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Richard Rider would love to have Gov. Pete Wilson’s job. He dreams of hacking away at bureaucracy, crushing all new tax legislation under a huge rubber stamp that reads “VETO.” He’s even imagined the sound this would make: whoooomp!

Rider, the Libertarian candidate for governor, is a realist, however. The 49-year-old stockbroker from San Diego knows that a minor party candidate such as himself has no hope of being elected governor Nov. 8. Still, he thinks he can help defeat Wilson (whom Rider deems a “wimp” and a “Benedict Arnold” masquerading as a Republican), which is why, not long ago, he wrote Democrat Kathleen Brown a letter asking for $500,000.

“I’m the Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate. Normally that might elicit nothing more from you than a yawn. But I can get you elected,” Rider wrote. “What you need is a third candidate to drain votes from Wilson. I can do that. . . . Dollar for dollar, there is no better use for your campaign funds than in my race for governor.”

Rider’s pitch must have sounded presumptuous coming from a man unknown to most Californians. Like the other minor party candidates for governor–Jerome McCready of the American Independent Party and Gloria La Riva of the Peace & Freedom Party–Rider was not invited to participate in the recent televised debate between Wilson and Brown. He lacks money, exposure and governmental experience.

But Rider has one very powerful thing going for him: a dissatisfied electorate. A recent Times poll shows that California voters are unhappy with Brown and Wilson and that three out of every five are planning to vote for the “lesser of two evils” for governor. If just a tiny fraction of those people vote for a so-called third party candidate, political analysts say, it could alter the race.

“In this state, where elections are won or lost by 1 or 2 points, third party candidates can decide elections,” said Bill Press, chairman of the California Democratic Party, who has followed Rider’s candidacy with interest. “If I had an extra $500,000, I would give it to Richard Rider and it would be money well spent. . . . Every vote he gets is one vote Pete Wilson doesn’t.”

Taken together, the four minor parties that have qualified to appear on the California ballot–American Independent, Green, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom–represent 456,000 voters, or about 3% of the state’s electorate.

The American Independent and Libertarian parties, though they differ on many principles, are both committed to strictly limiting the power of government and to cutting taxes. Conventional wisdom says that to vote for one of these parties’ candidates is to take a vote away from a Republican candidate.

The Green and the Peace & Freedom parties, though also very different from one another, both seek social justice and equality. These parties are more likely to appeal to voters who might otherwise cast ballots for Democrats.

These minor parties’ candidates face an uphill battle. Virtually ignored by the press and by their more mainstream rivals, they have trouble raising the money needed for expensive broadcast advertising and direct mail flyers. As a result, minor party candidates can campaign tirelessly, making speeches and walking precincts, and still remain largely unknown.

La Riva, the Peace & Freedom candidate for governor, is a printer and labor organizer in San Francisco. McCready, the American Independent nominee, runs a shop that sells pre-hung doors and other construction materials in Castroville. Rider, who closed his financial planning business at the end of last year, is the only minor party candidate who has campaigned for governor full time.

Nevertheless, Press, the Democratic Party chairman, believes that politicians who ignore these alternative candidates do so at their own peril. This year, he has gone so far as to donate his own money to keep a Green Party gubernatorial candidate from competing with Brown.

Leading up to the June primary election, three candidates were vying for the Green gubernatorial nomination–despite widespread concern within the party that a Green nominee would siphon votes from Brown in the general election. Then, one Green leader launched a campaign urging Greens to vote for “None of the Above”–an option that allows Greens to choose no candidate.

Eager to safeguard Brown voters, Press sent a $500 donation to the none-of-the-above campaign, dubbed Friends of Nobody. Then he sent letters to his friends asking them to do the same.

“I raised $5,000 to $6,000 or more for their campaign,” Press said proudly, recalling that the effort to gain more votes for no one than for any of the candidates was successful. “Nobody won. Which I considered a victory.”

Third party candidates are familiar with this kind of circular reasoning. They see no shame in losing, as long as they have introduced new ideas into the race. And they believe that every vote cast for a minor party candidate puts a little more pressure on the major parties to shape up.

That is why a conservative such as Rider is working so hard to help a Democrat such as Brown. Rider is probably the only Brown supporter who wants to do away with state income taxes, abolish the workers’ compensation system and phase out all welfare payments. He wants to repeal the law that requires motorcyclists to wear helmets. He believes the Endangered Species Act will result in the nationalization of all property. And he supports the death penalty–which Brown opposes, though she pledges to enforce it as governor.

