Has there been a year this decade when we’ve been sad to see it go?
I thought about that while reading our “25 ways to banish this no good, very bad year” list, which contains some terrific ideas, and I’d be very happy to watch you jump into the Pacific on New Year’s Day, if you feel so inclined. But they’re all predicated on the idea that this year has given off a stench that needs to be smothered, the same way you’d cleanse your dog in tomato juice after an encounter with a skunk.
And this is true. Even Game 7 of the World Series can’t erase the heartache that 2025 has inflicted upon us, though props to Kiké Hernández for doing his best to distract from the headlines.
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, wishing you and yours a better new year. It’s a low bar. I’m optimistic we can jump it.
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Did anyone really want to see a third “Avatar” movie?
Sure, someone must have. It sold $89 million in tickets last weekend, though that number fell short of analysts’ forecast for James Cameron’s three-hour movie. For comparison, 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” brought in $134 million in its opening weekend. That movie, like the series’ 2009 first film, built its $2-billion-plus box office over time.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” may well do the same.
Still, doesn’t it feel like there should be more excitement to go see a movie that might gross $2 billion worldwide? Maybe you were among the first in line to see it last Friday. No judgment. I’ve seen every Cameron movie in a theater, a streak I suspect will continue as long as he’s making films.
The thing is, Cameron himself is giving the distinct impression that he’s ready to move on from “Avatar,” even though he has already written scripts for the fourth and fifth entries in the franchise. He has other projects in the works, adapting “Ghosts of Hiroshima,” which revolves around the true story of the only survivor of both atomic bombs dropped on Japan. And he has teased a “Terminator” reboot.
Cameron is 71, a kid compared to Ridley Scott (88) and Martin Scorsese (83), but still … the clock is ticking.
Do you want him devote another three years (or more) to the lush, gorgeous world of Pandora?
Maybe if “Avatar: Fire and Ash” had spent less time repeating the same themes — and, sometimes, the same scenes — almost beat for beat from the “The Way of Water,” I’d feel differently. The new movie is, of course, a visual feast, though with just three years between the second and third films, the technological advances don’t feel as awe-inspiring this time around. Cameron remains adept at world-building and creating tense action set pieces. He’s also unrivaled at serving up lumpy dialogue, and the new film has serious pacing issues. “Fire and Ash” feels every bit like a 197-minute movie.
When I did my last set of Oscar best picture power rankings on Nov. 3, I put “Fire and Ash” at No. 10, sight unseen. This was in part because Cameron is Cameron and deserves respect and also because would-be contenders like “A House of Dynamite,” “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” “The Smashing Machine” and “After the Hunt” weren’t connecting with voters.
But the franchise fatigue with “Avatar” feels real. It’ll still probably win the visual effects Oscar and pick up a nomination for sound. But I suspect it’s going to fall just outside the 10 movies nominated for best picture.
If that happens, will anyone cry “snub”? Likely not. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” can still inspire wonder, but for the first time in his career, Cameron is spinning his wheels. It feels like he’s ready to return to Earth.
Dec. 25 (Asia Today) — North Korea released images of Kim Jong-un inspecting what it called a nuclear-powered submarine construction project, a move analysts said was aimed at casting South Korea’s debate over nuclear-powered submarines as a security threat while justifying Pyongyang’s own push to strengthen its strategic nuclear forces.
The Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday that Kim described South Korea’s pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines as a threat that must be countered and offered remarks defending North Korea’s development of nuclear-powered submarines. Analysts said the message used Seoul’s discussion as a pretext to portray North Korea’s strategic weapons buildup as inevitable.
North Korea has previously unveiled undersea capabilities, including what it called a Sinpo C-class ballistic missile submarine, the “Kim Gun Ok Hero Submarine,” which it claimed was its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine” when it was introduced in September 2024, according to state media.
South Korean maritime defense experts, including Hanyang University professor Moon Geun-sik, said the latest disclosure appears intended to showcase parallel development of what North Korea described as an 8,700-ton nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine – believed by analysts to be a ballistic missile submarine – along with an underwater unmanned system, believed to be an underwater drone.
KCNA said Kim called for a “qualitative leap” in maritime nuclear forces and described nuclear-powered submarines as a core pillar of North Korea’s nuclear deterrent.
Experts said North Korea’s claims about a “threat” from South Korea diverge from how Seoul has described its own debate. Moon and Jeong Seong-jang, deputy director at the Sejong Institute, said South Korea’s discussion has not been framed around nuclear armament or preemptive strikes. They said it has been presented as a defensive option to support longer submerged operations and covert tracking to counter North Korea’s nuclear and submarine-launched ballistic missile threats.
North Korea experts also say Pyongyang has pursued sea-based missile capabilities in recent years, including efforts they describe as adapting the KN-23 short-range ballistic missile into a sea-based short-range submarine-launched ballistic missile and conducting an underwater test launch from a new 3,000-ton diesel-electric submarine.
Analysts said Kim’s remarks amount to political framing meant to discredit South Korea’s nuclear submarine discussion while rationalizing North Korea’s strategic weapons development. They said North Korea has steadily unveiled intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and tactical nuclear weapons and is now presenting nuclear-powered submarines as a further step in that progression, with an eye toward both internal cohesion and external pressure.
Attention has also focused on the suspected construction site. Experts reviewing the newly released video and images alongside past satellite analysis pointed to shipyard facilities in the Sinpo area of South Hamgyong Province as the most likely location.
Sinpo is widely viewed by analysts as North Korea’s primary hub for submarine and submarine-launched ballistic missile activity, with infrastructure and specialized personnel linked to construction and testing, including launch test facilities and underwater launch barges.
Some experts urged caution about North Korea’s technical capacity to field and operate an 8,700-ton nuclear-powered submarine, noting it would require reliable reactor miniaturization and shielding, radiation safety and a fuel cycle and maintenance system that can support long-term operations. Jeong and other analysts said it remains unclear whether North Korea has achieved those capabilities on a stable basis.
Still, analysts said the strategic impact can be felt regardless of the project’s maturity. Once North Korea publicly declares a nuclear-powered submarine program, they said, it reduces ambiguity and can heighten instability in the maritime environment around the Korean Peninsula.
Experts said Seoul should avoid being drawn into North Korea’s rhetorical framing while recognizing that sea-based nuclear and missile threats are becoming more entrenched. They said South Korea’s nuclear-powered submarine discussion should be refined as a defensive option within international norms and alliance cooperation and paired with broader maritime deterrence steps, including underwater surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and unmanned systems.
KCNA also reported Thursday that Kim reviewed the progress of what it described as newly developed underwater weapons and outlined plans tied to naval force reorganization and the creation of new units.
Analysts said that while Kim’s statement about South Korea’s nuclear submarine push was directed at Seoul, the broader objective was to justify North Korea’s own strategic weapons advancement. They said South Korea should separate principle from reality in its response and focus on capability building and international legitimacy rather than mirror rhetoric.
Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar for directing. Neither did Stanley Kubrick nor Robert Altman nor Sidney Lumet nor Federico Fellini nor Orson Welles.
It’s a group almost as distinguished as the list of winners.
But we’re likely going to cross one name off that ignominious list this year — Paul Thomas Anderson.
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. I already gave away who’s on top of our Oscar power rankings for director. How does the rest of the list shake out? Let’s take a look.
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1. Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘One Battle After Another’
Anderson has three Oscar nominations for directing — “There Will Be Blood,” “Phantom Thread” and “Licorice Pizza.” That feels light. He has 11 Oscar nominations in all, including five as a writer and three as a producer. He has never won. That feels wrong. So with “One Battle After Another,” he checks off both of the main boxes that Oscar winners often possess — he directed the year’s best movie and he’s well overdue for an honor. Like Sean Baker for “Anora” last year, Anderson likely will come home with an armful of Oscars, as he also produced and wrote the movie.
2. Jafar Panahi, ‘It Was Just an Accident’
Panahi has never been nominated for an Oscar, though his films have won the top prizes at the Venice Film Festival (“The Circle”), the Berlin Film Festival (“Taxi”) and, this year, the Cannes Film Festival (“It Was Just an Accident”). That movie’s withering takedown of the cruelty and corruption of authoritarianism packs a punch; it’s also unexpectedly funny in its clear-eyed social critique. Panahi has been imprisoned by the Iranian government many times for speaking out and was recently again sentenced, in absentia, to a year in prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the system.” Like we needed another reason to celebrate the man and his work.
