Dear Liz: I want to support about 10 charities and nonprofits but have a limited budget of $1,000. I’ve been dividing it among those charities, but would I have a bigger impact contributing the full amount to just one?

Answer: Absolutely, for a number of reasons.

Each charity spends a certain amount to process your donation. The smaller the donation, the more of it is eaten up by these costs. If it costs $5 to process a donation, for example, the costs represent 5% of each $100 donation. If $1,000 went to one charity, just one fee would be incurred and it would represent just 0.5% of the total.

Any donation you give can trigger more appeals from the charity, so you’re potentially incurring 10 times the junk mail.

Wise donors also research charities using services such as GuideStar or Charity Navigator to make sure the bulk of their contributions go to the cause, rather than to executive salaries, fundraising and overhead. Monitoring 10 charities is a lot more work than keeping track of one or two.

You might also consider making monthly contributions, rather than waiting until the end of the year, since that helps charities budget. A direct debit from your checking account is often the best way to set this up, because using a credit card incurs transaction fees that reduce your contribution.

Getting bum info from Social Security

Dear Liz: After taking Social Security early at 62, I have called, written and visited in person asking to have my benefit suspended so it can earn delayed retirement credits. Nothing has worked. Social Security representatives say I cannot change anything after the first 12 months.

I turn 66 this month and wanted to get this done.

Answer: The employees you’re talking to are confusing benefit suspension with application withdrawal.

As you know, Social Security benefits grow by 5% to 8% each year you delay between 62 and 70. Starting early can be an expensive mistake that permanently reduces the amount you receive over your lifetime.

There are two potential ways to fix the mistake. One is a withdrawal, where you rescind your application and pay back the money you’ve received. Withdrawals are a “do over” that resets the clock entirely on your benefit so that it’s as if you never applied. Withdrawals are only allowed in the first 12 months after your application.

A suspension, on the other hand, is when you ask Social Security to halt your benefit so that it can earn delayed retirement credits. You don’t have to pay any money back, but you also don’t get to reset the clock. Instead, the benefit you’re currently receiving is allowed to earn delayed retirement credits. You can only suspend your benefit once you’ve reached full retirement age. If you were born between 1943 and 1954, your full retirement age is 66.

Social Security explains how suspension works online in the retirement section. You might want to print that out and take it with you to the Social Security office. If someone again tries to tell you that suspension isn’t allowed, ask to speak to a manager. This is your right, and it could make a big difference in providing you a more comfortable retirement.

How deposit insurance limits work

Dear Liz: My parents, who are in their 80s, just moved and are about to sell their former home. Their net gain from the sale will be approximately $400,000. I am advocating they put this money in a high-yield savings account as capital preservation is key. I know an individual account is insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000. But if we set it up so they are joint account holders, would the FDIC insurance limit on that one account rise to $500,000?

Answer: Yes. The FDIC insures up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution and per ownership category. Ownership categories include single accounts, joint accounts, certain retirement accounts such as IRAs, revocable trust accounts and irrevocable trust accounts, among others. Each depositor in a joint savings account is covered up to $250,000, so a couple would have $500,000 of coverage.

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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Spending an afternoon in L.A.’s Arts District is a practice in staying present: You blink — or scroll through Instagram too long after posting a selfie in front of Colette Miller’s angel wings — and you may miss something. Here, works of art live on the streets, making the journey to a gallery or museum as immersive as being inside one.

When artists set up shop in the downtown neighborhood in the 1970s, its industrial feel meant cheap rent and not a lot of weekend tourist action. But times have changed: Grit is in and affordability is out. Today, you see as many people roaming in search of craft breweries, specialty sausage shops and streetwear storefronts as for anything actually art-related. And looking around, you can’t help but wonder whether any working artists can afford to live there anymore.

Despite being a neighborhood in flux, there are still deeply interesting things going on in the art department. Slow down, pay attention and take them in.

