HONG KONG — 

Images of riot police lobbing tear-gas canisters into angry crowds played on the news. Activists were blasted with water cannons and carted away. Thousands of protesters filled the streets, demanding greater autonomy from China.

A proposed bill, since withdrawn, that would have allowed extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China ignited the dessert. What started as peaceful marches had escalated into violent clashes between citizens and the police. The Chinese government has threatened severe consequences.

Into this, I decided to take my family.

The almost daily news of dissent has impacted tourism: There was a 39.1% drop in visitor arrivals in August over the same month a year earlier, according to the Hong Kong Immigration Department. People in the rest of the world declined to visit as increasingly contentious conflicts between pro-democracy citizens and the authorities took place.

But I wasn’t one of them.

Hong Kong is my home. I was born here when it was part of the British empire and lived here, after the handover to China in 1997, until I moved to Los Angeles in 2000.

My family has been in Hong Kong for three generations, my great-grandfather setting off from India in the early 1900s to establish trading outposts in Southeast Asia. My father started working in the Hong Kong branch when he was 18. He never left. He is about to turn 90.

That was one reason I was compelled to return in September, civil unrest notwithstanding. My sons, 14 and 17, had not seen their grandparents in 2½ years. My dad had recently been in the hospital. My mother had just turned 80. We had a brief window before my older son resumed his studies at UCLA.

Sometimes family trips just can’t be put off.

Given the decline in Hong Kong tourism, airfares and hotel rates were reasonable. The chant of “What about the riots?” from people in Los Angeles fell on my deaf ears.

Some insularity comes with being familiar with a place, so even when it is troubled, as Hong Kong is, it still feels safe. I have never known Hong Kong to be anything else.

A woman can walk home at 2 a.m. and not fear for her life. People don’t carry guns in this city where gun laws are extremely tight. (There were 120.5 civilian-held firearms per 100 people in the U.S. In Hong Kong, that number is 3.6., according to a 2017 report from the Geneva-based research group Small Arms Survey.

Before booking my tickets, I called a British journalist friend in Hong Kong who not only follows news of the protests but has marched alongside them in a mix of curiosity and solidarity. She said with some exasperation, “For heaven’s sake, nobody has died. You’re safer here now than on any day in America.” I found it hard to argue with that.

I checked travel advisories and didn’t discover anything that would cause me to cancel. Because there had been showdowns at Hong Kong International Airport leading to flight cancellations, I made sure the travel insurance I bought covered civil disturbance.

I knew that if there was any real threat, my parents and my brother and his family, who also live here, would say, “Don’t come.”

They never did.

Tourist areas affected

The key to visiting Hong Kong now — and I would again, despite the escalation and frequency of the clashes — is planning. Things have taken a turn for the worse; Jimmy Sham, head of the Civil Human Rights Front, the de facto leader of the uprising, recently was attacked. The mood in the city, my friends say, is tense.

Still, Mondays to Fridays, it’s mostly business as usual in this hyper-efficient and industrious city. With rare exception, protests don’t take place during the week. Stand in Central, the financial district, at the intersection of Queen’s Road and D’Aguilar Street at 1 p.m. on a weekday and watch the office buildings disgorge thousands of people out to grab lunch. It was always that way.

I thought people would stay in, given the circumstances. They did not. The places that locals frequent, such as the Chili Club, a Thai restaurant I’ve been patronizing for more than 20 years because of its legendary papaya salad, are still busy.

Where I did see a difference was in areas that tourists frequent. On previous trips to Hong Kong, we would wait at least an hour to board the Peak Tram, the funicular railway that for a few dollars takes you from Central adjacent up a steep hillside to the Peak, the tallest point on Hong Kong Island, where people go for the views.

The harbor has shrunk, the buildings grow taller, but the impact of the view remains, whether on a crisp, sunny day in April or through a veil of mist in frosty (for Hong Kong) February. It’s not surprising people wait an hour or more to see it.

When we drove past the Central boarding station on this visit, however, there was no line.

It’s quiet at tourist havens such as Hong Kong Disneyland, the marine-based theme park Ocean Park and Tian Tan Buddha, a 112-foot-tall bronze statue of Buddha, at Ngong Ping on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, accessed by a cable car ride over lush green mountains.

These were places we waited in long lines for rides or refreshments when I took my young children. We didn’t visit them this time, despite the exhortations of friends who said, “There’s nobody there! You should go!”

The decrease in tourism was apparent in other ways. On previous trips, I always set aside an afternoon for the Mongkok Ladies Market, bazaar-like streets jammed with stalls selling knockoff brand-name sneakers, pretty sets of chopsticks, teacups and more.

Bargaining is a hoot, with sellers shouting their best offers as customers walk away: “$100! OK, for you $80! OK, final price $60!” The area is typically packed with tourists. In the past, it’s been hard to move.

This time, Mongkok Ladies Market was almost empty. The contrast between the streets within the market, and the streets outside it, was marked. Mongkok, in Kowloon, across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island, is, according to Guinness World Records, the busiest district in the world, with about 340,000 people living per square mile.

