hope

Tabby Refael’s messages to Iran are going unanswered.

For weeks, she has called, texted and sent voice memos to loved ones in Tehran, where massive crowds have demanded the overthrow of the country’s authoritarian government.

Are you OK? Refael — a West Los Angeles-based writer and Iranian refugee — has texted, over and over. Do you have enough food? Do you have enough water? Are you safe?

No response.

When the protests, initially spurred by economic woes, began in late December, Refael consistently got answers. But those stopped last week, when Iranian authorities imposed a near-total internet blackout, at the same time that calls to telephone landlines were also failing to connect. Videos circulating online show rows and rows of body bags. And human rights groups say the government is waging a deadly crackdown on protesters in Tehran and other cities, with more than 2,000 killed.

A woman shops at Shater Abbass Bakery and Market in Westwood in June 2025 after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Like many in Southern California’s large Iranian diaspora, Refael, 43, has been glued to her phone, constantly refreshing the news trickling out from Iran, where, she fears, there is “a wholesale massacre occurring in the literal dark.”

“Before the regime completely blacked out the internet, and in many places, electricity, there was an electrifying sense of hope,” said Refael, a prominent voice in Los Angeles’ Persian Jewish community. But now, as the death toll rises, “that hope has been devastatingly tempered with a sense of visceral dread.”

Refael’s family fled Iran when she was 7 because of religious persecution. Born a few years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, she was raised in an era when hijabs were mandatory and people had to adhere, she said, to the “anti-American and antisemitic policies of the state.”

Refael has never been able to return. Like other Iranian Americans, she said she feels “a sense of guilt” being physically far from the crisis in her homeland — watching with bountiful internet and electricity, living among Americans who pay little attention to what is happening on the streets of Iran.

The demonstrations, which began Dec. 28, were sparked by a catastrophic crash of Iran’s currency, the rial. They have since spread to all of the country’s 31 provinces, with protesters challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

People pass by the damaged Tax Affairs building on Jan. 10, 2026, in Tehran. Some parts of the capital have sustained heavy damage during ongoing protests.

(Getty Images)

In a post on his social media website on Tuesday morning, President Trump wrote that he had canceled planned meetings with Iranian officials, who he previously said were willing to negotiate with Washington.

“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” he wrote. “Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

Trump has repeatedly vowed to strike Iran’s leadership if it kills demonstrators. On Monday, he announced that countries doing business with Iran will face 25% tariffs from the U.S., “effective immediately.”

This frame grab from video taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners on the outskirts of Iran’s capital, in Kahrizak.

(Associated Press)

In the U.S., few, if any, places have been following the crisis as closely as Southern California, home to the largest population of Iranians outside Iran. An estimated 141,000 Iranian Americans live in L.A. County, according to the Iranian Diaspora Dashboard, which is hosted by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.

In Westwood — the epicenter of the community, where the eponymous boulevard is lined by storefronts covered in Persian script — the widespread opposition to Iran’s hard-line theocracy is hard to miss.

This week, the window display of one clothing store featured ballcaps that read, “MIGA / Make Iran Great Again” alongside a lion and sun, emblems of the country’s flag before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. At a nearby ice cream shop, a hand-painted sign behind the cash register read: “Stop oppressing our people in the name of Islam.” In the window of a bookstore across the street, a sign demanded “Regime change in Iran.”

On Sunday, thousands of people were marching through Westwood in solidarity with the anti-government protesters in Iran when, to their horror, a man plowed into the crowd in a U-Haul truck bearing a sign that read: “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah.” The signage appeared to be in reference to a U.S.-backed 1953 coup that toppled Iran’s prime minister, cemented the power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and lighted the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

• Share via Close extra sharing options

Police on Monday announced that the driver, Calor Madanescht, 48, was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving. He was released Monday afternoon, according to L.A. County sheriff’s inmate records.

Video shared with The Times by attendees showed protesters trying to pull him from the vehicle and continuing to punch and lash out at him as police took him into custody.

In a statement posted to X on Sunday, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said the FBI was “working with LAPD to determine the motive of the driver” and that “this is an active investigation.”

During a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting Tuesday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said he does not expect federal charges and that there is no apparent “nexus to terrorism.”

In Westwood this week, the mood was tense after the U-Haul incident, which, police said, caused no serious injuries. Few store owners wanted to talk as journalists went from shop to shop. Although many Iranian immigrants hope the theocratic regime in Iran will be toppled, they fear for loved ones left behind, and said they preferred to not be in the public eye.

Among those willing to speak was Roozbeh Farahanipour, chief executive of the West L.A. Chamber of Commerce and owner of three Westwood Boulevard eateries.

Roozbeh Farahanipour and his young son wave the pre-1979 Islamic Revolution flag of Iran outside his restaurant Delphi Greek in Westwood, in this June 2025 image.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

At his Mary & Robb’s Westwood Cafe — where the walls are adorned with decorative plates featuring American movie icons such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe — he conducted interviews all morning about the Sunday protest in Westwood, where he was in the crowd, just feet from the path of the U-Haul.

Farahanipour said Iranian Americans have mixed opinions about what should come next in Iran — including whether Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince and son of the late shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, should have a leading role.

“At the moment, I believe everybody needs to focus on overthrowing this regime. That’s why I participated. Many other people with different backgrounds participated,” he said, adding that he is “not a monarchist” but that “the opposition is unified against the regime.”

Farahanipour was 7 when the Islamic Revolution took place. He remembers riding with his mom to school, listening to a radio reading of “people who were executed by the regime.” One day, his mom’s cousin’s name was read over the airwaves.

