovation Group, said layering too many rules and restrictions onto the incentive would chase away investors.

“The trick is to get them to redeploy their capital without having to jump through bureaucratic hoops that would make it hard to access and leave communities in the same place they have been,” he said. “We were trying to create an incentive that can be relevant enough to a wide array of communities nationwide.”

States had broad authority on where to locate their Opportunity Zones, Lettieri said, and some were not judicious in drawing the maps. He said California, which drew the zones into some of the nation’s most wealthy enclaves, was one of the worst offenders.

California officials were not particularly invested in the federal program, which the Trump administration gave states scant time to shape or vet before they had to draw maps. The administration of then-Gov. Jerry Brown initially proposed an expedient process involving an algorithm. The federal rules were so permissive that the state’s draft maps included the campus of Stanford as an Opportunity Zone.

The downtown San Jose Opportunity Zone sits adjacent to the mega campus Google is building in the city.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Stanford and some others were removed from the program, but other pricey ZIP Codes stayed in amid lobbying by local politicians, economic development agencies and builders.

But the state’s ambivalence about Opportunity Zones is clear in its refusal to match the federal tax break with a credit investors in the projects can also claim on their state taxes. Officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration signaled to developers they believe the tax break is a giveaway. New York lawmakers gave their own vote of no confidence after the tax break was put to use for luxury projects in some of New York City’s most expensive ZIP Codes. The tax shelter last year was stripped from New York’s tax code.

Even so, there are cases of truly distressed communities making use of the credit.

An organization called SoLa Impact says it is leveraging the incentive to buy run-down residential properties in underserved neighborhoods of South Los Angeles and rehabilitate them for low-income tenants.

No state has had a bigger impact on the direction of the United States than California, a prolific incubator and exporter of outside-the-box policies and ideas. This occasional series examines what that has meant for the state and the country, and how far Washington is willing to go to spread California’s agenda as the state’s own struggles threaten its standing as the nation’s think tank.

Before he was slain, Los Angeles rap star Nipsey Hussle had plans to use it to invest in businesses in Crenshaw. The Central Valley city of Merced is looking to the tax break to bring its downtown back to life.

The place boosters point to most often is across the country in Erie, Pa., a city that is emblematic of the Rust Belt’s economic collapse. Community leaders say the incentive is crucial to the development of 12 residential and retail projects that will reshape the downtown.

But for every dollar the federal government is investing in Erie through the tax break, it is spending several more in downtown San Jose, a place hardly hurting for capital. The Opportunity Zone there sits adjacent to the future home of a sprawling Google campus that is so big it will reshape the footprint of the downtown, bringing in thousands of highly paid tech workers.

They will be able to stroll to a glistening residential tower getting built with the incentive, where 1,000-square-foot apartments will rent for $4,250 per month. The developer, Urban Catalyst, is not required to set aside anything for affordable housing beyond what the city requires for any other project. The building will have an infinity pool.

The Fountain Alley development in downtown San Jose’s Opportunity Zone will feature “the largest rooftop restaurant and bar in Silicon Valley.”

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Erik Hayden, founder, of Urban Catalyst.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

On a tour of San Jose’s Opportunity Zone building boom, Urban Catalyst founder Erik Hayden walked journalists through the construction of another stylish structure getting renovated with the tax break, with soaring ceilings and windows the size of movie screens. It will be home to a swank indoor miniature golf course and cocktail bar inspired by Burning Man. The complex will also house a venue for ax throwing and craft beer drinking.

Asked how such projects fit into the program’s goal of uplifting left-behind communities, Hayden points to properties downtown that remain vacant and boarded up, as the rapid gentrification and flood of investment in this community hopscotches across blocks. “It feels to me like a left-behind community,” he said. “We’re building a variety of different things, all of which are needed by downtown.”

It is hard to reconcile these luxury buildings in San Jose with the stated vision of Parker and that of the lawmaker who was the lead champion for the tax break, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s only Black Republican.

When Scott was invited to the White House in 2017 and asked by Trump how to make amends for the president’s remark that “there were very fine people on both sides” of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Scott secured Trump’s endorsement for Opportunity Zones.

