On Tuesday night, President Trump once again emboldened the violent far-right when he deflected a debate moderator’s request to tell those groups to stand down, instead responding that one such organization, the Proud Boys, should “stand back and stand by,” adding, “Somebody has got to do something about antifa and the left.”

Here’s what you need to know about the far-right movement in the U.S. and why the president’s remarks were significant.

What does ‘far right’ mean?

There is no single definition of what it means to be “far right,” which is a broad term applied to a fragmented series of groups and ideologies that have operated along the fringes of U.S. politics, some for well over a century. Such groups embrace ideals of white racial purity, ultranationalism, “Western civilization” or male dominance. They have often expressed hostility to Black people, immigrants, members of certain religious groups (typically Jews, Muslims and Catholics), left-wing organizations, feminists, the federal government and even liberal democracy itself.

Far-right groups are also often labeled as racists, white supremacists, white nationalists, fascists, “alt-right,” neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, chauvinists and militias, with the distinction frequently depending on their history or ideology. Historically, America’s best-known right-wing extremist organization is the Ku Klux Klan, which was violently dedicated to preserving white power after the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War brought new rights to formerly enslaved Black Americans.

The Klan’s power has waned, but such groups continue to appear in the public sphere. Many Americans will be most familiar with their gathering at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., where far-right groups clashed with anti-racist protesters, killing one woman.

Who are the Proud Boys?

The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors extremists, describes the Proud Boys as “violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic,” but says “its members represent a range of ethnic backgrounds, and its leaders vehemently protest any allegations of racism.”

Its membership is estimated to be in the hundreds, organized into local chapters that have attended public rallies and protests and sometimes violently confronted left-wing protesters. Its founder, Gavin McInnes, describes the group as a “pro-Western fraternity,” but the Anti-Defamation League says it has “many of the hallmarks of a gang, and its members have taken part in multiple acts of brutal violence and intimidation.”

On Wednesday, media outlets in Portland, Ore., reported that one Proud Boy member had been arrested on suspicion of assault and pointing a gun at anti-fascist protesters at an Aug. 22 confrontation in the city.

What is Trump’s relationship to the far right?

Trump’s groundbreaking 2016 presidential campaign energized far-right groups as he made harsh attacks on immigrants, Muslims, liberals and the idea of America as a collaborative participant in international diplomacy and trade. He embraced what are sometimes called “white grievance” politics, attracting large numbers of white voters, most frequently men, who believed that they themselves had been the victims of racial discrimination.

After winning, Trump populated his White House with hard-line conservatives such as Stephen K. Bannon, whose website Breitbart had been a key platform for elevating the so-called “alt-right,” which turned out to just be another name for fascism.

This drew praise from the far right, which felt that in Trump it now had a vessel to inject its own extremist politics into the mainstream after decades of marginalization, humiliation and defeat.

As The Times reported in 2016, David Duke, a former Klan grand wizard, declared that “the fact that Donald Trump’s doing so well, it proves that I’m winning.” Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, who called for a separate white nation, said, “Before Trump, our identity ideas, national ideas, they had no place to go.” Andrew Anglin, operator of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, said, “Virtually every alt-right Nazi I know is volunteering for the Trump campaign.”

How has Trump talked about the far right in the past?

It’s typical for politicians to publicly distance themselves from their most extreme supporters, usually to avoid alienating moderates or energizing opponents. But Trump, who has sometimes retweeted Twitter accounts associated with white nationalists, has often stumbled, prevaricated, pleaded ignorance or shifted blame to the left when confronted about his support from the far right.

In 2016, after retweeting a quote by Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist leader who was allied with Adolf Hitler, Trump said, “Look, Mussolini was Mussolini … and I know who said it,” calling it “a very good quote, an interesting quote.”

Asked to disavow Duke and the KKK, Trump evaded, saying, “I don’t know anything about David Duke. I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don’t know.”

After the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally, Trump told reporters: “I’ve condemned neo-Nazis; I’ve condemned many different groups,” but said he believed that not all of the right-wing participants were neo-Nazis, and that “you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

That comment caused an uproar among Trump’s critics, who took the remark as Trump calling neo-Nazis “very fine people” and who denounced his unwillingness to take a hard stand against racists while the nation was rattled by its largest fascist gathering in years.

What Trump said at the debate

At Tuesday night’s debate, moderator Chris Wallace gave Trump yet another chance to denounce far-right radicals, and the president once again created an uproar with his unwillingness to denounce extremist supporters.

“Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities … ?” Wallace asked.

“Sure, I’m willing to do that. I would say, I would say, almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing,” Trump said. “I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace.”

“Then do it, sir,” Wallace said.

“Say it. Do it. Say it,” Democratic nominee Joe Biden said.

“You want to call ’em — what do you want to call ’em? Give me a name, give me a name,” Trump said. “Who would you like me to condemn?”

Wallace and Biden, talking over each other, suggested “white supremacists” and the right-wing group the Proud Boys.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by — but I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left,” Trump said.

Many listeners, including members of the Proud Boys, saw Trump’s response as a sign of support, the opposite of a denunciation.

Facing widespread criticism afterward, Trump attempted Wednesday to walk back his remark, saying, “I don’t know who Proud Boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down, let enforcement do their work.” But he reiterated, “now, antifa is a real problem, because the problem is on the left.”

Pressed again by a reporter to denounce white supremacists, Trump responded, “I’ve always denounced any form of any of that.”

The most important college football story in these parts is about the downtrodden program from Westwood and whether it will leave its dump of a stadium in Pasadena.

UCLA’s incompetence has overshadowed every team in this market outside of the Dodgers and Lakers, and that includes USC.

Which speaks to where USC stands right now.

The Trojans have become afterthoughts in a market they once owned, and they only have themselves to blame.

Their 29-10 victory over the Bad News Bruins at the Coliseum on Saturday didn’t change that.

The 17th-ranked team in the country, the Trojans are by no means a bad team.

They’re something worse.

They’re stuck.

USC coach Lincoln Riley congratulates tight end Walker Lyons after a successful two-point conversion attempt against UCLA at the Coliseum on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

USC literally can’t afford to buy out coach Lincoln Riley’s contract, which means that until further notice the Trojans will be known as the team that’s good enough to not embarrass itself but not good enough to reach the College Football Playoff.

In this particular time in this particular market, that pushes USC to the margins of Los Angeles’ congested sporting landscape.

About to complete his fourth season with the Trojans, Riley seems to be aware of the perception of his program, or at very least what this market expects of a program defined by championships.

“I understand Los Angeles is a place where people aren’t going to show up just because,” he said. “You have to win. You have to give them something. And when you do, there’s no sports town better.”

Riley pointed to the packed Coliseum on Saturday night as evidence the Trojans were doing something right. Almost 70,000 tickets were distributed for the UCLA game.

