SERIES

Young Sheldon A church carnival leads Missy (Raegan Revord) to try out for the baseball team. Annie Potts, Iain Armitage, Lance Barber and Zoe Perry also star in this new episode of the spinoff comedy. 8 p.m. CBS

Superstore Amy, Jonah and Glenn (America Ferrera, Ben Feldman and Mark McKinney) hatch a scheme to make Amy look like a tough boss in this new episode of the workplace comedy. 8 p.m. NBC

Supernatural Dean (Jensen Ackles, who also directs this new episode) and his brother, Sam (Jared Padalecki), investigate the mysterious death of one girl and the baffling disappearance of another in this new episode. 8 p.m. CW

Perfect Harmony When Pastor Magnus (John Carroll Lynch) invites the Second First Choir to perform at the Church of Perpetual Praise, Arthur (Bradley Whitford) wants the group to sound better than ever in a new episode of the musical comedy. Anna Camp also stars. 8:30 p.m. NBC

Mom Bonnie (Allison Janney) gets a glimpse of what Adam (William Fichtner) was like before his accident. Anna Faris also stars in this new episode of the comedy. 9 p.m. CBS

The Good Place On the last day of the experiment, Chidi (William Jackson Harper) is faced with one final ethical dilemma. Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, Jameela Jamil and D’Arcy Carden also star in this new episode of the afterlife comedy. 9 p.m. NBC

Carol’s Second Act Carol (Patricia Heaton) is assigned to care for a star college football player (guest star Larry VanBuren Jr.) who has a broken rib in a new episode of the medical comedy. Ashley Tisdale, Jean-Luc Bilodeau also star with guest stars Ben Koldyke and Essence Atkins. 9:30 p.m. CBS

Will & Grace Will (Eric McCormack) concocts a plan to get back at Jack (Sean Hayes) after years of constantly enduring wisecracks about Will’s thinning hairline in the new episode. Megan Mullally and Debra Messing also star with guest star Patton Oswalt. 9:30 p.m. NBC

Evil Kristen, David and Ben (Katja Herbers, Mike Colter and Aasif Mandvi) are asked to assess the veracity of a local prophetess and are shaken when they see one of her visions come to life in this supernatural series. 10 p.m. CBS

Conan Without Borders In a new episode of the travelogue series, Conan O’Brien travels to Ghana with Sam Richardson (“Veep”), whose family hails from the African nation. 10 p.m. TBS

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today Dr. Mehmet Oz. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

Good Morning America John Cena; cooking with Melba Wilson, J.R. Rusgrove and Antonia Lofaso. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan John Cena (“Playing With Fire”); Elizabeth Banks (“Charlie’s Angels”). (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View “The View” celebrates 5,000 shows; Donald Trump Jr.; Kimberly Guilfoyle. (N) 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray Zanna Roberts Rassi; Charlie Weber (“How to Get Away With Murder”). (N) 10 a.m. KTTV

The Wendy Williams Show Karamo Brown discusses the book he wrote with his son, Jason “Rachel” Brown. (N) 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Annie Potts; Craig T. Nelson. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS

The Dr. Oz Show The mother of suicide victim Conrad Roy; Charles Manson’s youngest follower. (N) 1 p.m. KTTV

The Kelly Clarkson Show Billy Eichner; Henry Winkler; Henry Golding. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil An interview with the Ukrainian orphan whose adoptive parents have been accused of abandoning her. (N) 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Steve Carell (“The Morning Show”); Ashley Graham (“Fearless With Ashley Graham”). (N) 3 p.m. KNBC

The Doctors The risks of not vaccinating for measles; a cosmetic procedure uses threads to lift the lips. (N) 3 p.m. KCOP

Amanpour and Company 11 p.m. KCET; (N) midnight KVCR; 1 a.m. KLCS

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Jenny Slate. (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central

Conan Lil Rel Howery. (N) 11 p.m. TBS

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Matthew McConaughey; Chip Gaines; Joanna Gaines; Gucci Mane. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Dr. Phil McGraw; Chris Parnell; Cold War Kids perform. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS

Jimmy Kimmel Live! Kristen Bell; Idina Menzel; Josh Gad; Jonathan Groff; the Teskey Brothers perform. (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC

The Late Late Show With James Corden Jane Krakowski; Paul Feig; Chvrches perform. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS

Late Night With Seth Meyers John Cena; Gugu Mbatha-Raw; Brendan Buckley. (N) 12:37 a.m. KNBC

Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC

A Little Late With Lilly Singh Mackenzie Davis; Natalia Reyes; Diego Boneta; Gabriel Luna. (N) 1:38 a.m. KNBC

SPORTS

Women’s Soccer Friendly: United States versus Sweden, 4:30 p.m. FS1

NHL Hockey The Kings visit the Ottawa Senators, 4:30 p.m. Fox Sports Net

NFL Football The Chargers visit the Oakland Raiders, 5 p.m. Fox

College Basketball Southwestern visits TCU, 5 p.m. FS Prime

NBA Basketball The Boston Celtics visit the Charlotte Hornets, 5 p.m. TNT; the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Clippers, 7:30 p.m. TNT

For more sports on TV, see the Sports section.

At the beginning of her latest film, Petra Costa reflects on her symbiotic relationship with her country’s political experiment. “Brazilian democracy and I are roughly the same age,” she says, a touch of ruefulness in her voice, “and I thought in our 30s we’d both be on solid ground.”

But in “The Edge of Democracy,” Costa’s lyrical and insightful survey of her homeland’s slide toward far-right populism, those democratic ideals appear to be collapsing.

“I thought it was doing quite well,” said Costa, speaking by phone from São Paulo. She got a jolt in 2016 when she filmed a protest calling to impeach Brazil’s then-president Dilma Rousseff. “I saw a huge crowd of people dressed in the colors of the Brazilian flag, a very nationalist protest … asking for the return of the military, a regime that had killed and tortured hundreds of people, and put thousands in jail, without any explained reason for many of them.”

Rousseff, once a youthful dissident who had fought against that regime, was among those imprisoned and tortured.

“So for me it was terrifying,” said Costa, who was motivated by her fears for a system that was under attack. She kept shooting as the story grew scarier and more complicated, from Rousseff’s impeachment through the 2018 election of conservative extremist candidate Jair Bolsonaro. She also backtracks through contemporary Brazilian history, charting the rise and fall of the labor leader and widely popular leftist president known as Lula, jailed in 2018 amid a corruption scandal that is still being contested.

“Edge of Democracy,” which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and launched on Netflix in June, moves between the streets — site of frequent mass demonstrations — and the corridors of power in Brazil’s congress and its extraordinary Palácio da Alvorada, the presidential palace in the capital of Brasília, a stunning ‘50s modernist work designed by Oscar Niemeyer.

“I feel that architecture is part of the problem with Brazilian democracy,” noted Costa, whose camera luxuriates in the palace’s cool interior expanses, which are notably devoid of any human souls. “If our capital was still in Rio, I don’t think things would have progressed the way they did. The fact that the capital is 1,000 kilometers away, people can’t get there. Politicians don’t feel the public pressure and are kind of alienated from society in a very deep way.”

For inspiration, Costa looked to the great Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman and his landmark three-part documentary “The Battle of Chile,” which chronicled the military overthrow of Salvador Allende and the installation of a dictatorial regime headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Petra Costa

“The level of class hatred and polarization had been present in Chile then and was repeating itself in the Brazil of now,” Costa said. “What was fascinating in that film to me was how he could bear witness to time and just by doing that, show how the military coup in Chile happened, in a way that was very comprehensive and cinematic at the same time.”

Viewers familiar with Costa’s 2012 documentary “Elena” — a first-person exploration of the mystery and loss of her older actress-sister — know how deftly the filmmaker can weave intimate family narratives into poetic visual memoir. “The Edge of Democracy” benefits from that touch as well, when Costa delves into her parents’ younger lives and the years they spent underground, when it was dangerous to be a radical.

In one powerful scene, Costa introduces her mother to Rousseff, and it’s learned that they both suffered in the same prison. The filmmaker also reveals that she was named in honor of a family friend who lost his life in the struggle.

Cautious to maintain a balance between personal details and the larger national drama, so that “one wouldn’t asphyxiate the other,” Costa eventually found that the intertwining of the two strands was unavoidable. Although her parents broke with its politics, the filmmaker’s family has long been part of Brazil’s oligarchy, bolstered by her grandparents’ construction company.

“There’s a moment in the film, filming in the palace, as I walked out I found plaques where the family company’s name was written. One on the right, one on the left. Even though the right-wing president or the left-wing president had passed through power, the company had stayed.”