I reckon they were all out that Thursday afternoon. We waited 15 minutes for a $2 glass of fresh watermelon juice and gai daan jai — Cantonese egg waffles that are a typical street snack. But as we approached the actual market, the crowds thinned. Locals don’t frequent it unless they’re with out-of-town visitors.

High alert

On the weekends, however, Hong Kong residents are on high alert. Protests can start on a Friday night and stretch to Sunday afternoon. They take place all over Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, which are on Hong Kong’s outlying islands.

Still, Hong Kong-style efficiency is apparent even in chaos. Protest groups let the public know where they will be, which makes it easy to avoid those areas. WhatsApp groups disseminate minute-by-minute information with photos: Stay away from Kowloon Tong; Pacific Place is closed; there are riot police gathering in Yaumatei.

The closest we came to seeing a protest was on a Friday evening outside our hotel in the west end of Central, and it was small-scale. About 30 students from the University of Hong Kong had gathered to talk to passersby and to invite them to write a few words on a pillar already emblazoned with “Stay Strong, Hong Kong” types of sentiments.

Most people who don’t participate in the protests see them as a hassle rather than as something to fear. They support protesters’ demands for greater autonomy from China. My friends here don’t feel endangered, just inconvenienced. The Mass Transit Railway subway system — a marvel of public transportation — used to stay open till 1 a.m. It now closes at 8 p.m., but even that changes day to day depending on the station.

The Airport Express, a sophisticated high-speed train that travels from the airport’s arrival hall into Central in 23 minutes for about $15, no longer stops along the way. Shops that used to be open until 10 p.m. now close in the middle of the day. The neighborhood 7-Eleven is now dark at 4 p.m. Luxury boutiques are struggling. I used to see lines of mainland Chinese shoppers outside Chanel and Louis Vuitton. They are no longer there.

So should you visit?

According to the U.S. State Department, Hong Kong is a Level 2 destination, which means “Exercise Increased Caution.” The highest is Level 4: Do Not Travel.

“The important thing is for people to avoid areas where protests are happening,” said Brendan O’Reilly, intelligence analyst for Asia at the travel risk management firm WorldAware. “Especially anything near a government facility, a police station or an MTR station where protesters gather. As long as people avoid those venues, Hong Kong as a whole is still typically safe.”

Experts do caution that travel insurance providers may not cover losses incurred as a result of the protests, so if you do go, check those details in your insurance policy carefully.

Some also advise suspending leisure travel. “I would say no,” said Mike O’Rourke, chief executive of global security consultancy Advanced Operational Concepts, who has spent much of the year in Hong Kong. “On recent weekends prime shopping areas have been targeted by the protesters.” Tourists, he said, will be impacted by vandalism at MTR stations, including fires, leading to their closure. “Tourists depend heavily on public transport here.”

But staying away, some said, sends the wrong message.

“I think it’s really important for people to continue to shine a light on Hong Kong, and clearly travel is a part of that,” said Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state and adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. “I think if people had planned to travel to Hong Kong, they should travel. For those who care about Hong Kong and whether its democracy movement is going to persist, the last thing they should do is avoid it.”

Hong Kong — its unaffordable housing notwithstanding — does try to take care of its people. It built the world’s longest escalator so those who live in the hilly areas called the Mid-Levels can ride for free to Central. Hong Kong residents can see a doctor for $6 at a government clinic or be admitted to a hospital for $15 a day. Anyone 65 or older gets $165 every month from the government for what is called “fruit money” — essentially an “old-age allowance.” Some years ago, on the back of a budget surplus, every permanent resident received about $800 in a kind of “share the wealth” initiative.

That sort of consideration still prevails even in the face of the dissent.

We were flying out of Hong Kong on a Sunday to return to Los Angeles. We’d been told to get to the airport earlier than usual as protests were being planned near there and roads might be closed.

We saw riot police and vans lining the approach to the airport. Queues had formed outside the departure terminal as passengers were being asked to show proof of travel.

Outside the terminal, all the luggage carts, destroyed in previous skirmishes with the police, had been removed. We had eight pieces of luggage to check. We needed carts. I found an airport staffer who said, with a smile, “Don’t worry.”

He found two colleagues, grabbed carts from inside, loaded our luggage and patiently waited while we went through security. He apologized for the hassle. He wished us safe travels and said, “Welcome back soon,” the smile never leaving his face.

If you go

• Check for updates on Facebook’s BeWater HK page (bit.ly/bewaterhk), where schedules of upcoming protests are routinely posted.
• The South China Morning Post (scmp.com) has a live blog with continuing updates.
• On Twitter, @mtrupdate posts events at the city’s MTR stations, which can close suddenly.
• Avoid hotels in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Pacific Place and many parts of Kowloon. Central, Sheung Wan and Kennedy Town are better options.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — 

Saudi Arabia formally started its long-anticipated initial public offering of its state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco on Sunday, which will see a sliver of the company offered on a local stock exchange in hopes of raising billions of dollars for the kingdom.