The loyalty of USC’s fans, however, shouldn’t be mistaken for excitement. In the eyes of the program’s most fervent supporters, the team has underachieved.

Riley talked up the Trojans’ 7-0 home record, which included victories over Michigan and Iowa, but the truth is that the season will be defined by the games that weren’t won.

The loss at Illinois.

The loss at Notre Dame.

The loss at Oregon, which effectively knocked USC out of CFP contention.

As a program that defines itself by championships, the Trojans measure success on a binary scale. They’re either competing for a national title or they’re not. These Trojans aren’t.

Riley made the case that this season helped establish a foundation on which future teams will be built.

“This year was better than last year, and then next year is going to be better, even better than this, just going to keep growing and growing,” he said.

USC backup quarterback Gage Roy leaps into the arms of offensive lineman Tobias Raymond after Roy completed a two-point conversion pass against UCLA at the Coliseum on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

He’s made similar statements before, and USC’s fans are still waiting for the return to glory that he promised.

By now, words alone won’t convince many people about the program’s future. Riley will have to deliver results, and he will have to deliver them soon.

The team Riley will coach next season will look a lot like the team he coached this season but almost certainly without receiver Makai Lemon. No. 2 receiver Ja’Kobi Lane could also declare for the NFL draft.

As much as Riley spoke about USC’s improved physicality, the Trojans couldn’t stop the run in any of their three defeats, which raises legitimate concerns about whether he will be able to address the problem in the coming months.

The Trojans will welcome the country’s top-rated recruiting class, but how many freshmen could they realistically count on to produce right away?

Ryan Kartje, the Times’ USC beat reporter, wrote a story last week about a situation at quarterback involving starter Jayden Maiava and five-star freshman Husan Longstreet. Kartje raised the possibility of Longstreet entering the transfer portal if Maiava returns for his senior season.

In another time or place, this would be a major story. That’s basically Riley’s job now, to return USC’s profile to where the next quarterback controversy is front-page news. The Trojans aren’t close to that at the moment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a formal pardon from President Isaac Herzog in his long-running corruption cases, for the sake of ‘national unity’. Israel’s opposition says Netanyahu must admit guilt and resign.

At least two areas of the country’s worst-affected Sumatra island are still unreachable, as authorities struggle to deliver aid.

The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Indonesia has risen to 442, according to a tally published by the national disaster agency, as desperate people hunt for food and water.

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) on Sunday said 402 others were still missing as authorities raced to reach parts of hardest-hit Sumatra island, where thousands of people were stranded without critical supplies.

Another 402 people are missing in Indonesia’s three provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh, according to the agency.

At least 600 people have died across Southeast Asia as heavy monsoon rains overwhelm swathes of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The deluges also triggered landslides, damaged roads, and downed communication lines.

The floods in Indonesia displaced thousands of people, with at least two cities on Sumatra island still unreachable on Sunday. Authorities said they deployed two warships from Jakarta to deliver aid.

“There are two cities that require full attention due to being isolated, namely Central Tapanuli and Sibolga,” BNPB head Suharyanto said in a statement.

The ships were expected in Sibolga on Monday, he said.

Desperate situation

The challenging weather conditions and the lack of heavy equipment also hampered rescue efforts.

Aid has been slow to reach the hardest-hit city of Sibolga and the Central Tapanuli district in North Sumatra.

Videos on social media show people scrambling past crumbling barricades, flooded roads and broken glass to get their hands on food, medicine and gas.

Some even waded through waist-deep floodwaters to reach damaged convenience stores.

The annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rain, triggering landslides and flash floods.

A tropical storm has exacerbated conditions, and the flooding tolls in Indonesia and Thailand rank among the highest in those countries in recent years.

Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.

JACK Fincham was due at on/off girlfriend Chloe Brockett’s birthday when he spent the night snogging MAFS star Leisha Lightbody.

Ex-Towie star Chloe and Jack recently rekindled for the eighth time and she invited him to her glitzy bash. 

But after rowing, she’d told him not to bother. 

The Love Island champ turned boxer then went to a Sussex tourist attraction, Tulleys Christmas night, where he hooked up with Leisha – who is Chloe’s lookalike. 

A source said: “Chloe and Jack have been back on recently but they fell out on so she said he could f**k off and not bother going to her party. 

“They’re not officially back together but it’s still outrageous he then went out and snogged someone else, on her birthday!”

READ MORE ON JACK FINCHAM

MOVING ON

Jack Fincham caught snogging MAFS star six months after split from Chloe Brockett

‘ROCK BOTTOM’

Love Island’s Jack Fincham reveals he’s lost over £1million & 1million fans

The Sun has contacted representatives for Chloe and Jack for comment.

Leisha and Jack could be seen passionately kissing against a wooden gate in our exclusive video.

A source said: “Jack and Leisha were all over each other for the whole night and didn’t seem to care who was watching.”

Leisha appeared on the most recent UK series of Married at First Sight and was paired with Reiss Boyce.

The couple split just weeks after their emotional final vows, with the distance between Essex-based Reiss, 33, and 31-year-old Leisha, who lives in Scotland, proving too much for them. 

Boxer Jack recently revealed he’s lost a £1m since his heady Love Island days, which saw him win with the nation’s sweetheart Dani Dyer.

The 34-year-old has had a tough year which saw him narrowly avoid prison after being arrested while serving a suspended sentence at the time.

In a candid Instagram post, Jack wrote: “I’ve been quiet for a long time — maybe too long. Truth is, I haven’t known what to say.

“I lost over £1 million chasing the wrong things — and in the process, I lost over a million followers too. That hurt. But I get it.

“I wasn’t myself. I was lost, struggling, and making the kind of mistakes that feel impossible to come back from.

“But I’ve learned this — you don’t need millions of followers to find your voice again. You just need to tell the truth.”

Explaining more, Jack said: “I took a lot of bad advice over the years and had a lot of the wrong people around me.

“I’ve made some massive mistakes. I’ve learnt some really, really proper painful, really painful lessons over the years. Every mistake that I’ve made, I own them all.”

I’M on Cloud Nine, floating blissfully between infinity pools and saunas, with panoramic views of a perfectly still lake.

I am at the Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa Hotel in the Lake District.

The rejuvenating adventure promises to refresh my senses and entire being. It does.

I hop between the two-tiered heated outdoor infinity pools and explore three sauna set-ups – eucalyptus, salt and natural mineral – then move between a number of pools at different temperatures.

Finally, I meander over to the bar, where I find an enticing range of cocktails, mocktails, beers, soft drinks and upmarket snacks.

Luckily, my luxurious suite at the hotel’s Winander Club is only a short plod away, behind and above the main hotel with views of mighty Lake Windermere.