In one sense, Costa made her film as a way to process what she calls “a national trauma,” one that has been shared by electorates near and far amid a global rise of nationalism. “You feel a trauma of losing what you thought democracy would be … and that’s as painful as losing a close person,” she said. Yet, in the wake of the documentary’s release, some things have been regained.

Said Costa: “Many people came to me and said, ‘I haven’t talked to my father in years, and after he saw the film, he called me because he finally understood my point of view.’”

Click Here: Australia Rugby Shop

The weekend’s nearby events are your chance to tour an alpaca farm, make latte art and get into the holiday spirit with gift shopping, music and ice skating.

Santa Monica

Ice at Santa Monica’s 8,000-square-foot ice rink on Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue is open for the holiday season. Go on Sundays for a live soundtrack to your skating. You’ll hear six-time Grammy winner Daniel Ho performs ukulele tunes, followed by the Bracken Band’s Irish music on guitar and violin.

When: 2 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. weekends. Through Jan. 20

Cost, info: $15 includes admission and skate rental. Family friendly. No dogs. (310) 260-1199, bit.ly/SantaMonicaskating

Irvine

Shop to the sound of live holiday music at the 37th Irvine Fine Arts Center Holiday Faire. More than 100 local artists offer festive decorations, handmade crafts and fall desserts served in collectible ceramic dishes. Proceeds support the arts center’s classes and other programming.

When: 5 p.m. Nov. 8 and 9 a.m. Nov. 9

Cost, info: $2 admission, free for kids 12 and younger. Family friendly. Only service dogs permitted. (949) 724-6880, bit.ly/fineartsfair

Ventura County

More than 15 farms offer free tours, educational activities and food samples during the seventh Ventura County Farm Day. Learn about sustainable farming at Houweling’s Tomatoes, play with furry animals at Alpacas at Windy Hill and stroll through Earthtrine Farm’s 12 acres of culinary herbs, greens and 100 other crops. Attendees drive themselves to each location, some of which require reservations.

When: 10 a.m. Nov. 9

Cost, info: Free. Family friendly. No dogs. (805) 901-0213, venturacountyfarmday.com

Click Here: Australia Rugby Shop

Los Angeles

Learn how to craft latte art and coffee cocktails at the Los Angeles Coffee Festival at Magic Box at the Reef. Between espresso shots, check out coffee-inspired artwork, music performances and baristas as they show off their skills in brewing, blending and signature drinks in a global competition called Coffee Masters.

When: First sessions at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 9 and 10

Cost, info: $27 (when purchased online before the event) for one three-hour session. Family friendly. Only service dogs permitted. la-coffeefestival.com

Los Angeles

Shop for beadwork, carvings and other handmade goods made by artists from 40 Native American nations at the Autry Museum of the American West’s American Indian Arts Marketplace. You can also snack on fry bread, take a hoop-dancing workshop and watch short plays by the Autry’s resident theater company.

When: 10 a.m. Nov. 9 and 10

Cost, info: $15, with reduced admission for children, students and seniors; free for active military personnel and veterans. Family friendly. No dogs. (323) 667-2000, bit.ly/autrymarketplace

Los Angeles

Gather with fellow film and TV fans for live podcasts, cast reunions and pop-culture-themed fun at Vulture Festival. In the lineup are “Anatomy of a Performance,” with Elisabeth Moss, a conversation with Manny Jacinto and D’Arcy Carden from “The Good Place” and an eating demonstration with David Chang and a special guest. Event tickets are sold separately but all ticket holders have access to the poolside Vulture Lounge at the Hollywood Roosevelt.

When: Check website for event dates, times and locations. Nov. 9 and 10

Cost, info: Events range from free to $40. Family friendly but some material may not be suitable for children. No dogs. (212) 508-0400, vulturefestival.com

Note: Always check before you go because weather or other factors can affect events. Children should always be accompanied by an adult. Assume dogs must be on a leash. To suggest an event that’s cool and close to home, email [email protected] at least four weeks before the event.

On Veterans Day, national parks, national forests and other federal lands that charge entry fees will be free. Monday’s free admission also applies to sites overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, Army Corps of Engineers and wildlife refuges run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

There are 419 units in the National Park Service, but only some charge visitors to enter. Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks cost $30 per vehicle for a pass that’s good for seven days.