“Obviously, I’m no fan of the Democrats’ pipe dream of a socialist utopia. . . . Kathleen Brown would make a terrible governor,” Rider said.

But Brown would do less damage than Wilson, Rider added, and a Brown victory would send a clear signal to the GOP. If he could do that, Rider said, he would feel like a winner no matter how badly he lost.

And, he said, Wilson is not a true Republican.

“Brown is a very ineffective Democrat. Wilson is a very effective Democrat. It’s time the Republican Party stopped running stealth Democrats for governor,” Rider said. “If I pull enough conservative votes to cause Wilson to lose, then Republicans will have to start running real limited-government candidates such as Ron Unz.”

Rider is a big fan of Unz, the 32-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur who challenged Wilson for the Republican gubernatorial nomination last spring. Before the primary, Rider endorsed Unz, knowing full well it might cost him some votes. Then after Unz lost, while winning 34% of the Republican vote, Rider began presenting himself as the next best thing.

Unz recently wrote letters that were published in the state’s major newspapers urging his supporters not to launch an Unz write-in campaign Nov. 8. Although he stopped short of endorsing Rider, Unz asked the 700,000 people who voted for him to support “candidates up and down the ticket who are true to the core values of the Republican Party–smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations.”

Rider said that is as good as an Unz endorsement. After all, Rider proposes cutting 90% of all state regulations. And he so abhors taxes that he closed his financial planning office in large part to avoid paying them.

“I was working until July 19 for the government,” he said. “For a Libertarian, that’s unacceptable.”

Rider has made sacrifices to run for governor. To enable him to afford campaigning full time, Rider and his wife pulled their two sons out of private school. (“May God forgive me for that,” he said.) The campaign, headquartered in one of his spare bedrooms with a “Rider for Governor” bumper sticker taped to the door, is truly no-frills.

His phones are answered by two volunteers–retirees who refer to Rider as “Guv.” When Rider is on the road, he often sleeps on supporters’ couches. Recently, when he heard about a promotion for a time-share condominium, he and his wife went and sat through the pitch. The reason: In exchange for their time, they received free plane tickets to San Francisco, a city where Rider wanted to campaign.

Most of the $40,000 Rider has been able to raise has gone to buy cable television time for his lone commercial, which features the candidate in a butcher’s smock, whacking a sausage with a meat cleaver and exclaiming, “Wilson won’t cut taxes, but I will!” By Nov. 8 this spot will have aired in the state’s five major media markets, and Rider hopes that combined with his frequent talk-radio appearances, it will get people’s attention.

Wilson campaign officials do not appear worried. With the latest Times poll showing the incumbent 9 points ahead of Brown among likely voters, Rider is barely a blip on the radar screen.

But against all odds, Rider perseveres. He knows that some people see voting for him as a waste.

“We’ve been taught since childhood that third parties are dangerous or crazy or both,” he said, recalling that when he first heard about the Libertarian Party in the 1970s he thought it was a “left-wing, commie group.”

“And yeah, sure, we’re not going to win,” he said. “But the success of a third party is in changing the direction of the country. . . . You vote to send a message to whoever’s in power that this is the direction you want to go.”

Meanwhile, the fund-raising message Rider sent Brown has yet to yield a single penny. Brown campaign spokesman John Whitehurst said he was unaware of the letter asking for $500,000.

Rider is not bitter. If Brown is not farsighted enough to see that a hefty donation to Rider for Governor could result in her own election, he said, it is her loss.

“I keep checking the mail,” he said. “Without my effort, they’re dead meat.”

Ukraine says it supports the “essence” of a United States plan to end its war with Russia, as US President Donald Trump said “progress” is being made on securing a deal and that he would dispatch his special envoy to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Tuesday saw a flurry of diplomatic activity after US and Ukrainian negotiators met two days earlier in Geneva to discuss Trump’s initial peace plan, which had been seen in Ukraine as a Russian wish list calling on Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow, limit its military and give up on joining NATO.

The plan has since been modified, with the emerging proposal reportedly accomodating concerns of Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking at a video conference of the so-called coalition of the willing – a group of 30 countries supporting Ukraine – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to “move forward” with the as-yet-unpublished “framework”, though he still needed to address “sensitive points”.