An announcement from the kingdom’s Capital Market Authority serves as a starting gun for an IPO promised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since 2016.

Initial plans call for the company’s shares to be traded on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange, then to later put other shares on a foreign exchange.

Prince Mohammed hopes for a very optimistic $2-trillion valuation for Aramco, which produces 10 million barrels of crude oil a day and provides some 10% of global demand. That would raise the $100 billion he needs for his ambitious redevelopment plans to create new jobs in Saudi Arabia, where unemployment stands at more than 10%.

However, economic worries, the trade war between China and the U.S. and increased crude oil production by the U.S. have depressed energy prices. A Sept. 14 attack on the heart of Aramco already spooked some investors, with one ratings company already downgrading the oil giant.

The announcement by the Capital Market Authority offered no timeline for the IPO.

“The Capital Market Authority board has issued its resolution approving the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. application for the registration and offering of part of its shares,” the authority said in its statement. “The company’s prospectus will be published prior to the start of the subscription period.”

The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya reported last week, citing anonymous sources, that pricing for the stock will begin Nov. 17. A final price for the stock will be set Dec. 4, with shares then beginning to be traded on the Tadawul on Dec. 11, the channel reported. The channel is believed to have close links to the kingdom’s Al Saud royal family.

The kingdom has in the past used the company as a piggy bank for development companies, back when it was still a U.S. company. Since buying a 100% interest in the company by 1980, the royal family as its sole “shareholder” largely hasn’t interfered in the company’s long-term business decisions as its revenue provides about 60% of all government revenue.

But recently, there have been decisions seemingly forced onto Aramco, including the nearly $70-billion purchase in March of the petrochemical company Saudi Basic Industries Corp. just before SABIC announced a plunge in its quarterly profits.

In Aramco’s first-ever half-year results, it reported income of $46.8 billion. Yet analysts say a $2-trillion valuation — Apple and Microsoft separately for instance are $1 trillion — may be a stretch. By announcing the start of the IPO on Sunday, Prince Mohammed may have been convinced to take a lower valuation in order to get the IPO moving. The kingdom probably is pinning its hopes on tremendous local interest to push up the company’s valuation before potentially taking some of the stock abroad.

Analysts believe Aramco will list as much as 3% of the company on the Tadawul, with an additional 2% put abroad.

Saudi Aramco has sought to assure investors, given the questions over its valuation and the potential hazards of future attacks or geopolitical risk. A presentation posted to Aramco’s website last month announced the intent to offer a $75-billion dividend for investors in 2020. That’s the payment per share that a corporation distributes to its stockholders as their return on the money they have invested in its stock.

It also pledged that from 2020-24, any year with a dividend less than $75 billion would see “non-government shareholders” prioritized to get paid.

But beyond the stocks, worries persist that Saudi Arabia could be hit by another attack like the one Sept. 14, which the U.S. blames on Iran. Iran denies it launched the cruise missiles and drones used in the attack. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but analysts say the weapons used wouldn’t have the range to reach their targets.

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Dear Liz: I’m a certified nurse midwife who is salaried. When we are fully staffed, I work 55 hours a week on average. If we cover extra shifts, we are paid a lump sum rather than hourly. (If we were paid hourly, it would work out to far less than minimum wage.) We are paid twice a month, but my pay stub shows that I only work 70 hours per pay period. I work almost that many hours in a single week! When I work extra shifts, it is reported on my check under “miscellaneous” with the lump sum listed. I asked our administrators about this and they just told me it wasn’t a big deal, but I’m not convinced that’s true. Do the hours reported on my paycheck affect my Social Security income later? I just don’t want to lose out on Social Security benefits when I work my butt off!

Answer: The hours you work don’t affect your future Social Security benefit, but your earnings do. At least they should. Your employer is supposed to report your full salary to Social Security, and to deduct the appropriate amount of Social Security tax from your paychecks. If your pay is underreported, your future benefits could be shortchanged.

Here’s a quick way to check if your earnings are being reported properly. On your paycheck, there should be a line that says either “Social Security,” “OASDI” or “FICA.” If the line says Social Security or FICA, the amount listed should be 6.2% of the money you earned for the pay period, up to a maximum annual amount of $8,239.80 for 2019. (There’s a ceiling on the amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes, which this year is $132,900.)

Some employers don’t break out Social Security taxes from Medicare taxes, and include them both in a line for FICA, which stands for Federal Insurance Contributions Act. The FICA amount should be your Social Security tax (6.2% of your earnings up to $132,900) plus 1.45% for Medicare. (There’s no cap, so all earnings are subject to the Medicare tax.)

If the tax amounts shown don’t include that “miscellaneous” lump sum, please call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to report the situation.

