Click:forged concave wheels

Spain’s Rosalía is making more Grammy history.

The flamenco-inspired hip-hop artist scored two 2020 Grammy nominations Wednesday morning — one for best new artist and the other in the Latin rock, urban or alternative album category for “El Mal Querer.” This makes Rosalía the first best new artist nominee recognized for music recorded entirely in Spanish.

Other Spanish-speaking artists have been nominated in the category over the years (including Vikki Carr in 1963), and Puerto Rican singer and guitarist José Feliciano won best new artist in 1969, bolstered by his hit version of the Doors’ “Light My Fire.” Previous nominees were not, however, honored for their work recorded exclusively in Spanish.

Released last year, Rosalía’s “El Mal Querer,” a concept album about a toxic relationship, has been praised for its feminist themes as well as its fusion of flamenco with contemporary styles.

Just last week it was crowned album of the year at the Latin Grammys, making the singer-songwriter the first woman to win in the category as a solo act since Shakira first did in 2006. Rosalía also nabbed the trophies for contemporary pop album and urban song.

“When I made [‘El Mal Querer’] I made it from the heart,” Rosalía said at the Thursday awards show. “I didn’t think about what would happen later. I can’t control anything that happens after the creative process because after that it’s not yours anymore, it’s everyone else’s.”

The triumph was especially notable in a year when the Latin Grammys nixed the flamenco category because of the lack of flamenco album submissions.

Rosalía’s ascent has garnered some backlash from some critics who have accused her of cultural appropriation, as well as from those who question whether Spanish artists should be recognized in Latin music categories. Others have pointed out that she studied flamenco formally for years before making her 2017 debut and that she has since collaborated with some of reggaeton’s biggest stars such as J. Balvin and Ozuna.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Hot air balloons, surfing Santas and a wacky parade can be part of your weekend.

Cathedral City

Colorful balloons paint the desert sky from sunrise to sunset at the Cathedral City Hot Air Balloon Festival at the Cathedral City Heritage Commons Amphitheater. Watch the balloons glow at an outdoor concert on Nov. 22, a pancake breakfast on Nov. 24 or at free launches every morning. Nov. 23 events include balloon rides, food trucks, live music and kids games.

When: First balloons launch at 6 a.m. each day. Nov. 22 to 24.

Cost, info: Free admission; some events require tickets. Family friendly. No dogs. (760) 321-5154, hotairballoonfest.com

Arcadia to Los Angeles

Michael Schneider, an editor at Variety, started the Great Los Angeles Walk in 2006 to celebrate his 10th year as an Angeleno. His route changes yearly; this year’s runs 18 miles from Arcadia County Park through Pasadena, across the L.A. River and through Chinatown to Grand Park. Go at your own pace to meet new friends and visit landmarks along the way.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

When: 9 a.m. Nov. 23

Cost, info: Free. Family friendly. Dogs OK at walkers’ discretion. (323) 356-2536, greatlawalk.com

Pomona

Kids can learn about gardening, corn grinding and other agricultural practices at Fall in the Farm at the Pomona Fairplex. Also on the schedule are stick-horse races, olive oil tasting, music and crafts.

When: 9 a.m. Nov. 23

Cost, info: Free admission and parking at gate 17. Family friendly. Only service dogs permitted. (909) 865-4265, bit.ly/fallinthefarm

Dana Point

Surfers, body boarders and stand-up paddleboarders conquer waves in Santa suits and other holiday garb at the ninth Surfing Santa contest. Kick back at Salt Creek Beach to watch the competitions benefiting Surfers Healing, a nonprofit that provides free surf camps for children with autism.

When: 8 a.m. Nov. 23 and 24

Cost, info: Free to watch. Family friendly. No dogs. (949) 240-2000, surfingsantacontest.org

Los Angeles

Find unusual greeting cards, clay creatures, hand-drawn maps of California and other goods at the Renegade Craft Fair at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Musicians and purveyors of tacos, popsicles and cookie dough-filled marshmallows will energize your shopping.