Speaking of Yosemite, traffic in popular Yosemite Valley can get very congested on holiday weekends. To leave your car behind, the park’s regional transit system, called YARTS, is offering free rides Sunday and Monday on several routes, including departures between the valley and Fresno and Merced. Visitors save $30 to $32 on the round-trip ride.

In Southern California, the holiday freebie means picnickers and hikers in the Angeles, Los Padres, Cleveland and San Bernardino national forests may skip the required $5 Adventure Pass.

State parks may or may not be free on Veterans Day. For example, Arizona and California parks will be free Monday only for active military members and veterans. Washington state will give all visitors free admission to its parks Monday; Texas does the same, only on Sunday.

Click Here: WORLD CUP Rugby Shop

Travelers arriving at Los Cabos International Airport will be asked for about $18 (350 pesos) each starting Saturday. But local officials say this isn’t a tax. It’s a request for a voluntary contribution to benefit a new Fund for a Sustainable Baja California Sur.

Under the new program, officials said, San José del Cabo airport will feature kiosks encouraging visitors to contribute at the kiosk or through online payments.

The fund will support public security, healthcare, education, housing, employment, sports, culture, agriculture, fishing, tourism and social infrastructure, Baja California Sur Gov. Carlos Mendoza Davis wrote in a recent series of tweets.

Although the governor didn’t use the word “tax” or “impuesto,” some media outlets in the U.S. and Mexico initially reported the new program as a mandatory tax. Some have now backtracked.

Isidro Jordán Moyró, Secretary of Finance of the State of Baja California Sur, said in a prepared statement that the new effort is not “entry tax” and that “visitors will not be forced or unduly coerced into making a contribution.”

Florencia Zermeño, the head of air service development for airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, said international visitors would “in no way” be bothered or coerced to pay. Zermeño said there would be no kiosks at La Paz airport.

Announcing the fund, the governor forecast the program would bring in 490 million pesos (about $25.5 million) in its first year and noted that the population of Los Cabos had grown 86% in the last 10 years.

What’s going to happen to that towering nude Damien Hirst sculpture now that the KAOS club at Palms Casino Resort has shut? The 60-foot-tall headless “Demon With Bowl” (2014) will continue to reign over the pool area at the Las Vegas resort, even though the splashy KAOS has vanished.

Parent company Red Rock Resorts Inc. pulled the plug on the club Tuesday. Senior Vice President Michael Britt said in a statement that although there was “exceptional growth” in other parts of the resort’s business, “the expense side of the business has been challenging to date, due in large part to the entertainment and fixed cost structure associated with KAOS.”

The statement also said the former club space will be available for private meetings and special events while the resort rethinks programming at the venue. And the domed, climate-controlled pool area with the Hirst statue will remain open to guests this winter.

KAOS opened in April, with promises of A-list performers such as Cardi B and Skrillex, and a vibrant day-to-night club scene. It was a big part of a $690 million redo of the Palms, with a 73,000-square-foot day club and 29,000-square foot nightclub that included a rotating DJ booth and entertainment stage. The resort also had created two main pools as well as small ones to complete the transformation.

Around the same time, Palms rolled out one of the most expensive suite stays in Las Vegas, the $200,000-a-night Empathy Suite, designed by Hirst with many of his fine artworks on display.

Click Here: liz claiborne perfume

Alphabet Inc.’s board is investigating how the company dealt with accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct against some of its executives.

“As has already been confirmed in public court filings, in early 2019, Alphabet’s board of directors formed a special litigation committee to consider claims made by shareholders in various lawsuits relating to past workplace conduct,” Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

Click Here: liz claiborne perfume

The investigation includes the behavior of Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, a longtime senior executive who has been accused of having relationships with employees, CNBC reported earlier Wednesday. The board of directors has hired a law firm to help with the investigation and contact alleged victims, CNBC also said.

A 2018 New York Times report detailed three accounts of senior Google executives, including Drummond, having relationships with employees. Two of those executives, Andy Rubin and Rich DeVaul, have left the company, but Drummond remains.

In August, a former Google employee, Jennifer Blakely, who participated in the New York Times story, elaborated on accusations she made to the New York Times about Drummond, saying that she was forced out of the company and that he refused to pay child support after their relationship ended.