11 a.m. There’s a common saying that goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” For our purposes, a journey of multiple art viewings begins with a strong cup of coffee. There are so many to choose from. I selected Groundwork Coffee at 811 Traction Ave., which serves fair-trade, certified-organic brews in a charming, light-flooded atmosphere. Order the latte with cashew milk ($4.50 for a small, plus 75 cents for the house-made milk alternative) and enjoy it while sitting down. It’ll set the tone for the tour: being very much in the moment. Open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

11:30 a.m. Cross Traction Avenue and look for the neon Mona Lisa — no, this is not an obscure clue for a scavenger hunt. Knock on the door of the Lakich Neon Studio & Gallery at 704 Traction Ave. It’s filled with the unmissable work of Lili Lakich, the prolific neon artist behind “Flyaway,” a 114-foot-long neon sculpture for the Van Nuys FlyAway bus terminal. The 5,000-square-foot space is filled with large- and small-scale neon sculptures from the 1970s to the present, such as “Blessed Oblivion,” a massive altar-like piece that Lakich cites as one of her favorites. The space doubles as a classroom for Lakich’s eight-week neon workshops; the next one begins Jan. 14. Her studio/gallery is open to the public on request. Calling ahead better guarantees a viewing, but if she’s there when you knock, she’ll let you in to peruse. Contact Lakich at (213) 620-8641.

Noon: At the recommendation of Lakich, head toward 3rd Street, make a right and walk until you see Over the Influence at 833 E. 3rd St. You have to move fast if you want to catch the final days of an exhibit by Los Angeles-based artist Shepard Fairey. The man behind the iconic “André the Giant Has a Posse” street-art campaign is having a formidable 30-year retrospective that will energize you to stick it to the man. “Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent” is a collection of propaganda-style pieces drawing attention to issues like mass incarceration, climate change and civil rights while celebrating the skateboarding, punk and DIY subcultures that Fairey came up in. “Angela” — a striking print of activist-feminist Angela Davis, featuring a pan-African color scheme and the words “power and equality” bannered across the top — is a standout. It’s on display through Dec. 29, but if you miss Fairey’s exhibit, don’t worry: The next one is sure to be thought-provoking as well. Admission is free. Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

1 p.m. Make your way back toward Traction Avenue, turn left and then turn right at Hewitt Street. Walk until you see a suited-up mannequin “playing” the piano outside a large corner building to your left. That’s Art Share Los Angeles, at 801 E. 4th Place, a dedicated community space that provides affordable housing to artists. It also offers art education and a theater space. Art Share’s galleries are open to the public and are currently featuring the show “Let’s Hang @ArtShareLA” — a large and refreshingly diverse collection of work from seasoned and new talent alike. (Look for Rachael Kucken’s “Tangerine Girl.”) Art Share feels raw, real and accessible — a welcome respite from the hyper-curated, be-careful-where-you-breathe vibe of many contemporary galleries. Time is running out on this exhibit too: It’s on display until Jan. 5. Admission is free. Open 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

1:30 p.m. Step out of the Art Share building and find 4th Place to your left, turn right and walk until you hit Alameda Street, which borders the Arts District and Little Tokyo. Walk south down Alameda toward 7th Street. On the way, keep an eye out for the old Southern Pacific complex to your right, where renowned Los Angeles-based graffiti artist Retna created an intricate (and massive) multi-building mural. It’s something to not only behold but soak in. For as long as our modern attention span allows anyway.

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2 p.m. When you hit 7th, turn left and find the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1717 E. 7th St.) It was there, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, that a little boy was discovering the joys of spinning vinyl for the first time — Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, the Jam, Dionne Warwick — in the name of art. The piece, called “Ruins of a Sensibility,” is a highly interactive portion of the museum’s featured exhibition, “No Wrong Holes: Thirty Years of Nayland Blake,” and comprises the artist’s personal album collection and DJ equipment. Blake’s retrospective deals with gender and cultural identity in a way that’s personal.