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Tapping retirement funds

Dear Liz: I’m retired, 64 and delaying Social Security for a few years. I want to create a monthly stream of income from $850,000 in retirement funds. It may be needed to show a solid, dependable income so that I can get a mortgage. Is there any way to avoid the 20% federal and 7% state tax withholding? I do realize the amount I withdraw could trigger higher Medicare premiums in the future. The drawdown is $8,300 per month, which leaves me a spendable amount of $6,000.

Answer: Good for you for delaying the start of Social Security, but please get yourself to a fee-only certified financial planner before you tap any of your retirement funds. A 4% initial withdrawal rate from retirement funds is considered sustainable.

The amount you’re contemplating would be nearly three times that. Even if you’re withdrawing at that rate for a limited time, it could leave you without enough money later. And if this high withdrawal rate is the only way you can get the mortgage you want, you may be taking on more debt than you can really afford.

The certified financial planner also can help you with a tax strategy. Tax withholding on retirement income is usually voluntary, but paying the actual tax is mandatory.

The percentage you ultimately pay on the withdrawals will be based on your tax bracket, which could be higher or lower than the 20% federal and 7% state rates you cite.

Before you withdraw anything, you should have a good idea of what the tax bill will be and have plans to cover it. Those could include having the investment company withhold a certain percentage or making quarterly estimated tax payments.

You may have done well with a do-it-yourself approach up to this point, but there are many ways to mess up your finances unknowingly in retirement. You’d be smart to get expert help in creating a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy that maximizes your retirement income while minimizing the risk of running out of cash.

Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com.

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A once-popular loan Americans use to finance home renovations and college tuition is slowly dying, slashing a lucrative source of revenue for the nation’s largest banks.

Home equity lines of credit, open-ended loans that homeowners tap for cash using their properties as collateral, exploded in the run-up to the housing crash a decade ago, doubling in volume from 2003 to 2006, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Rapidly climbing property prices led homeowners to use their homes as piggy banks, fueling consumer spending.

But a resurgent housing market after the Great Recession hasn’t brought with it a return to HELOCs, as they’re commonly known.

Home equity lines have fallen by almost half in the last decade, New York Fed data show. The loans, which constituted 5% of the nation’s banking assets in 2009, now account for less than 2%, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Record levels of home equity — spurred by soaring home prices and stagnant mortgage borrowing — haven’t prompted households to use a ready resource as a way to fund big-ticket purchases or home improvements. Finance executives have spent years researching the issue, commissioning surveys and studies to figure out how to jump-start a business that had always been a reliable and relatively low-risk source of earnings.

Fallout from the housing bubble appears to have had a lasting effect on consumers’ willingness to keep using their homes as ATMs. Just 4% of households had an open home equity line in 2016, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent comprehensive survey of households’ finances, a far cry from the 10% that annually borrowed against the equity in their homes during the 2000s.

“The HELOC market has been in decline since 2008,” said Otto Pohl, a spokesman at Figure, a financial technology firm that offers a type of HELOC. In the “bubble years,” Pohl said, banks almost as a matter of course added home equity lines along with a borrower’s initial mortgage.

Those days are gone.

At Bank of America Corp., the nation’s second-laregest bank by assets, HELOCs produced $552 million of interest income in the third quarter, down two-thirds from a decade ago. Interest rates on the loans were the third-highest among the lender’s various types of assets, trailing only credit cards and a catch-all category called “other.”

U.S. homeowners collectively had $6.3 trillion of housing equity they could borrow against as of June, according to analytics firm Black Knight Inc., more than double the $2.6 trillion total in 2009.

Finance industry executives cite three culprits they think are probably responsible for the gradual demise of HELOCs: an unusual trend in interest rate spreads, easy access to unsecured personal loans from online lenders and psychological scars from the housing bust.

Home equity lines function like credit cards, in that lenders set a maximum amount that homeowners can borrow at any one time. Also like credit cards, they’re based on the prime rate, with lenders charging a bit extra depending on a borrower’s creditworthiness. The prime rate, now at 5%, moves with the federal funds rate set by the Fed.

That’s more expensive than the typical 30-year mortgage, an interest rate that generally tracks the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The average rate on a new HELOC was 6.45% as of Sept. 30, according to Informa Financial Intelligence. Borrowers looking to exchange equity for cash in a refinancing are being offered an average rate of 3.99%.

When mortgage rates are at least 1 percentage point lower than the rate on HELOCs, borrowers looking to pull equity from their homes typically opt for a cash-out refinancing over a home equity line of credit, said Rutger van Faassen, a vice president of consumer lending at Informa. Add to that the fact that a new mortgage offers a fixed rate instead of the variable rate on a HELOC, and the option becomes even more attractive, he said.

Unsecured personal loans pose another threat to the HELOC business. Many online lenders offer cash in a day, and years of quick turnaround times with their online purchases have conditioned consumers to expect speed when they access credit, said Mark Ford, head of personal lending and card solutions at SunTrust Banks Inc.

Home equity lines require a daunting pile of paperwork and the added headache of a new home appraisal. Typically it takes about 45 days from the date of the application for a borrower to get the cash, according to Informa.