Drummond has acknowledged the relationship with Blakely. “Other than Jennifer, I never started a relationship with anyone else who was working at Google or Alphabet,” he said in a statement in August. He did not return an email seeking comment.

The New York Times also reported last year that Rubin, the founder of Android, was given a $90-million severance package when he left Google in 2014. That news prompted a walkout by thousands of Google employees and has spurred efforts to reform how the company handles sexual harassment and misconduct complaints.

Some shareholders have sued the company over this episode and other workplace conduct, and the Alphabet board’s special litigation committee is considering these claims, the Alphabet spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Job one for acting United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble is rooting out rot in the union to steer clear of federal oversight.

Gamble took over leadership of the country’s largest auto labor group on an interim basis on Saturday when his predecessor stepped aside amid a Justice Department probe that has metastasized over the past two years into a major scandal. Prosecutors have charged several and convicted some senior UAW officials with a series of crimes ranging from embezzlement to wire fraud.

That has raises the specter of a government takeover much like the federal supervision consent decree by the Teamsters union 30 years ago to settle a corruption and racketeering case and which was just lifted in 2015.

In an interview at the union’s temporary headquarters outside Detroit, Gamble said he has a list of new controls designed to clean house at the UAW and, if possible, avoid the fate of the Teamsters. “At this point, we have to be cognizant of that, but we still have a union to protect and maintain. I’m truly praying that we don’t have to go down that road,” he said.

Gamble has been tapped to fill in for Gary Jones, who went on an indefinite leave of absence Saturday after being implicated in a federal probe that has shadowed his tenure as union head and which dates back at least six months before his December 2017 nomination. Jones has not been charged with a crime, but is a co-conspirator in an embezzlement case and identified in court filings as “UAW Official A,” the Detroit News reported last week, citing unnamed people familiar with the investigation.

The union faces corruption probes for at least three separate incidents, including a kickback scheme allegedly involving former UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who served on the board of General Motors Co. He was charged Wednesday by federal prosecutors.

In September, Jones was associated with charges against another union official who allegedly conspired to use union funds for luxury rental villas in Palm Springs, as well as more than $1 million worth of golf clubs, gourmet meals, cigars and high-end liquor.

Attorneys for Ashton and Jones were unavailable for comment.

Welch and Dawson write for Bloomberg.

Here’s a look at fixer-upper homes you can buy right now for $650,000 in Altadena, Sylmar and Long Beach in L.A. County.

ALTADENA: One of the 160 historic “Janes Cottages” built by E.P. Janes in the 1920s, this architectural gem could use an exterior renovation to restore its former glory.

Address: 198 W. Altadena Drive, Altadena, 91001

Listed for: $649,000 for three bedrooms, one bathroom in 1,176 square feet (8,367-square-foot lot)

Features: Steep-pitched rooflines; rounded edges; living room with fireplace; spacious front and back yards

About the area: In the 91001 ZIP Code, based on 29 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $837,000, down 7.8% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

SYLMAR: A spacious great room with dramatic beams and a towering stone fireplace serves as the centerpiece for this corner-lot two-story home in need of work both inside and out.

Address: 15008 Larkspur St., Sylmar, 91342

Listed for: $629,900 for four bedrooms, three bathrooms in 2,328 square feet (10,890-square-foot lot)

Features: Double-door entry; tile kitchen; French doors; spacious lot

About the area: In the 91342 ZIP Code, based on 53 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $558,000, up 5.7% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

LONG BEACH: A glass-enclosed patio hangs off the back of this single-story home with white-painted beams and brick accents.

Address: 6407 E. Marita St., Long Beach, 90815

Listed for: $699,000 for three bedrooms, two bathrooms in 1,496 square feet (6,391-square-foot lot)

Features: Frontyard with lamppost; skylit kitchen; living room with mirrored walls; fenced back patio

About the area: In the 90815 ZIP Code, based on 34 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $756,000, up 9.1% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

ALTADENA: This 94-year-old home features five different types of hardwood floors throughout its commodious common rooms.

Address: 487 Crosby St., Altadena, 91001

Listed for: $650,000 for three bedrooms, one bathroom in 1,509 square feet (5,789-square-foot lot)

Features: Covered entry; living room with white-painted brick fireplace; second-story bonus room; private backyard

About the area: In the 91001 ZIP Code, based on 29 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $837,000, down 7.8% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

SYLMAR: A second-story balcony takes in sweeping mountain views from this 1970s home on a hill.