3. Ryan Coogler, ‘Sinners’
(Eli Ade / Warner Bros. Pictures)
Coogler has two Oscar nominations, but they aren’t what you might expect. He was nominated for producing “Judas and the Black Messiah,” the thrilling 2021 historical drama looking at the politics of race. And he earned a songwriting nod for the Rihanna ballad “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Coogler should have landed an adapted screenplay nomination for the first “Black Panther” movie, a more inventive, world-building work than the umpteenth remake of “A Star Is Born.” But that’s the past. Coogler, like Anderson, figures to be feted in multiple categories at the upcoming Oscars and may well bring home the prize for original screenplay.
4. Chloé Zhao, ‘Hamnet’
(Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features)
Zhao owns two Oscars for directing and producing “Nomadland,” the empathetic and searching portrait of America that felt like a balm when it premiered during the pandemic. After an ill-fitting detour into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Eternals,” Zhao came all the way back with “Hamnet,” a deeply felt look at love, loss and the cathartic power of art. Even those who find it overwrought laud the movie’s climactic sequence, a performance of “Hamlet” at the Globe Theatre. I’d argue the ending works so well because of the care Zhao took earlier in establishing the wonder and joy of the family’s life. “Hamnet,” to my damp eyes, is her best film.
5. Joachim Trier, ‘Sentimental Value’
(Lewis Joly / Invision / AP)
From here, you could shuffle the five through eight slots and make a good case for any of these directors landing the fifth slot in the field. Trier has much to recommend his subtle interweaving of past and present, hope and hurt in “Sentimental Value.” He received a screenplay nomination for his last movie, “The Worst Person in the World,” also starring Renate Reinsve. The directors branch boasts a strong contingent of voters from all over the world, a group that could easily nominate the filmmakers behind two of the year’s most celebrated international feature contenders. Plus, “Sentimental Value’s” salty view of Hollywood is bound to appeal to this bunch.
6. Guillermo del Toro, ‘Frankenstein’
The affable, movie-loving Del Toro has won many fans inside and outside the industry over the years, along with Oscars for directing and producing the 2017 best picture winner “The Shape of Water” and for “Pinocchio,” the enchanting 2022 movie that snagged animated feature. “Frankenstein” is far from his best work, but it probably has enough admirers to land a best picture nomination and mentions in several other categories. Director, though? If Del Toro didn’t make the cut for “Nightmare Alley,” he’s probably a near-miss for this one too.
7. Josh Safdie, ‘Marty Supreme’
(Atsushi Nishijima / A24)
It’s “Marty Supreme” week! The movie finally arrives on Christmas and, over the holidays, we’ll begin to have the sorts of conversations that will shed some light on the movie and its Oscar chances beyond the certain nominations for best picture and lead actor Timothée Chalamet. Is the title character, a single-minded ping-pong player oblivious to anything but his own advancement, a jerk? Or is he just like any other man in his 20s? Is the film’s last shot a sign of growth or a man contemplating his own death sentence? We’ll have time to discuss and, yes, revel in the unhinged chaos Safdie unleashes here.
8. Clint Bentley, ‘Train Dreams’
(Daniel Schaefer / BBP Train Dreams)
And finally, we arrive at the man behind “Train Dreams,” a contemplative film about an ordinary man puzzling through loss, guilt, the mundane and the magnificent. It’s the anti-”Marty Supreme” — quiet, painterly, a tad slow, sure, but hypnotic in the way it evokes a bygone America. Just the second movie Bentley has directed, following the little-seen 2021 drama “Jockey,” it has built a devoted following since landing on Netflix last month.
Some European leaders feel sidelined as US mediation takes Russian priorities into consideration.
After years of support from the United States for the Ukraine war to continue “as long as it takes”, the Trump administration is now pushing to end Europe’s war – quickly and imperfectly.
While details are still under negotiation, they include issues such as ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and Russia’s control over about 20 percent of Ukraine.
To understand the implications for Europe, the US and their relations, host Steve Clemons speaks with Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, and retired Colonel Heino Klinck, former director of US Army international affairs.
It’s odd the moments you remember after someone’s gone.
Scrolling through a seemingly infinite number of clips featuring Rob Reiner being compassionate and kind, scenes from his movies that feature a bone-deep empathy for the ways human beings struggle and strive to be better, I kept thinking back to a little wink in “This Is Spinal Tap,” the 1984 mockumentary Reiner directed and co-starred in, playing filmmaker Marty DiBergi.
I’ve seen this movie so many times that I could probably act out the whole thing upon request. It provided a soundtrack to a family trip to Stonehenge several years ago. But thinking about Reiner in the wake of the horrible news that he and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their home on Sunday night, their son Nick subsequently charged with their murders, I randomly landed on the scene where DiBergi talks with Spinal Tap lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) after guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) leaves the band.
St. Hubbins blithely insists he won’t miss Nigel any more than insignificant band members who played briefly in the group. DiBergi is stunned. He loves Spinal Tap and fears for its future. Reiner plays the moment with such sincere heartbreak, partly in character, but mostly I think because that’s who he was. Reiner couldn’t help it. He felt things deeply and spent much of his life working to make things better for those on society’s margins. He will be missed in so many ways.
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. How to describe this week? None more black will do. But Christmas is coming, and that Vince Guaraldi song never fails to make me smile. Let’s look at some good news for those who made the Oscar shortlists this week.
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The film academy announced shortlists for 12 categories at the 98th Oscars, whittling down the list of contenders and offering a few indications about what films are scoring early points with voters.
Ryan Coogler’s critically acclaimed, genre-defying blockbuster “Sinners” picked up eight mentions, as did “Wicked: For Good.” Both movies placed two songs on the original song shortlist and both were cited in the newly created casting category.
The bounty for “Sirât,” the Oliver Laxe thriller that is unquestionably one of the most memorable movies of the year, offered an indication that the word of mouth on this movie is strong enough to land it a spot among the nominees for international feature.
Can it do better than that? It should. Here are five suggestions for voters, including “Sirât,” as the lists are narrowed ahead of Oscar nominations on Jan. 22.
Cinematography: ‘Sirât’
“Sirât” contains so many surprising twists and turns that when asked to describe the plot, I simply tell people that it’s about a father who shows up at a rave in southern Morocco with his young son looking for his missing daughter. The long desert journey they end up taking is astonishing, and cinematographer Mauro Herce, shooting on 16mm film, captures every treacherous mile in dramatic detail.
Original score: ‘Marty Supreme’
Voting with the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., I cast my ballot for Kangding Ray’s hypnotic score for (you guessed it) “Sirât.” But that was just one of many soundtracks that found its way into my life this year. Hans Zimmer’s synth-heavy “F1” score makes for propulsive listening while pedaling on an exercise bike and ranks among the celebrated composer’s best work. And I share Times film editor Josh Rothkopf’s enthusiasm for Daniel Lopatin’s throwback electronic beats in “Marty Supreme,” a delight for anyone who grew up listening to the ethereal soundscapes created by Tangerine Dream.
Casting: ‘Weapons’
I’m highlighting Zach Cregger’s horror-mystery “Weapons” here partially because of its inexplicable absence in the makeup and hairstyling category. I guess voters knew it was Amy Madigan in that bright red wig all along. That omission aside, “Weapons” is a prime example of what a great casting director can do, making use of familiar faces (Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Madigan) in unexpected ways, finding the right child actor (Cary Christopher) to deliver big emotional moments and elevating emerging talent (Austin Abrams) to unexpected heights. Allison Jones, one of the greats, belongs among the casting category’s inaugural set of nominees.
Documentary: ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow’
Julia Loktev’s five-hour chronicle of the chilling Russian crackdown on independent journalists has won documentary honors from both the Los Angeles and New York film critics. The doc begins in 2021, when the journalists, mostly women, are forced to label themselves as “foreign agents” simply for doing their jobs, covering Putin’s regime in a factual manner. Things intensify after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, turning “My Undesirable Friends” into a cautionary tale about the perils of bending to an autocrat. It goes without saying, but this is essential viewing.