When: 11 a.m. Nov. 23 and 24

Cost, info: Free. Family friendly. Dogs OK. (312) 226-8654, bit.ly/renegadecraftfairLA

Pasadena

Expect eccentricities at the 42nd Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade. Saxophone-playing Señor Groucho, Taco Car, Trashion Show and other floats, art cars and performers lead the parade around East Pasadena.

When: 11 a.m. Nov. 24

Cost, info: Free. Family friendly. Dogs OK. (626) 590-7596, pasadenadoodahparade.info

It’s California, so you don’t usually start your new year freezing, except if you are a fan of the polar bear plunge. Many of the swims are on New Year’s Day and raise money for charity, but all of them are guaranteed to take your breath away. Here are several places to take the plunge.

Huntington Beach

What better way to welcome the next decade than with an invigorating splash in the Pacific Ocean? The Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum will host the 20th Surf City Splash the morning of Jan. 1.

Tickets cost $20. Participants will earn a Certificate of Success; those who chose not to take the plunge get a Certificate of Sanity. There will be a pancake breakfast as well. “It’s a great way to start the year,” said Lee Love, the event’s founder.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Info: hbsurfcitysplash.com

Big Bear Lake

Polar Plunges that raise money for Special Olympics take place throughout the country, including March 7 in Big Bear Lake. You can register as an individual or a team and run into the lake, which is about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles.

Teams with names such as “Rancho Cucamonga IncredABLES” and “Big Bear Copsicles” are already registered for the upcoming plunge.

Info: bit.ly/bigbearplunge

Special Olympics elsewhere in California

Thousands also are expected to participate in about a dozen plunges benefiting Special Olympics around the state. Events will take place Feb. 8 in Sacramento; Feb. 29 (fittingly, Leap Day) in San Francisco; March 21 in Santa Cruz; and March 28 in South Lake Tahoe.

Info: sonc.org/polarplunge

Cayucos, Calif.

About 210 miles up the coast from L.A., the resort town of Cayucos also hosts a New Year’s Day swim. The 40th Carlin Soulé Memorial Polar Bear Dip takes place at noon next to the historic Cayucos Pier.

For the past four decades, people have met on Cayucos Beach, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, to kick off the new year by running into the ocean.

Many participants and spectators dress in costume. At last year’s event, Vikings, flamingos and even an elf showed up.

Info: bit.ly/cayucosplunge

Redding, Calif.

You don’t have to jump into an ocean or lake for it to count as a plunge. Redding, the county seat of Shasta County, hosts its Polar Bear Plunge on Jan. 1 at the Redding Aquatic Center.

Contests include Biggest Polar Bear Splash, Oldest Polar Bear and Best Polar Bear Hat. After the plunge, warm up with a hot drink. Participants pay $8 to $45 depending on the amount of swag they want.

Info: bit.ly/reddingplunge

Seward, Alaska

If you think California is a bit chilly for a plunge, how about Alaska in mid-January? The 35th Seward Polar Bear Jump is limited to 100 participants who jump into the freezing waters of Resurrection Bay.

Jumpers raise money for the American Cancer Society. This year’s goal is $150,000, about $10,000 more than last year, according to the group’s Facebook page. The 35th event is set for Jan. 18.

Info: alaskapolarbearjump.org

Boeing Co. secured orders for 50 737 Max narrow-body planes, padding its tally at the Dubai Airshow while building momentum for the grounded aircraft ahead of its potential return to the skies in coming weeks.

Kazakhstan’s Air Astana signed a letter of intent for 30 jets, Boeing announced Tuesday, while an undisclosed customer bought 20, according to a person familiar with the matter. The orders come after SunExpress of Turkey purchased 10 planes, giving a total value of about $7.5 billion at list prices.