Address: 13437 Lochrin Lane, Sylmar, 91342

Listed for: $649,900 for four bedrooms, three bathrooms in 2,643 square feet (7,440-square-foot lot)

Features: Custom built-ins; master suite with spa tub; custom rock BBQ area; fruit trees

About the area: In the 91342 ZIP Code, based on 53 sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $558,000, up 5.7% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

LONG BEACH: This four-unit property could be a possible investment opportunity complete with a duplex, a pair of one-bedroom apartments and a four-car garage.

Address: 2486 Pasadena Ave., Long Beach, 90806

Listed for: $689,000 for four bedrooms, four bathrooms in 1,960 square feet (5,928-square-foot lot)

Features: Gated lot; covered entry; grassy backyard; four-car garage

About the area: In the 90806 ZIP Code, based on nine sales, the median price for single-family homes in September was $538,000, up 3.7% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

One year ago, the global business elite deserted a Saudi Arabian investment summit in droves after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. But the founder of Japan’s SoftBank slipped into Riyadh for a discreet meeting.

Masayoshi Son and his chief lieutenant, Rajeev Misra, were there to see Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince who had helped to make them the world’s most influential technology investors. Almost half of SoftBank’s $97-billion technology-focused Vision Fund — the biggest pool of private money ever raised — came from the young royal’s sovereign wealth fund.

Their message for Prince Mohammed was clear: SoftBank, they said, would not abandon him, people briefed on the conversation told the Financial Times. The crown prince pledged never to forget their loyalty.

One year later the strength of those bonds is being tested and plans for a long-awaited sequel to the Vision Fund are in serious doubt.

Armed with Gulf capital, SoftBank poured into every corner of the digital economy and fueled some of the world’s most richly valued private companies. Following Son’s advice, many burned cash in feverish pursuit of scale and market share above all else.

But the near-collapse of SoftBank’s biggest gamble, co-working group WeWork, and the plummeting valuation of its other holdings have dramatically shaken faith in Son’s investment genius and his bets on disruptive technology.

If the troubles at SoftBank and its Vision Fund escalate into a crisis, as some fear, it would resonate from Silicon Valley, Beijing and Mumbai, India, to the financial centers of the City of London, Wall Street and Tokyo.

Returning to Riyadh in late October for the latest Future Investment Initiative, known as “Davos in the Desert,” Son was met by an almost-empty room for his panel discussion. The weary-looking billionaire, who at one point appeared to fall asleep, insisted he would keep offering capital to startups so they could “grow much bigger and quicker.”

“We identify the entrepreneurs who have the greatest vision to solve the unsolvable,” he said. “They need to have the strongest passion. And then we provide the cash to fight.”

The downfall of WeWork has been a humbling experience. “It’s been embarrassing for him,” says a person who works closely with Son. “He has to rethink his approach.”

SoftBank shares have plummeted more than 25% in the past three months. On Wednesday, the company reported a $6.5-billion quarterly loss and wrote down the value of several investments. That included a $4.6-billion charge for WeWork.

The struggles have laid bare a sharp-elbowed culture within the Vision Fund, which is led by Misra and seen as rife with mistrust, managerial disorganization and clashes between executives.

Despite efforts at scaling and maturing its investment arm, SoftBank has been unable to shake off a “Wild West” culture at the London-based fund, where power struggles have contributed to high-level departures, including Mark Schwartz, the company’s longtime independent director.

Uber’s May 10 IPO was supposed to be a coming-of-age moment for a Silicon Valley “unicorn.” Instead, it turned into a rude awakening about the public market’s attitude to loss-making startups, which the Vision Fund had loaded up on.

Uber is now down about 30% from its listing price, with the Vision Fund sitting on more than $800 million in paper losses. Other investments have suffered too: office messaging group Slack has dropped nearly 45% since its first day of trading in June, while Vir Biotechnology has fallen 30% since its mid-October listing. Only two Vision Fund-backed companies, Guardant Health and 10X Genomics, are trading above their IPO price.

“If SoftBank says this is the value, how much of that should you believe?” says Kirk Boodry, a tech analyst at Redex Holdings who publishes on research platform Smartkarma. One hedge fund investor says backing from the Vision Fund is “an immediate cue to sell.”