With the ongoing fracas over President Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing, a number of other Trump administration-led attempts to remake the architectural landscape of Washington, D.C., have flown largely under the radar. This includes the sale and possible demolition of the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which was completed in 1940 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Part of what makes the building so beloved is a series of 1942 frescoes by Ben Shahn titled “The Meaning of Social Security,” commissioned as part of the Roosevelt administration’s robust New Deal art program. In a recent article in the New Republic, architectural historian Gray Brechin is quoted as calling the Cohen building, “a kind of Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.”
The structure, originally known as the Social Security Administration Building, has served as the headquarters for Voice of America since 1954. In March, Trump signed an executive order cutting funding for the agency that oversees VOA, and most of its staff was placed on administrative leave. In June, more than 600 VOA employees received layoff notices, and the service basically shut down.
At the beginning of this year, Congress agreed to sell the Cohen building, which had been suffering from major maintenance issues. The scope of the threat to the building became clear earlier this month when Bloomberg reported that “The White House is independently soliciting bids to recommend the demolition of the historic buildings [including the Cohen building], without the input of the General Services Administration, which maintains government buildings.”
“Federal properties can be sold quickly with limited public input. As powerful interests move in haste to sell this historic building, we call for the process to be paused and conducted with transparency, respect, and public participation,” the petition, which has garnered more than 4,700 signatures, states.
The Shahn frescoes aren’t the only precious New Deal artworks in danger. Other art housed in the Cohen building include murals by Seymour Fogel and Philip Guston.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt wondering when enough is enough. Here’s your arts news for the week.
On our radar
Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(Jamie Phan / Los Angeles Master Chorale)
Disney Hall-e-lu-jah It’s hard to imagine the holidays without music, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale has three days of caroling and chorusing that should lift anyone’s seasonal spirits. A new addition to the choir’s traditional offerings is the family-friendly “Carols for Kids” (11 a.m. Saturday. Walt Disney Concert Hall), featuring Youth Chorus LA and designed for even the squirmiest children, 6 and under. That will be followed by the “Festival of Carols” (2 p.m. Saturday. Disney Hall), a program of global holiday music. The group’s performance of “Handel’s Messiah” (7 p.m. Sunday. Disney Hall) is a worthy centerpiece of any celebration. If you’re ready to have your own voice be heard, “Carols on the Plaza” (6 p.m. Monday, across the street at the Music Center’s Jerry Moss Plaza), is your chance to join in on free outdoor caroling with family, friends and fellow Angelenos. Festivities conclude with the Master Chorale’s “Messiah Sing-Along” (7:30 p.m. Monday) back at Disney Hall where 2,000 voices will unite for the “Hallelujah Chorus.” — Kevin Crust Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave.; Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY The Fruit Cake Follies In its 27th year, this madcap holiday variety show promises “music, mirth and merriment.” 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with dinner at 6:30 p.m.; 1 p.m Sunday, with brunch at 11 a.m. Catalina Jazz Club, 6725 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood. catalinajazzclub.com
Guadalupe Maravilla: A Performance Expanding on his solo exhibition “Les soñadores,” the transdisciplinary artist creates a collective ritual combining sound, vibration and healers from around the world alongside L.A.-based artists. 8 p.m. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org
Piotr Beczala The Polish-born tenor, known for his work in opera and the classical vocal canon, performs, accompanied by conductor and pianist Kamal Khan. 7:30 p.m. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica broadstage.org
“Wet” by Sahar Khoury at Parker Gallery, 2025
(Sahar Khoury / Parker Gallery)
Sahar Khoury The interdependence of materials and their social and cultural environments inspired the sculptor’s newest solo exhibition, “Wet,” a series of pieces created from ceramic, steel, iron, brass and aluminum. 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, through Jan. 17. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave. parkergallery.com
SATURDAY Christmas Joy Concert The free Third@First concert series continues with a program of carols, classic and new. 4 p.m. First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, 500. E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. thirdatfirst.org
Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps in the romantic drama “Love & Basketball.”
(New Line Cinema)
Love & Basketball Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood marks the 25th anniversary of her modern romance classic, starring Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard and Dennis Haysbert. 7 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
The cast of “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet.”
Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet This 80-plus city tour offers a distinct blend of classical ballet with avant-garde circus techniques and global influences, complete with 10-foot-tall animal puppets constructed by Roger Titley. For its 33rd year on the road, the production adds a new character: Sweets the Dog, created by Barry Gordemer of the award-winning puppeteer studio Handemonium. — Ashley Lee Noon, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles; and 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. nutcracker.com
SUNDAY Collecting Impressionism at LACMA This new exhibition traces how the museum built its collection and its pursuit of legitimacy through early acquisitions of American and California Impressionism and donations of paintings by Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro from major Hollywood collectors. Through Jan. 3, 2027. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
Actor Taylor Nichols, left, and director Whit Stillman at a 20th anniversary screening of “Metropolitan” at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
(Jemal Countess / Getty Images)
Metropolitan It’s hard to believe that it’s been 35 years since the young socialites of the “urban haute bourgeoisie” entered our consciousness via filmmaker Whit Stillman’s delightfully droll film and its banter-driven, Oscar-nominated screenplay. Stillman and actor Taylor Nichols will be on hand for a Q&A with the screening. 2 p.m. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. americancinematheque.com
WEDNESDAY
Aloe Blacc and Maya Jupiter host the 2025 L.A. County Holiday Celebration.
(Music Center)
L.A. County Holiday Celebration The Music Center’s annual spectacular features more than 20 local music ensembles, choirs and dance companies. The free, ticketed event will also be broadcast on PBS SoCal. Aloe Blacc and Maya Jupiter are this year’s hosts. 3-6 p.m. Dec. 24. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. musiccenter.org
— Kevin Crust
Dispatch: A director with a human touch
Cameron Watson is the new artistic director of Skylight Theatre Company.
(David Zaugh)
Stage director Cameron Watson has one of the best batting averages in town.
His productions of “The Sound Inside” at Pasadena Playhouse, “On the Other Hand, We’re Happy” for Rogue Machine Theatre at the Matrix and “Top Girls” at Antaeus Theatre Company were morale-boosting for a critic in the trenches, offering proof that serious, humane, highly intelligent and happily unorthodox drama was alive and well in Los Angeles.
Watson’s appointment as artistic director of Los Feliz’s Skylight Theatre Company starting Jan. 1 is good news for the city’s theater ecology. Producing artistic director Gary Grossman, who led the company for 40 years with enormous integrity, built the small but ambitious Skylight into an incubator of new work that embraces diversity and the local community.
Developing new plays is fraught with risk. Watson has the both the artistic acumen and audience sensitivity needed to usher Skylight through this perilous moment in the American theater when so many companies seem to be holding on by a thread.
Watson, like Peter Brook before him, knows how to convert an empty space into a realm of magic and meaning. For Watson, the play’s the thing. But for the spark to happen, actors and audience members need a director as intuitively attuned to the uncertain human drama as Skylight Theatre Company’s new leader. (The director’s current production of “Heisenberg” at Skylight ends Sunday.)
— Charles McNulty
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Moving in stereo The most Tony-nominated play in Broadway history, “Stereophonic,” is playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Jan. 2. Times theater critic Charles McNulty caught opening night and wrote that the first touring production fails to capture the high notes of the Broadway original. A few days later, I sat down for an interview at Amoeba Records with Will Butler, the former Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist who wrote the music for the show. Our interview took place before Butler got onstage with the cast of the show for a short live in-store performance.
Boiling in Brooklyn Brooklyn was also on McNulty’s itinerary, where he saw Michelle Williams in the new revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” at St. Ann’s Warehouse. “Michelle Williams seems to have unlimited emotional access. Her inner intensity expresses itself in a frenzy of volcanic feeling that can never be tamped down once it reaches its boiling point,” McNulty writes.
The name game The Kennedy Center continued its Trump-era transformation Thursday after the board voted unanimously to rename the world-famous performing arts venue The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. It remains unclear if the move is legal, or if the name change will need to be made official via an act of Congress.