The senator recounts in his book, “Opportunity Knocks,” how he made the pitch, telling Trump “that we must find fresh ways to alleviate the terrible poverty that is the source of so many of our ills — including the plague of racism.” Scott remains a proponent of the program, saying in a House hearing in November that the tens of billions invested in Opportunity Zone projects are, by the program’s definition, going to “low-income, high-poverty, racially diverse areas.”

The Paseo, a tech office space and retail building in downtown San Jose’s Opportunity Zone, will feature an indoor miniature golf course inspired by Burning Man.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

He pointed to new businesses in Columbia, S.C., an affordable housing development in Rockhill, N.C., and local enthusiasm for the program in Stockton. He acknowledged, though, that accurately measuring the tax shelter’s success is impossible, because there are no disclosure rules that allow taxpayers to learn “exactly what people are doing with the resources and the benefits and the incentives.” Scott says he wants more disclosure.

Those who have soured on the tax break say they have seen enough to know it is doing little to bring the country closer to Scott’s lofty goal of alleviating poverty and racism. But it is, they say, helping a lot of wealthy investors and developers of luxury properties.

One need only peruse the Lake Tahoe real estate ads for evidence.

Among the listings is an 8-acre property directly across the street from Heavenly Mountain Resort ski area. The price tag is $52 million. One selling point: The city has already greenlighted the property for a hotel or condos, shops and a large event space.

Another selling point: It is in an Opportunity Zone.

Robin van Persie says his decision to hand son Shaqueel a senior debut in Feyenoord’s Europa League defeat by Celtic was made “as a coach” and not out of sentiment.

The 19-year-old forward spent two seasons at Manchester City’s academy, before following in his father’s footsteps with a move to Feyenoord in 2017 and signing a first professional contract with the Dutch club in 2022.

Fast forward to 2025 and Shaqueel was named in Feyenoord’s first-team squad for the first time in Sunday’s Eredivisie defeat by NEC Nijmegen.

Four days later he made his senior debut, coming on in the 81st minute of Feyenoord’s Europa League loss to Celtic.

“I made that call as a coach, not as a dad because we needed a goal,” said former Arsenal and Manchester United forward Robin afterwards.

“Shaqueel is a player who can score a goal from all angles. That was the reason I brought him on.

“From a father’s point of view, when your son makes his debut that is always a special moment. But I wasn’t that busy with enjoying that moment, I was doing my work like Shaqueel was.”

The London-born teenager didn’t have chance to make an impact and had just one shot in Celtic’s box.

He came on with the score at 2-1, with Martin O’Neill’s side scoring their third a minute after his introduction.

“The way I see Shaqueel is as one of the players,” added Robin. “This is what we both agreed to a couple of years ago when we already worked together. Shaqueel was handling that really well, I am too in my opinion.

“Later on when we are home of course we will have a nice moment, when we are proud of each other. I am proud of Shaqueel because, like every player who makes his debut, there is a whole process going on before he made his debut. He worked hard, deserved it and, for him, is a special moment.”

Van Persie is not the first manager to give his son a debut as BBC Sport picks out some of the others, plus other father-son duos to have featured in the same team.

Nov. 27 (UPI) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday the creation of a new voluntary military service amid concerns about a possible confrontation with Russia.

Calling it an “act of trust in our youth,” Macron made the announcement in a speech to troops stationed at a base just outside of Grenoble in southeast France, the BBC reported.

The new service will launch next summer, offering monthly payments to recruits, mostly aged 18 and 19, of at least 800 euros, or about $930, a month for 10 months of training, according to the BBC.

“The only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it,” Macron said. “We need to mobilise, mobilising the nation to defend itself, to be ready and remain respected.”

The new initiative seeks to recruit 3,000 initial volunteers and steadily increase to 50,000 youth joining by 2035, “depending on evolving threats,” with volunteers having the option to stay in the military or become reservists, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“We can’t go back to the times of conscription, but we’re in need of mobilization,” Macron said.

Macron has actively sought to bolster Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s ongoing invasion. France recently signed a deal to sell Ukraine 100 advanced fighter jets. More broadly, Macron helped spearhead the creation of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing,” a group of 34 mostly European countries willing to offer more security backing to Ukraine.

In his speech, Macron did not call out Russia, but said he was launching the initiative “at a time when all our European allies are moving forward in the face of a threat that weighs on us all, France cannot remain immobile,” The New York Times reported.

Other European countries, including Germany, Denmark and Poland, have looked into ways to increase the ranks of their respective armed forces, according to the Times.