SWISS GRAND TOUR

I went on Europe’s ‘Route 66’ with 46 attractions and beautiful beaches

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

Those staying in The Winander Club area of the hotel not only benefit from fancy rooms with luxury additions such as freestanding bath tubs, they also enjoy exclusive dining spaces.

You won’t be short of decent food options in the hotel, though, even if you are staying in the main area.

There’s fine-dining cuisine at the W Restaurant and chunky ciabatta sandwiches and bar snacks in the very cosy public bar.

My favourite, however, was the popular Blue Smoke, with its centrepiece wood-fired grill.

Think steaks, fish served whole and maple-glazed salmon fillet all dished up with The Blue Smoke’s special chunky chips and slaw.

I’m still dreaming about my starter of butterfly king prawns, which were the size of fingers of Bownessie Monster – the myththical creature said to inhabit Lake Windermere.

Visitors could easily spend a weekend holed up in this cosy spot but the real highlight of the hotel is its location in the rolling Cumbrian countryside.

After a hearty full English brekkie – special mention to the very tasty Cumberland sausages – I got ready to explore the charms of Windermere, Ambleside and Grasmere.

But be prepared to queue if you want to take a boat trip across Lake Windermere.

Most depart from Bowness, serenely gliding over the water alongside the paddle boarders and private boats.

If that doesn’t take your fancy, this time of year is great for a stroll.
Autumnal hues

As I strapped on my walking boots and struck out up the fells, I soaked up the glowing autumnal hues on the hills.

Ambleside is also well worth exploring.

This busy but quaint town has many upmarket shops and boutiques alongside local businesses ranging from homemade-chocolate stores and lambswool outfitters to traditional watering holes.

There’s even a Michelin-rated restaurant in the cellars at The Old Stamp House where Lake District bard William Wordsworth once worked as Distributor of Stamps.

As the sun began to set over Windermere, trimming the hills with a fiery orange, it was back to the Winander Club for a sundowner.

The perfect way to end a day.

GO: Standard Willow rooms at The Low Wood Bay & Spa cost from £216 per night.

Thermal journey spa packages cost from £60p.

See englishlakes.co.uk.

Donald Trump has called himself a “wartime president” for leading the fight against COVID-19. He has called Americans “warriors” for showing up at their jobs, shopping in stores and generally getting the economy back on track despite knowing that these activities increase the risk of a coronavirus infection.

The metaphor is apt, in that our war on COVID-19 has resulted in substantial casualties — more than 229,000 dead and counting. That’s more double the 90,220 deaths Americans suffered throughout the Vietnam War.

During the Vietnam years, there was a clear correlation between the number of combat deaths suffered by a county and the degree to which residents backed the conflict — when deaths went up, support for the president’s war policies fell, researchers have found.

Likewise, voters in areas that suffered more casualties during the Iraq War were less likely to vote for Republican congressional candidates in the 2006 midterm elections, while voters in areas that took more casualties in Afghanistan were more likely to support Trump for president in 2016 instead of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Now political scientists are seeing the pattern again — except this time the war is happening on U.S. soil and the foe is COVID-19.

“Increasing fatalities from the disease leads to losses for Republicans,” a team from George Washington University and UCLA reported Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The researchers used data collected by the New York Times to tally COVID-19 deaths in every state up through May 31. They also looked at responses gathered by the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project, a public opinion survey that reaches about 6,400 people each week.

They found that people in the states with high COVID-19 fatalities were 3% less likely to support Trump’s reelection than were people in states where the coronavirus had made little impact. They were also nearly 13% less likely to favor GOP candidates for Senate seats and 5% less likely to back GOP candidates for the House of Representatives.

That was just their starting point. To look more carefully at the relationship between deaths and political preferences, the political scientists compared COVID-19 deaths in the previous 30 days with changes in support for Republican candidates in a state or even county. This allowed them to account for the influence of factors like voters’ race, ethnicity, gender, education and who they voted for in the 2016 presidential election. It also helped them see whether COVID-19 deaths were actually causing voters to turn away from the party controlling America’s response to the pandemic.

The results were clear.

“Overall, areas with higher COVID-19 fatalities are significantly less likely to support President Trump and other Republican candidates,” they reported. This pattern was seen “at every level of geography and for every office.”

The degree of lost support was small, but it may be enough to swing an election in a close race, the researchers wrote.

For instance, if COVID-19 deaths in a county had doubled over the previous 30 days, voters in that county became 0.14% less likely to support Trump’s reelection, 0.28% less likely to support Republican Senate candidates and 0.22% less likely to support Republicans running for seats in the House.

Additionally, if COVID-19 deaths in a state doubled over the previous 30 days, people in that state became 0.37% less likely to say they’d vote for Trump, 0.79% less likely to say they’d vote for a GOP Senate candidate and 0.58% less likely to say they’d vote for a Republican House candidate.

The political scientists noted that in 2016, Trump carried Michigan by a margin of just 0.2%, and he lost New Hampshire by a mere 0.4%. In Florida, Republican Rick Scott unseated Democrat Bill Nelson in a 2018 Senate race with an advantage of less than 0.2%.

Indeed, COVID-19 casualties could be even more influential than the health of the economy, the study authors wrote.

“Just as the public penalizes the president for casualties during wars, the public is penalizing the president and other members of his party for local fatalities during the pandemic,” they concluded. “This could swing the presidential election and the U.S. Senate toward Democrats, with particularly high effects in swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Arizona, and Florida.”

Ballymena United have confirmed they have parted ways with manager Jim Ervin.

Ervin took over at the Showgrounds in 2023 and in his first season, kept the club in the Premiership by way of a playoff.

Last season, they finished in the bottom half but it was enough to see Ervin sign a new contract until 2028.

Currently, the Sky Blues sit in eighth position in the table, but on Saturday they suffered a 3-1 defeat to bottom club Glenavon.

In midweek, they were also knocked out of the Count Antrim Shield, going down 4-1 at home to Cliftonville which ended a three-game unbeaten run.

“Ballymena United Football Club can confirm that the club has parted company with first team manager Jim Ervin, this morning,” the club confirmed in a statement.

“The board would like to put on record their upmost thanks to Jim and his staff for their efforts and support during his two and a half years at the Showgrounds.

“Jim will always be remembered as a legendary player for the club, and as manager for successfully guiding Ballymena United through one of the most challenging periods of our recent history.

“The club will now commence the recruitment process for the next first team manager.”

Current U20 manager Ciaran Caldwell will step in as interim boss with Patrick McEleney and Sean O’Neill assisting him for Tuesday’s BetMcLean Cup quarter-final against Larne.

When fire alarms failed, this woman livestreamed her escape from the Hong Kong apartment inferno to warn other residents. The live-in nanny rescued her employer’s baby as she raced down 23 flights of stairs at the Wang Fuk Court complex, where at least 146 people lost their lives.