Another obstacle: Borrowers who default on a HELOC, unlike on a personal loan, probably lose their homes.

Lauren Anastasio, a financial advisor at Social Finance Inc., the lender better known as SoFi, said her clients often pick personal loans over HELOCs, despite the higher interest rate, because of the quicker processing time.

A recent survey by J.D. Power found that consumers rated online lenders above home equity providers when it came to customer satisfaction.

Banks are responding. Citizens Financial Group Inc. has reduced its processing times by half, to 35 days, according to Brendan Coughlin, head of consumer deposits at the Providence, R.I.-based bank. Bank of America will allow prospective borrowers to apply online, said Steve Boland, head of consumer lending.

Those efforts may never return the home equity industry to its glory days. Too many homeowners were scarred by the housing bust, and they’ve reduced their borrowing as a result.

Overall household debt has fallen over the last decade, after adjusting for inflation, New York Fed data show. And some borrowers are wary about putting their house on the line, Van Faassen said.

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“It’s really the perfect storm,” SoFi’s Anastasio said, citing interest rates and personal loans as key drivers working against HELOCs. Sentiment could change if mortgage rates go up, but for now, “each one of those has an advantage relative to HELOCs.”

Edison International once again will try to sway a California state court judge to rule that it can’t be held liable for all the damage to private property caused by a wildfire if it isn’t allowed to pass on some costs to ratepayers.

With this year’s fire season already causing havoc in communities up and down California, Edison is making a preemptive bid to limit its liability from the Woolsey fire that tore through Malibu last year and destroyed 1,600 structures, including homes of singer Miley Cyrus, rocker Neil Young and actor Gerard Butler. Losses from the fire total $4 billion, according to a CoreLogic Inc. estimate.

The hearing Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles comes a week after Edison’s Chief Executive Officer Pedro Pizarro disclosed on an earnings call with investors that county investigators have found that the Woolsey fire was caused by Southern California Edison’s equipment.

The finding could leave Edison on the hook for billions of dollars in damages. California’s so-called inverse condemnation doctrine holds utilities 100% responsible for damage caused by their equipment whether or not they were negligent.

The same legal principle has driven the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., to file for bankruptcy protection after its equipment was linked to devastating wildfires in Northern California.

It’s not the first time Edison has tried to avoid liability for a fire. The utility failed to convince a judge a year ago to dismiss inverse-condemnation claims for the massive 2017 Thomas fire that scorched parts of Santa Barbara County and Ventura County. That fire was blamed for a subsequent mudslide that destroyed part of the affluent coastal enclave of Montecito. The first trials in both the Woolsey and Thomas fire litigation are scheduled for next year.

The strict liability the utilities face under California law for damage caused by their power lines has become an existential threat to them in recent years as widespread wildfires have become the new normal in the state. It’s become an even more pressing issue after the California Public Utilities Commission refused a request from Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric to increase its rate to compensate for payouts over a 2007 wildfire.

Sempra’s years-long fight to overturn the state commission’s decision ended last month when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case.

Inverse-condemnation liability is based on the idea that losses will be spread throughout society, Edison argued in the court filing. That’s something Edison can’t do on its own, the utility said.

“Edison’s rates are regulated by the PUC and it lacks the power to control market price,” it said.

Lawyers representing the people who lost their homes in the Woolsey fire predictably weren’t impressed by Edison’s argument and have called it an “improper challenge to established California law and the California constitution” that has failed in all other wildfire lawsuits involving investor-owned utilities.

Edison also can’t rely on the PUC’s decision in the Sempra case because each case is different, they said.

“As Edison is well aware, that decision has no application outside that proceeding or those particular fires,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said.

The final investigation report on the causes of the Woolsey fire hasn’t been made public yet and the company and the plaintiffs’ lawyers have been given only a redacted version. The California Forestry and Fire Protection Department and the Ventura County Fire Department have fought requests to turn over the full report because it relates to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Southern California Edison isn’t aware of any basis for felony liability related to the fires, Pizarro said during the Oct. 28 earnings call.

The case is Woolsey Fire Cases, JCCP 5000, California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles (Los Angeles).

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Sneakertopia, a 15,000-square-foot celebration of sneaker culture, has taken up residence at the HHLA complex in Westchester where it will remain through at least the end of 2019. Getting in the door isn’t inexpensive (timed entrance tickets are $38 for adults, $23 for kids), and actually finding the door can be a bit challenging (it’s in a former department store space in what used to be the Promenade at Howard Hughes just off the 405 Freeway).

But anyone clearing those hurdles will find himself surrounded by some seriously mind-bending sneaker-themed art, not to mention some of the rarest sneakers around.

The brainchild of entertainment executive Steve Harris and start-up entrepreneur Steve Brown and curated by Justin Fredericks, the temporary exhibition, which opened Oct. 25, is divided into a series of themed rooms, each addressing a different aspect of sneaker synergy. It starts off, appropriately enough, with “The Playground,” dominated by a series of murals.