“This was a tendered competition we fought hard for and won,” Stan Deal, the new head of Boeing’s jetliner business, said of the Air Astana order. The sale will be especially welcome since the Central Asian carrier is an established customer for Airbus’ rival A320neo.

Business for the Max has been sparse since the latest version of the storied 737 series was idled in March after two deadly crashes in five months. The A320neo, meanwhile, won a $14-billion, 120-plane order from Air Arabia at the Dubai show Monday, followed by a $1.3-billion acquisition of 12 Neos by U.K. discount airline EasyJet.

And Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet told Bloomberg on Monday that it was discussing an order for an undisclosed number of Max jets.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

But the trickle of orders can’t disguise the effect of the crisis surrounding the plane.

That was recently laid bare in data showing the A320 overtook the 737 by total orders for the first time in October, with 15,193 during the Airbus model’s lifetime versus 15,136 for its rival. The Boeing jet was more than 400 orders ahead at the end of last year. The 737, in service for longer, remains No. 1 by deliveries, with about 10,500 shipped compared with just over 9,000 A320s.

Boeing is working with regulators to certify a fix to flight-automation software that was involved in both fatal disasters and has said it’s aiming for Federal Aviation Administration approval to return the Max to the skies by the end of this year.

In the meantime, customers for the troubled model are generally hedging their bets by declining to commit to firm orders. That was true of a blockbuster $24-billion deal for 200 planes announced by IAG at the Paris Air Show in June.

The British Airways parent affirmed deployment plans for the aircraft at an investor day this month while excluding them from a tally of future orders since deliveries aren’t due until 2023.

The Kazakh deal is particularly positive for the Max since Air Astana has been building its short-haul fleet around the A320neo. The company intends to take the Boeing planes from 2021 and deploy them at its FlyArystan low-cost unit. It may still add Airbus jets after studying the A321XLR for its longest routes.

Away from the Max-A320 faceoff, Airbus has dominated in Dubai, led by an Emirates order for 50 A350 wide-body planes valued at $16 billion.

The deal includes 20 more planes than an initial agreement in February, though the Dubai airline, the world’s largest on long-haul routes, failed to sign off on 40 A330neos included in the earlier accord.

At the same time, Boeing failed to progress a sale of 40 787 Dreamliners to Emirates, and that sale now appears to be in the balance. The Persian Gulf giant also has 150 orders for the 777X wide-body, delays to which have invoked the ire of its president, Tim Clark.

Airbus’s smallest model, the A220, also secured an eight-plane order from Air Senegal. While small, the deal helps to top up the backlog for the former CSeries jet that the European company acquired from Bombardier Inc. Saudi discount carrier Flynas also firmed up the purchase of 10 A321XLRS that had been flagged earlier.

Boeing wrapped up its show with a three-plane order for the 787-9 variant of the Dreamliner from Ghana. The planes will be used by a new carrier due to commence flights in the first quarter of next year. The deal adds to a two-plane 787 order from Biman Bangladesh Airlines announced Sunday.

Philip and Odeh write for Bloomberg.

Click:小型工作室

The merger of the big newspaper chains Gannett and GateHouse Media, which became final Tuesday, will create a “stronger” and “more viable” print and digital news enterprise “with deep local roots and national scale.”

That’s the optimistic view mouthed by Michael Reed, the CEO of New Media Investment Group, GateHouse’s parent, on Nov. 14 after the deal was approved by shareholders of both companies.

One would hope so, since the news business could use an injection of optimism these days. Perhaps there are grounds for hope, since the “new Gannett,” as Reed dubbed the combination, will have national-scale heft, creating the largest newspaper chain in the U.S., encompassing 263 daily news organizations.

News industry analyst Ken Doctor

But there may be just as much reason for doubt. The economic environment of local news continues to become more dismal as print advertising disappears and managements struggle to raise digital advertising and subscription fees enough to take up the slack.

Advertisers have many online platforms to reach customers, and the vast majority of remaining newspaper readers are in the aging demographic that digital advertisers don’t much care for.