Viva Las Vegas I got a look at newly revealed architectural plans for the Las Vegas Museum of Art, which is expected to break ground in 2027. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré is designing the city’s first freestanding museum and says his ideas were inspired by the red rocks and canyons of the desert surrounding Sin City.
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LACMA United Workers at Los Angeles County Museum of art voted to unionize Wednesday. The vote in favor was 96%, and came after LACMA rejected workers’ requests for voluntary recognition. Staffers have expressed disappointment in management over what they are calling its anti-union campaign.
La malchance The Louvre is down on its luck. Maintenance issues have lately plagued the famous Paris museum, and then there was that infamous heist. Now workers have voted to strike over working conditions among other complaints.
The Central Economic Conference in Beijing in December 2025 identified eight key tasks for China’s economic work in 2026. Several of these areas particularly interest me as a China expert. Among the most important tasks for China’s economic work in 2026 is promoting a policy of supporting service exports through various measures to boost household income, raise basic pensions, and remove restrictions in the consumer sector. What struck me most during the Central Economic Conference meetings in Beijing in December 2025 was its emphasis on China’s continued opening up. This will provide tremendous global growth opportunities by expanding trade and investment, especially in the technology and renewable energy sectors, deepening integration into global value chains, and increasing demand for resources. This will drive the global economy in conjunction with China and create new partnerships, focusing on “high-quality development” and “high-level opening up” as fundamental pillars for mutual benefit and to stimulate innovation within the Chinese economy.
– Main Tasks of the Beijing Economic Conference in December 2025
1) Providing a huge market and investment opportunities: By increasingly encouraging the opening of its doors to foreign companies, China will create diverse opportunities in various sectors such as technology, innovation, and services.
2) Making the Chinese economy an engine of global growth: The recovery and growth of the global economy depend heavily on China’s contribution, which accounts for a large share of the global economy.
3) Expanding free trade: China strongly supports free trade and the signing of regional agreements, reducing barriers and promoting trade exchanges.
4) Expanding the wheel of Chinese overseas investment: By significantly deepening the contribution of Chinese direct investment abroad to the economic development of other countries.
5) Promoting innovation-led development in China to accelerate the development of new growth engines in 2026: This will bring significant benefits to foreign consumers and investors. The meeting approved a package of policies aimed at strengthening the role of companies in innovation and implementing a new round of measures to develop high-quality key industrial chains, deepening and expanding fields such as artificial intelligence, which will bring more innovation opportunities to the world.
– Sectors in which China will expand in the future:
A) Innovation and Technology: China is a leader in fields such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and agricultural technology, driving global innovation.
B) Advanced Manufacturing: China’s rapid transition to high-quality development focuses on industrial upgrading and technological innovation, creating new products and services.
C) Promoting Globalization: China opposes protectionism and supports inclusive economic globalization, creating a more interconnected and integrated global economy.
D) Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind: The ultimate goal of China’s economic growth is to achieve common development and improve livelihoods for all, promoting win-win international cooperation.
– Areas of China’s contribution to global development and the global economy in 2026, through:
1) Product supply: As the “world’s factory,” with a focus on advanced technology.
2) Demand stimulation: China’s enormous demand for commodities, energy, and raw materials supports other economies.
3) Knowledge and technology transfer: Through investments and joint ventures.
4) Support for sustainable development: By focusing on clean energy and green sectors.
Accordingly, we understand that the main tasks for 2026, identified during the Central Economic Conference in Beijing in December 2026, are comprehensive and diverse. Chief among them is building a strong domestic market in China, reflecting a future strategic direction for the Chinese economy. This will promote sustainable development, support high-quality growth, foster innovation-led development, and uphold openness to the outside world. This means providing broader development opportunities for foreign investment and achieving growth that is synchronized with the development of the Chinese economy.
From walking around in -32 degrees, eating Reindeer pizza, to having just a few hours of daylight – here’s what it’s really like to work in Lapland over Christmas
Saul Vendrig Castillo works in Lapland, describing it as a ‘real-life snow globe’(Image: Saul Vendrig Castillo/TUI)
Lapland is one of the most enchanting and Christmassy places in the world during this time of year, with its snow-dusted forests and roaming reindeer. Yet, imagine if the Arctic wilderness was the backdrop to your working day? And we’re not talking about being Santa Claus.
Saul Vendrig Castillo compares his office to a ‘real-life snow globe’ as he spends the most wonderful time of the year in Lapland, Finland, as a TUI representative. His job is to help create unforgettable moments for families who visit the magical winter wonderland, and it certainly comes with its perks.
“Every day I’m surrounded by snow, excitement and pure joy. Kids step off the plane with their mouths open in amazement, and you can feel the Christmas magic in the air. It’s like working inside a real-life snow globe!”, Saul said.
“Lapland is one of the only places on earth you can experience the magic of gliding through snowy forests, wrapped up warm, with a majestic reindeer leading the way. It’s peaceful, magical and gives you time to soak up the Lapland winter wonderland.”
Yet, it can come with its challenges as he revealed: “In December, we get just over two hours of daylight, which means at 4pm, it can feel like bedtime.” However, that hasn’t stopped Saul from making the most of the local delicacies, including one that some might frown upon.
“Reindeer pizza is amazing, and much better than I expected! I can also highly recommend a liquorice cake with blueberry ice cream that I ordered a few days in a row, as it was so good,” said Saul.
His job in Lapland can range from greeting families at the airport, helping them with their snowsuits and boots, to organising thrilling outdoor excursions such as husky sleigh rides, reindeer safaris or snowmobiling.
“The children get to ride in sledges pulled by a team of energetic huskies. The sound of their paws on the snow and the speed of the sledge make it an unforgettable adventure. Everyone leaves smiling and talking about it for days,” he explained.
But he confessed that the most rewarding part of his job is seeing the smiles on the children’s faces when they meet Santa. “When families visit Santa, it’s really special,” he shared.
“The children get to meet him in his cosy, twinkling cabin, tell him what they’ve been wishing for, and even receive a little gift to take home. The excitement in their eyes is priceless, and it’s magical for the parents to see too.”
Saul added: “When a child sees their first reindeer or throws their first snowball, that’s the moment you realise how special this job is. Then you take them to meet the Big Man, and their faces light up in a way you never forget. Parents often tell me this is the Christmas they always dreamed of giving their kids, so it’s really special to be a part of that experience.”
Currently in Lapland for his second season with TUI, Saul has picked up a few handy tips for those looking to visit the enchanting destination. He advised: “Make sure you bring lots of loose layers to wear under your snow suit as they trap the heat, whereas tight clothes can make you colder fast. And once you feel the chill, it’s hard to get rid of it, some days it can get to –32 degrees.”
He added that because Lapland only gets just over two hours of daylight in December, it’s best to “plan your activities with this in mind to really maximise those daylight hours”.
Additionally, Saul suggested: “For many people visiting Lapland, their bucket list goal is to see the Northern Lights, and my one piece of advice is to always be patient with them. They can be unpredictable, but they really are a sight to behold when they appear in the evening.”
During the summer season, Saul works as a TUI rep in various countries, including Greece, the Costa del Sol, and Mallorca. Yet, there’s something about Lapland, “The snow, the lights, the magic, the excited families always pull you back. There’s nowhere else like it,” he said.
If you’re interested in soaking up the festive merriment or planning a winter getaway for next year, TUI offers various packages to Lapland, departing from regional airports across the UK. The packages typically include flights, snowsuits, activities and transfers, and of course, the chance to meet Santa and witness the Northern Lights.
Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
Emmerdale fans think they have worked out how it will all end for Celia and Ray ITV soap after a tense scene played out during Wednesday night’s episode of the Yorkshire-based serial
22:10, 17 Dec 2025Updated 22:10, 17 Dec 2025
Emmerdale fans think they have worked it out(Image: ITV)
Emmerdale fans think they have worked out who will see to the end of Celia and Ray the ITV soap. The villainous farmer, who has been played by Jaye Griffiths over the last few months, has been carrying out a reign of terror across the Yorkshire village alongside Ray as she heads up a drug dealing operation and slavery ring.