Notably, the first up is a towering mid-swing image of tennis great Serena Williams by artist James Haunt, with text and typeface paying homage to Virgil Abloh’s quote-mark-heavy Off-White style. Displayed in a nearby case are several pairs of Nike X Off-White collaborative kicks. Nearby is a Michael Jordan mural (also by Haunt) and a selection of Air Jordan sneakers, also in museum-like vitrines. On the opposite side of the room, an entire wall by muralist Jonas Never pays homage to skateboarding legends Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero and Lizzie Armanto while a 20-foot skateboard provides the perfect prop for an Instagram post.

Next up is “The Festival,” the largest room in the exhibition, which highlight’s music’s connection to sneaker culture via a series of colorful murals by L.A.-based graffiti artist Man One (Kanye West, Rihanna and Pharrell Williams are among those whose sneaker collaborations are depicted), a motion mural of Run DMC (also by Man One in collaboration with Syndrome Studios) and a performance stage designed to look like an Adidas shoebox. (Curator Justin Fredericks said the stage will be used for events during Sneakertopia’s run.) Among the coveted kicks displayed here are a super-rare pair of Air Jordan 4 Retro Encore sneakers (only 23 were made), a 2017 collaboration between rapper Eminem and the brand that Fredericks says are priced at $25,000.

Those sneakers, like the rest of the non-art footwear on display — 200 pairs at any given time — are from a 25,000-pair collection amassed by L.A. collector Daniel Ghattas. “We’re featuring [shoes from] probably the world’s most expensive collection,” Fredericks said, before dropping the other shoe that the sneakers on display are actually for sale (if your wallet is big enough) — though only through the on-site gift shop (more on that below).

If the rare sneakers aren’t enough to get sneakerheads over to Sneakertopia, the deep bench of sneaker-themed art probably will be, including the parody movie posters by McFlyy in “The Backlot,” which explores sneakers in the movies (including a sneaker-centric faux sequel to “Forrest Gump” and a “Back to the Future” film set in 2120), and the pieces on display in the art-focused “Art & Sole Gallery,” which includes Jason Dussault’s mosaic sneaker creations, customized kicks by Torrance-based Katty Customs, and a 20-foot Adidas Superstar made out of recycled candy wrappers and cardboard by Montreal-based artist Smoluk.

The “Dream Room,” the penultimate stop on the Sneakertopia tour, is dominated by the most memorable piece of art in the entire exhibition: a hanging mobile-like sculpture by perceptual artist Michael Murphy. Viewed from straight on, it resembles a three-dimensional, outsized Air Jordan 1. But as you move left, the shifting point of view reveals the instantly recognizable Jumpman logo.

Sneaker culture has become big business, of course, a point not at all lost on the exhibition’s organizers who tackle the topic — twice. The first time via a parody pop-up shop called Frugal (“If Supreme and Flight Club had a baby, this would be their room,” reads the sign at the entrance). The second time via the exhibition’s gift shop, called Limited Edition, which will stock limited-edition, constantly updated T-shirts, art prints and pieces of art including versions of Murphy’s and Dussault’s sculptures.

Sneakertopia Los Angeles

Where: 6081 Center Drive, Suite 222, Los Angeles

When: Through Dec. 31.

Info: sneakertopia.com

One of the special things about L.A. is you can travel the world without ever getting on a plane. Little Ethiopia on Monday, Koreatown on Tuesday, Little Armenia on Wednesday, Olvera Street on Thursday, Thai Town on Friday … and Little Tokyo on Saturday. Not unlike its namesake city, this stylish downtown neighborhood is both sleek and flashy, futuristic and steeped in history. It’s also L.A., where a fine-dining restaurant and arcade sit side by side in a sleepy mall because of course they do. Little Tokyo is a place of unexpected juxtapositions, which makes for the exciting afternoon you didn’t even know you needed.

3 p.m. Cafe Demitasse at 135 San Pedro St. is a true L.A. relic: A coffee shop that satisfies both nerds and normies with a combination of specialty brews and zero snobbery. The cafe cycles through an impressive seasonal roster of craft beans and concoctions, but the real draw is its signature Kyoto iced coffee ($6.25). Made using a one-drop-at-a-time method, the result is like drinking summer — bright, sweet, with an effect that lingers long after it’s gone. A plus? The knowledgeable baristas won’t even shoot you the side-eye of shame when you ask for the Wi-Fi password. Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends; 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

3:15 p.m. Across Weller Court on the second floor is Kinokuniya Los Angeles at 123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St. #205. It may seem like a too-obvious choice for a Little Tokyo tour, but there’s a reason this chain store is on the map. Along with its extensive selection of books and magazines in Japanese, plus English reads on Japanese culture like Leonard Koren’s classic “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers,” Kinokuniya is a cornucopia of imported, cutesy novelties. Items like furoshiki — a traditional Japanese cloth used to wrap and carry — are sold in clever designs, as well as Kayuragi Japanese incense in scents like ginger, aloeswood and mikan orange. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

3:45 p.m. Tokyo is famous for its fashion subcultures; and while Little Tokyo is no Harajuku, it also slings its share of unique clothing, namely vintage. Head east on 2nd Street until you hit Raggedy Threads at 330 E. 2nd St. Filled with Americana decor and the smoke of burning palo santo, its racks are home to a chambray skirt from the 1940s; a Japanese sukajan (or souvenir jacket) from the 1950s; and a Dodgers T-shirt from the 1980s. Open Monday through Saturday, noon to 7 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.