“Since 2008, there hasn’t been a single year of revenue gain in the newspaper industry as a whole,” says veteran industry analyst Ken Doctor. That’s produced a strategy of “continuous cost-cutting for more than a decade in local news.” The cuts have come heavily in the form of layoffs at media companies of scores or hundreds of workers at a time.

The merged Gannett and GateHouse may not diverge from the trend; Reed has said that he expects to wring as much as $300 million in “synergies” from the combination, but that may be hard to do without more shrinkage in the workforce. Earlier this year, GateHouse reportedly laid off more than 60 employees (the company would not disclose the actual number but called it “immaterial”) and Gannett reportedly laid off several hundred.

The private equity firm Alden Capital, which owns the Orange County Register, Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News and more than 90 other publications and boasts a reputation as a pitiless parer of payroll, has attracted much of the publicly expressed ire over wholesale plundering of local news resources — with good reason, for Alden publications have been cutting staff at about twice the rate of the industry as a whole.

(Alden on Tuesday announced that it had become the largest shareholder of Tribune, the former owner of The Times, by acquiring the entire 25.2% stake held by Tribune’s former chairman, Michael Ferro, for $13 a share or $117.9 million.)

But public companies such as Gannett, GateHouse and also McClatchy Co. can’t escape the industry’s economic challenges.

Sacramento-based McClatchy, a chain of 30 newspapers including the Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald and Kansas City Star, may be another canary in the news industry’s coal mine. McClatchy reported a loss of $304.7 million on revenue of $167.4 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 29. Most of the loss reflected a write-down of the company’s news assets.

But the company also reported long-term debt of more than $700 million. McClatchy said its finances were so impaired that it wouldn’t have the cash or cash flow to make a required minimum contribution of $124 million to its pension fund next year and was negotiating a possible takeover of the plan by the government’s Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

McClatchy’s parlous condition has sent it on a quest for a merger partner. In December, the firm bid $16.50 per share for Tribune, the owner of the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, and the former owner of The Times. But the offer fell short of the $20 reportedly demanded by Ferro, who was then Tribune’s largest shareholder.

That said, the two companies might have made a good fit, as Tribune’s large-market publications would have balanced McClatchy’s stable of smaller metro newspapers.

Tribune, moreover, may have the best balance sheet in the industry, having paid down most of its long-term debt with the proceeds of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s purchase of The Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500 million. That deal closed in June 2018; Soon-Shiong remains a major shareholder of Tribune, with 24.4% of the company as of March 20.

Indeed, Doctor asserts that talks have resumed between McClatchy and Tribune. Both companies declined to comment on the assertion.

The most important question raised by the ostensibly synergistic consolidation in the news industry represented by the acquisition spree of firms such as Alden and the Gannett-Gatehouse merger is what the owners will do with any savings they extract. For almost any news organization looking to the future, the imperative is to invest in digital capabilities, since that’s where the news audience has been moving to.

GateHouse hasn’t been known for such investment. According to a 2018 survey by Penelope Muse Abernathy of the University of North Carolina, the firm’s practice after acquiring a newspaper has been to “consolidate copy editing and page design” at a corporate center, then replace veteran and specialty reporters with younger (and cheaper) general assignment reporters. “GateHouse-owned newsrooms are often half the size within a matter of months,” Abernathy reported.

Reed, who will be the merged company’s chairman, told investors of New Media, the GateHouse parent, on Oct. 31 that the merger would allow the company to quickly pay down debt and “to return capital to shareholders through dividends, in addition to investing for growth that will drive revenues.” It shouldn’t escape notice that it’s not always easy to reconcile using cash to pay shareholder dividends with “investing for growth.”

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

The increasingly common pattern is to operate local newspapers as sources of plunder. At GateHouse, for example, the Gannett deal will enrich Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm that created GateHouse and remained as a major player in the company through an initial public offering and a bankruptcy, and currently runs GateHouse through a management contract.