Celia hasn’t acted alone, having recruited teenagers April Windsor and Dylan Penders into her evil scheme. But, mainly, she orchestrates the whole thing with her foster son Ray Walters, whom she took in off the streets several years ago.
The pair may have been a duo for decades, but after Celia scuppered Ray’s romance with Laurel Thomas in the latest episode of the ITV soap by making out he was something he was not, she had her foster son in tears during a tense seen that came at the end.
After slapping him straight across the face, she said: “You think she’ll make you life easier? She won’t! You need someone to keep you real, someone who will stop you drifting off into these fantasies of yours.
“She doesn’t know you, she doesn’t want you the way you think she does because you are weak, Ray. You need someone to tell you when to speak, how to feel, how to exist. And aren’t you lucky that I am still here doing exactly that.”
Ray promptly burst into tears, and Celia coldly said: “Cry if you want to. But wipe your face before anyone sees you. They already pity you, let’s not confirm why.” Celia then left the room and Ray punched the wall in a fit of rage.
Fans of the soap will know that Celia is set to leave Emmerdale after a relatively short stay in the village but have been left puzzled how Ray and Celia have yet to be exposed.
One fan wrote on Reddit: “Ross, Mackenzie, Lewis and Robert all know that Ray is a drug dealer after he wanted Lewis’ weed. Surely one at least one of them would have seen Ray still sniffing around in the village or seen him with Laurel? What’s the likelihood of all 4 of them not seeing Ray still sniffing around in the village? I know Ross saw him a few months ago but that didn’t lead to anywhere apart from Ross warning him to stay away from the village.”
“Yeah one of them would have seen him at least once around the village, in the cafe or the pub. Just so happened that when he’s been in the cafe Nicola has just seen him,” a second added. A third penned: “Did Mackenzie and Lewis meet him? Ross did confront him and he played it off. The only one who could know is Robert but he may not know the range of Ray’s drug business, he’s also not part of Laurel’s social circle,” with another fan responding: “Yep they all met him. It was one of his first appearances in the village. Mackenzie was actually the one who brought Ray to the village.”
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
HumAngle, the newsroom known for its in-depth coverage of conflict, displacement, and insecurity across West Africa, has announced a major overhaul of how our journalists work and rest.
From January 2026, an Anti-Burnout Work Policy that restructures the work year into nine active months and three mandatory rest months will be introduced, while maintaining a full 12-month salary for our journalists.
The move, an attempt at reimagining what sustainable journalism looks like, is designed to protect mental health, reduce burnout, and sustain the quality of reporting from some of the region’s most difficult environments.
Under the new system, editorial staff will work in three cycles each year:
Work: January–March
Rest: April
Work: May–July
Rest: August
Work: September–November
Rest: December
Traditional annual leave will be embedded into these rest periods, which are intended to serve as structured breaks for recovery, reflection, and creative renewal. The in-house workweek for journalists will also be shortened to three days — Monday to Wednesday.
Support teams and staff of the advocacy arm, HumAngle Foundation, will have a different, flexible structure: they will be required to work two in-office days per week, with the remaining days remote, and will receive 28 days of paid annual leave. Accountability and performance expectations will remain in place, but alongside a clearer recognition of human limits.
Why rest is now part of the job
HumAngle’s reporters routinely work in and around conflict zones, camps for displaced people, and communities living with violence and trauma. This kind of journalism demands not just technical skill but emotional stamina and deep empathy, and the costs are often borne silently. We have a dedicated clinical psychologist who supports staff well-being and manages secondary trauma that results from our regular interaction with violence and victims of violence.
HumAngle sees burnout not simply as personal exhaustion, but as a direct threat to credible journalism, storytelling, creativity, and accuracy. Building rest into the structure of work itself is a step towards treating mental health as a core requirement for excellence, not an afterthought. Well-rested journalists are better able to think clearly, write powerfully, and engage more sensitively with vulnerable sources and communities.
The policy aims to ensure continuity in coverage while allowing staff to step back regularly, process the emotional weight of their work, and return with renewed focus.
A cultural shift in African newsroom practice
Care, structure, and humanity, especially in newsrooms that routinely deal with violence, loss, and injustice, are critical for the sustainability of newsrooms. By aligning productivity with well-being, HumAngle hopes to model an alternative to the long-standing culture of overwork that exists in many media spaces.
The policy is a commitment to our people and our mission: to demonstrate that rest and excellence can reinforce each other, and that protecting journalists’ minds is part of preserving the integrity of the stories they tell.
HumAngle has introduced a revolutionary Anti-Burnout Work Policy starting January 2026 to protect journalists from burnout while ensuring sustained quality in journalism. This policy divides the work year into nine active months and three mandatory rest months while maintaining a full 12-month salary. Journalists will work in three-month cycles followed by a month-long rest, with a shortened three-day workweek, enhancing recovery and creative renewal.
The policy acknowledges the strenuous nature of reporting in conflict zones, promoting mental health as essential for journalism excellence. HumAngle’s inclusion of structured rest in work routines aims to prevent burnout, which they view as a threat to storytelling and credibility. The organization is pioneering this cultural shift in African newsroom practices, aligning productivity with well-being, demonstrating that rest complements excellence. This approach aims to support journalists’ mental health and uphold the integrity of their impactful reporting.
I think about Rob Reiner almost every time I put on my socks.
I am old enough to remember the famously hilarious (and largely improvised) bit from “All in the Family” in which Reiner’s Mike “Meathead” Stivic and Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker argue about the correct order of donning footwear — both socks first (Archie’s method) or sock/shoe, sock/shoe (Mike’s).
The straight-faced back and forth was, and is, a pitch-perfect exhibition of how much time and energy we waste judging, and arguing about, personal differences that are none of anyone’s business and matter not at all.
I also think about Reiner whenever my now-adult children and I sit down for a movie night. When all other suggestions fail, at least one of his films — ”Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “Misery” — will achieve consensus, in large part, because of that same understanding.
Reiner was, above all, a compassionate filmmaker, willing to excavate all manner of conflict and tension in search of the essential humanity that connects us all.
Reiner helped shape the culture of my youth and early adulthood with such brilliant empathy that his random appearances on television — as Jess’ (Zooey Deschanel) father in “New Girl” or, more recently, Ebra’s (Edwin Lee Gibson) business mentor on “The Bear” — sparked immediate reflexive delight, as if a beloved uncle had shown up unexpectedly at a family dinner.
It helped, no doubt, that I share his political leanings. Reiner’s advocacy for gay marriage and early education were well-known, as was, in recent years, his unvarnished criticism of President Trump, who Reiner, like many others, considered a danger to democracy.
That criticism should have prepared me for the chilling invective unleashed by some, including Trump, in the wake of the news that Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their home on Sunday night, victims of a knife attack, and that their son Nick, who has a history of drug addiction, was in police custody.
Even as the millions who were touched by Reiner’s work struggled to process their shock, grief and horror, Trump responded with a post in which he claimed that the Reiners’ murders were “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
Even so, between the shocking news of the Reiners’ deaths, the possible involvement of their son and the unhinged and cold-hearted response of the president of the United States, it is difficult to know how to react, short of tearing out one’s hair and screaming up to an indifferent sky.
No person’s life means intrinsically more than any other — many people are killed by violence each and every weekend, often by family members; that we seem to have become inured to mass shootings is another sort of horror.
But Reiner’s work, in film, television and politics, affected millions around the world personally and culturally. In “All in the Family,” his young leftie was far from the hero of the piece — Mike’s values were more humane and progressive than the bigoted Archie’s, but he could be just as narrow-minded as his father-in-law and just as capable of change.
As a director, Reiner championed independent filmmaking, which is to say smartly written movies that told interesting stories about characters that were recognizable in their humor and humanity (which is one reason he was so successful in adapting Stephen King’s work, including the novella “Stand by Me” is based on and “Misery”).
His political activism too was grounded in the desire to make life better for those historically marginalized by policy and culture. He campaigned against tobacco use and for Proposition 10, which increased the tax on cigarettes, and funded early education. In 2009, he used his considerable influence to co-found the American Foundation for Equal Rights and successfully fought to legally challenge Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.
As an artist and a public figure, he put his money where his mouth was and remained invariably sincere, a powerful and compelling trait that has become increasingly rare in a time of the sound-bite inanities, muddy thinking, obvious contradictions and outright falsehoods that threaten our public and political discourse.