Speaking during a press conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that he was planning to attack Europe.

However, the specter of a confrontation between Russia and France has loomed, according to the BBC.

Recently, Gen Fabien Mandon, France’s chief of staff, raised alarms when he said the French military was planning around the assumption of a conflict with Russia in the coming years.

In the world’s most fragile states, war is no longer merely a political tragedy, it is an economic opportunity for those positioned to profit. From the mountains of northern Myanmar to the gold fields of Sudan, a common pattern has emerged: when governance collapses, external powers rush in to secure the minerals, metals, and strategic commodities that the global economy demands. These regions become places where human suffering and environmental destruction become collateral for uninterrupted flows of resources. Two cases stand out in late 2025, Myanmar’s rare earth boom, fueled by Chinese demand, and Sudan’s gold boom, powered by the United Arab Emirates, together reveal a disturbing truth about the global marketplace; world’s green and gold transitions are being built atop the ruins of countries trapped in conflict.

Myanmar: The Human Cost of a Resource Rush

In early 2025, a young man named Sian traveled deep into the mountains of Shan State, Myanmar, desperate for work in a country where the formal economy has collapsed and nearly half the population lives on less than two dollars a day. He was lured by rumors of wages unheard of in today’s Myanmar, $1,400 a month at new rare-earth mining sites run by Chinese companies in territory controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the most powerful of Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups. After hours riding a motorbike through dense forest, he arrived at a mine and was hired for a daily pay of about $21. His job was brutal: drilling boreholes and installing pipes for in-situ leaching, a method that involves pumping acidic solutions directly into mountainsides to dissolve and extract elements like dysprosium and terbium, metals that are vital for electric vehicles, wind turbines, advanced radar systems, and nearly every technology central to the green-energy revolution.

The process leaves behind poisoned rivers, contaminated soil, landslides, respiratory diseases, and entire villages unlivable. Researchers and civil society organizations have documented extensive damage: deforestation, chemically burned waterways, collapsed hillsides, and workers buried in mud after heavy rainfall liquefies the weakened terrain. “The toxic effects of rare-earth mining are devastating,” says political geographer Jasnea Sarma. “These communities endure the harm so that others may benefit.”

Yet the industry is thriving. China has cracked down on domestic rare-earth extraction due to environmental damage, but it has not reduced its demand. As a result, the extraction simply shifted across the border into Myanmar, where environmental regulations are weak, labor is cheap, and local armed groups, desperate for revenue, grant Chinese firms access in exchange for payments or profit-sharing.

Satellite imagery analyzed by Myanmar Witness and the Stimson Center shows hundreds of rare-earth mining sites exploding across Shan State, particularly in areas controlled by the UWSA and other China-aligned ethnic armies. Chinese customs data confirms the trend: between 2017 and 2024, roughly two-thirds of China’s rare-earth imports came from Myanmar. In effect, Myanmar has become the hidden engine of the world’s tech economy and its most toxic dumping ground.

For villagers, this boom is a slow-moving catastrophe. People report respiratory ailments, skin rashes from chemical exposure, and contaminated water sources. The deadliest risks are landslides triggered by aggressive deforestation and chemical injection into the hillsides. A 2024 study of rare-earth mining areas in Kachin State found extreme levels of ammonia, radioactive elements, and dissolved heavy metals in local waterways, conditions researchers describe as “entirely unsuitable for human consumption or agriculture.”

What makes Myanmar particularly vulnerable is not just poverty or geography, but political breakdown. Since the 2021 military coup shattered national governance, armed groups have expanded their autonomy, Chinese companies have expanded their presence, and Myanmar’s natural resources have been strip-mined with almost no oversight. In this vacuum, the global economy finds a steady supply of strategic minerals at the lowest possible cost, while local communities absorb the full environmental and human toll

How the UAE is Cashing In on Sudan’s War

If Myanmar reveals how civil wars feed the green-energy transition, Sudan reveals how they feed the financial one. Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Amid mass displacement, ethnic cleansing in Darfur, widespread starvation, and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, another story has quietly unfolded: the UAE’s deepening role as the central hub for Sudan’s conflict gold.