Amid the fusillade of terrible headlines this year, one pierced my nerdy heart.

“Enjoying this headline? You’re a rarity: Reading for pleasure is declining …” was the topper to a story by my colleague Hailey Branson-Potts in August. Pleasure reading among American adults fell more than 40% in two decades — a continuation of a trend going back to the 1940s.

I get it. We don’t want to read for fun when we’re trying to wade through the sewer of information we find online and make sense of our terrible political times. But as Tyrion Lannister, the wily hero of George R.R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” series, said, “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”

So for my annual holiday columna recommending great books about Southern California, I’m sticking to formats that lend themselves to easier reading — bite-size jewels of intellect, if you will. Through essays, short stories, poems and pictures, each of my suggestions will bring solace through the beauty of where we live and offer inspiration about how to double down on resisting the bad guys.

“California Southern: Writing From the Road, 1992-2025” by LAist reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez.

(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez’s warm voice has informed Angelenos about arts, politics and education for 25 years on what was long called KPCC and now goes by LAist 89.3. What most listeners might not know is that the Mexico City native first earned acclaim as a founder of Taco Shop Poets, an influential San Diego collective that highlighted Chicano writers in a city that didn’t seem to care for them.

Guzman-Lopez lets others delve into that history in the intro and forerward to “California Southern: Writings from the Road, 1992-2025.” Reading the short anthology, it quickly becomes clear why his audio dispatches have always had a prose-like quality often lacking among public radio reporters, whose delivery tends to be as dry as Death Valley.

In mostly English but sometimes Spanish and Spanglish, Guzman-Lopez takes readers from the U.S.-Mexico border to L.A., employing the type of lyrical bank shots only a poet can get away with. I especially loved his description of Silver Lake as “two tax brackets away/From Salvatrucha Echo Park.” Another highlight is contained in “Trucks,” where Guzman-Lopez praises the immigrant entrepreneurs from around the world who come to L.A. and name their businesses after their hometowns.

“Say these names to praise the soil,” he writes. “Say these names to document the passage. Say these names to remember the trek.”

Guzman-Lopez has been doing readings recently with Lisa Alvarez, who published her first book, “Some Final Beauty and Other Stories,” after decades of teaching English — including to my wife back in the 1990s! — at Irvine Valley College.

The L.A. native did the impossible for someone who rarely delves into made-up stories because the real world is fantastical enough: She made me not just read fiction but enjoy it.

Alvarez’s debut is a loosely tied collection centered on progressive activists in Southern California, spanning a seismic sendoff for someone who fought during the Spanish Civil War and a resident of O.C.’s canyon country tipping off the FBI about her neighbor’s participation in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Author, activist and Irvine Valley College professor Lisa Alvarez holds a copy of her short story collection “Some Final Beauty and Other Stories.”

(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

Most of the protagonists are women, brought to life through Alvarez’s taut, shining sentences. Memories play a key role — people loved and lost, places missed and reviled. A nephew remembers how his uncle landed in an FBI subversives file after attending a Paul Robeson speech in South L.A. shortly after serving in the Navy in World War II. An L.A. mayor who seems like a stand-in for Antonio Villaraigoisa considers himself “the crafty and cool voice of one who sees his past and future in terms of chapters in a best-selling book” as he tries to convince a faded movie star to come down from a tree during a protest.

To paraphrase William Faulkner about the South, the past is never dead in Southern California — it isn’t even past.

While Alvarez is a first-time author, D.J. Waldie has written many books. The Livy of Lakewood, who has penned important essays about L.A. history and geography for decades, has gathered some of his recent efforts in “Elements of Los Angeles: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.”

A lot of his subjects — L.A.’s mother tree, pioneering preacher Aimee Semple McPherson, the first Hass avocado — are tried-and-true terrain for Southern California writers. But few of us can turn a phrase like Waldie. On legendary Dodger broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrín, he writes, “The twin cities of Los Angeles and Los Ángeles, evoked by [their] voices … may seem to be incommensurate places to the unhearing, but the borders of the two cities are porous. Sound travels.”

Man, I wish I would have written that.

“Elements of Los Angeles” is worth the purchase, if only to read “Taken by the Flood,” Waldie’s account of the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster that killed at least 431 people — mostly Latinos — and destroyed the career of L.A.’s water godfather, William Mulholland. The author’s slow burn of the tragic chronology, from Mulholland’s famous “There it is. Take it” quote when he unleashed water from the Owens Valley in 1913 to slake the city’s thirst, to how L.A. quickly forgot the disaster, compounds hubris upon hubris.

But then, Waldie concludes by citing a Spanish-language corrido about the disaster: “Friends, I leave you/with this sad song/and with a plea to heaven/For those taken by the flood.”

The ultimate victims, Waldie argues, are not the dead from the St. Francis Dam but all Angelenos for buying into the fatal folly of Mullholland’s L.A.

“Elements of Los Angeles” was published by Angel City Press, a wing of the Los Angeles Public Library that also released “Cruising J-Town: Japanese American Car Culture in Los Angeles.”

Cal State Long Beach sociology professor Oliver Wang offers a powerhouse of a coffee table book by taking what could have easily sold as a scrapbook of cool images and grounding it in the history of a community that has seen the promise and pain of Southern California like few others.

We see Japanese Americans posing in front of souped-up imports, reveling in SoCal’s kustom kulture scene of the 1960s, standing in front of a car at a World War II-era incarceration camp and loading up their gardening trucks at a time when they dominated the landscaping industry.

“One can read entire histories of American car culture and find no mention of Japanese or Asian American involvement,” Wang writes — but that’s about as pedantic as “Cruising J-Town” gets.

The rest is a delight that zooms by like the rest of my recs. Drop the doomscrolling for a day, make the time to read them all and become a better Southern Californian in the process. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, Katie Porter’s campaign for California governor was reeling. A day after an irritable TV interview went viral, an old video surfaced of the former Orange County congresswoman cursing and berating one of her aides.

Around the same time, the race for U.S. Senate in Maine was shaken by a number of disturbing online posts. In them, Democratic hopeful Graham Platner disparaged police and Black people, among other crude remarks. Soon after, it was revealed Platner had a chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, several old text messages swallowed attorney general nominee Jay Jones in a cumulus of controversy. The Democrat had joked about shooting the Republican leader of the state House and blithely spoken of watching his children die in their mother’s arms.

Once — say, 20 or 30 years ago — those blow-ups might have been enough to chase each of those embattled candidates from their respective races, and maybe even end their political careers altogether.

But in California, Porter has pressed on and remains in the top tier of the crowded gubernatorial field. In Maine, Platner continues to draw large, enthusiastic crowds and leads polling in the Democratic primary. In Virginia, Jones was just elected attorney general, defeating his Republican opponent by a comfortable margin.