If ’90s nylon is more your speed, keep east on 2nd Street until you hit Popkiller Second at 343 E. 2nd St. Along with dresses, tees and tracksuits from decades past, the store carries caps and beanies embellished with lighthearted Japanese phrases like kawaii (cute), yabai (a slang word for awesome) or nikukyu (cat’s paw pad). Open 11 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

No Little Tokyo vintage store inspires the Goldilocks effect more than Space City Vintage at 339 ½ E. 1st St. To get there, keep heading east on 2nd Street until you hit Central Avenue, turn left, then left again on 1st Street. On your right, up a narrow flight of stairs, is Space City’s sprawling space on the top floor of a vintage building. It’s stacked with the stuff of secondhand dreams, all in the midprice range. Owner Zac Vargas rents out the massive floor to other apparel vendors, such as Sister Kokoro, Delinquent Bros and Dunrite Leatherworks, and is adding a record shop to the newly opened space. “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll mall,” he said. Open noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

5:15 p.m. Make your way back to Central Avenue, turn right and walk south until you see Poketo on the corner of 374 E. 2nd St. Pop into the minimalist digs to browse beauty, home and style goods like the locally made Boy Smells candles or Noto Botanics’ “uni-sexy” gender-fluid cosmetics. Open noon to 7 p.m. Monday; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

5:30 p.m. Keep heading south on Central Avenue until you hit 3rd Street, turn left and you’ll see Little Tokyo Galleria on the right. Unassumingly located on the third floor of this mostly neglected mall is Shojin — a.k.a the reason the term “hidden gem” was invented. An open mind is necessary at this elegant Japanese eatery, which is 100% plant-based and organic and caters to those with food allergies. Shojin’s Dynamite Roll 2.1 ($16) is a bestseller for a reason. Smoky, savory and slightly sweet, it’s one of the countless creative sushi rolls the restaurant is famous for, minus the fish. The mood lighting and close quarters make Shojin the perfect place to treat a loved one, especially if it’s yourself. Reservations are highly recommended; make them at theshojin.com. Hours are 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday; 3 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

7 p.m. It’s not over until someone sings. Head back toward 2nd Street and find the entrance for Japanese Village Plaza. Where the plaza and Little Tokyo Mall meet, on the second floor, is the intimate and quirky karaoke bar Tokyo Beat at 319 E. 2nd St. #205. Singing in the main area is free with any purchase, so grab a Japanese whiskey or soft drink like Calpico and browse its massive binder of tunes. Lyrics on the monitor show up in both English and Japanese, naturally. And if you’re more of the sing-in-the-shower type, watching someone else at the bar belt out a soulful rendition of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” is a cathartic experience all its own.

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PORTLAND, Ore. — 

A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday put on hold a Trump administration rule requiring that immigrants prove they will have health insurance or can pay for medical care before they can get visas.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the rule from going into effect Sunday. It’s not clear when he will rule on the merits of the case.

Seven U.S. citizens and a nonprofit organization filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday contending the rule would block nearly two-thirds of all prospective legal immigrants.

The lawsuit also said the rule would greatly reduce or eliminate the number of immigrants who enter the United States with family-sponsored visas.

“We’re very grateful that the court recognized the need to block the healthcare ban immediately,” said Justice Action Center senior litigator Esther Sung, who argued at Saturday’s hearing on behalf of the plaintiffs. “The ban would separate families and cut two-thirds of green-card-based immigration starting tonight, were the ban not stopped.”

The proclamation signed by President Donald Trump in early October applies to people seeking immigrant visas from abroad — not those in the U.S. already. It does not affect lawful permanent residents. It does not apply to asylum-seekers, refugees or children.

The proclamation says immigrants will be barred from entering the country unless they will be covered by health insurance within 30 days of entering or have enough financial resources to pay for any medical costs.

The rule is the Trump administration’s latest effort to limit immigrant access to public programs while trying to move the country away from a family-based immigration system to a merit-based system.

The White House said in a statement at the time the proclamation was issued that too many non-citizens were taking advantage of the country’s “generous public health programs,” and said immigrants contribute to the problem of “uncompensated health care costs.”

Under the government’s visa rule, the required insurance can be bought individually or provided by an employer and it can be short-term coverage or catastrophic.

Medicaid doesn’t count, and an immigrant can’t get a visa if using the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies when buying insurance. The federal government pays for those subsidies.