Fortress will give up the management contract at the end of 2021, but will leave with a payout that New Media investor Leon Cooperman blasted on an investor conference call as “morally wrong.”

“I know we’re happy to get rid of Fortress,” Cooperman told Reed. “They brought this public in 2014 at $16 a share. The stock is $8.5 and they’re going to walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars. … They shouldn’t even take the money, given what they’ve done here.” (Cooperman is the billionaire investor who recently tangled with Elizabeth Warren over her proposal for a wealth tax.)

Plunder can work as a short-term money-making strategy in an industry that remains profitable while tracing a glide path to extinction. “Financial players like Fortress and Alden are making significant money on the way down,” says Doctor. “They see the way down as close to inevitable.”

In the news business that’s a self-fulfilling strategy, however. Public companies such as Gannett and McClatchy have resisted such fatalism. They have imposed sharp cuts on some of their local publications and cut back on physical delivery — McClatchy is planning to end Saturday publication of all its newspapers by the end of next year, though it will post new articles online. But they also have invested in investigative reporting and other national-level efforts, as well as digital initiatives.

As traditional revenues continue to decline — and at an ever faster pace — those companies find themselves in a vise. Making the transition to digital news requires resources that may be harder to come by. Meanwhile, Doctor says, they’re trying to buy time through shrinkage even as their ultimate destination remains unclear.

“After two more years of this,” Doctor asks, “what kind of products are going to be left in local communities that readers feel are worth a digital subscription? What’s your strategy after all the cost-cutting?”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — 

The Middle East’s biggest carrier, the Dubai-based Emirates, announced on Wednesday a firm order for 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in a deal valued at $8.8 billion.

Emirates CEO and Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said this order replaces an agreement for 150 777x Boeing to 126 of that aircraft, and adds 30 of the 787-9 Dreamliners. He spoke to reporters at the Dubai Airshow.

Combined with Emirates’ previous announcement this week for new Airbus aircraft, this brings the airline’s total orders at the airshow to $24 billion. Airlines, however, typically negotiate steep discounts from manufacturers.

On Monday, Emirates announced it would be buying 20 additional wide-body Airbus A350s, bringing its total order for the aircraft to 50 in an agreement worth $16 billion at list price.

That deal, however, replaces a $21.4-billion agreement struck in February to purchase 70 Airbus aircraft, which had included 40 of the A330neo. Delivery is slated to start in 2023.

The Emirates, which feeds Dubai’s busy international airport, posted significantly lower earnings of $237 million last year due to spikes in fuel costs at the end of 2018, a strengthened U.S. dollar, lower airfreight demand and weakened travel demand.

The five-day Dubai biennial airshow, which started Sunday, draws major commercial and military firms from around the world, as well as smaller manufacturers competing for business in the Middle East. The United States has the largest foreign country presence with around 140 exhibitors.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Defense and State Department are also at the airshow, meeting with officials from the United Arab Emirates, which is one of the world’s top buyers of American-made weapons and defense equipment.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

SYRACUSE, N.Y.  — 

A white supremacist manifesto that appeared to be a copy of one linked to a man accused of attacking two mosques in New Zealand was circulated electronically at Syracuse University, campus law enforcement said Tuesday, adding to a string of racist episodes that have shaken the upstate New York campus.

Federal investigators and local authorities were working to determine the origin of the document after receiving reports that it was posted in an online forum and that attempts were made to send it to the cellphones of students at a campus library Monday night via AirDrop, a file-sharing service that allows iPhone users to send pictures or files to other iPhones or iPads near them when devices are within Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range of each other.

Officials said the manifesto appeared to be copied from one written by the man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March.

“We don’t know the author. We don’t know what the intent of it was. It’s a very disturbing document if you read it,” Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said at a news conference with campus and state police and the FBI.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado said, based on a preliminary investigation, that there appeared to be no direct threat.