ICA’s other exhibition, “Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon,” orbits similar themes. It’s a reimagining of the first black-owned gay bar in San Francisco, the New Eagle Creek Saloon, which was opened and operated by Barnette’s father, Rodney Barnette, in the early 1990s. (The elder Barnette also founded the Compton chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968.) The installation feels like a dream sequence: A hot pink neon glow beckons visitors to a room with a glittering horseshoe-shaped bar, holographic lounge seating and sparkly beer cans crushed atop metallic stereo equipment.

Finish your visit at “Play Days: Wrong Edition,” which is a much cooler, more inclusive version of your average museum gift shop, brought to you by Days, an expertly curated retail pop-up that centers around a theme. “Play Days” draws from the ICA’s current works on display and Days’ ethos, featuring items celebrating, for or by queer culture. Check out the Gamut Pins, a chic, black-and-gold accessory that states your preferred gender pronoun so you don’t have to.

Everything is on display at ICA L.A. until Jan. 26. Admission is free but donations are welcome. Open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

3 p.m. Head east on 7th until you see Pizzanista at 2019 E. 7th St. Reasons to love this no-frills pizza shop: as unpretentious an atmosphere as you can get while eating a quality New York-style slice. Vegan options galore, like plant-based versions of the Meat Jesus, redone with seitan, and a plant-based version of the mac and cheese pizza (available only on Sundays). On Tuesdays, cheese and pepperoni slices (and their vegan counterparts) are only $2. Co-founded by professional skateboarder Salman Agah, Pizzanista is steeped in the subculture — which will have you feeling at least 50% cooler by the time you leave. Open 11 a.m. to midnight Tuesday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

NEW YORK — 

A 60-year-old man who was kicked and punched while defending his partner during a $1 mugging on Christmas Eve has died.

Juan Fresnada died Friday afternoon at the Bronx hospital where he was taken in critical condition after the mugging early Tuesday, the New York Police Department said Saturday. Officers have released surveillance photos and videos in hopes of pinpointing suspects.

His partner, Byron Caceres, told the Daily News of New York that Fresnada suffered the fatal blows while trying to spare him and urging him to run to safety, which he did.

He “tried to defend me,” Caceres, 29, told the newspaper Wednesday. He said he had been unable to summon help because he doesn’t have a cellphone. No contact information for him could immediately be found Saturday.

Police said the two men were walking in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx around 1:30 a.m. when several muggers approached them and demanded their property. When they refused, they were attacked.

Surveillance video clips released by police show a man grabbing another man’s shirt and swinging him to the ground, then hitting him. Later clips show two other men joining the attacker, one of them grasping a trash can, as the beaten man starts to stand up.

It’s unclear whether he is Fresnada or Caceres, who didn’t need hospitalization.

The muggers took $1 from the men and fled, police said.

Caceres, originally from Honduras, and the Cuban-born Fresnada met through a program for poor gay men in 2015 and lived together in a building in Morrisania, according to the Daily News.

“He’s very calm, and I’m the one who is stressed all the time,” Caceres said Wednesday as Fresnada lay in intensive care.

Caceres says the muggers didn’t say anything to indicate the attack was a hate crime.

A neighbor, Aletha Jacobs, told the Daily News that Fresnada was well known and liked in the area.

“He never bothered nobody,” she said. “He’s a beautiful guy.”

HONOLULU — 

Tour helicopter operations in Hawaii have come under increased scrutiny after a deadly crash this week, one of several recent accidents in the state, with a congressman calling the trips unsafe and lacking proper oversight.

There were no survivors of the Thursday tour helicopter crash that killed three minors and four adults, officials confirmed Saturday.

The helicopter that was set to tour the rugged Na Pali Coast, the picturesque and remote northern shoreline of Kauai that was featured in the film “Jurassic Park,” crashed on a mountaintop.

The remains of six people were recovered Friday and the seventh is still missing. Kauai police confirmed there were no survivors based in part on the nature of the crash and impact damage, officials said in a statement. Recovery efforts were suspended Saturday afternoon.

There were six people from two different families and a pilot on the flight.

Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) cited fatal accidents over the years, blaming the Federal Aviation Administration for not taking National Transportation Safety Board safety improvement efforts seriously and the industry for not regulating itself.