The steady procession of IPOs was intended to validate the Vision Fund’s late-stage bets and lay the groundwork for juicy returns that would make big-money investors clamor to pour money into its next Vision Fund. The group would look to list at least two portfolio companies per month by 2020, Misra said earlier this year.

Suddenly, with the wisdom of that model in question, support from the rest of the market is not a given.

The biggest blow, however, came from a company whose founder Son has praised and lavished with billions of dollars since 2017, saying it would be worth a few hundred billion one day.

The close bond between Son and WeWork founder Adam Neumann had begun to sour long before its disastrous attempt to list in September. The turning point came late last year.

Teams from SoftBank and WeWork had been toiling in secret since Thanksgiving on an audacious plan they called Project Fortitude, which would have seen SoftBank and the fund buying out every WeWork shareholder except Neumann for $10 billion and injecting a total of $10 billion into the company.

As the negotiators broke up for the Christmas holidays, however, Son called Neumann to say they would have to rethink: The Vision Fund had backed out, and with SoftBank’s own shares falling he would ultimately commit just $2 billion of additional capital in January. In theory, the new deal pumped WeWork’s valuation up to $47 billion. But the company’s rapid cash burn meant it would need to hasten plans for an IPO.

Months later WeWork ditched its IPO plans after failing to fetch even a $15-billion valuation from investors. The shelved IPO led to a $9.5-billion rescue package from SoftBank to save the business. The deal valued WeWork at just $8 billion, although Neumann, whose special voting rights gave him the leverage, negotiated a controversial $1.7-billion exit package even as 4,000 WeWork employees are to be fired.

“We created a monster,” Son has told colleagues. “We gave him all the capital.”

There are concerns about other privately held companies in the Vision Fund portfolio. One company that has raised eyebrows is India’s Oyo, in which the Vision Fund owns a 50% stake. The hotel chain’s most recent $2-billion investment round was led by Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo’s 25-year-old founder, in an unusual deal that doubled its valuation to $10 billion and saw him tap into loans from Japanese banks with close ties to SoftBank.

Click Here: juicy couture perfume

Concerns about passenger safety at Didi Chuxing, China’s answer to Uber, have held back its growth in the last year. Other bets are not expected to generate any returns. Fair, the car subscription startup that partners with Uber, recently revealed plans to cut 40% of its workforce as it struggles to become profitable. Wag, the dog-walking company backed by a $300-million Vision Fund check, has been earmarked for sale.

“Money in the right hands, right founders and right potential long-term platforms works,” said Nikesh Arora, Son’s former heir apparent, who abruptly resigned in 2016, at a CNBC event recently. “But it doesn’t work willy-nilly on every pet-walking and hotel room-renting website.”

It is hard to formulate a cohesive picture of SoftBank and the Vision Fund, in part because of Son’s incessant deal-making, and also because of the extreme levels of financial engineering employed by Misra.

“SoftBank and the Vision Fund are layers of leverage upon leverage,” says one banker who has worked closely with both.

SoftBank is saddled with $160 billion of interest-bearing debt and its bonds are rated non-investment grade. The Vision Fund has a unique structure — created by Misra — where roughly $40 billion of outside investor funds are in the form of preferred shares that work like debt and pay an annual coupon.

When Misra looked to return capital to the Vision Fund’s backers earlier this year, he added yet more leverage, taking out a $3.5-billion loan mortgaged against stakes in companies including Uber.

Under Misra’s watch, the fund’s ranks have grown to more than 400 employees, while it tries to shed its unruly image. It has tightened control functions in areas such as compliance, accounting and legal.

A second Vision Fund would help Son silence his critics. A rollout this summer of those plans was designed to showcase SoftBank’s ability to attract blue-chip investors such as Microsoft. But no outside investors have formally signed up yet for the $108-billion fund raising.

Executives within and close to SoftBank concede that renewed commitments from Saudi Arabia and its neighbor Abu Dhabi are crucial if there is to be a second fund. Both have been slow to commit, even as SoftBank executives are counting on Prince Mohammed to reinvest up to $30 billion with them.

“I don’t see how you could do it without them,” says one person involved.

Advisors to the crown prince have urged him to reduce his exposure to SoftBank. But he is said to want to honor his promise to Son.

© The Financial Times Ltd. 2019. All rights reserved. FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd. Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.