“We know that this is an unsettled time and our community is anxious,” he said, adding that students and the campus were safe.

He said officers would increase patrols and their presence on campus.

Authorities have fielded about 10 reports of racist vandalism, graffiti and shouted slurs targeting Jews, Asians and black students at the private university since Nov. 7.

Students have staged a sit-in at the student wellness center since Nov. 13 with a list of demands that includes the expulsion of students for hate crimes and stronger diversity training for students and staff. The university’s international students also have listed concerns.

Chancellor Kent Syverud on Tuesday said the university would commit more than $1 million toward responses identified as priorities, including student safety, clarifying the code of conduct, making curriculum changes and hiring staff.

“As we undertake this important work, we face real challenges here and we operate in a fraught national climate,” he said in a statement.

Syverud on Sunday suspended one fraternity along with social events for the others after a black student complained she was verbally harassed as she walked past a group of people identified as fraternity members and their guests the night before.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday called on the university’s board of trustees to hire an independent monitor to investigate the racism.

“Despite his efforts, I do not believe Chancellor Syverud has handled this matter in a way that instills confidence,” Cuomo said.

The Board of Trustees responded with a statement supporting Syverud and praising his response to the student concerns.

“This is a deeply painful and unsettling time for our students and our whole Orange community. We have been attacked — from inside our home and from the outside world,” Board of Trustees Chairwoman Kathy Walters said. “While it’s easy to spread words of hatred, Chancellor Syverud has been relentlessly focused on the safety of our community, and the well-being of our students, driving action and effecting real change on our campus.”

BERLIN — 

The son of former German President Richard von Weizsaecker was stabbed to death while he was giving a lecture at a hospital in Berlin where he worked as a head physician, police said Wednesday.

A 57-year-old man is in custody after a man jumped up from the audience at the Schlosspark-Klinik and attacked Fritz von Weizsaecker with a knife on Tuesday evening. Another man who tried to stop the attack was seriously wounded.

“We cannot yet say anything about the attacker’s motive,” said police spokesman Michael Gassen, adding that the suspect is still being questioned.

Von Weizsaecker died at the scene despite immediate attention from colleagues.

The 59-year-old was the son of one of Germany’s most esteemed presidents, who was the country’s head of state — a largely ceremonial post — from 1984 to 1994. The former president died in 2015.

Fritz von Weizaecker was one of the ex-president’s four children. His sister Beatrice von Weizsaecker posted a picture of Jesus on the cross on Instagram after the murder of her brother.

Von Weizsaecker studied and worked at several hospitals in Germany and abroad, including the Harvard Medical School in Boston and a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. His fields of expertise were internal medicine and gastroenterology.

On Tuesday night, he was giving a lecture about fatty liver disease, an increasingly common medical condition. The lecture was open to everybody and local media reported that several colleagues were among the audience as well.

The killing of Von Weizsaecker echoes a similar incident from 2016, when a man fatally shot a doctor at Berlin’s Benjamin Franklin Hospital before killing himself.

The Von Weizsaeckers are one of Germany’s most prominent families. Richard von Weizsacker was not only one of the most popular but also one of the country’s most respected presidents.

In 1985, then-West German President Von Weizsaecker called the Nazi defeat Germany’s “day of liberation” in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the war’s end. His words were supported by most Germans, and to this day the speech is often cited by politicians and taught in schools.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

VALLETTA, Malta — 

Malta authorities on Wednesday arrested a prominent Maltese businessman who appears to be a “person of interest” in the assassination of a leading investigative reporter.

Yorgen Fenech was on a yacht intercepted on a northward course away from Malta by the Maltese military early Wednesday and forced back to port.

In remarks to reporters, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the murder of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a powerful car bomb in October 2017. But he did say that it appeared to result from comments he made a day earlier about the possibility of a pardon for an alleged middleman who had offered to identify the mastermind of the killing.

