meet

Periodically, the Latinx Files will feature guest writers. Filling in this week is film reporter extraordinaire Carlos Aguilar.

With the explicit goal of making people laugh, the endearingly foul-mouthed Mexican American filmmaker Alejandro Montoya Marin is building an unpretentious body of work.

“There are far smarter people than me to make ‘Parasite’ or to make Yorgos [Lanthimos’] movies,” says Montoya Marin, 42, laughing during a recent video interview from his home in Los Angeles. “I want to entertain you for 88 minutes and have you come out and be like, ‘I’m going to recommend that to a friend.’ That’s it.”

It’s not that he lacks ambition.Montoya Marin, whose T-shirt is emblazoned with Hong Kong action film legend John Woo, feels secure in the type of storytelling that best suits his interest and abilities. And he’s taken a DIY approach to making films and promoting them so that they can reach audiences directly.

“Their job is to tell you no,” he says of decision makers in the entertainment industry. “But you have the ability to say, ‘F— you, I’m going to be creative. You’re not going to tell me when I can be creative.’ And that was always the mentality that I had.”

His third feature, “The Unexpecteds,” now available on streaming platforms, features a mostly Latino cast: Chelsea Rendon (“Vida”), Francisco Ramos (“Gentefied”) and Alejandro De Hoyos (“The Man From Toronto”) — as well as actor Matt Walsh in the lead role. Executive produced by independent cinema legend Kevin Smith of “Clerks” fame, the action comedy follows a group of everyday working people who take justice into their own hands after an online financial guru, Metal Mike (John Kaler), scams them out of their savings.

“I love underdog stories because I feel like I am one and there are so many people like that,” Montoya Marin says about “The Unexpecteds” and his other films. “Maybe there could be movies that can inspire them or make them feel good about themselves for a little bit.”

Born in Laredo, Texas, to parents from Yucatán and Mexico City, Montoya Marin owes his cinematic awakening to a disparate double feature that introduced him to the gritty dystopia of “RoboCop” and the heart-rending sentimentality of “Cinema Paradiso.”

He was about 7 years old and had tagged along with his uncle, who was taking a date to the movies, in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo. “I didn’t understand [“Cinema Paradiso”] because it was in Italian and subtitled in Spanish. My Spanish wasn’t amazing then,” says Montoya Marin. “But I understood a lot of it, and that double feature did it for me.”

And thus, his topsy-turvy, multicity trail to the triumphs and pitfalls of moviemaking began. At 12, Montoya Marin moved from the U.S. to Merida, Yucatán, where he then made his first amateur short film inspired by the “Star Wars” universe.

He later studied marketing in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. To supplement his income during those days, Montoya Marin opened his own video store, which he called Quick Stop Video, in honor of Quick Stop Groceries, the convenience store in Smith’s “Clerks.” One day, an office opened across the street that had a sign that read “Go study in Canada.” Intrigued, Montoya Marin inquired about film schools, and was immediately enticed by Vancouver Film School, mainly because a young Smith had briefly attended there. He sold all his movies and, as an American citizen, got a student loan and moved to Canada.

Though they now have a close relationship, Montoya Marin’s father, a successful businessman, did not initially support his artistic aspirations, which caused conflict.

“My dad would go, ‘Bring those dreams down because the fall will be less hard,’ and I’d go, ‘F— that. Why?’” he recalls. “He told me, ‘If you go there I don’t want to see you. You’re not seeing the family.’ I was like, ‘OK, that’s a risk I have to take.’”

After graduating, Montoya Marin couldn’t afford to live in Los Angeles and instead moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where he worked for 13 years as a production assistant and as a commercial director. During that time, a career-altering opportunity came his way.

While in Europe shooting a project, Montoya Marin finished the screenplay for his first feature, “Monday.” The script earned him a spot in Robert Rodriguez’s reality show “Rebel Without a Crew,” which aired in 2018 on El Rey Network. Each participant had to produce their feature film with a budget of $7,000, the same amount of money Rodriguez made his debut, “El Mariachi,” for.

“It was a dream come true. Robert is very down to earth. You could tell he’s not bulls—. He doesn’t play the game,” he says. “We would be filming at three in the morning, y ahí lo veías trabajando.”

“I was honored to mentor Alejandro as he directed his very first feature film,” Rodriguez said in an email. “He had the true indie filmmaking spirit within him and inspired me right back! He’s a great representation of what audiences desire: authenticity and passion.”

After “Monday,” an action comedy centered on a man down on his luck who gets caught in a cartel war, Montoya Marin raised $60,000 via crowdfunding to make his sophomore effort, “Millennium Bugs,” a Y2K-set tale about two people coming of age as the world anticipates chaos. And while neither of those films had the impact he’d hoped for, that outcome did not deter him in the slightest.

“There’s no Plan B, compadre,” he said, laughing. “That’s why I can firmly just go headfirst because if I die on set, I will be a happy man.”

Montoya Marin met Walsh while shooting Eva Longoria’s “Flamin’ Hot,” where they both had acting parts. A friendship developed between them, and eventually the filmmaker offered Walsh the part in “The Unexpecteds.” Although he shot the film in 15 days, like his previous features, this time he had a more sizable budget (still under $1 million).

As part of its 2024 festival run, “The Unexpecteds” screened at Smith’s Smodcastle Film Festival in New Jersey, where it won the Best Comedy Award. It was there that Montoya Marin first connected with one of his heroes.

“Giving a platform to fledgling filmmakers with the Smodcastle Film Festival is meaningful to an old film fest kid, and if my name can help them open a single door, I’m happy to help,” Smith said. “But being involved with ‘The Unexpecteds’ does me more good than them. Attaching myself to a talent like Alejandro is a sure way to ensure I get to stick around in a business I’m getting too old for.”

The first time Montoya Marin met Smith in person was right before going on a news show where the two were supposed to have a joint interview to promote the film. It was there that Montoya Marin witnessed his hero’s walk-the-walk allyship in action.

Before going on air, the production informed Montoya Marin that they wouldn’t be able to have him do the interview. Only Smith would be on camera. “But to make it up to you guys, we’re going to make this a Hispanic Heritage Month themed segment,” the team told them.

That’s when Smith stepped in. “You’re going to put the white guy to come and promote Hispanic Heritage Month,” he said, according to Montoya Marin. “Kevin goes, ‘That’s stupid. I’m not doing that. Mic him up, because the filmmaker is the best salesman of a film.’” Smith was shocked at what the TV folks had tried to pull. “I told Kevin, ‘You were just witness of what they do to us without saying an insult. It’s just polite,’” Montoya Marin recalls.

Thanks to Smith’s intervention, Montoya Marin ultimately did the interview. “I fell in love with him even more,” he added.

Now that his most ambitious project yet is out in the world, Montoya Marin has multiple projects in the works, from a thriller to a comedy set in the ‘90s, and even a project that would allow him to shoot in Mexico. Like a good salesman, he has perfected his pitch.

“I’m dying to make a movie in Spanish. I already have the concept and some producers. I just need $1.5 million and I will give you one of the best comedies in Mexican cinema,” he declares. “And I’m not saying just to be m—, but I know I’m funnier in Spanish.”

Speaking with Montoya Marin, one gets the sense that he’s consistently trying to disarm you into rooting for him. It’s not manipulative but refreshingly sincere — and a bit brash. Getting behind him is a vote of confidence for independent cinema that doesn’t take itself so seriously. His humorous conviction and rousing spiel make one eager to believe him.

The American Cinematheque will screen “The Unexpecteds” on Dec. 13 at the Los Feliz 3, with Montoya Marin and Smith in attendance.

Stories we read this week that we think you should read

Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.

Politics, immigration and foreign affairs

Arts, culture and entertainment

Nov. 26 (UPI) — Amid a U.S.-push to end the war in Ukraine, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow next week for talks on a proposed peace deal, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

The announcement from Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, who said preliminary agreement for the visit had been struck, came a day after Ukraine said it had reached a “common understanding” with the White House on a revised version of a 28-point plan floated by Trump last week.

Ushakov said Putin would “definitely” meet with Witkoff if he came, the state-run Tass news agency reported, on what would be his sixth visit to the Kremlin in nine months.

However, he said Russia was not in formal receipt of the peace plan for Ukraine, but had a copy obtained unofficially.

Ushakov said there were several versions, which caused some confusion, but said he believed “we have some of the latest versions.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night, Trump said the plan had been “fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides,” and that they were going to keep talking.

“They’re talking about [exchanging] land going both ways and cleaning up the border,” he said, adding that frontiers that ran through a house or the middle of a highway or a town were not feasible, making nailing down final details a complex process “that doesn’t go that quickly.”

Trump said the issue of security guarantees was being worked out with the Europeans, whom he said would be involved to a very significant degree.

He said that while he wanted an agreement finalized quickly, there was no longer a deadline.

“I don’t have a deadline. You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over.”

Trump had originally set a deadline of Thursday for Ukraine to sign the original deal drawn up with Russia, which he now said was not a plan but a roadmap or “a concept.”

Trump said that Witkoff might be accompanied on the trip by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, but said that had yet to be confirmed. He confirmed Kushner, a key player in getting Trump’s Gaza peace plan over the line last month, was involved in the process.

News of Witkoff’s visit came after a leaked transcript of a call with Ushakov in which he appeared to coach his Russian counterpart on how to get on the good side of Trump.

Trump dismissed suggestions that Witkoff was favoring Russia, saying that while he hadn’t heard what had been said, it sounded like typical negotiation tactics and that other members of his team would be doing the same with Ukraine.

“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to ‘sell’ Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does. You got to say, ‘You got this, they want this. You got to convince them of this.’ You know, that a very standard form of negotiation,” said Trump.

US President Donald Trump is sending senior negotiators to meet Vladimir Putin to push for a deal to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. Special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow next week, with Jared Kushner also involved in the process.

Reporting from Washington — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) is the richest member of Congress, topping an annual ranking with an estimated minimum net worth of $254.7 million — nearly $150 million more than the second-richest lawmaker.

Issa made most of his fortune in the 1990s while leading Directed Electronics Inc., a Vista-based manufacturer of vehicle antitheft devices that he created. His is the voice of the Viper car alarm system, which warns, “Please step away from the car.”

He’s perhaps best known to Californians for bankrolling the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, and also emerged on the national stage as he challenged the Obama administration from his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

This is the third straight year Issa earned the top position on the annual Roll Call ranking of lawmakers by minimum net worth. The Los Angeles Times is using the data and for the first time has published a deep dive listing every asset and liability disclosed by the 55 members of the state’s congressional delegation.

HOW MUCH is your member of Congress worth? See the list >>

As much as 95% of Issa’s wealth is in investments, including several high-yield bond accounts potentially worth more than $50 million each and seven high-yield bond funds worth between $25 million and $50 million.

Lawmakers are allowed to use broad ranges to classify assets and liabilities on the annual personal financial disclosure reports. The ranges start at between $1 and $1,000 and top out at $50 million or more, giving an imprecise figure.

That means Issa’s net worth could be much larger than estimated. The $254.7-million figure, calculated by subtracting the minimum value of liabilities from the minimum value of assets disclosed for calendar year 2014, is down from last year’s $357 million. That could be attributed more to how data is reported on the forms than to any actual financial loss.

The form appears to double count his biggest liability, a potentially more than $50-million personal loan. Issa appears to have paid off what he owed Merrill Lynch in September 2014, the same day he borrowed the same amount from UBS.

Issa’s office did not respond to an interview request.

Lawmakers are not required to disclose property owned unless it is earning income, and they also do not need to list their $174,000 annual salaries, putting each and every one of them above the average Californian.

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Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter

For more, go to latimes.com/politics.

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Covering the 55

The United States’ Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick are arriving in Brussels on Monday for what is expected to be a tense showdown with EU trade ministers.

After months of recriminations on both sides of the Atlantic over the implementation of this summer’s trade deal, the EU and the US are now expected to confront their most contentious differences head-on.

Washington will press to fast-track the deal’s rollout while pushing the bloc to scrap EU legislation it considers unfair to US companies, while Brussels will seek additional exemptions from the 15% US tariffs on its exportsand warn its counterparts about the potential fallout of US investigations into European products.

Ahead of the meeting, EU diplomats said they expected the discussion to be “frank”.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump clinched a trade deal in July after weeks of negotiations in which the EU tried to minimise the impact of Washington’s newly aggressive trade agenda. In the end, von der Leyen was able to strike a deal that EU-produced goods arriving in the US would be taxed at a rate of 15% while Brussels lifted its duties on most US products.

Presented by the Commission as the most advantageous deal it could get, the agreement has been widely criticised across the EU. The European Parliament, which has to vote on the Commission’s proposal to remove tariffs on US goods, is set to amend the deal and is discussing a 18-month suspension clause.

The US is complaining that the EU’s legislative agenda is moving too slowly. EU lawmakers will vote on the text in January and they should agree on a common text with EU member states next March or April – a timescale radically longer than the Trump administration’s preference.

Greer raised the issue in a meeting with European Parliament president Roberta Metsola last Friday.

EU faces criticism “with good confidence”

The EU is ready to face US criticism “with good confidence” an EU diplomat said, noting that the legislative process in Brussels could have taken a lot longer.

“To my knowledge, the US administration has not taken its decisions through Congress, so it doesn’t take quite as long in the US,” another EU diplomat said, implyingthat the US trade agenda was mainly decided from the White House.

The EU plans to show unity by handing over a list of proposed exemptions to the 15% tariffs they hope to obtain from the Americans. The list includes products such as wines, spirits and pasta.

“American friends are very much aware of where the European Union would like to see tariff reductions,” the same EU diplomat said.

For the Commission, which has competence to negotiate with Washington, the list of exemptions “remains a priority,” according to its deputy chief spokesperson, Arianna Podesta.

The EU is also concerned about the future of its steel exports. The US already imposes 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium, and has extended them to some 407 derivatives. A consultation already underway may see further derivatives added to the list.

As EU diplomats see it, adding tariffs on steel derivatives would go against the whole “spirit” of this summer’s agreement. The same goes for investigations still open by Washington into products such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and medical devices.

EU investments will also be on the agenda. Greer and Lutnick will meet in the afternoon, EU business representatives with EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

The trade deal includes an EU pledge of €600 billion in investments in the US even though Brussels has no direct control over the private sector, which is the only force capable of actually delivering those investments.

Monday’s meetings will not be an easy task for the Europeans, as US pressure has been unrelenting since Donald Trump returned to the White House, with the president repeatedly threatening new tariffs or targeting EU legislation he deems too restrictive for US companies.

However, the EU has so far not looked intimidated, and is continuing to enforce the digital legislation that Trump and his administration have condemned.

In the last few weeks, Brussels has launched antitrust investigations against Amazon and Microsoft and hit Google with a €2.95 billion for abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology industry – moves that have not gone unnoticed in Washington.

Militaries are major global polluters, yet they remain exempt from climate reporting, creating a blind spot that threatens the entire COP30 roadmap.

As COP30 negotiations in Belem enter their final stretch, there is hope that countries might finally agree on a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels — a breakthrough that is crucial if we are serious about keeping 1.5C alive. Yet even at this pivotal moment, one major highway is still missing from that roadmap that could undermine the progress made in Brazil: the carbon emissions of the military.

Under the Paris Agreement, governments are not required to report their militaries’ emissions, and most simply don’t. Recent analysis by the Military Emissions Gap project shows that what little data exists is patchy, inconsistent or missing entirely. This “military emissions gap” is the gulf between what governments disclose and the true scale of military pollution. The result is stark: militaries remain largely invisible in the Belem negotiations, creating a dangerous blind spot in global climate action.

The size of that blind spot is staggering. Militaries account for an estimated 5.5 percent of global emissions. This share is set to rise further as defence spending surges while the rest of society decarbonises. If militaries were a country, they would be the fifth-largest emitter on Earth, ahead of Russia with 5 percent. Yet only five countries follow the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) voluntary reporting guidelines for military emissions, and those cover fuel use alone. The reality is far broader: munitions production and disposal, waste management and fugitive emissions from refrigeration, air-conditioning, radar and electrical equipment are left out. And operations in international waters and airspace are not reported at all, leaving massive gaps in both climate accountability and action.

The military emissions gap widens further still when we consider the climate impact of armed conflicts. As if the horror and human suffering from fighting wars were not enough, wars also destroy ecosystems, leave a toxic legacy on lands for decades to follow, and result in significant CO2 emissions, including from the rebuilding following the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. But without any internationally agreed framework to measure conflict emissions, these additional emissions risk going unreported, meaning that we don’t know how much wars are setting back climate action.

But despite this, momentum for accountability is finally building. Nearly 100 organisations have signed the War on Climate initiative’s pledges ahead of COP30, and protesters and civil society groups in Belem are demanding the UNFCCC confront this long-ignored source of pollution. Policymakers are starting to shift, too. The European Union has taken steps towards more transparent reporting and decarbonisation in the defence sector, though this progress is now threatened by rapid rearmament. Combined with NATO’s new target for members to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on militaries, these pledges could produce up to 200 million tonnes of CO2 and trigger as much as $298bn in climate damages annually, putting Europe’s own climate goals at risk.

International law reinforces the urgency and demand for accountability. The International Court of Justice’s recent landmark advisory opinion reminded states that they are obliged under climate treaties to assess, report and mitigate harms, including those caused by armed conflict and military activity. Ignoring these emissions doesn’t just undercount global warming; it masks the scale of the crisis and weakens the world’s ability to tackle its root causes.

The gap between current emission-reduction plans and what is needed to stay below the 1.5C limit remains catastrophic. If COP30 negotiators agree on a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels, what happens next will determine whether it delivers real progress or remains symbolic. No sector can be exempt from climate action, and military emissions cannot continue to remain hidden.

Mandatory reporting of all military emissions to the UNFCCC – from combat and training activities to the long-lasting climate damage inflicted on communities – is essential.  That data must form the baseline for urgent, science-aligned reductions, embedded in national climate plans, and consistent with the 1.5C limit.

Security cannot come at the cost of the climate. Tackling climate change is now essential to our collective safety and the survival of our planet.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced he will meet New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office on Friday.

Trump made the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday.

“Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani, has asked for a meeting. We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st,” Trump said in the brief statement.

Mamdani was elected mayor Nov. 4, besting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, historically a Democrat who ran as an independent with Trump’s endorsement, after losing the Democratic nomination to Mamdani.

Trump has been a vocal critic of Mamdani, and warned ahead of the election that if Mamdani won he would throttle federal funding to the city, calling him a “Communist Lunatic” who is “going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great city.”

Trump also threatened to arrest Mamdani if he interfered with his federal immigration crackdown in New York City.

During the campaign, Mamdani positioned himself as someone who would stand up to Trump. A self-described social democrat, Mamdani has warned Trump against threatening to impose punitive measures against the city.

In his victory speech, Mamdani addressed Trump directly: “Hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec confirmed in a statement that the meeting had been scheduled.

“As is customary for an incoming mayoral administration, the Mayor-elect plans to meet with the President in Washington to discuss public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over 1 million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago,” Pekec said.

In a Wednesday night interview with MS NOW, Mamdani said they did “reach out” to the White House to speak with Trump about fulfilling the campaign pledges he made to New Yorkers.

“I want to just speak plainly to the president about what it means to actually stand up for new Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city,” he said.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters that the White House was working on arranging a meeting with Mamdani.

“We’ll work something out,” Trump said. “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”

Hamas says a UN Security Council resolution backing Trump’s Gaza plan fails to meet the political and humanitarian demands of Palestinians.

Published on 17/11/2025 – 17:31 GMT+1
•Updated
17:34

The European Commission confirmed on Monday that US trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič on 23 November in Brussels.

The meeting is expected to be tense as the US is pressuring the European Union to revise legislative action it considers restrictive for US companies and speed up the implementation of the deal agreed between President Donald Trump and Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen which would cut tariffs for all American industrial goods to zero, deploy massive investments in the US and commit to purchase US energy.

The Commission introduced a legislation in August, mostly lowering tariffs on US goods, to secure some relief on duties in cars and car parts, deemed crucial for the European industry. Still, the European Parliament and the Council have not adopted the legislation, testing Washington’s patience.

Greer and Šefčovič will meet the day before US secretary for commerce Howard Lutnick, a close ally of President Trump, attends a gathering of EU trade ministers next Monday in Brussels.

The “Turnberry agreement” concluded between the EU and the US in July includes that the EU will pay 15% tariffs on its exports to the US and will reduce to 0% its tariffs on most of US goods arriving in the EU.

Still, the US is pushing for more, pressuring on the EU to scrap its digital and climate regulations regarded as “non-tariff” barriers to trade by Washington.

EU lawmakers hope to amend EU-US trade deal

Brussels has insisted that it will not cede on its “sovereign” right to legislate, including big US tech.

On 13 November, the Commission launched an investigation into whether Google is unfairly deprioritising news in search listing. The probe was opened under the Digital Market Act (DMA), designed to track abuse of dominance in the tech market. The US has criticised European digital legislation for what they consider is an unfair tax on US Big Tech.

Washington’s offensive also targets the landmark EU corporate supply-chain legislation adopted last year which requires companies to check their supply chains for dodgy environmental and labour practices.

At the beginning of October, it sent a document to the Commission requesting that US companies be exempted from this legislation on corporate due diligence.

Tensions may increase further as Brussels insists it wants to see some of the terms of the July deal changed to reflect a more balanced relation. The Commission came under intense scrutiny from the European parliament over a deal that was considered detrimental to Europe’s interests and too favorable for the US.

EU lawmakers say they are ready to amend the terms of the EU-US deal.

The head of the European Parliament’s trade committee, German MEP Bernd Lange (S&D) has presented a draft report that calls for maintaining EU tariffs on US steel and aluminium steel since the US continue to impose theirs at a rate of 50%.

It also proposes that the tariff removal on US goods should apply for 18 months and only be extended based ⁠on a Commission’s report of their impact on the EU market.

The EU member states and the Parliament hope to agree on the legislation by the spring.

Russian attacks killed three people in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region as President Zelenskyy visits Paris to meet President Macron.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump indicated Sunday that he plans to meet with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and said they’ll “work something out,” in what could be a detente for the Republican president and Democratic political star who have cast each other as political foils.

Trump has for months slammed Mamdani, falsely labeling him as a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the democratic socialist were elected. He also threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen, and to pull federal money from the city.

Mamdani rose from an obscure state lawmaker to become a social media star and symbol of the resistance against Trump during his mayoral campaign. He ran on an array of progressive policies and a message that was stark in its opposition to the aggressive anti-immigrant agenda Trump has pursued in his second White House term.

The 34-year-old appealed to a broad cross-section of New Yorkers and defeated one of its political heavyweights, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by nearly 9 percentage points.

In his election night victory speech, Mamdani said he wanted New York to show the country how to defeat Trump. But the day after, while speaking about his plans for “Trump-proofing” New York once he takes office in January, the incoming mayor also said he was willing to work with anyone, including the president, if it can help New Yorkers.

Representatives for Mamdani did not have an immediate comment Sunday night on the president’s remarks, but a spokesperson pointed to the mayor-elect’s remarks last week when he said he planned to reach out to the White House “because this is a relationship that will be critical to the success of the city.”

Trump expressed a similar sentiment Sunday.

“The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us. We’ll work something out,” Trump told reporters as he prepared to fly back to Washington after spending the weekend at his Florida estate.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified shortly afterward that Trump was referring to Mamdani, who assumes office in January, and said no date had been set for such a meeting.

“We want to see everything work out well for New York,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments came as he also said the U.S. may hold discussions soon with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, after a military buildup near the South American country: “I’ll talk to anybody,” Trump said.

Price and Megerian write for the Associated Press and reported from Washington and West Palm Beach, respectively. AP writer Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.

She doesn’t have a driver’s license. Often doesn’t get movie references. Reminds many of their little sisters.

There’s always some story or tidbit involving Meila Brewer that will make her teammates laugh or gush about playing alongside the freshman center back who’s believed to be the youngest athlete in UCLA history.

Why, it wasn’t so long ago that Brewer floored everybody else on the women’s soccer team when each player shared how old they were when the pandemic hit. As almost everybody ticked off one year or another in high school, all eyes turned to Brewer.

“Oh,” she announced, “I was in fifth grade.”

Meila Brewer extends her arms, smiles and runs to embrace her UCLA teammates during a match against Stanford.

(UCLA Athletics)

That doesn’t mean that she’s easily identifiable. Coach Margueritte Aozasa has made an informal game of asking anyone who inquires about having a 16-year-old on her roster to pick her out when scanning the players on the field.

No one has gotten it right on the first handful of attempts.

“They’ll point out three or four players,” Aozasa said, “and I’ll be like, ‘No, it’s probably the one you would least expect.’ ”

Being one of the tallest players on the team at 5-foot-8 provides some cover, but it’s also her precocious nature and the skills she developed while training with a professional team and playing for the U.S. youth national team that give her a veteran presence.

There’s been no underage shrinking, Brewer living up to every moment as fourth-seeded UCLA (11-5-3) prepares to open the NCAA tournament at 6 p.m. Saturday at home against Pepperdine (11-6-2).

Meila Brewer dribbles the ball while playing for UCLA during the 2025 season. Brewer, 16, is the youngest athlete to ever compete in a sport at UCLA.

(UCLA Athletics)

OK, maybe a hint of her youth emerged when she was asked how she felt about playing on college soccer’s biggest stage.

“Freaking out,” Brewer said. “Like, when you think about it, I’m soooo excited, that’s like the only way you can put it.”

This will be just her eighth game with the Bruins as a result of her recent participation in the FIFA under-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco, where the Americans won their group before losing to the Netherlands on penalty kicks in the Round of 16.

Her UCLA teammates followed the action from afar, one posting a picture of herself shedding celebratory tears in a group chat after Brewer scored in the opening game. After the competition ended, Brewer boarded one flight for Atlanta before getting on another one bound for Los Angeles, only to hop back on a third plane a little more than 12 hours later to accompany her Bruins teammates to West Lafayette, Ind., for the Big Ten tournament.

“Coming back from Morocco, I had missed a decent amount of games,” Brewer said, “but I feel like the girls have been so supportive of helping me get reintegrated and getting right back into the flow just because we’re in tournament time and we want to succeed.”

Aozasa said she’s reminded her players that there’s a 16-year-old on the team and to behave appropriately. Brewer’s roommate, Payten Cooper, is two years older than her even though she’s also a freshman. Lexi Wright, a redshirt senior forward, is seven years older.

But those age gaps aren’t a big deal to Brewer considering she’s already spent a year and a half training with players in their 30s on the Kansas City Current, a team in the National Women’s Soccer League.

“It’s no surprise that she’s gonna be able to fit in right away and be successful at that level at UCLA,” said Vasil Ristov, the coach of the Current’s second team who was also Brewer’s youth club coach, “because she’s seen some of the top talent in the world and she’s participated in training sessions with them.”

Just reaching UCLA at such a young age was a major triumph.

Having taken a heavy class load in middle school and her first two years of high school to lessen the academic burden on her later, Brewer had reclassified once by the time she visited UCLA last spring. That’s when her love for a place she had long considered her dream school truly took hold, Brewer feeling the pull to play immediately even though she had more than a year of high school remaining.

“She was like, ‘What if I just come in this fall?’ ” said her father, Austin Brewer, who was also on the trip. “And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t think it works that way.’ ”

After checking it out, the family realized it was a possibility. Meila (pronounced MEE-luh) worked nonstop from April through the end of July. She didn’t get to participate in high school graduation ceremonies but was rewarded with something greater — a chance to play for the Bruins.

UCLA freshman Meila Brewer controls the ball while playing Tennessee during the 2025 season.

(UCLA Athletics)

Her schedule includes nearly as many parent check-ins as classes. Austin and Shelly Brewer routinely call in the morning, midday and evening, sometimes adding oldest daughter Sasha, a freshman defender for the University of Miami women’s soccer team, to FaceTime chats.

Classes haven’t been as hard as Brewer imagined, though she’s still trying to pick a major.

“Coming into college,” she said, “I was prepping myself for the worst, so I feel like I was ready for it.”

On the field, Brewer is known for a physical style that allows her to impede opposing forwards in her role as a defender and smart playmaking while on the attack. They’re all traits that could help her fulfill her goal of playing for the U.S. national team.

Having always played up one or more levels on club teams, sometimes alongside boys, Brewer developed a strong sense of self.

“I asked her once who her favorite player was, who did she want to be like,” Shelly Brewer said, “and I’ll never forget this — we laugh about it all the time — she said, ‘I don’t want to be like anyone; I want to be like me.’ ”

In a nod to her age and the fact that she’s still growing, Brewer sometimes gets tendinitis in her knees. She wants to be just one of the girls, her youth a novelty but not a defining characteristic.

“I want to be seen as an equal on the field or a leader on the field in what I can do besides my age,” she said. “I just want to be able to stand out for how I play and not on the age side of it.”

That’s not to say that someone who won’t turn 17 until March isn’t having as much fun as everybody else whenever the subject comes up.

“It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re a baby,’ ” Brewer said, “and I’m like, ‘Yep, I am.’ ”

TORONTO — Top diplomats from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies are converging on southern Ontario as tensions rise between the U.S. and traditional allies such as Canada over defense spending, trade and uncertainty over President Trump’s ceasefire plan in Gaza and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in an interview with the Associated Press that “the relationship has to continue across a range of issues” despite trade pressures as she prepared to host U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Anand also invited the foreign ministers of Australia, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa and Ukraine.

She said “15 foreign ministers are coming from around the world to the Great White North and funnily enough on the week of our first large snowfall.”

“The work that Canada is doing is continuing to lead multilaterally in an era of a greater movement to protectionism and unilateralism,” Anand said. “And in an era of economic and geopolitical volatility.”