“Tour helicopter and small aircraft operations are not safe, and innocent lives are paying the price,” Case said. “In our Hawaii alone, the industry, while stridently arguing that it is safe and sensitive to neighborhoods, has in fact ignored any sensible safety improvements, instead dramatically increasing in recent years its volume of flights, at all times of day and night, in seemingly all weather over more residential neighborhoods and to more risky and remote locations, at lower altitudes, while completely failing to address ground safety and community disruption concerns.”

The FAA conducts regular surveillance on all Hawaii air tour operators and ensures companies address any issues, agency spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email. He said the FAA does not have concerns about the industry statewide.

In a statement Saturday, police said the flight manifest listed the pilot in Thursday’s crash as Paul Matero, 69, of Wailua, Hawaii. Two passengers were named as 47-year-old Amy Gannon and 13-year-old Jocelyn Gannon of Wisconsin. Amy Gannon’s friend Dorecia Carr said Gannon’s death would rattle the city of Madison.

“She is very important, I mean she owns a huge business in Madison that helps so many people,” she said. “The city is going to be really shaken.”

Amy Gannon co-founded a nonprofit company that helped female entrepreneurs succeed. Carr also said Gannon mentored her 17-year-old son AJ Carr.

Dorecia Carr said when she didn’t have enough money to move to allow her son pursue his acting career, Gannon put up the money for them to go. AJ Carr has appeared in “Chicago P.D.,” “This Is Us,” and “All American.”

“She did so much. She paid for us to leave Madison because she believed in him,” Dorecia Carr said. “So much happened because of her. This is a huge loss.”

Madison Metropolitan School District spokesman Tim LeMonds confirmed that Jocelyn Gannon was an eighth grader attending Hamilton Middle School.

“Our community has lost a wonderful young person,” the district said in a letter sent Saturday to students.

Dorecia Carr said Gannon’s husband and son were not on Thursday’s flight and are still in Hawaii.

The four other passengers, including two girls who were 10 and 13 years old, are believed to be from Switzerland, police said, but their identities have not yet been released.

Autopsies are pending.

The helicopter company, identified as Safari Helicopters, contacted the Coast Guard on Thursday evening after the tour did not return to the airport as scheduled. A search began but steep terrain, low visibility, choppy seas and rain complicated the search.

A person who answered the phone at a number listed for Safari Helicopters declined to comment, but the owner released a statement Saturday saying, “The Safari Helcopter family, along with the broader community, mourn the loss of seven lives that were on Thursday’s sightseeing flight.” Owner Preston Myers added that the pilot, Matero, had 12 years of experience on Kauai and called him a “seasoned member of our team.”

According to a preliminary report, the pilot said the tour was leaving the Waimea Canyon area, known as the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific,” about 4:40 p.m., which was the last contact with the helicopter, Kauai police said.

The FAA’s Gregor said the agency is looking at the company’s safety record but probably won’t have a full report until Monday. The NTSB announced Friday that it was sending three investigators to Kauai.

The NTSB aviation accident database lists nine crashes of Hawaii helicopter sightseeing flights in the last 10 years, including three with fatalities.

After a Hawaii skydiving plane crashed and killed 11 people in June, the NTSB called on the FAA to tighten its regulations governing parachute operations. The FAA said at the time that it had made changes to address NTSB recommendations.

Towering mountains with deep ravines and huge waterfalls make up the interior of the uninhabited state park where the helicopter crashed this week. Red rock cliffs with thick jungle canopies rise from the Pacific Ocean to over 4,000 feet high.

Ladd Sanger, a Texas-based aviation attorney and helicopter pilot who has handled several crash cases involving similar helicopters in Hawaii, said tour operators on Kauai face unique challenges because of weather and topography.

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Kauai “has microclimates, so the weather at the airport is going to be different than up at the crash location,” Sanger said. “Those microclimates can come on very quickly and dissipate quickly too, so the weather reporting is difficult.”

Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman Dan Dennison said winter brings more rain and turbulent seas.