Muscat said he instructed police to be on the lookout for unusual actions by “people of interest” in the long-unsolved murder after announcing Tuesday that a pardon would be possible for the middleman if information he provided could stand up in court.

“If I had not given these instructions, maybe today we might be speaking of persons of interest who might have escaped,’’ Muscat told reporters.

He declined to comment further out of concern that any comments might prejudice a case.

No details of charges against Fenech have been revealed, but authorities would have 48 hours to decide on them.

Fenech is a prominent hotelier and director of the Maltese power company. His name was on leaked documents as a source of income for companies named in the Panama papers.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

What Will Sondland Say?

When Gordon Sondland enters the ornate House hearing room for televised testimony this morning, Republicans and Democrats will be looking for a make-or-break moment in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump — even as serious questions surround Sondland’s credibility.

The hotelier-turned-U.S. ambassador to the European Union has emerged as a pivotal link between the president and a shadow foreign policy led by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was urging the Ukrainians to conduct investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son as military aid to Ukraine was being held up.

Sondland’s appearance follows more than 11 hours of firsthand testimony from White House aides who provided damaging new details about Trump’s efforts. Republicans largely responded by trying to discredit the witnesses rather than dispute their accounts.

Meanwhile, more than $35 million of the roughly $400 million in aid to Ukraine that Trump delayed has not been released to the country, according to a Pentagon spending document obtained by The Times. It’s not clear why the money hasn’t been released, and members of Congress are demanding answers.

More Politics

— The House has passed a short-term spending bill that would keep federal agencies running for a month in hopes that the additional time will help negotiators wrap up more than $1.4 trillion in unfinished appropriations bills. Next stop: the Senate. The deadline for Trump to sign it: midnight Thursday.

— The latest Democratic primary debate will get underway in Atlanta at 6 p.m. Pacific time. Here’s what to look out for.

Cracking Down on Fracking

In a victory for critics of California’s oil drilling industry, Gov. Gavin Newsom has blocked new approvals for hydraulic fracturing, pending a permit review by an independent panel of scientists, and also for steam-injected oil drilling, the method linked to a massive petroleum spill in Kern County this year.

But in L.A., environmentalists were less pleased as they urged Mayor Eric Garcetti not to build an $865-million gas-fired power plant in Utah, saying the plan conflicts with his own climate agenda. That facility would replace Intermountain Power Plant, L.A.’s largest source of power and the last coal plant serving Californians.

Who’s in Charge Here?

“I could give you a hundred reasons homelessness has become L.A. County’s most vexing challenge, from the gargantuan income gap to housing costs to the scourge of drugs and mental illness, but the biggest impediment to solving it may be this: Nobody is in charge.” That’s how columnist Steve Lopez begins his latest piece on the homelessness crisis. But he says there is a glimmer of hope.

Netflix’s Go-It-Alone Strategy

Hollywood’s big unions and studios are getting ready to rumble, as film and TV contracts are set to expire next year. Netflix, on the other hand, is looking to hash out its own labor deals. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based streaming giant can do so because, unlike major competitors, it doesn’t belong to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. That means writers, actors and directors could continue to work on Netflix shows even if they staged a walkout with alliance members.

Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this date in 1975, if you were to head from the freeway into the Central California town of Coalinga, what you’d pass wouldn’t be an ordinary oil field. It would be a playful cartoon take on one — the Iron Zoo, locals called it — courtesy of Jean Dakessian, who transformed 46 pumping units into the likes of a cowboy on horseback, a pair of Peanuts friends and a derby-wearing turtle (he was the slowest pump, naturally). As the artist told The Times: “It’s a dull 12-mile drive from Interstate 5 through the oil fields to Coalinga. I dressed up the desolation.” See more of her creations.

CALIFORNIA

— A federal judge in San Diego has ruled that the Trump administration was misapplying its so-called asylum ban to migrants who’d already been waiting in line when it took effect in July. The decision could give tens of thousands the chance to have their claims heard.