Earlier, a Ukrainian official had told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv supported “the framework’s essence”. Building on that sense of momentum, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, who led negotiations in Geneva, told US news website Axios that the security guarantees Ukraine was seeking looked “very solid”.

Speaking at the White House, Trump conceded that resolving the Ukraine war was “not easy”, but added, “We’re getting close to a deal.”

“I thought that would be an easier [deal], but I think we’re making progress,” he said.

Taking to his Truth Social platform later on, he said that he would send envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to iron out “a few” remaining differences over the deal.

He said he hoped to meet “soon” with Putin and Zelenskyy, “but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.

Russia, which had hammered Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with a deadly barrage of missiles the previous night, seemed unconvinced of progress.

Russia has not yet seen the modified plan, which remains unpublished, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that it should reflect the “spirit and letter” of an understanding reached between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at their Alaska summit earlier this year.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established, then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation [for Russia],” Lavrov warned.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said there was a lot of “uncertainty” at the Kremlin, though there had allegedly been “behind-the-scenes interactions” between Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and US counterpart Steve Witkoff, “who reportedly worked on the initial stage” of Trump’s plan.

The Russian side, she said, was not happy about revisions to the peace plan.

“Unlike the initial American plan presented by Donald Trump, which consisted of 28 points, the so-called European version doesn’t include withdrawing the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbas, it allows Kyiv to join NATO, and it doesn’t limit the size of its armed forces,” Shapovalova said.

Still, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll had earlier emerged upbeat from meeting with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, with his spokesman saying: “The talks are going well and we remain optimistic.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that there were “a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States”.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said it was “unclear when those talks will happen, who will be involved, and what they will look like”. But, she added, it was clear they would not be imminent, given the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday on November 27.

Macron urges ‘pressure’ on Putin

As the US strained to bridge the gap between Ukraine and Russia, leaders in the coalition of the willing, who have pledged to underwrite and guarantee any ceasefire, moved fast on security guarantees and a reconstruction plan for Ukraine.

In the video meeting, co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in attendance, the leaders decided to set up a task force between the US and coalition countries to “solidify” security guarantees.

Trump has not committed to providing back-up for a post-ceasefire “reassurance force” for Ukraine. The plan for the force involves European allies training Ukrainian troops and providing sea and air support, but would be reliant on US military muscle to work.

Speaking after the video call, Macron said discussions in Geneva had shown that there should be no limitations to the Ukrainian army, contrary to what had been outlined in the initial draft of the US plan.

He also said a decision on using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction, at the heart of a political and legal impasse in a Europe seeking funding for Ukraine, would be “finalised in the coming days” with the European Commission.

Western countries froze approximately $300bn in Russian assets in 2022, mostly in Belgium, but there has been no consensus on how to proceed. Some support seizing the assets, while others, like Belgium, remain cautious owing to legal concerns.

According to reports, Trump’s plan would split the assets between reconstruction and US-Russia investments.

Macron hit out at Russia, saying “continued pressure” should be put on Moscow to negotiate. “On the ground, the reality is quite the opposite of a willingness for peace,” he said, alluding to Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, which left seven dead and disrupted power and heating systems.

In his daily evening address, Zelenskyy said: “What is especially cynical is that Russia carried out such strikes while talks are under way on how to end the war”.

Kaila Hattis, founder and therapist at Pacific Coast Therapy, has a long history of working with people who have experienced trauma on how to regulate emotion. She has also sent her clients to cities that she believes help to relax them

A therapist swears by the power of one UK city when it comes to calming her patients.

Kaila Hattis, founder and therapist at Pacific Coast Therapy, has a long record of working with people with traumatic experiences on how to regulate emotion. When it comes to the places “that have the potential to aid an over-stressed individual relax and unwind”, Kaila is a fan of one in particular.

“Bath has always stood out for its slow-moving, consistent pace from the moment one arrives in the city. The curved Georgian roads move at a soothing pace, while the quieter pockets close to the Abbey have a calming effect on anxious individuals quicker than any grounding technique I have taught. For myself, my own breathing calms within seconds of arriving, and similarly for my clients. Approximately 7 out of 10 of the clients who have traveled to Bath report that their bodies relaxed without them doing anything differently. The reality is that Bath provides people with space to reset themselves, much like wellness trends attempt to simulate but cannot replicate,” Kaila told the Mirror.