Clearly, things have changed.

Actions that once caused eyes to widen, such as the recreational puffs of marijuana that cost appeals court judge Douglas Ginsburg a Supreme Court seat under President Reagan, now seem quaint. Personal indiscretions once seen as disqualifying, such as the extramarital affair that chased Gary Hart from the 1988 presidential race, scarcely raise an eyebrow.

Gary Hart quit the 1988 presidential race soon after reports surfaced of an extramarital affair. He later unsuccessfully jumped back into the contest.

(Getty Images)

And the old political playbook — confession, contrition, capitulation — is obviously no longer operative, as candidates find it not only possible but even advantageous to brazen their way through storms of uproar and opprobrium.

Look no further than the extravagantly checkered occupant of the White House. Donald Trump has seemingly survived more controversies — not to mention two impeachments, an $83.3-million judgment in a sexual abuse and defamation case and conviction on 34 felony counts — than there are stars winking in the nighttime sky.

Bill Carrick has spent decades strategizing for Democratic office-seekers. A generation or so ago, if faced with a serious scandal, he would have told his candidate, “This is not going to be sustainable and you just better get out.” But now, Carrick said, “I would be very reluctant to tell somebody that, unless there was evidence they had murdered or kidnapped somebody, or robbed a bank.”

Kevin Madden, a veteran Republican communications strategist, agreed. Surrender has become passe. Survival is the new fallback mode.

“The one thing that many politicians of both parties have learned is that there is an opportunity to grind it out, to ride the storm out,” Madden said. “If you think a news issue is going viral or becoming the topic everyone’s talking about, just wait. A new scandal … or a new shiny object will be along.”

One reason for the changing nature of political scandal, and its prognosis, is the way we now take in information, both selectively and in bulk.

With the chance to personally curate their news feed — and reinforce their attitude and outlook — people can select those things they wish to know about, and choose those they care to ignore. With such fragmentation, it’s much harder for a negative storyline to reach critical mass. That requires a mass audience.

“A lot of scandals may not have the impact that they once had because people are in these silos or echo chambers,” said Scott Basinger, a University of Houston political scientist who’s extensively studied the nature of political scandal. “They may not even hear about it, if they don’t want to hear about it.”

The sheer velocity of information — “not only delivered to you on your doorstep, or at 6:30 p.m. by the three networks, but also in your pocket, in your hand at all times, across multiple platforms,” as Madden put it — also makes events more fleeting. That makes it harder for any one to penetrate deeply or resonate widely.

“In a world where there’s a wealth of information,” he said, “there’s a poverty of attention.”

Seven months after abruptly dropping out of the 1988 presidential race, Hart jumped back into the contest. “Let’s let the people decide,” he said, after confessing his marital sins.

(He also said in the same interview, a few months before relaunching his candidacy, that he had no intention of doing so.)

Hart did not fare well. Once he’d been the overwhelming front-runner for the Democratic nomination. As a reincarnated candidate, he trudged on for a few months before dropping out for good, having failed to secure a single convention delegate or win double-digit support in any contest.

“The people have decided,” he said, “and now I should not go forward.”

That’s how it should be.

Porter in California and Platner in Maine both faced calls to drop out of their respective races, with critics questioning their conduct and whether they had the right temperament to serve, respectively, as California governor or a U.S. senator. Each has expressed contrition for their actions. (As did Jones, Virginia’s attorney general-elect.)

Voters can take all that into account when they pick their candidate.

If they want a governor who drops f-bombs and snaps at aides, a senator with a history of off-putting remarks or — gulp — an adulterous convicted felon in the White House, that’s their choice.

Let the people decide.

By midweek, as a handful of reporters watched his every move, Nico Iamaleava looked like someone on the verge of the offseason, not a rivalry game.

In the early stages of practice Wednesday, the UCLA quarterback threw one pass softly before shifting into observer mode for the rest of the open viewing period.

Three days later, as thousands of probing eyes watched his every move, Iamaleava was slinging passes with considerably more zip.

His efficiency in completing one pass after another against No. 17 USC on Saturday helped the Bruins take a halftime lead, silencing a Coliseum crowd and triggering a brouhaha between the teams on one corner of the field as they headed for the tunnel.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) scampers for a first down against USC at the Coliseum on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

It was the kind of moment Iamaleava had dreamed of growing in Long Beach and attending the cross-town rivalry as a kid.

“Meant a lot, man,” Iamaleava said of being able to compete against the Trojans.

But in keeping with the trajectory of a down-and-up-and-down-again season, the dream ended amid a flurry of sacks and failed third- and fourth-down conversions. There was no way Iamaleava could grit his way to victory, the Bruins eventually succumbing during a 29-10 loss to the Trojans in which their quarterback was sacked four times — all in the second half.

And so a season that started with Iamaleava being the talk of the college football world after his contentious departure from Tennessee ended with him taking a solitary walk up the Coliseum tunnel toward an uncertain future.

“It was a great learning year for me,” Iamaleava said after completing 27 of 38 passes for 200 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions against the Trojans. “You know, a lot of firsts for me throughout the season. Just the way we started off, and then dealing with little, minor injuries, there’s a lot. And I think, man, it just showed that I’m willing to go out there and put my life on the line for my teammates, man, whatever is needed.”

Iamaleava showed many sides in fighting to the end of a 3-9 season. There was accountability, Iamaleava facing reporters after every loss. There was leadership, Iamaleava telling teammates that if they wanted to leave amid the dismissal of their head coach and the departure of their offensive coordinator, go ahead. Nobody did.

Over the last few weeks, there was resolve, Iamaleava coming back from one injury after another. He missed only one game after sustaining a concussion against Nebraska and sat out only a few practices after taking a crunching hit against Washington last weekend that led to neck spasms.

“Every day he got better and better,” UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper said, “and then today he went out there and gave it his all, so I love that kid, he’s a battler. He fought and he kept leading us all the way to the end. … He’s a tough dude, man, and he’s a competitor. That’s what I’ll say about him.”

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 29, 2025: Southern California Trojans linebacker Eric Gentry (18) tackles UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) for a loss in the second half at the Coliseum on November 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

For more than a half, it appeared that Iamaleava might go down in rivalry lore.

Orchestrating a short, efficient passing attack, Iamaleava pulled UCLA into a 7-7 tie early in the second quarter when he found wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer for a two-yard touchdown on a crossing route.

Then came a rarity from someone usually happy to absorb contact as the Bruins drove for a go-ahead score. On third-and-seven at the Trojans’ 26-yard line, Iamaleava scrambled before sliding into a ferocious hit from cornerback Alex Graham.