— Costa Mesa‘s outgoing police chief says he’s being forced out after he raised issues about the latest budget development process and what he considers the City Council’s “interference.”

— More than two years after the Las Vegas mass shooting, a Mira Loma woman who was paralyzed in the attack on a country music festival has died, authorities said, raising the death toll of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history to 59.

— The actions of a Santa Clara County prosecutor are under scrutiny after authorities say he used his 13-year-old daughter as bait to catch a man accused of molesting her.

— Saugus High School students returned to campus Tuesday for the first time since a gunman last week killed two classmates and injured three others. They were allowed to retrieve their things, but classes are canceled until Dec. 2.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— The Grammy nominations are coming out this morning. Our complete coverage is here.

— Horror movies are finally winning some respect. But what about Oscars?

— It took 25 years before Hollywood was ready for a movie about Harriet Tubman. “Harriet” screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard explains how it happened.

— Sterling K. Brown talks identity, success, fatherhood and how he told his mom he was ditching economics for acting.

— Everybody wants a piece of the Great White Way. But now that some of its top tickets belong to rock stars and the line between Broadway and Off-Broadway is blurring, what exactly is Broadway?

NATION-WORLD

— Doctors are pressuring U.S. Customs and Border Protection to let them give flu shots to detained migrant children after several died of the virus in custody over the last year.

— Troll armies, a growth industry in the Philippines, may soon be coming to U.S. elections.

— Sweden has dropped its rape investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, now in prison in Britain. The prosecutor said his accuser was credible but the passage of time had weakened the evidence.

— Two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein the night he killed himself have been charged with falsifying prison records.

— On its way to claiming the YouTube throne, a maker of knockoff Bollywood tapes first bucked entrenched rivals, legal challenges, disgruntled artists, murderous gangsters and private tragedy.

BUSINESS

— The just-finalized merger of the big newspaper chains Gannett and GateHouse Media sends a grim signal about the future of local news, columnist Michael Hiltzik writes.

— Workers at an electric bus company in L.A. have unionized, with the support of their Silicon Valley CEO. It’s a far cry from Tesla.

— Why are Californians with health coverage being hit with surprise fees padding their premiums? Because, columnist David Lazarus explains, the state’s insurance industry lobbied to ensure it can stick patients with at least some of their financial obligations.

— A year after his shocking arrest on fraud charges, Carlos Ghosn — the former head of the partnership between Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi — is out to prove it’s all a conspiracy.

SPORTS

— If the NFL wants to expand beyond U.S. borders, it should look at Mexico before Europe, because the league is already there in spirit, columnist Dylan Hernandez writes.

— The three main horse racing organizations have announced the formation of the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition, in hopes of regaining public confidence in the sport after numerous horse deaths. But it won’t change much in California.

OPINION

— Even though Brett Kavanaugh made it onto the Supreme Court, it’s important that truth tellers like Christine Blasey Ford, who says he assaulted her as a teen, not disappear from view, columnist Robin Abcarian writes.

— The San Onofre nuclear plant may be closed, but it’s still a Chernobyl waiting to happen, MIT professor Kate Brown writes.

— Author David L. Ulin once thought Angelyne represented everything he disliked about L.A. Now he considers her a true Los Angeles original.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Scared children, most of them with disabilities, are being locked in isolation rooms across Illinois, and often it’s against the law. (Chicago Tribune/ProPublica)

— There are 114,000 homeless kids in New York City public schools. This is a day in the life of two of them. (New York Times)

ONLY IN L.A.

For more than two decades, the Soviet submarine that would become known as the Scorpion was based out of Vladivostok during the height of the Cold War. Eventually, it would end up in Long Beach, docked next to the Queen Mary, as a tourist attraction — sitting there for nearly as long as it plied the Pacific. But in 2015, it closed after falling into such disrepair that it became infested with raccoons. Soon, it’s expected to be sold. Its buyer and destination? Unknown.

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey