sees

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine of Van Nuys wants his constituents to know that white supremacy is not a plank in his platform, no matter what the World Wide Web suggests.

Levine and other politicians in California and across the nation have felt compelled in recent weeks to take political stands they normally would consider unnecessary — denouncing racism, bestiality and the conversion of women’s breast milk into cheese — because someone has registered Web sites in their names and directed the traffic to politically unpopular organizations.

Levine, a freshman Democrat, learned last week about the existence of a site called lloydlevine.com. Initially, the Internet address pointed to the National Assn. for the Advancement of White People, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as a hate group founded by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. By Tuesday, lloydlevine.com had become a gateway to the Raelians, a religious organization that recently claimed to have cloned a human.

“I would hate for one of my constituents to enter my name into a search engine … and think I in any way condone any of the views espoused here,” Levine said. “My name is Lloyd Levine, and I ought to have full control of it.”

The Legislature’s lawyers are trying to determine whether lawmakers have that right.

Claiming responsibility for these cyber-shenanigans is Jeremy Stamper, who calls himself president of the Seattle-based Council on Political Accountability.

Stamper says he has registered Web domains in the names of more than 100 governors, members of Congress and state legislators from California, Florida, New York and nine other states.

Stamper’s group is selling the domains on EBay and invites political activists — not the politicians — to “use them to criticize, to sound off, to hold politicians accountable … use your imagination.” The EBay page for the sale promises that 25% of the proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society.

Stamper said his group launched the “act of protest” this month to “make a statement about racial politics in the United States.”

“Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in fostering an atmosphere of bigotry,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Times.

Besides, Stamper said, people in the public eye should know to protect their identity online.

“The fact that these politicians didn’t have the foresight to register their own domain names makes me wonder whether they’ll have the competence necessary to jump-start the economy and safeguard our future,” he said.

At $99, the asking price, Levine’s name is a steal compared with colleagues whose Web addresses are listed at $149. Domains for several U.S. representatives and senators are priced at $499. As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been no bids.

An EBay spokesman said any lawmaker feeling maligned can ask to have his name pulled off the auction block.

Speaking for the National Assn. for the Advancement of White People, Vice President Rich Faraone said the group does not condone the confusion Stamper has created.

“We would never do something like that,” he said. “We would never mislead people like that.”

More details are emerging from a 28-point peace plan backed by United States President Donald Trump aimed at ending Russia’s four-year war on Ukraine, with several media outlets and officials confirming that the plan, which has yet to be officially published, appears to favour Russia.

Details of the plan also come after US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon that the US had offered “generous terms for Russia, including sanctions relief”.

“The United States has invested at the highest levels, the president of the United States personally, to end this war,” Waltz told the council.

The AFP news agency reported on Friday that the plan, which the US views as a “working document”, says that “Crimea, Lugansk [Luhansk] and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the United States”.

This corresponds with an earlier report from US media outlet Axios.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency also reported on Friday that the plan would require Ukraine to surrender the Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that Ukraine currently partly holds.

Under the draft, Moscow would hold all the eastern Donbas region, even though approximately 14 percent still remains in Ukrainian hands, AP reported.

AFP and AP also confirmed Axios’s earlier report that the plan would require Ukraine to limit the size of its military.

According to AFP, the plan specifically says that the army would be limited to 600,000 personnel. Ukraine is estimated to currently have just under 900,000 active duty military staff.

‘A neutral demilitarised buffer zone’

Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko shared a document showing what appeared to be the full 28-point peace plan with his 223,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app, late on Thursday, Ukraine time.

Russia’s state TASS news agency also reported on details included in the document shared by Goncharenko, saying it “purportedly represents a Ukrainian translation of 28 points of the new American plan for a peace settlement in Ukraine”.

New details included in the document shared by Goncharenko include that “Ukraine has the right to EU [European Union] membership” and that the “United States will work with Ukraine to jointly restore, develop, modernise, and operate Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, including pipelines and storage facilities”.

The document also states that Ukraine’s “Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will be commissioned under [UN nuclear agency] IAEA supervision, and the electricity generated will be shared equally between Russia and Ukraine in a 50:50 ratio”.

The text of the document shared by Goncharenko also states that “Ukrainian forces withdraw from the part of the Donetsk region that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarised buffer zone”.

Handing over territory to Russia would be deeply unpopular in Ukraine and would also be illegal under Ukraine’s constitution. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out such a possibility.

No NATO membership for Ukraine

The AFP news agency also reported that, according to the plan, European fighter jets would be based in Poland specifically to protect Ukraine.

However, Kyiv would have to concede that no NATO troops would be stationed in Ukraine and that it would agree never to join the military alliance.

Additional details reported by AP include that Russia would commit to making no future attacks on Ukraine, something the White House views as a concession by Moscow.

In addition, $100bn in frozen Russian assets would be dedicated to rebuilding Ukraine, AP reported.

Russia would also be re-admitted to the G8 group of nations and be integrated back into the global economy under the plan, according to AFP.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that both Ukrainians and Russians have had input into the plan, which she said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff have been quietly working on for a month.

If you think college sports has been changed by the transfer portal, prepare for what’s happening in girls’ high school basketball. They say what happens in college trickles down to high schools, and that’s the case this season.

There are so many high-level transfers that it’s almost looking like boys’ basketball. And it comes at a time of enhanced enforcement of transfer rules by the Southern Section, so who’s available and who’s not remains to be seen.

The top schools — Etiwanda, Ontario Christian and Sierra Canyon — have added key players to their squads. Mater Dei and Fairmont Prep are next in line. And there’s a new team in the mix, Oak Park, which lost its point guard but gained more than enough from the transfer portal after the hiring of former WNBA player April Schilling, who’s the wife of Pepperdine men’s coach Ed Schilling. Corona Centennial might have more transfers than any team, including 6-foot-6 sophomore Sydney Douglas from Ontario Christian.

Etiwanda coach Stan Delus is hoping frustration days are behind.

(Jose Luis Villegas / For The Times)

“This is probably going to be one of the toughest, deepest Division 1s since 2016 with some new teams emerging and different teams picking up transfers,” said Etiwanda coach Stan Delus, whose team has won three straight Open Division state championships.

Etiwanda added 6-3 Tess Oldenburg from Chino Hills and 6-1 Jaylee Moore from Northern California power Carruthers, plus freshman Cassidy Morgan to join returnees Arynn Finley, Aliyah Phillips and Chasity Rice.

Ontario Christian still has the No. 1 player in California in junior point guard Kaleena Smith, who’s taking recruiting visits to USC and UCLA. Also back are talented sophomore Tati Griffin and junior Dani Robinson plus the addition of transfers Layia King from Inglewood St. Mary’s and Skylar Archer from Shadow Hills and freshman Chloe Jenkins.

At a Mission League media day, coaches were asked what was motivating transfers. Few spoke up.

“I think Southern California keeps getting better and better,” Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki said. “This is as good as a team we’ve had and we’re not guaranteed of anything.”

Sierra Canyon returns Jerzy Robinson, who is being recruited by Connecticut, Louisiana State and South Carolina. “I’m better at everything,” she said.

Then there’s 6-5 center Emilia Krstevski, an Oregon commit who speaks Macedonian, has a Canadian passport and keeps improving. Payton Montgomery is another returnee from a 28-3 team, but the key player might be Oak Park transfer Delaney White, an All-Southern Section point guard. Transfer paperwork was submitted six weeks ago but still hasn’t been approved for her.

Jerzy Robinson of Sierra Canyon is considered the best girls’ basketball prospect from the class of 2026.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Former Ontario Christian coach Matt Tumambing was hired at Centennial, and suddenly new players began to arrive. Douglas, a 6-7 sophomore joined the Huskies along with former Ontario Christian guard Jelise Max. There’s so many transfers that Centennial officials have been spending weeks reviewing the paperwork.

Fairmont Prep has five freshmen on its roster to support All-Southern Section player Adyra Rajan. Redondo Union picked up freshman Rudy Hopkins from Finland. Oak Park has added sophomore Maya Urteaga from Moorpark. She averaged 26 points last season. Also joining the Eagles are UC Santa Barbara commit Karisma Lewis from Buena and 6-4 Diana Sorrondo from Arroyo Grande.

The winningest coach in California girls basketball history, Kevin Kiernan, has returned to coach at Troy, which is hosting a tournament next month that could result in a championship game between Sierra Canyon and Ontario Christian.

As far as other top players, All-Southern Section guard Amalia Holguin of Sage Hill is committed to Texas; Kaeli Wynn of Mater Dei is headed to South Carolina; Kamdyn Klamberg of Sage Hill is a rising junior; sophomore Hamiley Arenas of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame is a high-scoring guard; Charis Rainey of Windward played for the U16 women’s national team.

In the City Section, Westchester, Palisades and Garfield figure to battle it out for the Open Division title, which was won last season by Hamilton. Sophomore Kayla Tanijiri of Birmingham is the returning West Valley League player of the year.

Waitrose may be one of the last retailers to unveil its Christmas adverts but it has produced a cracker, with Actress Keira Knightley and comedian Joe Wilkinson making an unlikely match

Actress Keira Knightley and comedian Joe Wilkinson star as the unlikely pairing in a romantic Christmas advert for Waitrose.

The festive offering, directed by Bafta-award winning director Molly Manners, follows Knightley and Wilkinson as their relationship blossoms over a shared love of food.

It begins with Wilkinson’s character, forlorn ‘Phil’, sitting in a pub with mates who are urging him to move on in love. He says of his lost love that “the only person I could move on with was Keira Knightley”, to which his friend replies “good luck with that mate.”

As luck would have it, a downcast Phil pops into a branch of Waitrose and standing at the cheese counter when he asks – at the same moment – for the identical ‘Sussex Charmer’ variety as Knightley. Phil plucks up his courage and asks her out, to which Knightley agrees. From there love slowly blooms. But it all appears to go wrong when Phil finds a present to what he assumes is a love rival. Using his culinary skills, Phil vows to win her heart by recreating Keira’s Nan’s turkey pie recipe.

Knightley, whose big screen hits include Bend It Like Beckham through to Pirates of the Caribbean alongside Johnny Depp, said: “I love food, and so when I received this script where I get to fall head over heels in love over a shared love of cheese, I couldn’t turn it down. I adored working on this silly, fun and delicious film with Joe, and I hope those watching it fall in love too.”

Wilkinson, fresh from starring in hit BBC show The Celebrity Traitors, said: “As you can imagine, it was tough having to eat the delicious Waitrose food and falling in love with Keira, but I just got on with it, like the trooper I am.”

Wilkinson reprises his role as Phil from the grocer’s 2024 ‘whodunnit’ festive advert. The soundtrack features the song She’s A Star by British band James.

Waitrose chief customer officer Nathan Ansell said: “Our four-minute Christmas film – an industry first – pays homage to the seasonal romantic comedy tradition, celebrates the exciting and elevated Waitrose festive food offering, and adds a little more of that warm, fuzzy feeling to the holiday season.”

Ms Manners said: “We had such a great time making the perfect miniature romcom with food as a love language deep at its heart. The combination of Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson is magical in such an unexpected way. I hope they knock your socks clean off, as they did mine.”

Reuters

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PA Media

PA Media

EPA

‘Football unites us’

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