Reiner mastered many mediums and wielded a broad palette but his signature artistic trait was empathy. No story was too small, or too brutal, to be examined with kindness and an understanding that the most grave injustice we can commit is to choose apathy or revenge when connection and transcendence are always possible.
The news cycle surrounding the Reiners’ deaths is likely to get worse, as details emerge and reactions of all kinds continue. For a long while, it will be difficult to think of Reiner and his wife as anything but victims of a brutal crime of truly tragic proportions and the regrettable heartlessness that our political divisions have created.
Ironically, and mercifully, solace for this loss, and so many others, can be found in Reiner’s work, films and performances that are impossible to watch without feeling at least a little bit better.
As Hollywood and the world mourns, I will try to think of Reiner as I always have. After all, no matter the order, we all put on our shoes and socks one at a time.
And then, as his artistic legacy teaches us, we stand and try to do the best we can with whatever happens next.
Rob Reiner was a movie director who began as an actor who wanted to direct movies. The bridge between these careers was “This Is Spinal Tap” in 1984, his first proper film, in which he also acted. His original inclination, based on the music documentaries he had studied, had been not to appear onscreen, but he decided there was practical value in greeting the audience with a face familiar from eight seasons of “All in the Family” as Archie Bunker’s left-wing son-in-law, Michael “Meathead” Stivic.
Reiner’s television career began at 21, partnered with Steve Martin, writing for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” As an actor, his early years were characterized by the small parts and guest shots that describe the early career of many performers we come to know well. He played multiple characters on episodes of “That Girl” and “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” a delivery boy on “Batman,” and appeared on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Room 222.” His last such role, in 1971, the same year “All in the Family” premiered, was on “The Partridge Family” as a tender-hearted, poetry-writing, tattooed biker who becomes attached to Susan Dey‘s character and somewhat improbably takes her to a school dance. It’s a performance that prefigures the tenderness and humanity that would become a signature of his work as a writer, director and performer — and, seemingly, a person.
On “All in the Family,” in his jeans and work shirt, with a drooping mustache that seemed to accentuate a note of sadness, Reiner largely played the straight man, an irritant to Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker, teeing up the issue-oriented dialectic. Once in a while he’d be given a broad comic meal to chew, as when wife Gloria (Sally Struthers) goes into labor while they’re out for dinner, and he accelerates into classic expectant-father sitcom panic. But minus the “Meathead” material, “All in the Family” is as much a social drama as it is a comedy, with Mike and Gloria struggling with money, living with her parents, new parenthood, and a relationship that blows hot and cold until it finally blows out for good. He’s not a Comic Creation, like Archie or Edith with their malaprops and mispronunciations, or even Gloria, but his importance to the storytelling was certified by two supporting actor Emmys.
Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, Caroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton in a scene from Norman Lear’s television series “All in the Family.”
(Bettmann Archive via Getty Image)
What Reiner carried from “Family” into his later appearances was a sort of bigness. He could seem loud — and loudness is something Norman Lear’s shows reveled in — even when he’s speaking quietly. Physically he occupied a lot of space, more as time went on, and beginning perhaps with “Spinal Tap,” in which he played director Marty DiBergi, he transformed tonally into a sort of gentle Jewish Buddha. In the 2020 miniseries “Hollywood,” Ryan Murphy’s alternate history of the 1930s picture business, the studio head he plays is not the desk-banger of cliche, but he is a man with an appetite. (“Get me some brisket and some of those cheesy potatoes and a lemon meringue pie,” he tells a commissary waiter — against doctor’s orders, having just emerged from a heart attack-induced coma. “One meal’s not going to kill me.”) He’s the boss, but, in a scene as lovely as it is historically unlikely, he allows his wife (Patti LuPone), who has been running things during his absence, to also be the boss.
Reiner left “All in the Family” in 1978, after its eighth season to explore life outside Michael Stivic. (In 1976, while still starring on “Family,” he tested those waters, appearing on an episode of “The Rockford Files” as a narcissistic third-rate football player.) “Free Country,” which he co-created with frequent writing partner Phil Mishkin, about a family of Lithuanian immigrants in the early 1900s, aired five episodes that summer. The same year, ABC broadcast the Reiner-Mishkin-penned TV movie “More Than Friends” (available on Apple TV) in which Reiner co-starred with then-wife Penny Marshall. Directed by James Burrows, whose dance card would fill up with “Taxi,” “Cheers” and “3rd Rock From the Sun,” it’s in some respects a dry run for Reiner’s “When Harry Met Sally…,” tracking a not-quite-romantic but ultimately destined relationship across time.
Future Spinal Tap lead singer Michael McKean appears there as a protest singer, while the 1982 CBS TV movie “Million Dollar Infield,” written again with Mishkin, features Reiner alongside future Spinal Tap lead guitarist Christopher Guest and bassist Harry Shearer; it’s a story of baseball, families and therapy. Co-star Bruno Kirby the year before had co-written and starred in Reiner’s directorial debut, “Tommy Rispoli: A Man and His Music,” a short film that aired on the long-gone subscription service On TV as part of the “Likely Stories” anthology. Kirby’s character, a Frank Sinatra-loving limo driver (driving Reiner as himself), found its way into “This Is Spinal Tap,” though here he is the center of a Reineresque love story.
After “Spinal Tap,” as Reiner’s directing career went from strength to strength, he continued to act in other people’s pictures (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “Primary Colors,” “Bullets Over Broadway” and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” to name but a few) and some of his his own, up to this year’s “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.” On television, he mostly played himself, which is to say versions of himself, on shows including “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and, of all things, “Hannah Montana,” with a few notable exceptions.
Rob Reiner and Jamie Lee Curtis play the divorced parents of Jess (Zooey Deschanel) in Fox’s “New Girl.”
(Ray Mickshaw / Fox)
The most notable of these, to my mind, is “New Girl,” in which Reiner appeared in 10 episodes threaded through five of the series’ seven seasons, as Bob Day, the father of Zooey Deschanel’s Jess. Jamie Lee Curtis, married to Guest in the real world, played his ex-wife, Joan, with Kaitlin Olson as his new, much younger partner, Ashley, who had been in high school with Jess. He’s positively delightful here, whether being overprotective of Deschanel or suffering her ministrations, dancing around Curtis, or fencing with Jake Johnson’s Nick. Improvisational rhythms characterize his performance, whether he’s sticking to the script or not. Most recently, he recurred in the fourth season of “The Bear,” which has also featured Curtis, mentoring sandwich genius Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson); their scenes feel very much like what taking a meeting with Reiner might be like.
Coincidentally, I have had Reiner in my ear over the past couple of weeks, listening to the audiobook version of “A Fine Line: Between Stupid and Clever,” which he narrates with contributions from McKean, Shearer and Guest. A story of friendship and creativity and ridiculousness, all around a wonderful thing that grew bigger over the years, Reiner’s happy reading throws this tragedy into sharper relief. I have a DVD on the way, though I don’t know when I’ll be up to watching it. I only know I will.
Alang, India – Standing on the windswept coastline of the Arabian Sea in the western Indian state of Gujarat, Ramakant Singh looks towards the empty, endless horizon.
“In the olden days, ships lined up at this yard like buffaloes before a storm,” says the 47-year-old. “Now, we count the arrivals on our fingers.”
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Ramakant works at Alang — the world’s largest ship-breaking yard, located in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state. For two decades, Ramakant has cut apart vessels as large as oil tankers and cargo carriers that sailed in from Europe and other Asian countries for his livelihood.
With its unique tidal pattern and gently sloping beach, Alang in the 1980s became the backbone of India’s ship recycling industry, where ships could be beached and dismantled at a minimal cost.
Over the decades, more than 8,600 vessels — collectively weighing roughly 68 million tonnes of light displacement tonnage (LDT), which is the actual weight of a ship without fuel, crew and cargo — have been taken apart here, accounting for nearly 98 percent of India’s total and about a third of the global ship recycling volume.