Canada’s G-7 hosting duties this year have been marked by strained relations with its North American neighbor, predominantly over Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian imports. But the entire bloc of allies is confronting major turbulence over the Republican president’s demands on trade and various proposals to halt worldwide conflicts.

One main point of contention has been defense spending. All G-7 members except for Japan are members of NATO, and Trump has demanded that the alliance partners spend 5% of their annual gross domestic product on defense. While a number of countries have agreed, others have not. Among the G-7 NATO members, Canada and Italy are furthest from that goal.

There have also been G-7 disagreements over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with Britain, Canada and France announcing they would recognize a Palestinian state even without a resolution to the conflict. With the Russia-Ukraine war, most G-7 members have taken a tougher line on Russia than Trump has.

The two-day meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Lake Ontario near the U.S. border comes after Trump ended trade talks with Canada because the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the U.S. that upset him. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over Trump’s insistence that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney apologized for the ad and said last week that he’s ready to resume trade talks when the Americans are ready.

“The work that we are doing in the G-7 is about finding areas where we can cooperate multilaterally,” Anand said. “This conversation will continue regardless of other efforts that we are making on the trade side.”

Anand said she will have a meeting with Rubio but noted that a different minister leads the U.S. trade file. The U.S. president has placed greater priority on addressing his grievances with other nations’ trade policies than on collaboration with G-7 allies.

“Every complex relationship has numerous touch points,” Anand said. “On the trade file, there is continued work to be done — just as there is work to be done on the numerous touch points outside the trade file, and that’s where Secretary Rubio and I come in because the relationship has to continue across a range of issues.”

Anand said Rubio asked her during a breakfast meeting in Washington last month to play a role in bringing countries to the table to ensure that Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan has longevity.

U.S. officials said Rubio, who also may have meetings with other G-7 counterparts and at least one of the invited non-G-7 foreign ministers, would be focused on initiatives to halt fighting in Ukraine and Gaza, maritime security, Haiti, Sudan, supply chain resiliency and critical minerals.

Canada’s priorities include ending the war in Ukraine, Arctic security and security in Haiti. There will be a working lunch on energy and critical minerals that are needed for anything from smartphones to fighter jets. Canada has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

Anand will probably try to use the meeting to improve the working relationship with Rubio, said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“Yet, a key factor shaping that relationship is beyond her control: President Trump’s mercurial behavior,” Béland said.

“The expectations are quite low, but avoiding drama and fostering basic common ground on issues like Ukraine and Russia would be helpful,” Béland said.

Gillies and Lee write for the Associated Press.

“It’s f— World War III out there,” says Gilberto Martinez Jr. as he skateboards while holding on to a car partway through Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed crime drama “One Battle After Another,” about a group of revolutionaries being hunted by the U.S. government.

Driving the vehicle is Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro), who enlists the help of Mexican American “vato skateboarders,” the neighborhood watch, to guide his friend Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), as he tries to escape the authorities during a chaotic protest when a sanctuary city comes under attack.

Gliding through tight indoor spaces and nimbly jumping across rooftops under the night’s sky, the courageous skating quartet is composed of El Paso natives cast locally: Martinez (34), Luis Trejo (30), Elijah Joseph Sambrano (27) and Julian Corral (29). That Anderson included them in this searingly political narrative as a heroic force felt validating.

“As skateboarders we’ve kind of always been the underdogs, seen as the outcast or the rebels,” says Martinez during a recent video interview with the whole squad gathered. “But in a way we’re showing freedom, we’re not trying to be put in a box, we express ourselves through this skateboard. We’re trying to give hope to other kids like us.”

Their skill set on the board landed them the part, but their presence influenced the production beyond their screen time.

“We all speak Spanish, and we were helping them on set to translate a lot of the things that they needed,” Martinez said.

Martinez and Trejo, who’ve been “homies” for a decade, learned about the opportunity from a mutual friend, Mark Martinez, involved in the El Paso film industry. Sambrano found out from a bartender pal, while Corral got word from the owner of the tattoo shop where he works. The four of them knew each other from hanging around the border town.

The group first met with casting director Cassandra Kulukundis, who read them their lines and asked them to recite them back to test their memorization skills.

“She pulled out her iPhone and we just started skating around her and giving her the lines,” Martinez recalls. “That’s pretty much what she showed Paul. And that’s when he was like, ‘These are our guys.’” [Laughs].

Though they had heard rumors that DiCaprio and Del Toro were in town, they couldn’t know for certain. “I was like, ‘It’s not true,’ just so I would not be so nervous about it,” Martinez said. It was only after signing nondisclosure agreements that they were made fully aware of the artists involved.

“They took us up to Sensei’s apartment to get an idea of the perimeter and what everything looks like,” says Martinez. “That’s when we first saw P.T.A. with his Adidas shoes and we were like, ‘Whoa.’”

Shot over the course of 11 days, their scenes took place in downtown El Paso, just a few minutes from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on the other side of the border. “Every single day was just magic,” says Trejo, who is also a musician. “This movie made us feel like we’re part of something on a big scale. It blew our minds that each of us had his own purpose in it.”

The “vato skateboarders,” as the production referred to them, recall speaking with stunt coordinator Brian Machleit ahead of their scenes. “He was very honest with us and said we needed to take this seriously,” Martinez says. “We really focused, and we weren’t playing around.” They practiced their stunts during the daytime, so that they could be prepared for shooting at night.

Anderson, they say, asks for multiple takes — often around 10 — changing his direction to have plenty of options to choose from when editing.

“Paul is always experimenting,” Trejo said. “He’s like a scientist, and he’s doing his poetry.”

Martinez revealed that his big moment, when he skates holding onto Sensei’s vehicle, transformed as they filmed it.

“My direction at first was to do it scared towards Sensei, like asustado,” he said. “After watching the dailies, Anderson came in with new notes.

“Paul’s like, ‘Hey Gil, this sounds like a zombie apocalypse. It’s not a zombie apocalypse, it’s a riot. Pretend like you’re going to go grab a beer and drink it on a rooftop, and then just say some s— like, ‘It’s f— World War III out here.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I like that. That sounds more me.’”

To personalize his close-up, Martinez had a suggestion of his own. “I was like, ‘Can I add some Spanish?’”

“Paul really let us use our lingo,” Martinez adds. “Leo was like, ‘Hey, how do I say ‘brothers’?’ And we told him, ‘Carnalitos,’”

In the film, DiCaprio’s Bob refers to the skaters as such.

Throughout the conversation, the group often refers to DiCaprio and Del Toro by their characters’ names: Bob and Sensei. Sharing the screen with A-listers they’ve grown up watching on screen was shocking at first, but then grew to feel a genuine closeness.

“I’d freak out when I got home,” Martinez said. “But on set, the first couple days you had to show them that you were like a brother to them. You can’t be like, ‘Hey man, we got to take a picture.’ It was more like, ‘We’re here to do our job.’ I never called him Leo. I always called him Bob. We just stayed in character. And then he’d be like, ‘What’s up bros?’”

Corral recalls a day when his foot hurt, and the production sent him to rest for a bit on his own. “Next thing you know, they put the other vatos in there and then they put Leonardo in there and we are just like, ‘How should we break the ice?’” Corral says. “And he did. He is like, ‘So what’s good around here to eat?’”

A musician like Trejo, and once involved with El Paso Kids-N-Co, a nonprofit community theater, Sambrano recalled sharing a moment with Del Toro.

“Benicio was like, ‘You play music? What kind of music is it? And I was like, ‘Alternative.’ And he said, ‘Oh, like the Mars Volta.’ And I thought, ‘Oh he knows of the culture, the Mars Volta is from El Paso.’”

Sambrano explains they were allowed to wear their own clothes on set. Early on, he happened to be wearing a T-shirt he got from Goodwill emblazoned with the image of the late wrestler Eddie Guerrero, also an El Paso native, and his nickname, “Latino Heat.”

“They were bouncing off each other, improvising,” Sambrano says. “And that’s when Benicio was like, ‘What if I just say Latino Heat?’ And then they were like, ‘OK, that’s the shirt he’s going to wear.’”

For the “vato skateboarders,” seeing their hometown depicted at the forefront of the resistance in such a high-profile film has strengthened their pride. “We’re from a frontera, a border city, and I’ve lived here my whole life. The community is amazing, people are friendly,” Sambrano said. “And seeing them highlight that is pretty awesome.”

And it’s not lost on them that immigration, and the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, especially in a place like El Paso, are key subjects in Anderson’s film.

“Paul did do justice to how real life is in a comedic way so that maybe it reaches a different type of audience that is not tapped into these situations,” Trejo said. “The movie touches on things that a lot of people are afraid to talk about. They are afraid to get too political.”

The four skaters watched “One Battle After Another” for the first time at a cast and crew screening in El Paso at the Plaza Theater. “It was really special to watch it in a historic building in El Paso,” Martinez Jr. says. “And having our friends and family there to watch it a week before the movie came out was a beautiful moment for all of us.”

The friends wish to continue acting, and they already have other projects lined up, thanks in part to Jacob Cena, a location assistant on “One Battle After Another,” who is pushing them to seize this breakthrough.

For now, however, they’ve been diligently studying Anderson’s work. “We got pretty obsessed; these are all his movies,” says Martinez Jr. with a smile holding up a stack of the director’s movies on physical media.

Nov. 10 (UPI) — Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will meet with President Donald Trump Monday in the White House.

Al-Sharaa, who was affiliated with al-Qaida, was labeled an international terrorist by the United States until Friday and had a $10 million bounty on his head.

On Friday, the State Department said that Sharaa and Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab would be removed from the list of terrorists.

“These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,” the State Department’s press release said.

“This new Syrian government, led by President al-Sharaa, is working hard to locate missing Americans, fulfill its commitments on countering terrorism and narcotics, eliminating any remnants of chemical weapons, and promoting regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process.”

Sharaa was formerly known by an assumed name, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. He once led the militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which cut ties with al-Qaida in 2017.

Sharaa is likely to ask Trump to lift sanctions against the Assad government and to join the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. Removing the sanctions will allow Syria to get international finance to rebuild after the devastating civil war.

The Syrian leader met Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, and Trump told him he would get the sanctions lifted.

“Tough guy,” Trump said of Sharaa after the meeting. “Very strong past. Fighter.”

Critics of Sharaa’s government have cited recent acts of violence in the country. In July, about 37 people were killed in sectarian violence. A few days later, Israel attacked Damacus and killed about three people and wounded 34 others. Israel claimed it attacked to protect the Druze, a Syrian Arab minority.

In June, a suicide bombing killed 20 people at a Damascus church.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has registered 35,000 cases of people missing in Syria in the past 13 years. Syria’s Network for Human Rights put the number of Syrians “in forced disappearance” at 80,000 to 85,000 killed under torture in Assad’s detention centers.

Only 33,000 detainees have been found and freed from Syria’s prisons since Assad’s ouster, according to the human rights network. American journalist Austin Tice, who was detained by the Assad regime in 2012, has still not been found.

As Los Angeles city officials worked on an agreement to modernize the Convention Center, more than one member of the McOsker family was playing a key role.

City Councilmember Tim McOsker supported the $2.6-billion expansion, which could bring more tourism but threatens to further exacerbate Los Angeles’ dire fiscal situation.

Nella McOsker, his daughter, runs the Central City Assn., an influential downtown Los Angeles business group, which advocated strenuously for the project.

And his nephew, Emmett McOsker, who was an aide to former Mayor Eric Garcetti, works for the Tourism Department — handling the Convention Center.

Central City Assn. President and Chief Executive Nella McOsker.

(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)

Nella McOsker often argued for the project as her father listened with his council colleagues. In September, he cast a “yes” vote.

“It’s just a family tradition of public service,” said Doane Liu, executive director of the Tourism Department, who is a longtime friend and former colleague of Tim McOsker — and Emmett McOsker’s boss. “I wish there were more McOskers working at City Hall.”

And there are. Flying a little beneath the radar, due to her last name, is a fourth family member, Anissa Raja — the councilmember’s niece (cousin to Emmett and Nella), who is also his legislative director and president of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats.

Raja does not lead with the fact that she is the councilmember’s relative.

“I don’t mention it because I’m a staffer. I keep it professional at work,” she said.

While the interplay between McOskers can create potential conflicts of interest, Nella says she logs every lobbying conversation she has with Tim’s office to the city’s Ethics Commission, just like she does with other councilmembers.

Plus, she and her dad often disagree. And in L.A. city government, lobbying a close family member is perfectly legal, as long as neither party has a financial stake.

“As a city, we made a policy decision that it shouldn’t be just because you’re related to someone that you can’t try to exert influence over them if they’re in an elected position,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor of law at Loyola Marymount University and former head of the city’s Ethics Commission.

Councilmember Tim McOsker speaking during a 2023 meeting at City Hall.

(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

For decades, the McOskers — a large, tight-knit Irish Catholic family from San Pedro — have wielded power at Los Angeles City Hall. Unlike the Garcettis and the Hahns, the McOskers have not served in citywide or countywide elected office. But their breadth of influence in Los Angeles politics over the last quarter century may be unparalleled.

The McOskers are hardly alone in making city politics the family business.

There’s Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, whose father-in-law Zev Yaroslavsky once held her seat. And Herb Wesson, the former council speaker, whose son was his aide and whose daughter-in-law Alexis Wesson is chief of staff to Councilmember Adrin Nazarian.

Sometimes that leads to family members bumping up against each other in questionable ways.

Eric Garcetti’s father, Gil Garcetti — perhaps best known for being L.A. County district attorney during the O.J. Simpson trial — was president of the Ethics Commission when his son was on the City Council. That led to issues in 2006, when Gil inadvertently contributed to Eric’s reelection campaign, which was not allowed. Or consider Councilmember Curren Price, who has been charged with allegedly voting in favor of development projects his wife’s company was being paid to consult for.

The McOskers’ tradition of city service predates Tim, who worked for City Attorney James Hahn in the 1990s before becoming Hahn’s chief of staff when Hahn was mayor in the early 2000s. Tim’s father, Mac, was a city firefighter, which many in the family cite as the origin of the public service bug.

To this day, the family is as much, or more of, a fire family than a politics family — and some members have combined the two.

Tim’s brother Patrick is a retired LAFD engineer who served as president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the powerful firefighters union. Another brother, Mike, who died in 2019, was vice president of the same union.

Emmett, Patrick’s son, said his father was always his hero and that he wanted to be a firefighter. But when he graduated college in 2011 following the Great Recession, the fire department wasn’t hiring, so he got into politics instead.

Tim, too, aspired to be a firefighter at one point. Two of his children are firefighters, one for LAFD and the other for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, while a cousin works for the county fire department.

In 2003, then-Councilmember Janice Hahn — sister of Mayor James Hahn and daughter of longtime county supervisor Kenneth Hahn — told The Times that Tim and his brothers Patrick, Mike and John (then vice president of the city’s Harbor Area Planning Commission) “are involved in everything.”

Rebecca Liu Morales, a former aide to then-Councilmember Eric Garcetti, was Nella McOsker’s close childhood friend in San Pedro.

“We grew up super familiar with public life and what it looks like. We were dragged to campaign events. We spent Saturdays volunteering,” said Liu Morales, who as Doane Liu’s daughter was also raised in a political family.

Little did Nella McOsker know that decades down the line, she would still be attending her father’s campaign events, helping him get elected to the City Council in 2022.

She worked as his operations director, referring to herself as his “Ego Killer” for always being willing to knock him down a peg. The campaign was filled out by volunteers from the family, from Tim’s wife, Connie, to brother Patrick, who was an avid doorknocker.

One politico who lives in the district noted that two McOskers separately knocked on his door and a third called him as part of a phone banking operation.

After Tim won his council seat, Nella took a job running the Central City Assn. Now, she lobbies councilmembers, including her father’s office.

Councilmember McOsker, along with Councilmember Yaroslavsky, proposed a law in 2023 that would have required lobbyists like Nella who are close relatives of councilmembers or high-level council staffers to disclose the relationship. They would have been prohibited from lobbying on land use development projects in that councilmember’s district. Because Nella works on issues involving downtown, not the San Pedro area, she and Tim would likely not have been affected. The law was never passed.

Rob Quan, who runs a transparency-focused good government advocacy group,
said there is no evidence that the McOskers have leveraged their relationships for undue advantage.

Tim said the family rarely talks local politics at dinners and holidays. First off, there are so many of them that the atmosphere can become chaotic.

Last time he hosted Thanksgiving, Tim said about 47 people showed up, and the tables stretched all the way outside onto the back patio. Mostly, they dote on the kids, and cousins reconnect.

“It’s not a lot about politics. It’s a lot about family,” Tim said.

When politics do come up, the McOskers often land on opposite sides.

Tim said he disagreed with his firefighter daughter Miranda and his brother Patrick, who believed LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley should have been reinstated after Mayor Karen Bass ousted her over her handling of the Palisades fire. The two showed up with other firefighters at the council chambers when the council was voting on the issue.

“You can’t have a mayor and a chief of fire … on different pages. It is dangerous,” Tim said.

While Tim and Nella both supported the Convention Center expansion, the two have split on other issues.

Earlier this year, Tim voted to increase the hotel and airport worker minimum wage — which Nella and the Central City Assn. fiercely opposed.

“There’s a different intensity I can get to with him [than with other councilmembers],” she said, referring to her conversations with her father about politics.

This summer, Nella McOsker and the Central City Assn. were part of a business coalition that proposed a ballot measure to repeal the city’s gross receipts tax on businesses, which generates about $800 million for the city annually. Her goal was to help struggling businesses by reducing their taxes.

“Terrible idea,” Tim McOsker said.

That was probably the most annoyed “Tim” got with her, Nella said.

She calls him Tim, not Dad — partially out of decorum in a world where she is lobbying him and his colleagues on a regular basis.

It’s also how she and her four younger siblings grew up — they’ve always called their parents Tim and Connie.

Nella’s son Omero is 4. She says he can be whatever he wants when he grows up, but some in the city family already have their eyes on him.

“I’m ready to offer him an internship,” Liu said.