Sudan is Africa’s third-largest gold producer, and gold has become the lifeblood of the RSF’s war machine. Investigations by the UN, Global Witness, and multiple governments show that the UAE has been the primary destination for Sudanese gold for years, even as the war intensified. Much of this gold is smuggled out of conflict zones in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile, which are areas where the RSF maintains control through massacres and forced displacement. Once the gold reaches Dubai, it is refined, laundered through opaque supply chains, and sold into global markets.

The UAE denies wrongdoing, but the pattern is unmistakable. Gold shipments spike when fighting escalates. The RSF’s ability to sustain operations depends heavily on gold revenues. And the UAE’s own global gold-trading infrastructure, built on lax regulations, low taxes, and discreet financial systems, makes it the ideal partner for armed groups seeking to convert looted resources into weapons and cash.

Sudan mirrors Myanmar in a darker way: where Myanmar supplies the materials for the world’s green future, Sudan supplies the materials for its financial present, stabilizing gold markets, supporting global luxury demand, and solidifying the UAE’s status as an international trading powerhouse. In both cases, the profits flow outward, while the devastation remains local.

Foreign Wars as a Business Model

The parallels between Myanmar and Sudan reveal a broader pattern of 21st-century extraction economics. War and political collapse weaken regulation, eliminate oversight, and create desperate labor pools. Armed groups become local gatekeepers, selling access to mines or smuggling routes. Foreign corporations and governments capitalize on the chaos to secure strategic resources cheaply.

In Myanmar, ethnic armed groups benefit from mining revenues while China secures rare earths vital for its technology sector. In Sudan, the RSF funds its military operations through gold smuggling while the UAE strengthens its global commodities market.

This model is not new. But the urgency of the green transition and the volatility of global commodity markets have made it more aggressive than ever. The world wants cheap inputs for clean energy, financial reserves, and technological superiority. Conflict zones deliver them, evidently at enormous human cost.

The Moral Cost of The Green and Gold Transitions

The stories of Sian in Shan State and the civilians trapped in Sudan’s war zones expose a deeper contradiction at the heart of global development. The world says it wants sustainable energy and ethical supply chains. Yet the materials needed for these transitions are often sourced from places where sustainability and ethics are impossible.

Myanmar, Sudan, Congo, Bolivia, and other resource-rich conflict states are the hidden foundation of modern life in first world countries. Their suffering directly creates the conveniences and technologies that wealthier countries take for granted.

Until the international community demands transparency, enforces sanctions on conflict-linked commodities, and insists that the green future not be contradictorily built on burned earth, Myanmar and Sudan will remain cautionary tales and examples of what happens when the world’s hunger for resources meets its willingness to ignore suffering.

Spanish language network Univision is back on YouTube TV after parent company TelevisaUnivision reached a new distribution agreement with the Google-owned streaming service.

TelevisaUnivision announced Wednesday that it has a multi-year “expanded partnership” with YouTube TV, which will carry the company’s U.S. networks including Univision, Unimas, TUDN and Galavisión on its base plan available to its 10 million subscribers.

The deal ends a two-month blackout of the channels, including Los Angeles flagship KMEX.

Under the new pact, YouTube will also make Univision’s subscription streaming service Vix available on its Primetime Channels hub.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that restores Univision to YouTube TV, ensuring millions of Hispanics can access the news, sports, and entertainment they care about and have relied on for over 70 years,” said Daniel Alegre, CEO of TelevisaUnivision, said in a statement.

YouTube TV had sought to move Univision’s channels to a more expensive Spanish-language add-on package, amounting to an 18% fee increase for customers.

Putting Univision on a higher-priced tier also would have cut into subscriber revenues, as the fees the networks received are based on the number of customers paying for the higher-priced tier.

The proposal became a major sticking point in negotiations, keeping the Univision channels off YouTube TV since Sept. 30 and drawing the attention of Washington. A number of legislators expressed concerns that consumers were being asked to pay more for Spanish-language programming.

YouTube TV was introduced in 2017 as a lower-priced alternative to cable and satellite packages. But the cost of programming goes up with every deal made to carry major networks, leading to blackouts and tense negotiations.

The Walt Disney Co.’s networks, including ESPN, were off YouTube TV for 10 days before the two sides could agree on a new carriage deal on Nov. 14.

NBCUniversal’s channels were also at risk of being pulled before a new deal was reached on Oct. 2.

The price of a YouTube TV subscription — $82.99 a month — has more than doubled since the service launched.