Rows of rescue boats wait to be resold, alongside chains, lifejackets and other salvaged remnants at Alang yard [Anuj Behal/Al Jazeera]
Across the world’s oceans, an ageing fleet of cargo ships, cruise liners, and oil tankers is nearing the end of its life. Of the roughly 109,000 vessels still in service, nearly half are more than 15 years old — rusting giants that will soon be retired.
Each year, close to 1,800 ships are declared unfit to sail and sold for recycling. Their owners pass them on to international middlemen, known as cash buyers — operating out of global shipping hubs such as Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong. These brokers, in turn, resell the vessels to dismantling yards in South Asia, where the final act of a ship’s life unfolds.
In Alang, ships are driven ashore at high tide — a process called beaching. Once grounded, hundreds of workers cut them apart piece by piece, salvaging steel, pipes, and machinery. Almost everything — from cables to cupboards — is resold for use by construction and manufacturing industries.
However, over the past decade, the number of ships arriving on Alang’s coast has dwindled. Once a skyline of giant hulls that looked like high-rise buildings against the town’s asbestos roofs, only a few cruise ships and cargo carriers dot the horizon today.
“Earlier, there was plenty of work for everyone,” Chintan Kalthia, who runs one of the few yards still open, tells Al Jazeera. “Now, most of the workers have left. Only when a new ship beaches do a few come back to Alang. My own business is down to barely 30-40 percent of what it used to be.”
According to data from India’s Ship Recycling Industries Association, 2011-12 marked Alang’s busiest financial year since it began operations in 1983, with a record 415 ships dismantled. Since then, the yard has faced a steep decline — of the 153 plots developed along the 10km (6-mile) coastline, only about 20 remain functional, and even they are operating at barely 25 percent capacity.
“But what’s going wrong in Alang has multiple reasons,” says Haresh Parmar, secretary of the Ship Recycling Industries Association (India). “The biggest is that globally, shipowners are not retiring their old vessels. Post-COVID, a surge in demand led to record profits in shipping. With freight rates soaring, owners are pushing ships beyond their usual operational life instead of sending them for dismantling.”
From cables to cupboards, almost all materials are reclaimed and repurposed for construction and manufacturing markets [Anuj Behal/Al Jazeera]
A key factor behind the surge in freight rates is global disruptions. Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza has had a ripple effect on global trade routes, with Yemen’s Houthi rebels repeatedly attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians. The resulting security crisis has forced ships to bypass the Suez Canal and instead take the longer Cape of Good Hope route, sending freight rates soaring and delaying cargo worldwide.
Similarly, an analysis by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) conducted in June 2022 found that the Russia-Ukraine war and other Middle East tensions had pushed up marine fuel costs by more than 60 percent, adding to operational expenses and shipping delays.
Together, these factors have sharply reduced the supply of end-of-life ships heading to Alang. “When owners are earning well, they don’t scrap their vessels,” says Parmar. “That’s why our yards are standing empty.”
Compliance raising costs
But that is not the only reason why Alang is struggling.
India’s ship recycling industry has undergone a significant transformation since the country acceded to the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) in November 2019, becoming one of the first top ship-breaking nations to do so. Under the HKC and the 2019 Recycling of Ships Act, yards at Alang upgraded their infrastructure, installed pollution control systems, lined hazardous waste storage pits, trained workers, and maintained detailed inventories of toxic materials used in vessels.
These measures made Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling Yards (ASSRY) one of the most compliant ship-recycling clusters in the developing world, with 106 of ASSRY yards having received HKC Statements of Compliance (SoC). Sosiya is a village located right next to Alang on the Gulf of Khambhat coast in Gujarat. Together, Alang and Sosiya form the entire stretch of beach where ship-breaking plots operate.
But achieving these standards came at a high cost: each yard had to invest between $0.56m and $1.2m to meet compliance norms, raising operational costs at a time when competition from neighbouring countries remains fierce.
“Think of it like a roadside eatery versus a global burger chain — the chain has shinier rules, cleaner kitchens, and safer gear, but you pay extra for the sparkle. The Hong Kong Convention works the same way,” said Kalthia, whose company, RL Kalthia Ship Breaking Private Limited, became the first ship recycling facility in India to receive HKC compliance certification from ClassNK in 2015, as their website shows. ClassNK is a leading Japanese ship classification society that audits and certifies international maritime safety and environmental standards.
“Compliance makes things safer and brings us up to international standards — it gives us an edge only on paper,” says Chetan Patel, a yard owner at Alang. “But it has also raised costs significantly.”
That, in turn, has made it hard for Alang’s ship-breakers to offer prices comparable to those of competitors.
“When neighbouring markets can pay more, shipowners go there,” Patel said.
Unused ships quickly become a financial drain, forcing owners to offload them, even if that means dismantling them long before their intended lifespan [Anuj Behal/Al Jazeera]
Competing ship-recycling yards are thriving. In Bangladesh’s Chattogram port and Pakistan’s Gadani yard, shipowners are being offered $540-550 per LDT and $525-530 per LDT, respectively, compared with $500-510 per LDT at Alang.
“We can’t match the rates offered by Bangladesh and Pakistan,” says Parmar. “If we tried, we’d be running at a loss.”
This is reflected clearly in the data: the number of ships decommissioned in India dropped from 166 in 2023 to 124 in 2024. In contrast, Turkiye’s figures nearly doubled to 94 from 50, and Pakistan’s rose from 15 to 24 during the same period.
Supporting industries struggle
Alang is not just a ship-breaking yard, but a vast recycling ecosystem that sustains the surrounding region’s economy.
From the coastal town of Trapaj — the last big settlement before Alang — an 11km (7-mile) stretch of road is lined with sprawling, makeshift shops selling remnants of decommissioned ships. Everything that used to be part of life at sea eventually finds its way here: rusted chains, rescue boats, refrigerators, ceramic crockery, martini glasses, treadmills from shipboard gyms, air conditioners from cabins, and chandeliers from officers’ quarters.
“Whatever is there on the ship, we own it,” says Parmar. “Before the cutting begins, all valuable items are auctioned and reach these stores.”
All remnants of life on the ocean wind up here – corroded chains, rescue boats, ceramic crockery, martini glasses, and treadmills from ship gyms [Anuj Behal/Al Jazeera]
Ram Vilas, who runs a ceramic shop selling salvaged crockery by the kilo, says most of his customers used to come from commercial establishments across Gujarat. “Now, business has gone dead,” he tells Al Jazeera. “This stretch you see doesn’t even have one-tenth of the crowd it used to. With fewer ships coming in, we don’t have enough stock to fill our shops.”
The ripple effects of Alang’s decline extend to other industries as well. Waste is handled by specialised facilities, while reusable steel is supplied to more than 60 induction furnaces and 80 rerolling mills, some 50km (30 miles) away in Bhavnagar, converting it into TMT bars – reinforced steel rods – and other construction materials.
But with fewer ships arriving, the supply of scrap steel has dropped sharply, disrupting operations of furnaces, mills, and hundreds of small businesses that depend on ship-derived goods. More than 200 retail and wholesale shops that once bustled with activity now face dwindling sales.
“Gas plants, rolling mills, furnace units, transporters, drivers — everyone connected to this chain has lost their livelihood,” says Parmar.
Most shops are stacked with whatever the ship-breaking yards have yielded that day [Anuj Behal/Al Jazeera]
In Bhavnagar, 29-year-old Jigar Patel, who runs a flange manufacturing unit, says his business has suffered.
“I opened my unit in 2017, seeing the opportunity with steel sheets easily available from Alang,” he says. “But in the past two years, the slowdown has hit hard. Now, I have to buy sheets from Jharkhand. It’s not just expensive, but the raw steel is harder to cut and process. The Alang sheets were more malleable and ductile — they were made for work and of international standard.”
Workers at Alang, most of them migrants from poorer Indian states in the north and east, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, have also begun to leave. “They only show up when ships arrive at the docks,” Vidyadhar Rane, president of the Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers’ Association, tells Al Jazeera.
“Yard owners call them when there is work. The rest of the time, they find other jobs in nearby towns,” he says.
At its peak, Alang employed more than 60,000 workers. Today, that number has shrunk to fewer than 15,000, according to the union.
Ramakant, who first arrived in Alang at the age of 35, recalls working for seven straight years before the slowdown began. “Now, I only return when my employer calls,” he says, adding that he spends the rest of his time working in the industrial town of Surat.