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The story of the city’s founding goes that Prince Bladud was wandering through the area in 890 BC with a herd of pigs, having been banished from his kingdom after contracting leprosy. He realised that there was something different about the water leaking through the topsoil when his porcine friends began rolling around happily in the warm mud.

It would be on this site that Bath was built, attracting bath-house enthusiasts and pilgrims from across the Continent for the next 2,900 years. If you’re looking for a relaxing break in the city today, then Thermae Bath Spa is a fair bet, boasting as it does herbal steam rooms and four thermal pools, including an open-air rooftop dipping spot.

Bath is also famous for its stunning architecture, which was primarily built during the 18th-century Georgian period – although TV fans may also recognise it as one of the Bridgerton filming locations. The Crescent is arguably the jewel in the city’s architectural crown, using golden Bath stone and the Palladian revival style to turn terraced housing into an art form.

The restored Cleveland Pools – Britain’s oldest lido – the Bath World Heritage Centre are also worth a visit, while those keen to take in a game of Premiership rugby can do so in the central stadium, which lies next to a river beneath fine examples of Georgian architecture. One of Bath’s most iconic attractions is Pulteney Bridge, a symbol of Georgian architecture that domes over the River Avon.

Another highly rated city, ideal for relaxation, is Utrecht, according to Kaila.

“The canals are located beneath the street level and this creates a quieter environment, pulling the noise down into the lower levels before it even becomes noticeable. At present, I send entrepreneurs to Utrecht since many of them operate under a state of constant adrenaline. Upon returning, they report more stable moods, clearer thought processes and significantly reduced episodes of spiraling thoughts. This essentially equates to both cities providing the kinds of resets that most busy individuals rarely permit themselves,” she said.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump‘s deployment of 2,000 National Guard soldiers to Washington was illegal, saying the president lacks the authority to dispatch troops “for the deterrence of crime.”

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said that while Trump is the commander in chief, federal laws constrain his power to federalize and deploy those troops, particularly in Washington, which Congress controls.

“The Court rejects the Defendant’s fly-by assertion of constitutional power, finding that such a broad reading of the President’s Article II authority would erase Congress’ role in governing the District and its National Guard,” Cobb wrote in her 61-page ruling.

Cobb also said that Trump also lacked authority to deploy out-of-state National Guard troops to Washington to assist in law enforcement.

Cobb’s ruling will not take effect until Dec. 11, giving the Trump administration time to appeal. The Supreme Court is on the verge of issuing its own ruling on the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. Federal appeals courts are also considering National Guard troop deployments to Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles.

Trump has justified his troop deployments by claiming, without evidence, that large-scale violence and chaos demands the presence of national troops to protect federal functions. State and local leaders, as well as municipal law enforcement officers, have said they don’t need federal help to protect their cities.

With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday that they are working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people, though it could still take up to a week for some to receive their delayed aid.

A back-and-forth series of court rulings and shifting policies from President Trump’s administration has led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While some states had already issued full SNAP benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday, according to an Associated Press tally.

The federal food program serves about 42 million people, or about 1 in 8 Americans, in lower-income households. They receive an average of about $190 monthly per person, though that doesn’t necessarily cover the full cost of groceries for a regular month.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said in an email Wednesday that funds could be available “upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most states.” But the agency didn’t say whether that timeline indicates when the money will be available to states or when it could be loaded onto the electronic cards used by beneficiaries.

West Virginia, which hadn’t issued SNAP benefits, should have full November benefits for all recipients by Friday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Thursday.

The Illinois Department of Human Services, which previously issued partial November benefits, said Thursday that it is “working to restore full SNAP benefits.” But it won’t happen instantly.

“We anticipate that the remaining benefit payments will be made over several days, starting tomorrow,” the department said in a statement, and that “all SNAP recipients will receive their full November benefits by November 20th.”

Colorado officials said late Wednesday that they are switching from delivering partial to full SNAP benefits, which could be loaded onto electronic cards starting as soon as Thursday.

Missouri’s Department of Social Services, which issued partial SNAP payments Tuesday, said Thursday that it is waiting for USDA guidance on how to issue the remaining November SNAP benefits but would move quickly once that guidance is received.

Paused SNAP payments stirred stress for some families

The delayed SNAP payments posed a new complication for Lee Harris’ family since his spouse was laid off a few months ago.

Harris, 34, said his North Little Rock, Ark., family got help from his temple and received food left by someone who was moving. With that assistance — and the knowledge that other families have greater needs — they skipped stopping by the food pantry they have sometimes used.