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According to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan immigration think tank, 57% of U.S. immigrants had private health insurance in 2017, compared with 69% of U.S.-born, and 30% had public health insurance coverage, compared with 36% of native-born.

The uninsured rate for immigrants dropped from 32% to 20% from 2013 to 2017, since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to Migration Policy.

There are about 1.1 million people who obtain green cards each year.

“Countless thousands across the country can breathe a sigh of relief today because the court recognized the urgent and irreparable harm that would have been inflicted” without the hold, said Jesse Bless, director of federal litigation at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Earlier this year, the administration made sweeping changes to regulations that would deny green cards to immigrants who use some forms of public assistance, but the courts have blocked that measure.

BAGHDAD — 

The protesters stand by the thousands on the abandoned building’s open floors, waving Iraqi flags and cheering. Some sit on the edge, feet dangling in the air from high floors as they sway to blasting music. They have a bird’s-eye view of Baghdad — and the tens of thousands of demonstrators below.

At night, they wave the lights on their cellphones at comrades on the ground. Then they move inside the building, dine together, play dominoes and sing patriotic songs until the early hours of the morning. They also are able to watch the security forces battling the protesters.

The 14-story, Saddam Hussein-era building on the Tigris River has emerged as a landmark in the anti-government protests gripping Iraq. The structure has been abandoned since 2003, when it was bombed by the U.S.-led forces in their invasion, but has now been taken over from security forces by demonstrators since Oct. 25. They have sworn not to leave it.

A one-time commercial center, the building was nicknamed the “Turkish Restaurant” because of a famous dining spot on the top floor that was a tourist attraction in the 1980s with panoramic views. Today it is called other names — the “Stalingrad Baghdad,” the “Hanging Gardens” and “Jabal Uhud,” a reference to a mountain north of Medina, Saudi Arabia, that was the site of a historic battle between Muslim and Meccan forces.

The building has clear views of Tahrir Square, nearby bridges and the Green Zone, home to government offices and Western embassies. That makes it a strategic location, and it was previously used by security forces and riot police, according to an Iraqi general.

“The protesters were very smart when they occupied it. They now can monitor the movements of security forces and it’s difficult to get it back because of the crowds,” said the general, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about security measures.

The tower is routinely packed with young men and women, and has become the embodiment of the free spirit unleashed by unprecedented protests that began on Oct. 1 in Baghdad.

Spontaneous and leaderless, the demonstrations were organized on social media over long-standing grievances including government corruption, unemployment and a lack of basic services. They have quickly grown into the largest grass-roots protest movement that Iraq has seen.

Ali Hashim, a 19-year-old former university student in a black T-shirt and holding an Iraqi flag, was hanging out with friends on the 12th floor of the building.

“I had to stop my studies because I don’t have tuition fees. That’s why I’m here,” he said.

The protests are not directed by any political party. Instead, they take aim at the political establishment that came to power after the U.S. invasion, which many blame for Iraq’s spiraling corruption and poor public services.

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Authorities have responded with force, firing live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas at unarmed protesters from the first day. During a first round of demonstrations, gunmen and snipers shot at crowds from the building. A government inquiry found that security forces killed at least 149 protesters and injured more than 5,000. It concluded that most of the dead were shot in the head and chest.

After a three-week pause, the rallies resumed Oct. 25, and so has the violence, with more than 100 slain.

Far from deterring protesters, the crackdown appears to have energized them.

Tahrir Square, Baghdad’s biggest and most central plaza on the eastern banks of the Tigris, has become the epicenter. Thousands have been camped out in the circle with its famous Freedom Monument and palm trees in the middle. Volunteers ferry food and drinks to them. Students have joined the protests, and celebrities, artists and activists also mingle in the square, discussing the future.

Protesters have sought to cross the flashpoint Jumhuriya and Sinak bridges to get to the heavily fortified Green Zone. They have failed every time as riot police stationed on the bridges confronted them with tear gas and stun grenades.

Inside the building, young Iraqis cheer, dance and take selfies. They hoist baskets of food, water and other supplies, including face masks to use against tear gas. A narrow staircase is crammed with people going up and down.

Cheering groups stand precariously close to the edge of the building’s rooftop, some of them wearing yellow goggles. Tear gas is frequently fired in their direction.

The building is decorated with posters of the dead, as well as giant red, white and black Iraqi flags and banners that stretch across several floors. One reads: “The building of the revolutionaries.”

Women volunteer to clear away the rubbish left behind by the building’s new inhabitants.

“Our presence here is also a revolution of women against the corrupt,” said Ikhlas Saddam, a 42-year-old fashion designer and volunteer.

“We help the protesters by providing food and by cleaning. We support them despite all the tear gas from security forces,” she said.

Many of the young men say they won’t leave until their revolution is complete.

“I have been here since Oct. 25 and I haven’t gone home since,” said Hashim, the former student. “It is now my home.”

Abdul-Zahra is a reporter for the Associated Press.