Coming up a yard short of the first down, Iamaleava tried to draw USC offsides with a hard count on fourth down before kicker Mateen Bhaghani trotted onto the field for a 38-yard field goal.

Little went Iamaleava’s way during the second half. One third down ended in an eight-yard sack. Another fell short on a pass that was broken up.

Things somehow deteriorated further. With UCLA having fallen behind 21-10 and clinging to faint hopes midway through the fourth quarter, the Bruins faced a fourth-and-15 at USC’s 45-yard line. A short pass to Gilmer went for only 10 yards.

Drive over. Game over.

That left Iamaleava to contemplate his future. Back in late July, he acknowledged wanting to go to the NFL if he put together a successful season. It was hard to say if this qualified after he finished the season completing 64.4% of his passes for 1,928 yards with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

What’s next?

“I haven’t really even thought about that, man,” Iamaleava said. “I’m right here where my feet are, man. You know, we just lost a tough game and my mind is still on that one — what we could have done better to go out there and win that game.”

After answering a final question, Iamaleava glanced at a bottle of orange sports drink in front of him on a table.

“Can I have this?” he asked.

Granted permission to take the bottle, he grabbed it, rose from his seat and walked out the back of the interview tent, the offseason finally having arrived.

A huge fireball exploded at a waste facility in an Australian suburb in western Sydney, sending flames 100 metres into the sky. Authorities are investigating the fire’s cause, but say a chemical tank exploded in the blaze, sending concrete debris flying and causing damage to nearby buildings.

The way humans refuse to reflect is most ironic. Everyone immediately blamed the heavens for the events of November 2025, when massive floods swept across Sumatra (Indonesia), submerged southern Thailand, and turned Malaysian roads into rivers. It was as if humans were passive victims swept away by something beyond their control, and rain was the sole factor.  This elegant narrative is perpetuated to shield us from guilt and responsibility, making us reluctant to acknowledge that these ‘natural’ disasters have actually been engineered by human choices and negligence over a long period of time. The greatest tragedy lies in the audacity to ignore the damage we have wrought upon ourselves, not the water falling from the sky.

What happened at the end of November was not just extreme weather. Reuters stated that heavy rains were the main cause of flooding and landslides, which are estimated to have killed at least 129 people in Southeast Asia before and after 25 November 2025.  However, blaming the rain as the sole cause is like blaming a match when your entire house is on fire, even though you were the one who spilled the petrol (Reuters, 2025). The rain is not the problem. Rain is a common climatic event. What is unusual is how vulnerable our countries are to something that should have been anticipated.

For years, Green Theory has reminded us that environmental damage is the result of development and political and economic practices that prioritize growth over sustainability. Theoretically, disasters are political rather than natural occurrences. According to this viewpoint, structural power disparities and policy decisions that favor capital accumulation are the main causes of society’s susceptibility to natural disasters. And what happened in November 2025 shows that current politics prioritizes short-term profits, land exploitation, and dependence on destructive industries over maintaining the ecological balance that enables human life.

For example, flooding in Sumatra is caused by the loss of millions of hectares of forest over the past twenty years. The loss of forests has eliminated the absorption and soil retention systems that previously functioned as a ‘natural brake’ on water flow. FAO data shows that Indonesia’s deforestation rate has been one of the fastest in the world for years and that the damage has not disappeared without a trace (FAO, 2023). When the roots are gone, the soil and water lose their bond. Disaster becomes inevitable when the rains fall.

The same pattern was found in cases in Thailand and Malaysia.  Development that destroyed hillsides, settlements that crept up into landslide-prone areas, and concretization that eliminated absorption spaces have made these areas an inevitable ecological hazard. There were no truly ‘sudden’ floods and landslides that struck southern Thailand in the same week reported by AP News (AP News, 2025).  What remained suddenly was our realization that the rain was testing the consequences of years of neglect.

Ironically, politicians, mainstream media, and most of the public are more comfortable blaming the heavens.  Although terms such as ‘extreme rainfall,’ ‘climate anomalies,’ and ‘unpredictable weather’ are meteorologically accurate, they are also ethically and politically misleading. Blaming the weather is an elegant way to avoid more uncomfortable questions: who cut down the forests? Who issued the plantation and mining permits? Who built cities without drainage systems? Who turned a blind eye to disorderly spatial planning? And who chose not to learn from the same tragedies of last year, the year before, and the year before that?

Green Theory emphasizes that states and markets often collaborate to cause environmental/ecological damage while covering up their political activities with stories of ‘unpredictable nature.’ The disaster that occurred in November 2025 provided an important lesson that these stories are not only misleading but also dangerous.  To avoid responsibility, attention is shifted from human actors to an abstract entity called ‘the weather.’ It transforms meteorological chaos into structural chaos.  Thus, the sky becomes the most convenient scapegoat for all parties who benefit from the current situation.

We often forget that rain has been with us throughout human history.  It is not the sky that has changed; rather, it is the earth beneath our feet that has been altered, divided, and sold without consideration for its ecological limits. The IPCC has repeatedly warned that although climate change increases rainfall in certain areas, its effects are highly dependent on land use, ecosystem health, and human-controlled environmental carrying capacity (IPCC, 2023).  In other words, rain may be natural, but its disasters are not.

 According to a UNEP report, modern disaster risk consists of a combination of hazards and vulnerability, and it is vulnerability that is most often created by humans (UNEP, 2022).  We are the ones who cut down forests, destroy riverbanks, and build cities without considering hydrological logic. We are responsible for turning floodplains into residential areas.  Yet we blame the rain for being the culprit simply because the water returns to its source.

This is why November 2025 is not just a date of disaster; it is a date of remembrance. A reminder that we live in an age where environmental damage is caused by human activity, not the weather. A reminder that contemporary disasters are the result of poor decisions.  And our hands will remain clean in the story we write as long as we continue to point to the sky, but the ground beneath us will continue to crumble.

 If we want to break out of this cycle, we must stop pointing to the sky and start dismantling the political, economic, and vested interests that make communities vulnerable every time it rains. Disasters must be seen as a reflection of failed environmental governance, not as ‘inevitable’ natural events. This necessitates the establishment of political accountability mechanisms for officials who disregard ecological warnings, independent environmental audits for significant projects, and strict spatial planning reform. We must also understand that change will not come from the heavens; it must come from the very people who have been destroying, if they are finally willing to reform themselves.

The rain will continue to be blamed until that day.  And humans will continue to try to save their own reputations by pointing upwards so that they do not see the damage happening beneath their feet.  However, the sky is never to blame, as will be clearly recorded in history.  The rain simply falls.  It is humans who cause the destruction.  This is the greatest irony of modern civilization: the more power humans feel they have, the more they enjoy washing their hands of the consequences of that power. Humans who destroy mountains for quick profits from mining, build cities without adequate drainage, and pour concrete into rivers, and then feign surprise when everything comes back to haunt them. Rain is merely the trigger; humans prepare the ingredients for the explosion.