Although his family was not Catholic, Farahanipour, 54, attended a Catholic school. He has fond memories of soccer games between the children and priests, who played in their long religious garments. After the revolution, he said, the government attacked the school and executed the principal.

Before seeking asylum in the U.S., Farahanipour was jailed and beaten in Iran for his role as a leader of the 1999 student protests against the government. He has been repeatedly threatened, including with death, by the government over the years, he said.

In 2022, his Persian Gulf Cafe in Westwood was vandalized, its glass front door shattered, after he shared images on Instagram of a memorial at the cafe honoring Iranian women in anti-government protests that year. He said he was unfazed.

Now a U.S. citizen, “officially retired from my role as Iranian opposition,” he said he dreams of returning to Iran for a trial against Khamenei and helping to “ask for the maximum sentence for him.”

Sam Yebri — a 44-year-old Iranian Jewish refugee whose family fled the country when he was 1 — said he has spent the last two weeks constantly getting social media updates about what’s happening in Iran and reaching out to elected officials, pleading with them to speak up for protesters.

Yebri, an attorney and former L.A. City Council candidate, grew up in Westwood. He is a longtime Democrat and said it has been “so maddening to see so many friends and activists who don’t shy away from discussing other issues just absolutely silent and absent in this fight.” He said he views it as “the biggest moment in world history since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

“The regime must go,” he said, adding that he hopes Trump will “do whatever is prudent to enable the Iranian people to overthrow the brutal mullahs who have their boots on their throats.”

Yebri said he has not returned to Iran since his family fled while he was an infant. He hopes to do so someday, to visit the beautiful places his parents describe — where they honeymooned on the beaches of southern Iran and skied on its snowy mountains.

Alex Mohajer, the 40-year-old vice president of the Iranian American Democrats of California, was born in Orange County, where he was raised by a single mom who emigrated from Iran. He visited family there when he was 14 and “felt a great deal of pride” in seeing that “Western depictions of the country are far afield from reality, that it’s a very warm and loving country where the people are very hospitable and it’s very clear that they’ve lived under oppressive rule.”

Mohajer, who was unsuccessful in a 2024 bid for the California State Senate, wants a future in which he can travel back and forth freely to visit loved ones in Iran. But more immediately, he just wants to know they’re OK. His text messages are also going unanswered.

Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas recounts scenes from Aleppo amid escalating clashes between the Syrian army and SDF forces.

I arrived in Aleppo early on Wednesday morning after receiving reports of serious clashes between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). What I encountered was far worse than I expected.

Heavy artillery shelling was constant, extreme. My team came under attack four times; one bullet hit our equipment.

This round of clashes, we quickly understood, would not be easily contained like earlier bouts over the past year.

The root of the conflict is the government’s demand for the SDF, which has tens of thousands of troops, to integrate into state institutions, as per an agreement reached between the two sides last March. But there are numerous disputes over how that should happen, including the number of SDF troops that will join the army.

‘Overwhelming sense of despair’

Fighting has centred in heavily populated parts of Aleppo, specifically the districts of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud. In total, these areas have about 400,000 inhabitants. Within 24 hours of fighting erupting, 160,000 fled their homes. It was like an exodus.

On Thursday, when the fighting peaked, people struggled to make their way through the streets without being caught in the crossfire. Children screamed and cried in panic. Families held each other’s hands and clothes in order to not lose track of each other.

One elderly man said he had seen enough after nearly 15 years of civil strife: “May God take my soul so I can rest,” he said.

An elderly woman, barely able to walk, fell to the ground amid the crowd and several people trampled over her. I saw her son break into tears as he tried to pull her from the ground.

The last time I saw scenes like this was in 2014, when ISIL (ISIS) attacked Syria’s Kurdish-majority town of Kobane. There was an overwhelming sense of despair, helplessness, and a feeling that everything was ending.

Short-lived ceasefire

On Friday, the warring parties agreed to a morning ceasefire and the SDF leadership agreed its fighters would lay down their heavy weapons and leave the area. However, when buses arrived to take them, more fighting broke out. When the buses came back later, the same thing happened. Our sources told us this was due to divisions within the SDF, with more radical factions resisting the calls to lay down their arms.

The back and forth ended with the Syrian government setting a deadline of 6pm (15:00 GMT) on Friday for remaining civilians to flee, after which it would restart military operations against SDF targets. Heavy fighting has since resumed in Sheikh Maqsoud.

The government, careful to avoid the perception of demographic engineering, has said that once it clears the area of SDF fighters, everyone will be able to come home. It has stressed that this is not a fight between Arabs and Kurds, but between government forces and a non-state force.

Meanwhile, people from Aleppo are sitting between hope and fear. On the one hand, they hope an agreement is finally reached between the SDF and Syrian army so they can return to their homes. But on the other hand, after 15 years of civil war, they fear that history could be repeating itself.

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre said Wednesday that anyone who says he has thrown in the towel on his battle with Parkinson’s disease is spreading fake news.

“Thank you everyone for your prayers and concerns, but contrary to reports, I have not given up hope in my battle with Parkinson’s!” the 56-year-old Super Bowl champion wrote on X. “Not sure where this came from — but just like I never gave up on the gridiron — not going to start now. I pray there will be a cure one day and I appreciate you all.”

Favre also told TMZ on Wednesday: “I have absolutely not given up and I am fighting till the end. Yes I have progressed a little faster than I would have hoped at this point but I’m extremely thankful and blessed!!!”

The former Packers/Jets/Vikings quarterback revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis last year but hadn’t gone into much detail about it until last week’s episode of his “4th and Favre” podcast.

On the podcast, Favre sounds like he’s trying to be realistic about his condition while also remaining hopeful.

“As you well know, there’s no cure,” Favre said. “I hear from time to time, ‘Well, they’re five years away from a cure.’ You know, I hope that that’s the case. I really do. But I’m not holding my breath.”

He mentioned Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali as people who “have really set the bar high on Parkinson’s and treatments and things of that nature.”

“And I’m sure that when they were diagnosed, they thought, ‘Well, they’ll have a cure in five years. I’ll be fine,’” Favre said. “Well, that’s not the case. So, I’m optimistic, but again, I’m not holding my breath.”

Favre’s comments on Wednesday may have been in response to a recent online article that seemed to interpret his podcast remarks in a different way than he intended.

Also on the podcast, Favre said he’s in the early stages of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, which is the most common type of the disorder. He said his major symptoms are “rigidity and stiffness,” which is worst in the morning before he takes his medication and has particularly affected his right side.

Favre added that he occasionally experiences shaking but has not had any memory loss issues.

“All in all, I’m pretty good,” he said. “I would say I’ve progressed maybe a little. … If you dropped a dime on the floor in front of me and I reached down with my right hand, I may for five minutes try to pick up that dime and eventually just grab it with my left hand. Initially when I would take the medicine, my dexterity in my right hand was pretty smooth. But that’s not the case anymore.

“So that’s one of the reasons I think I may have progressed a little bit. Hopefully not. Maybe it’s I’m looking into something more than it really is, but all in all, again I’m very blessed and thankful.”

It was his 26th birthday, so Wilmer Castro was not surprised by the flurry of messages that lit up his phone.

However, as he began scrolling on Saturday morning, he realised the messages were not birthday wishes, but news of something he had long hoped for: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been removed from power.

“I think it is the best gift that I will ever receive, one I will never forget,” the university student said from Ejido.

Castro told Al Jazeera that he was so elated by the news that he began daydreaming about his future self recounting the story of Maduro’s fall to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“I will tell them that on January 3, 2026, a dictator fell, and [that moment] is going to be very beautiful.”

The abduction of Venezuela’s long-time authoritarian leader – and his wife – by the United States followed months of escalating tensions between the two countries, including US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels and the deployment of US ships near Venezuela’s coastal waters.

But by Sunday morning, Castro’s initial jubilation was clouded by a heavy quiet. The weight of uncertainty brought the city to a sombre pause, one that closed in on him and felt unlike anything he had experienced before.

“It’s like being in a field with nothing else around. It’s a mournful silence; I can’t describe it,” he said.

That uncertainty was felt by many Venezuelans on Sunday morning.

Venezuela has had a socialist government since 1999, first under President Hugo Chavez and later Maduro, a period that began with oil-funded social programmes but unravelled into economic mismanagement, corruption and repression – with international sanctions further squeezing the population.

Momentum around the 2024 presidential election raised hopes that the opposition alliance would take control. But when Maduro declared victory, despite opposition claims of a landslide win for Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a crackdown on dissent followed. It left many Venezuelans concluding that any real transition might depend on pressure — or even intervention — from outside the country.

‘Deathly silence’

In southeastern Caracas on Saturday, 54-year-old Edward Ocariz was jolted awake by a loud crash and the vibrating windows of his home near the Fort Tiuna military barracks. He thought it was an earthquake, but when he looked outside, he saw unfamiliar helicopters flying low above smoke rising in the city.

“The noise kept coming,” he said. “I could immediately tell the helicopters were not Venezuelan because I had never seen them here.”

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

“There was a deathly silence,” Ocariz said, adding that the brief suspension of mobile phone services and power outages contributed to the silence. “We were waiting to understand what was happening.”

Fear accompanied the fragments of information that did manage to seep through, Ocariz said. “But it was a fear mixed with joy – tremendous joy. It’s hard to explain.”

On Sunday, when images of a blindfolded and handcuffed Maduro began circulating, Ocariz reflected on the suffering he had endured under the president’s regime.

The human rights activist said he was wrongfully charged with “terrorism” and spent nearly five months as a political prisoner in Tocuyito prison, a maximum-security facility in Carabobo state.

Under Maduro, the country had a long history of jailing those who dissent. After the disputed 2024 election, nearly 2,500 protesters, human rights activists, journalists and opposition figures were arrested. While some were later released, others remain behind bars.

“I felt satisfied. A process of justice is finally beginning,” Ocariz said, fully aware that Maduro will not have to endure the dire prison conditions he did, or be denied food and legal representation.

Despite the joy he and other Venezuelans now feel, Ocariz warns that much remains to be done.

“The population still feels a huge amount of fear [from the authorities] — psychological fear — because it’s well known how the police and justice system use their power to criminalise whoever they choose.”

So far, key institutions remain in the hands of figures from Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle, including Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who has been named acting president.

But for many Venezuelans — including Castro and Ocariz — seeing a senior Chavista figure still in power is unsettling, particularly as the Trump administration continues to engage with her.

“It is certainly frustrating for me. However, I understand that Venezuela needs to continue with its administrative, functional, and operational management as a country, as a nation,” Ocariz said, adding that the US must maintain some order to control the power vacuum and stamp out repression.

Economic concerns

Venezuela remains heavily militarised, and fears of further unrest linger. During periods of dissent, the authorities relied not only on formal security forces but also on “colectivos”, armed civilian groups accused by rights organisations of intimidation and violence.

Jose Chalhoub, an energy and political risk analyst at Jose Parejo & Associates in Caracas, said he is concerned about the possibility of more attacks and social unrest.

“Any potential new government that will move ahead with the cleansing of the top ranks of the armed forces and security and police forces will lead to the disarmament of the colectivos,” he said, adding that fixing the lingering economic crisis should also be one of the main priorities.

“A new government that applies quick economic measures leading to a recovery will outshine the ideological legacy of the Bolivarian revolution,” he said, referring to the ideology of Chavismo, defined by anti-imperialism, patriotism and socialism.

Those loyal to Maduro have long blamed Venezuela’s economic woes on the US — namely, the sanctions it imposed on the oil sector.

Chalhoub said he believed Trump’s promise to boost the country’s oil production could help the economy, though he found the US president’s assertion that the US will “run the country” baffling.

However, not everyone is happy with the Trump administration’s attack.

Alex Rajoy, a mototaxi driver in Caracas, said the US president was on an imperialist crusade with the goal of “robbing” Venezuela of its natural resources.

Despite his anger, Rajoy said he will stay home over the coming days because he is fearful of further attacks.

“These missiles aren’t aimed only at Chavistas,” he said, referring to those loyal to Venezuela’s socialist ideology.

“They threaten opposition people, too,” he said, adding that anyone supporting foreign intervention amounts to a betrayal. “It’s treason against the homeland,” he said.

What now?

For Castro, the university student, the elation he felt on Saturday has been interrupted by fear for his immediate needs – concerns over whether stores would remain open in Ejido and rising costs. Under Maduro, he has long struggled to afford basic items.

“People in the street were going crazy yesterday,” he said. “Everyone was buying food with half of what they had in their bank accounts, buying what they could, because we don’t know what the future holds.”

The scenes brought back memories of the shortages of 2016, when hyperinflation and scarcity plunged the country into crisis, forcing people to queue for hours and rush between shops with limits on how much each person could buy.

But a day after the attack, Castro said Venezuelans are reflecting on the future of their country and the uncertainty of that future.

“There’s happiness, there’s fear, there’s gratitude, there’s the ‘what will happen next?’” he said. “For my next birthday, I want total freedom for Venezuela – and hopefully, God willing, we will have it.”

VIC Hope has shared a rare snap of her baby boy Micah as she and husband Calvin Harris shared their first Christmas as a family of three.

The BBC Radio 1 presenter, 36, gave birth to the couple’s first child in July, returning to work for an awards ceremony in October.

Now she has given her Instagram followers a sneak peek into her festive period with the iconic DJ and their firstborn.

Vick kicked off her image carousel with a snap showing her donning a shimmering gold dress as she sat at a table awaiting a Christmas feast.

She pulled her locks back into a stylish up-do and kept her make-up natural, accessorising with huge gold earrings.

She followed with a tender snap of Micah on her tummy before images showed Summer hitmaker Calvin, 41, picking up their Christmas tree and their tot wearing a ‘my first Christmas’ baby grow.

DADDY COOL

Calvin Harris is the doting dad as he poses with baby son Micah in a papoose

GOT HOPE

Vick Hope looks incredible as she returns to work after she welcomed first child

Snapshots of their family celebrations followed as Calvin was seen sat by the baby in his high chair.

In her caption, Vic wrote: “Twas the season.”

MUM JOURNEY

Back in October, Vick admitted that she’d been covered in “bright yellow s**t” since giving birth.

And addressing a graphic snap of her placenta, posted by hubby Calvin, she joked: “‘It was posted by my husband but placentas are amazing.

“I am keen to celebrate motherhood after what my vagina has done – it’s f***ing majestic. 

“And now you’ve all seen my placenta too!”

The placenta pic was included in a series of snaps he posted, as he announced the birth of his son on Instagram back in August.

The post, which included images of Vick in a birthing pool, had snaps of her placenta with capsules, suggesting they had it encapsulated – an increasingly popular trend.

He wrote in the caption: “20th of July our boy arrived. Micah is here!

“My wife is a superhero and I am in complete awe of her primal wisdom! Just so grateful.

“We love you so much Micah.”

Vick previously posted a series of summer highlights on Instagram and looked radiant as she cradled the couple’s son at the couple’s sprawling Spanish residence.

Calvin bought the stunning 138-acre farm, known as Terra Masia, back in 2022, and the couple spent much of the summer there, with Vick even giving birth in the Ibiza property.

Listening to the usual legacy media suspects, one might think 2025 was an apocalyptic wasteland of sorts — an authoritarian fever dream brought on by the return of Donald J. Trump to the Oval Office. The reality looked very different. This past year was, in many ways, a pretty great and clarifying one. Let’s take stock of what happened when our government remembered whom it serves, as well as what unfinished business remains as we flip the calendar.

First, the obvious: Political sanity was restored to the nation’s capital. After years of leftist elite-driven chaos — wide-open borders, hyper-vindictive lawfare, fecklessness on the world stage and more — the nation has begun to revert back to first principles: national sovereignty, law and order, and strong leadership abroad. Under Trump, the United States has once again acted like a real nation-state that pursues its real interests — not a nongovernmental organization with a nagging guilt complex.

That reorientation has paid huge dividends. On immigration, the Biden-era invasion at the southern border has tapered by more than 90%. On energy, a renewed embrace of domestic production has led to the lowest average national gas prices in nearly five years. Violent crime, thanks to Trump’s law enforcement operations and innovative use of the National Guard, has dramatically fallen: Murders decreased by nearly 20% from 2024, and robbery and burglary also saw double-digit percentage decreases. Abroad, allies and adversaries alike recalibrated to the reality that the White House once again means what it says.

Still, work always remains. Here, then, is my 2026 wish list.

Peace in Eastern Europe

The Russia-Ukraine war has gone on far, far too long. The Trump administration has exerted tremendous diplomatic effort trying to orchestrate a peace deal, which remains elusive. A durable peace — one that halts the senseless slaughter on both sides, respects Ukrainian sovereignty and accommodates legitimate Russian concerns, and avoids a wider great-power conflagration — should be a paramount Trump administration foreign policy goal in 2026. Russia is the invader and Vladimir Putin is the greater obstacle to a lasting peace, but both sides need to make painful — if, frustratingly, also painfully obvious — concessions.

Victory on birthright citizenship

Back home, a consequential legal battle now sits before the U.S. Supreme Court: the Trump administration’s righteous challenge to the erroneous practice of constitutionally “required” birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of noncitizens. The notion that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, was meant to constitutionalize a global human trafficking magnet — granting automatic citizenship to all children born here, including those whose parents entered the country illegally — is indefensible as a matter of plain constitutional text, the congressional history in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and basic common sense. Indeed, birthright citizenship has been nothing short of ruinous for the United States. A Trump administration victory would restore Congress’s rightful authority over circumscribing citizenship and remove a longstanding incentive for illegal immigration.

Improved affordability and housing costs

Legal victories mean relatively little if ordinary Americans continue to feel like they are getting squeezed. Improved affordability must be front and center in 2026 — from the federal level down to states and localities. The cost of living is not an economic abstraction; it affects rent, groceries, child care and the difficulty of buying a first home. Housing, in particular, demands attention. Housing policy should reward supply, not suffocate it — cutting red tape and burdensome construction fees, reforming zoning incentives, and curtailing the inflationary spending that puts upward pressure on mortgage rates. A nation where young families cannot afford to put down roots is a nation courting decline — the very antithesis of Trumpian restoration.

Justice for Minnesota fraud scandal

The burgeoning fraud scandal over state and federal funds for child care in Minnesota, including at businesses run by Somali Americans — astonishing in scale — has become a test case for whether the rule of law still applies when politics get uncomfortable. Justice means following the facts wherever they lead: recovering stolen taxpayer dollars and holding wrongdoers and abettors legally accountable without fear or favor. To wit, on the subject of abettors: What did Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and other prominent Minnesota politicians know, and when did they know it? Moreover, what did Kamala Harris — who picked Walz as her 2024 presidential running mate — know, and when did she know it? The Biden administration and the Walz administration began investigating these fraud allegations years ago, and the American people deserve answers to all these questions.

Tamed Communist China

Finally, no wish list can be complete without confronting the central geopolitical challenge of our age: that of Communist China. Simply put, Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, who just presided over their largest live-fire military exercises around Taiwan, must be meaningfully deterred in the Indo-Pacific. That means maintaining a combative tariff posture, implementing as much economic decoupling as is feasible and emboldening key regional allies — such as Japan — who share America’s interest in freedom of maritime navigation and diminished Chinese hegemony. Decades from now, Trump’s presidential legacy will be partially defined by how he handled the China challenge. Now is not the time to take the foot off the gas pedal.

This past year showed what is possible when Washington rejects the politics of managed decline and reembraces the best of the American tradition and way of life. Let us hope we will see more — a lot more — of that same success in this new year.

Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. X: @josh_hammer

NEW YORK — By nearly any measure, 2025 has been a rough year for anyone concerned about freedom of the press.

It’s likely to be the deadliest year on record for journalists and media workers. The number of assaults on reporters in the U.S. nearly equals the last three years combined. The president of the United States berates many who ask him questions, calling one woman “piggy.” And the ranks of those doing the job continues to thin.

It’s hard to think of a darker time for journalists. So say many, including Timothy Richardson, a former Washington Post reporter and now program director for journalism and disinformation at PEN America. “It’s safe to say this assault on the press over the past year has probably been the most aggressive that we’ve seen in modern times.”

Tracking killings and assaults against journalists

Worldwide, the 126 media industry people killed in 2025 by early December matched the number of deaths in all of 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and last year was a record-setter. Israel’s bombing of Gaza accounted for 85 of those deaths, 82 of them Palestinians.

“It’s extremely concerning,” said Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Unfortunately, it’s not just, of course, about the sheer numbers of journalists and media workers killed, it’s also about the failure to obtain justice or get accountability for those killings.

“What we know from decades of doing this work is that impunity breeds impunity,” she said. “So a failure to tackle journalists’ killings creates an environment where those killings continue.”

The committee estimates there are at least 323 journalists imprisoned worldwide.

None of those killed this year were from the United States. But the work on American soil has still been dangerous. There have been 170 reports of assaults on journalists in the United States this year, 160 of them at the hands of law enforcement, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Many of those reports came from coverage of immigration enforcement efforts.

It’s impossible to look past the influence of Trump, who frequently seethes with anger at the press while simultaneously interacting with journalists more than any president in memory — frequently answering their cell phone calls.

“Trump has always attacked the press,” Richardson said. “But during the second term, he’s turned that into government action to restrict and punish and intimidate journalists.”

Journalists learn quickly they have a fight on their hands

The Associated Press learned that quickly, when Trump limited the outlet’s access to cover him after it refused to follow his lead to rename the Gulf of Mexico. It launched a court fight that has remained unresolved. Trump has also extracted settlements from ABC and CBS News in lawsuits over stories that displeased him, and is suing the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Long angry about a perceived bias against conservatives on PBS and NPR newscasts, Trump and his allies in Congress successfully cut funding for public broadcasting as a whole. The president has also moved to shut down government-run organizations that beam news to all parts of the world.

“The U.S. is a major investor in media development, in independent media outlets in countries that have little or no independent media, or as a source of information for people in countries where there is no free media,” Ginsberg said. “The evisceration of Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America is another blow to press freedom globally.”

Others in his administration take Trump’s lead, like when his press office chose the day after Thanksgiving to launch a web portal to complain about outlets or journalists being unfair.

“It’s part of this overall strategy that we’re seeing from certain governments, notably the United States, to paint all journalists who don’t simply [repeat] the narrative put out by the government as fake news, as dubious, as dodgy, as criminal,” Ginsberg said.

Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has portrayed journalists as dark figures skulking around Pentagon halls to uncover classified secrets as his rationale for enacting restrictive rules for coverage.

That’s led to the most notable example of journalists fighting back: most mainstream news outlets gave up their credentials to work in the Pentagon rather than agree to these rules, and are still breaking stories while working off-site. The New York Times has sued to overturn the rules. The newspaper also publicly defends itself when attacked by the president, such as when he complained about its coverage of his health.

Despite the more organized effort against the press, the public has taken little notice. The Pew Research Center said that 36% of Americans reported earlier this year hearing a lot about the Trump administration’s relationship with the press, compared to 72% who said that at the same point in his first term.

Pew’s polling shows that trust in news organizations has declined over the last decade, and journalists are likely to elicit little sympathy when their work becomes harder.

“Really, the harm falls on the public with so much of this because the public depends on this independent reporting to understand and scrutinize the decisions that are being made by the most powerful office in the world,” Richardson said.

Some reasons for optimism

The news industry as a whole is more than two decades in to a retrenchment caused largely by a collapse in the advertising market, and every year brings more reports of journalists laid off as a result. One of the year’s most sobering statistics came in a report by the organizations Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News: in 2002, there were 40 journalists for every 100,000 people in the United States; by this year, it was down to a little more than eight.

Asked if they could find reasons for optimism, both Ginsberg and Richardson pointed to the rise of some independent local news organizations, shoots of growth in a barren landscape, such as the Baltimore Banner, Charlottesville Tomorrow in Virginia and Outlier Media in Michigan.

As much as they are derided in Trump’s America, reporters at mainstream media outlets are still working hard and able to set the nation’s agenda with their reporting, noted influential Axios CEO Jim VandeHei in a recent column.

As he told the AP: “Over time, people will hopefully come to their senses and say, ‘Hey, the media like anything else is imperfect but, man, it’s a nice thing to have a free press.’”

Bauder writes for the Associated Press.

Is there a dumpster somewhere to torch and bury this year of bedlam, 2025?

We near its end with equal amounts relief and trepidation. Surely we can’t be expected to endure another such tumultuous turn around the sun?

It was only January that Donald Trump moved back into the White House, apparently toting trunkloads of gilt for the walls. Within weeks, he’d declared an emergency at the border; set in motion plans to dismantle government agencies; fired masses of federal workers; and tariffs, tariffs, tariffs.

Demonstrators at a No Kings rally in Washington, protesting actions by President Trump and Elon Musk.

(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)

By spring, the administration was attacking Harvard as a test case for strong-arming higher education. By June, Trump’s grotesquely misnamed Big Beautiful Bill had become law, giving $1 trillion in tax cuts to billionaires and funding a deportation effort (and armed force) that has fundamentally reshaped American immigration law and ended any pretense about targeting “the worst of the worst.”

Fall and winter have brought questionable bombings of boats in the Caribbean, a further backing away from Ukraine, a crackdown on opposition to Trump by classifying it as leftist terrorism and congressional inaction on healthcare that will leave many struggling to stay insured.

That’s the short list.

It was a year when America tried something new, and while adherents of the MAGA movement may celebrate much of it, our columnists Anita Chabria and Mark Z. Barabak have a different perspective.

Here, they renew their annual tradition of looking at the year past and offering some thoughts on what the new year may bring.

Chabria: Welp, that was something. I can’t say 2025 was a stellar year for the American experiment, but it certainly will make the history books.

Before we dive into pure politics, I’ll start with something positive. I met a married couple at a No Kings rally in Sacramento who were dressed up as dinosaurs, inspired by the Portland Frog, an activist who wears an inflatable amphibian suit.

When I asked why, the husband told me, “If you don’t do something soon, you will have democracy be extinct.”

Crowds participate in No Kings Day in downtown Los Angeles in October.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

I loved that so many Americans were doing something by turning out to not just protest policies that hit personally, but to rally in support of democracy writ large. For many, it was their first time taking this kind of action, and they were doing it in a way that expressed optimism and possibility rather than giving in to anger or despair. Where there is humor, there is hope.

Barabak: As in, it only hurts when I laugh?

In 2024, a plurality of Americans voted to reinstall Trump in the White House — warts, felony conviction and all — mainly in the hope he would bring down the cost of living and make eggs and gasoline affordable again.

While eggs and gas are no longer exorbitant, the cost of just about everything else continues to climb. Or, in the case of beef, utility bills and insurance, skyrocket.

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts is another of the long-standing institutions Trump has smeared his name across.

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Meantime, the president seems less concerned with improving voters’ lives than smearing his name on every object he lays his eyes on, one of the latest examples being the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

(The only place Trump doesn’t want to see his name is in those voluminous Epstein files.)

I wonder: Why stop there? Why not brand these the United States of Trump-erica, then boast we live in the “hottest” country on Planet Trump?

Chabria: Stop giving him ideas!

You and I agree that it’s been a difficult year full of absurdity, but we’ve disagreed on how seriously to take Trump as a threat to democracy. As the year closes, I am more concerned than ever.

It’s not the ugly antics of ego that alarm me, but the devastating policies that will be hard to undo — if we get the chance to undo them.

The race-based witch hunt of deportations is obviously at the top of that list, but the demolition of both K-12 and higher education; the dismantling of federal agencies, thereby cutting our scientific power as a nation; the increasing oligarchy of tech industrialists; the quiet placement of election deniers in key election posts — these are all hammers bashing away at our democracy.

Now, we are seeing overt antisemitism and racism on the MAGA right, with alarming acceptance from many. The far right has championed a debate as dumb as it is frightening, about “heritage” Americans being somehow a higher class of citizens than nonwhites.

Vice President JD Vance speaks at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

Recently, Vice President JD Vance gave a speech in which he announced, “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore,” and Trump has said he wants to start taking away citizenship from legal immigrants. Both men claim America is a Christian nation, and eschew diversity as a value.

Do you still think American democracy is secure, and this political moment will pass without lasting damage to our democratic norms?

Barabak: I’ll start with some differentiation.

I agree that Trump is sowing seeds or, more specifically, enacting policies and programs, that will germinate and do damage for many years to come.

Alienating our allies, terrorizing communities with his prejudicial anti-immigrant policies — which go far beyond a reasonable tightening of border security — starving science and other research programs. The list is a long and depressing one, as you suggest.

But I do believe — cue the trumpets and cherubs — there is nothing beyond the power of voters to fix.

To quote, well, me, there is no organism on the planet more sensitive to heat and light than a politician. We’ve already seen an anti-Trump backlash in a series of elections held this year, in red and blue state alike. A strong repudiation in the 2026 midterm election will do more than all the editorial tut-tutting and protest marches combined. (Not that either are bad things.)

A stressed-out seeming poll worker in a polling station at Los Angeles’ Union Station.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The best way to preserve our democracy and uphold America’s values is for unhappy citizens to register their dissent via the ballot box. And to address at least one of your concerns, I’m not too worried about Trump somehow nullifying the results, given legal checks and the decentralization of our election system.

Installing lawmakers in Congress with a mandate to hold Trump to account would be a good start toward repairing at least some of the damage he’s wrought. And if it turns into a Republican rout, it’ll be quite something to watch the president’s onetime allies run for the hills as fast as their weak knees allow.

Chabria: OMG! It’s a holiday miracle. We agree!

I think the midterms will be messy, but I don’t think this will be an election where Trump, or anyone, outright tries to undo overall results.

Although I do think the groundwork will be laid to sow further doubt in our election integrity ahead of 2028, and we will see bogus claims of fraud and lawsuits.

So the midterms very well could be a reset if Democrats take control of something, anything. We would likely not see past damage repaired, but may see enough opposition to slow the pace of whatever is happening now, and offer transparency and oversight.

But the 2026 election only matters if people vote, which historically is not something a great number of people do in midterms. At this point, there are few people out there who haven’t heard about the stakes in November, but that still doesn’t translate to folks — lazy, busy, distracted — weighing in.

If proposed restrictions on mail-in ballots or voter identification take effect, even just in some states, that will also change the outcomes.

But there is hope, always hope.

Barabak: On that note, let’s recognize a few of the many good things that happened in 2025.

MacKenzie Scott donated $700 million to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, showing that not all tech billionaires are selfish and venal.

The Dodgers won their second championship and, while this San Francisco Giants fan was not pleased, their seven-game thriller against the Toronto Blue Jays was a World Series for the ages.

And the strength and resilience shown by survivors of January’s SoCal firestorm has been something to behold.

Any others, beside your demonstrating dinos, who deserve commendation?

Pope Leo XIV waves after delivering the Christmas Day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

(Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

Chabria: Though I’m not Catholic, I have been surprisingly inspired by Pope Leo XIV.

So I’ll leave us with a bit of his advice for the future: “Be agents of communion, capable of breaking down the logic of division and polarization, of individualism and egocentrism.”

Many of us are tired, and suffering from Trump fatigue. Regardless, to put it in nonpapal terms, it may be a dumpster — but we’re all in it together.

Barabak: I’d like to end, as we do each year, with a thank you to our readers.

Anita and I wouldn’t be here — which would greatly please some folks — but for you. (And a special nod to the paid subscribers out there. You help keep the lights on.)

Here’s wishing each and all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

We’ll see you again in 2026.

Gaza City – The Holy Family Church in Gaza has lit its Christmas tree for the first time after two years of Israel’s genocidal war on the Strip. It is Christmas Eve mass, and the worshippers have packed the main prayer hall. Many of them are excited and happy – not just because it is Christmas but because they are still alive.

The glow of lights on the big Christmas tree and holiday decorations could not hide the harsh reality left by the war on Gaza. The church decided to limit the celebrations to a prayer service and brief family gatherings, but the bells rang loud, and that alone filled people with joy.

One of those people is 58-year-old Dmitri Boulos, who missed celebrating Christmas during the war. He was displaced along with his wife and two children in the early days of the fighting after heavy Israeli shelling hit around his home in the Tal al-Hawa area, south of Gaza City.

“We fled to the church seeking safety at the time, but it turned out there was no safe place,” Boulos said. “The church was hit twice while we were inside, and we lost friends and loved ones during that period.

“Nothing had any taste at all,” he recalled. “There was immense fear and grief for those we lost. How can we celebrate when everything around us is wounded and sad?”

Boulos hopes this Christmas and the new year will bring an end to all the suffering and lift restrictions on Gaza.

“We are trying to make ourselves and our children feel that what’s coming will be better, even though the reality is extremely hard,” he said. “We hope things will return to how they were before.”

The Holy Family Church, the only Catholic parish in Gaza, has long held symbolic importance beyond the Strip. Throughout the war, the late Pope Francis called the parish almost daily, maintaining a direct line to the besieged community.

Most of Palestine’s Christians live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, totalling approximately 47,000 to 50,000, with an additional 1,000 in Gaza before the war.

The number of Christians in Gaza has dwindled in recent years. Today, there are a few hundred left, a sharp drop from the 3,000 registered in 2007.

During the war, Israeli attacks targeted several Christian places of worship where many displaced Palestinians were taking shelter.

Although the Holy Family Church was not placed by Israel in the zones marked for expulsions, the other churches in Gaza City, including the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius and the Anglican St Philip’s Church, were.

But the nearly 550 displaced people sheltering in the Holy Family Church still mistrust the Israeli military. The church has been attacked so many times before – despite Israeli guarantees that it does not target places of worship.

Many of those people remain traumatised and try to rebuild the semblance of a normal life.

“My heart is still heavy with the tragedies and exhaustion we lived through during the war,” Nowzand Terzi told Al Jazeera, as she stood outside the Holy Family Church’s courtyard watching the worshippers without engaging them.

“We were displaced here under bombardment two years ago. I lost my home in an Israeli strike, and then I lost my daughter, who fell suddenly ill last year and passed away,” said Terzi as her voice choked after remembering her 27-year-old daughter – who did not make it on time to hospital because of the war.

“May God help those who have lost their loved ones, and may conditions in the Gaza Strip calm down,” she said, wishing peace and safety for all.

It’s a wish that resonates across the Gaza Strip, where nearly two million people are dealing with continued Israeli attacks and violations of the ceasefire, lack of food, lack of medicine, lack of shelter and basic services.

More than 288,000 families in Gaza are enduring a shelter crisis as Israeli restrictions on humanitarian supplies worsen conditions for Palestinians displaced by the war, the territory’s Government Media Office says.

More than 80 percent of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed during the war, according to UN figures, forcing enormous displacement.

Edward Sabah is just 18 years old, but he knows well the tragedy of war and displacement. He was forced to leave his home during the war and took shelter in the Saint Porphyrius Church in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City. The church was bombed on October 19, 2023, in an Israeli attack that killed 18 people.

“We were gathered in the church courtyard … We were talking normally with other displaced people when suddenly a massive explosion hit one of the church buildings,” Sabah recalls.

“We never expected the church to be targeted, but it happened. Everything unexpected happened during the war. Bombing was everywhere,” he said, adding that he and his family survived and later moved to another church, where they lived for a year and a half.

“During the past two Christmases, we tried very hard to create an atmosphere, but it was extremely sad,” he said. But he is also full of hope and the desire to live.

“This year it’s less intense, but we’re still afraid of what might happen. Still, we decorated the church and tried to create a joyous atmosphere,” Sabah said, adding that he hopes to complete his high school education.

This Christmas has brought joy and a sense of relief to many Christians in the Gaza Strip and in the rest of Palestine. Many Palestinians talk about their sense of belonging and attachment to their land despite all the hardships, tragedies and wars.

That’s why Janet Massadm, a 32-year-old woman from Gaza, decided to style her hair and put on new clothes to celebrate Christmas for the first time in two years.

“We are tired of grief, loss, displacement, and fear that have taken so much from our lives and our years,” Massadm said emotionally.

“Inside, I am completely exhausted because of what we have witnessed,” she added. “But what can we do? We must try to create joy and happiness.”

Like many Christians in Gaza, Massadm was displaced to the church with her family, her parents, brother, and sister, fleeing bombardment in the Remal neighbourhood of central Gaza City.

“I hope the war does not return,” she said. “That people reunite with their loved ones, that we witness a better future, and that Gaza is rebuilt soon.”

President Obama in his farewell address urged listeners unhappy with their representatives to “run for office yourself.” (Zbigniew Bzdak / TNS)

(Zbigniew Bzdak / TNS)

Ammar Campa-Najjar is trying to oust Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in San Diego County. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

(Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune file)

Sam Jammal, a former staffer in President Obama’s Commerce Department, is now a congressional candidate in Orange County.

(Sam Jammal)

Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, then the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, waves rainbow flags at a gay pride march in Budapest in 2012. She’s now running for lieutenant governor in California.

(Peter Kollanyi / Associated Press)

Follow California politics by signing up for our email newsletter »

Buffy Wicks, center, who worked in the Obama White House and for the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns, is running for the state Assembly.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

seema.mehta@latimes.com

For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter.

ALSO

‘Art of the Deal’ writer predicts that Trump will resign by the end of the year

Defending Confederate memorials, Trump equates Gens. Lee and Jackson with Presidents Washington and Jefferson

Trump succeeds where Obama failed – spawning a new wave of liberal activism

Live coverage of California politics