Harris’ family, including his three daughters, hasbeen able to keep meals fairly close to normal despite missing a SNAP payment this week. But they have still experienced stress and uncertainty.

“Not knowing a definite end,” Harris said, “I don’t know how much I need to stretch what I have in our pantry.”

Federal legislation funds SNAP for a year

The USDA told states Oct. 24 that it would not fund SNAP benefits for November amid the government shutdown. Many Democratic-led states sued to have the funding restored.

After judges ruled the Trump administration must tap into reserves to fund SNAP, the administration said it would fund up to 65% of its regular allocations. When a judge subsequently ordered full benefits, some states scrambled to quickly load SNAP benefits onto participants’ cards during a one-day window before the Supreme Court put that order on hold Friday.

Meanwhile, other states went forward with partial benefits, and still others issued nothing while waiting for further USDA guidance on the situation.

Amid the uncertainty over federal SNAP funding, some states tapped into their own funds to provide direct aid to SNAP recipients or additional money for nonprofit food banks.

The legislation to reopen the U.S. government provides full SNAP benefits not only for November but also for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, which runs through next September. Citing that legislation, the Justice Department on Thursday dropped its request for the Supreme Court to continue blocking a judicial order to pay full SNAP benefits.

Mulvihill and Lieb write for the Associated Press. AP writers John O’Connor in Springfield, Ill.; John Raby in Charleston, W.Va.; and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report.

De Minaur will be among those willing Alcaraz to victory after maintaining his interest in the season-ending competition despite opening with back-to-back defeats.

The 26-year-old was reluctant to trust the news that he would qualify with an Alcaraz win when he was initially informed in his post-match interview.

De Minaur had lost his past 16 matches against top 10 players, and each of the five matches he had previously played at the ATP Finals.

A painful defeat by Musetti on Tuesday, in which De Minaur held a 5-3 lead in the deciding set before losing four consecutive games to concede the match, had rocked his confidence.

But, against an opponent whom he had lost the two previous meetings, De Minaur reset mentally to produce an inspired display against Fritz.

“It means a lot. A couple of days ago I was in a pretty dark place,” De Minaur told Sky Sports.

“More than anything, I feel proud of my efforts. Not for just coming out and winning, but also the mindset. I made peace with what had happened and just committed.”

Speaking in his post-match interview, he said on court: “I’ve dealt with a fair bit of heartbreak recently.

“I’ve worked really hard, so it was good to get a positive reward for that.

“[The loss to Musetti] was a tough pill to swallow. I didn’t overthink today, I just went out and committed to what I needed to do. I continued to back myself and, whether it worked or it didn’t, I was going to leave it all out there today.”

Leading off the 2028 Olympic Games: Shohei Ohtani, at Dodger Stadium. On deck: The lighting of the Olympic torch.

That is how the Los Angeles Games could look, based on the revised schedule announced Wednesday by LA28 organizers. In another sign that Major League Baseball is headed toward an agreement to allow its players to participate in the 2028 Games, LA28 adjusted its baseball schedule after discussions with the league.

Under the new schedule, the baseball competition would start on Thursday, July 13, 2028 — the day before the opening ceremony, rather than the day after.

That would give MLB the option to hold the 2028 All-Star Game on its traditional Tuesday date — most likely in San Francisco — with the Olympic baseball competition starting two days later in Los Angeles and ending on Wednesday, July 19. The major league schedule could resume the following weekend.

In past Olympic baseball tournaments, MLB has declined to stop its season, so minor league and college players have populated the rosters of many countries, including the United States. For 2028, MLB had no interest in canceling its All-Star Game and replacing it with the Olympic competition.

However, on the heels of a dramatic World Series that attracted record worldwide attention, and with a highly anticipated World Baseball Classic four months away, MLB would be passing up a global marketing bonanza by skipping the Olympics.

No final deal among LA28, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players’ Assn. has been reached, but MLB commissioner Rob Manfred all but telegraphed this resolution in July, one day after LA28 said its baseball competition would begin on the day after the opening ceremony.

“They put out a schedule,” Manfred said then. “They tell you it’s not going to move. We’ll see whether there is any movement on that.

“It is possible to play the All-Star Game in its normal spot, have a single break that would be longer, but still play 162 games without bleeding into the middle of November. It would require significant accommodations, but it is possible.”

And now, it appears likely.