It is not the weather that must change, but our morals.  No technical mitigation can replace a political culture that continues to trade forests for capital, mortgaging the future for growth charts, or romanticizing ‘development’ that never produces anything but risk.  We can keep praying for favorable weather, but those prayers will only echo in the void as long as the Earth is treated as a victim.  Because we are the ones who need to live on Earth.  Earth is the source of our life.  And as long as people continue to deny that, disasters will become timely consequences, not mere warnings.

Bradley Walsh got tongues wagging when he rocked up at the Strictly Come Dancing studio after hosts, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkelman sensationally announced they’re quitting the show

Bradley Walsh has added fuel to rumours he’ll host Strictly after he was seen backstage with the show’s crew over the weekend. The presenter, 65, is odds-on favourite to replace Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman as hosts of Strictly when they step down at the end of the current series.

Gladiators host, Bradley, is reportedly in final talks to host the primetime programme after dynamic duo, Tess and Claudia, sensationally announced they were quitting in October.

Bradley headed to the BBC studio during a break in filming ITV’s The Chase, where he posed for a selfie with the crew from the dance show. Both The Chase and Strictly are filmed at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

READ MORE: New Strictly Come Dancing host ‘revealed’ as top presenter seen on setREAD MORE: Strictly spoiler leaves fans ‘absolutely devastated’ as they demand second opinion

Head dressmaker Theresa Hewlett shared a photograph with star on X, formerly Twitter, with a smile a mile wide, posing alongside her colleagues ahead of Saturday’s live show.

She captioned the post: “The Chase is filmed next door and he popped in to say hi. What a lovely man Bradley Walsh is!”

Meanwhile a source told The Sun: “Bradley’s appearance in the studio has certainly set tongues wagging. Bosses are keen for Bradley to take over. He is a real pro and has brilliant experience hosting live shows.

“Producers need a safe pair of hands to steady the ship amid so much damage. Of course, he’d have a female alongside him as part of a duo.

And that female, is reported to be The One Show’s Alex Jones, who took part in Strictly in 2011. A source told the publication: “Alex and Bradley are both the favourites to take over from Tess and Claudia… they have been in the BBC’s sights for some time.”

“Alex is a massive fan of Strictly, too, so this would be the dream gig for her.”

The insider clarified that “nothing is set in stone yet”, but said discussions involving the pair had been “moving in a really positive direction” so far.

Tess and Claudia stunned Strictly fans when they posted a joint video in October, announcing they were calling it quits.

Addressing viewers, they said: “We have loved working as a duo, and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together, and now feels like the right time. We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and every single person who works on the show.

“They’re the most brilliant team, and we’ll miss them every day. We will cry when we say the last ‘keep dancing,’ but we will continue to say it to each other – just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

A COMMON passenger mistake is causing huge problems on flights – and even causing planes to divert.

Earlier this week, a United Airlines flight was forced to land in in Dublin rather than London.

The cause? A laptop sliding down the side of the seat.

While this may not seem like a large cause for concern, airlines warn against any technology that falls down the side of the seat.

This is due to them potentially being damaged if they fall into the seat reclining mechanisms.

If a passenger then damages the laptop by reclining, it can lead to the batteries in them catching on fire.

Read more on plane safety

BABY ON BOARD

The rules and restrictions on flying when you are pregnant

GROUNDED

UK airlines’ mass warning on new EU travel rule that risks Brits stuck on planes

And it’s not just laptops, but mobile phones can also cause this problem.

Back in 2018, crew were forced to extinguish a fire onboard a Qantas flight from Melbourne to LA after a plane stuck between seats set on fire.

And in 2020, a British Airways passenger’s phone caught o fire after it slipped down while she slept, and she then reclined without realising.

When it come to laptop issues, just last year a United flight from Zurich to Chicago had to emergency land in Ireland after a laptop got stuck in the seats.

Patrick Smith, a pilot, and author of Ask the Pilot previously warned about the dangers of this.

He said: “If you’re in an electrically controlled lie-flat seat, of the type common in first or business class, there are a number of nooks and crannies into which your phone can slip – beyond your reach and down into the mechanisms that control the seat’s various positions.”

Passengers are urged to alert flight crew if any of their devices fall down the side of the seat.

If they can’t be retrieved, then the seat shouldn’t be reclined until the plane has landed.

In British Airways‘ latest onboard safety announcement, they warn: “If you do lose your device within your seat, please don’t move your seat yourself.

“Ask a member of crew for some help.”

A rise in onboard fires has also been caused by portable charges, leading ot many airlines banning the use of them.

Most recently, power banks are no longer allowed to be used on a number of Australian airlines, and must not be put in the overhead lockers.

Other airlines like Emirates are also not allowing passengers to use them during a flight, and encourages the use of the in-seat charging instead.

Only Korean Air fully bans power banks being taken onboard, after one of their aircraft was decommissioned due to fire damage caused by one.

Back in 2020, a passenger’s laptop was destroyed after someone reclined their seat onto it, crushing the screen.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Robert Garcia and his team faced a monumental task on Nov. 5: Sift through more than 20,000 documents obtained from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein in search for something that would shed more light into President Trump’s relationship with the now-deceased convicted sex offender.

After six tedious days combing through the records, Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and four staff members identified three emails that would go on to ignite a political firestorm.

In the emails, Epstein wrote that Trump had “spent hours” at the late financier’s house with one of his victims and that he “knew about the girls,” suggesting the president knew more about Epstein’s abuse than he had previously acknowledged. The estate released the emails to the committee after receiving a subpoena.

“We thought [the emails] really raised questions about the relationship between the president and Jeffrey Epstein,” Garcia said in an interview last week. “We knew we had to get those out as soon as possible.”

Garcia’s plan to release the emails quickly thrust the second-term Democrat into the national spotlight, elevating his profile as a chief antagonist of Trump on a issue that has dogged the president since his first term. It also increased the pressure on the White House to release its investigative Epstein files.

The assertions in Epstein’s emails about Trump’s involvement or awareness of Epstein’s illicit acts have not been corroborated and the White House has denied the veracity of those accounts.

The White House accused Democrats of “selectively” leaking emails to create a “fake narrative to smear President Trump,” adding that Democrats redacted the name of one of the victims, Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April and had previously said she had not witnessed Trump participating in abuse at Epstein’s house.

The email disclosures on Nov. 12 prompted Republicans on the committee to publish the full cache of records just hours later. At the same time, Democrats — joined by a handful of Republicans — were on the verge of forcing a House vote to compel the Justice Department to release its Epstein files. Days later, Trump urged GOP lawmakers to back the bill he had long resisted, and he ultimately signed it into law.