The work at the yard, he admits, has become far safer than it once was. “This was once the deadliest job — we would see workers dying every other day. Now there’s training, safety gear, and order,” Ramakant says, looking towards the silent coast.
“But what’s the point of safety when there’s no work? Everything now depends on whether the next [ship] arrives at the yard or not.”
Wake Up Dead Man has bagged a stellar 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, with many viewers already crowning it as the best thriller in the series.
This comes as no surprise considering its talented cast, which includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington, and Mila Kunis.
But the ensemble cast has caught moviegoers’ attention with more than just their acting chops. Many have pointed out that each instalment in the franchise has featured at least one actor that Craig worked with during his James Bond days.
Taking to Reddit, one fan posted a series of images of Bond actors who have also appeared in the Knives Out trilogy.
They shared their discovery, writing: “Something interesting I noticed after watching the movies back to back. With Wake Up Dead Man featuring Andrew Scott and Jeffrey Wright , Daniel Craig has worked again with at least one other actor from his James Bond movies on all 3 Knives Out films.”
Fans of the series will remember that the first film featured Oscar nominee Ana de Armas as nurse Marta Cabrera.
Craig and de Armas also collaborated in No Time to Die, in which the actress played CIA agent Paloma.
However, as some fans on Reddit pointed out “Ana de Armas was a Knives Out actor in a Bond movie, not the other way around,” since she joined the Bond universe two years after starring in the mystery film.
Craig later reunited with fellow Bond star Dave Bautista in Glass Onion, the Knives Out sequel.
Spectre fans will remember Bautista as terrifying henchman Hinx, a character worlds away from his light-hearted Glass Onion role as gamer Duke Cody.
Irish actor Andrew Scott also featured in the same 2015 Bond film as intelligence agent Max Denbigh.
Scott plays misguided writer Lee Ross in Wake Up Dead Man, though he sparingly shares scenes with Craig.
Another No Time to Die star, Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright also reunites with Craig in the new Knives Out film.
Wright plays Bishop Langstrom, who serves as something of a mentor for main character Father Jud Duplenticy (O’Connor).
Fans were especially thrilled to see this duo collaborating again, four years after Wright played Bond’s ally Felix Leiter.
Responding to the Reddit thread, one fan penned: “God I love Jeffery Wright,” with someone else agreeing: “Was the best surprise seeing him!”
And a third added: “The Jeffrey wright one really made me happy. Didn’t know he was in it!”
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is streaming now on Netflix
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, wondering if you’ve felt that 1% decrease in traffic congestion this year. I had plenty of time to contemplate its veracity the other day while inching my way down the 405 Freeway on my drive home. Let’s just say I’m unconvinced.
Let’s think happier thoughts — the continued, sweeping success of the year’s best movie, “One Battle After Another.”
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I spoke with the women of Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed epic, “One Battle After Another,” on a rainy day last month in the midst of that atmospheric river that washed through the city. You want to talk traffic congestion? Try going down San Vicente during rush hour on the way to a premiere at the Academy Museum.
The only movie worth that effort this year might be … “One Battle After Another.”
For our Envelope digital cover story, we gathered stars Regina Hall, Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor for a stunning photo shoot with Times contributor Bexx Francois, followed by a conversation accompanied by a slate of appetizers that evoked memories of the night before when Taylor’s French fries went missing at their Governors Awards table.
“I went to the bar during the dinner and came back,” Taylor says. “And Regina’s like, ‘Somebody took my plate.’ And I look down and say, ‘Somebody ate my fries.’” She motions at Hall. “Goldilocks over here.”
There were no beefs over the apps that day, just the kind of camaraderie evident by the care Infiniti showed her co-stars, helping them keep their immaculate outfits pristine. “One Battle After Another” feels like a lock for a Screen Actors Guild Award (now known as the Actors) ensemble nomination, in no small part due to the exemplary work of these three women, along with co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro.
Taylor won a supporting actor prize Sunday from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. for her portrayal of Perfidia Beverly Hills, the revolutionary leader of the French 75. The character dominates the movie’s 35-minute opening section, an extended prologue that ends with Perfidia betraying members of her group to avoid prison and abandoning her daughter in the haze of postpartum depression.
“Perfidia anchors this movie,” Taylor says. “We got a boat ride to the middle of the ocean and we gonna anchor this boat, and when we anchor this boat, I’m done.” She turns to Hall. “Then I need you to get on your jet ski and go.”
Taylor loves Perfidia, as do Infiniti and Hall. She’s protective of the character, admitting that, yes, Perfidia is selfish. But also: She has her reasons.
We talked about a scene that Anderson cut from the film featuring Perfidia and Hall’s steadfast Deandra, another member of the French 75. Perfidia calls Deandra from custody, Sean Penn’s Lockjaw lurking in the background, and tells Deandra, “Remember those baby socks I was telling you about? I need you to go out and get them.”
It’s code: Perfidia wants Deandra to make sure that she takes care of her baby, Willa, and get out of town.
“When people have certain opinions of Perfidia, that’s the part of her that they didn’t see,” Taylor says. “People write her off, but she made that phone call.”
“Perfidia and Deandra are best friends,” Hall says. “Watching the movie, you can feel that. But that scene made it clear.”
“But in hindsight,” Taylor says, “artistically that scene would not have made sense. We needed Perfidia to be selfish.”
“She’s not selfish,” Infniti, who plays Willa, interjects. “She was doing the only thing she felt she could do.”
“That’s true,” Taylor replies. “But she’s also selfish. That’s why I think Paul is a f— genius. He is a mad scientist. He really knew what to do with this movie to create a healthy dialogue. He got people talking.”
The UCLA gymnastics team offered fans a sneak peek of what can be expected during the 2026 season at its annual Meet the Bruins event Saturday.
The Bruins are coming off a runner-up finish at the NCAA championships and a sweep of the Big Ten regular season and conference titles.
Bar routines have been an area of growth for UCLA during the past season, and the team is shaping up to have better depth. The gymnasts have been pushing each other to improve, and UCLA coach Janelle McDonald is pleased with the progress.
UCLA gymnast Jordan Chiles, center, fires up teammates during the Meet the Bruins exhibition on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Pauley Pavilion.
(Dylan Petrossian/UCLA Athletics)
“Really excited about where we are at on bars,” McDonald said. ”I feel like it can be a great event for us and just really working on the consistency of the details right now.”
There are skills the Bruins want to clean up and tighten before the first meet of the new season in January, including sharper execution and landings.
“There were a couple of uncharacteristic things that we don’t typically see in practice, people that are really consistent with sticking and having steps,” McDonald said after the Meet the Bruins exhibition.
The seniors say they are focused on adding routines and events, emphasizing learning, growing and pushing themselves in their final year.
“I feel like both Ciena [Alipio] and Maddie [Anyimi] have had that mentality all summer long to really be able to come into the preseason and make a statement. It was great to see them out there in different events and to see them perform so confidently,” McDonald said.
Sophomore Macy McGowan did not perform on floor due to an injury and has been working throughout the offseason, building back each week to get stronger.
Jordan Chiles showed off her Prince themed floor routine for the final time and will replace it with something new during the competition season.
“I am really excited to do this floor routine,” said Chiles, who was a finalist on “Dancing with the Stars” during the offseason. ”We’ve already started and honestly, I’m like, ‘This is not Jordan. I’ve done the cutesy, I’ve done the hip-hop, I’ve done all those things and this is more the passionate, confident last era of being a Bruin.’”
Freshman Ashlee Sullivan stepped onto the Pauley Pavillion floor for the first time and has been adjusting to the transition from elite competition to collegiate gymnastics.
“When I came here, we were already hitting the ground running,” Sullivan said. “Like everyone looked so good. The team looked competition ready. Feeding off of that, everyone … pushes me to be [the] best I can.”
Tiana Sumanasekera, Nola Matthews, Jordis Eichman, Kai Mattei, Ava Callahan and Sullivan joined the roster this season, bringing a wide variety of skills to the UCLA lineup.
The 2026 season begins Jan. 3, when the Bruins will compete against Washington, California and Oregon State.