“If we hadn’t released the initial emails, Republicans would likely have released nothing,” Garcia said. “They never release anything until we push them and we bring pressure from the public.”

Garcia said Democrats were prepared to publish the full set themselves — but incrementally over the course of the week, arguing that such a release needed to be done carefully to protect victims’ privacy.

Republicans on the committee have criticized the minority party’s approach, arguing that it focuses on sensationalizing select pieces of information to damage Trump and politicizing the Epstein investigation.

“The most dangerous place in D.C. is between Robert Garcia and a cable news camera,” Republican strategist Matthew Gorman said. “This is simply a ploy for him to draw more attention to himself, and he’s using this issue to do it.”

‘Sometimes you gotta punch back harder’

Garcia’s allies view the 47-year-old’s rise as both foreseeable and reflective of his past.

Born in Peru, Garcia immigrated to the United States as a young child and became a citizen in his early 20s. He later became Long Beach’s first Latino and first openly gay mayor before arriving in Washington — where he is now one of the youngest to ever serve as the ranking member of the main investigative panel in the House.

Five months into the role, Garcia says he remains in disbelief that he is in the position that has been held by people like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), whom he considers one of his “heroes.”

“To be in a place where I’m doing the job that he was in when I got to Congress a couple of years ago is not something that I expected,” Garcia said. “I want to contribute back as best I can, and take on this corruption, take on what is happening with the Jeffrey Epstein case and holding the administration accountable.”

The oversight committee is one of the House’s most high-profile panels and its chair, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, has broad subpoena power. Comer, a staunch Trump ally, has been leading a review of the government’s investigation into Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Comer has subpoenaed both the Epstein estate and the Justice Department.

Comer declined to be interviewed for this article, as did other House Republicans. But Comer told Politico last week that he was “done with Garcia” and that the Democrat had “burned his bridges with this.”

“He just needs to do TikTok videos or something. … He’s not a serious investigator. He’s like a TikTok video kind of guy,” Comer said.

Garcia responded to Comer’s comments with a reference to the movie “Mean Girls.”

“Why’s he so obsessed with me?” he said Wednesday in an Instagram post — an example of how Garcia often uses pop culture to communicate to a more general audience.

Garcia says his tactics are motivated by an allergy to bullies.

“I grew up as an immigrant kid. … I know what it is like to be on the other side of the bully,” he said. “If the bully is going to punch or cause harm to you or others that you care about, you have to punch back. Sometimes you gotta punch back harder.”

Democrats credit Garcia for pushing Comer to act. In July, a Republican-led subcommittee passed a Democrat-led motion to subpoena the Justice Department’s Epstein documents — a move that ultimately prompted Comer to issue his subpoenas.

Rep. Robert Garcia speaks at a ceremonial swearing-in event in Long Beach in August to commemorate his new role as ranking member of the House oversight committee.

(Jonathan Alcorn / For The Times)

Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, said the vote “began knocking over the dominoes” that eventually led to the public seeing a copy of Epstein’s “50th birthday book,” which includes Trump’s name, as well as the three emails linking Trump to Epstein.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), a member of the oversight committee, praised Garcia for securing bipartisan support to secure documents and pushing records out to the public. Khanna, who led the push to force a vote on the House floor to demand the Justice Department release the Epstein files, also co-wrote a letter with Garcia to Epstein’s estate requesting an unredacted copy of the birthday book.

Attorneys for the estate said that they would cooperate, but that they required a subpoena to release materials due to privacy concerns. Khanna said he believes the letter set in motion the push that ultimately led Comer to subpoena the estate.

“I think the way he has worked with Comer to make sure a lot of the investigation has been bipartisan, has been effective,” Khanna said in an interview.

A ‘dynamic’ approach to oversight

Garcia — who is known to use social media and pop culture to amplify his message — has folded those communication tactics into his role on the oversight committee.

The day the emails were released, Garcia promoted them in social media posts and videos and gave multiple interviews. The congressman — a self-described Bravo fan — is scheduled to appear this week on the cable channel’s “What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) told The Times that Garcia’s “dynamic” leadership approach is creating new ways to communicate to a younger generation about the work Congress is doing.

“He seems to thrive on it, and that’s a joy to behold,” the former speaker said. “He is young, but has brought members along and the public along as to what the challenge is.”

Rep. Robert Garcia speaks with Mayor Karen Bass at a congressional field hearing at the Metropolitan Water District on Monday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Republicans on the committee have accused Garcia and Democrats of intentionally using the Epstein investigation to generate a false narrative against Trump — criticism that Democrats see as Garcia being willing to “fight fire with fire.”

Sen. Adam Schiff, who served on the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Garcia’s push to seek records “outside of traditional channels,” including the Epstein estate, helped drive a “public narrative that broke through.”

“Under such a lawless and corrupt administration, we need talented and creative leaders to do oversight work, expose the malfeasance to the public and break through in a fractured media environment, and Congressman Garcia has proven adept at all three,” Schiff said.

Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump administration appointee, said Garcia’s strategy could backfire if or when all the information on the Epstein investigation comes out.

“I believe that they’ve sprung Pandora’s box with a whole bunch of conspiracy theories, fake memes and news that the left is fully embracing and that may not actually be real,” he said.

As more records from Epstein’s estate are expected to come to light in the coming weeks, Garcia says he is committed to exposing wrongdoing from anyone, regardless of party. The documents have already shown Epstein’s links to prominent Democrats.

The records have also shown links to major banks, a thread Garcia says he believes could be central in understanding Epstein’s plea deal negotiated by a prosecutor who served in Trump’s Cabinet during his first term.

“I am not interested in protecting anybody,” he said. “I’m interested in justice for the survivors.”

David Puig became the first Spanish winner of the Australian PGA Championship since Seve Ballesteros in 1981 with a two-shot victory in Brisbane.

The 23-year-old, who also competes on the LIV Golf Tour, carded a bogey-free five-under 66 in Sunday’s final round to claim his first DP World Tour title on 18 under.

It is Puig’s third title as a professional after two wins on the Asian Tour in 2023 and 2024. His previous best on the DP World Tour was third at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in January.

“It feels amazing,” said Puig, who finished 10th in the 2025 Liv Golf Rankings. “I’ve really had a lot of close calls in a few events throughout this year and last year and I wasn’t able to pull it through.

“I was pretty nervous, especially thinking about the past a little bit, what I could have done a little better. But I kept my composure really well.”

As well as emulating legendary compatriot Ballesteros, Puig is also the first European winner since England’s David Howell in 1998.

China’s Ding Wenyi also carded a final-round 66 to finish second on 16 under, with Australian Marc Leishman and New Zealand’s Nick Voke tied for third one shot further back.

Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia began the final day as joint-leader but struggled to a one-over 72 to finish tied for eighth with Australian Daniel Gale.