“You can have very low ceilings. You can have fog and cloud banks that move in very quickly. You can have heavy rain and strong winds that make flying difficult if not impossible at times,” he said.

The shoreline has beaches that could potentially serve as emergency landing zones, but they are “few and far between,” Dennison said.

And even the beaches that are there would be a tight spot to land a helicopter.

“Kauai is incredibly unforgiving terrain,” Sanger said. “If you lose the engine there’s just really no place to land on the tour route that they were flying.”

A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission.

Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Mont., arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke the record set by former space station commander Peggy Whitson in 2016-2017.

Koch is expected to spend a total of 328 days, or nearly 11 months, on board the space station before returning to Earth. Missions are typically six months, but NASA announced in April that it was extending her mission until February.

The U.S. record for longest spaceflight is 340 days set by Scott Kelly in 2015-2016. The world record is 15 months set in the 1990s by a Russian cosmonaut aboard the former Mir space station.

Koch’s extended mission will help NASA learn about the effects of long spaceflights, data that NASA officials have said is needed to support future deep space exploration missions to the moon and Mars.

Before breaking the endurance record for a woman in space, Koch set another milestone as part of the first all-female spacewalking team in October. It was Koch’s fourth spacewalk.

She previously said she took a lot of helpful advice from Kelly’s 2017 autobiography “Endurance.”

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Richard J. Poster served time for possessing child pornography, violated his probation by having contact with children, admitted masturbating in the bushes near a church school and in 2005 was put on a sex offender registry. And yet the former Catholic priest was only just this month added to a list of clergy members credibly accused of child sexual abuse — after the Associated Press asked why he was not included.

Victims advocates had long criticized the Roman Catholic Church for not making public the names of credibly accused priests. Now, despite the dioceses’ release of nearly 5,300 names, most in the last two years, critics say the lists are far from complete.

An AP analysis found more than 900 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse who were missing from lists released by the dioceses and religious orders where they served.

The AP reached that number by matching those public diocesan lists against a database of accused priests tracked by the group BishopAccountability.org and then scouring bankruptcy documents, lawsuits, settlement information, grand jury reports and media accounts.

More than 100 of the former clergy members not listed by dioceses or religious orders had been charged with sexual crimes, including rape, solicitation and receiving or viewing child pornography.

On top of that, the AP found nearly 400 priests and clergy members who were accused of abuse while serving in dioceses that have not yet released any names.

“No one should think, ‘Oh, the bishops are releasing their lists, there’s nothing left to do,’” said Terence McKiernan, co-founder of BishopAccountability.org, who has been tracking the abuse crisis and cataloging accused priests for almost two decades.

Church officials say that absent an admission of guilt, they have to weigh releasing a name against harming the reputation of priests who may have been falsely accused. By naming accused priests, they say, they also open themselves to lawsuits from those who maintain their innocence.

Some dioceses have excluded entire classes of clergy members from their lists — priests in religious orders, deceased priests who had only one allegation against them, priests ordained in foreign countries and, sometimes, deacons or seminarians ousted before they were ordained.

Others, like Poster, were excluded because of technicalities.

Poster’s name was not included when the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, issued its first list of two dozen credibly accused priests in 2008. The diocese said his crime of possessing more than 270 videos and images of child pornography on his work laptop was not originally a qualifying offense in the church’s landmark charter on child abuse because there wasn’t a direct victim.

Less than a year after he was released from prison, he admitting to masturbating in the bushes on church property, which abuts a Catholic high school. Still, the diocese did not list him. And he went on to violate the terms of his probation, admitting he had contact with minors.

Child pornography was added to the church’s child abuse charter in 2011 and, though the diocese promised it would update its list of perpetrators as required under a court-approved bankruptcy plan, it never included Poster.

“It was an oversight,” diocese spokesman Deacon David Montgomery told the AP. He said the public had been kept informed about the case through news releases issued from Poster’s arrest until his removal from the priesthood in 2007.

Poster, who now lives in Silver Spring, Md., declined to comment when reached by the AP.

Of the 900 unlisted accused clergy members, more than a tenth had been charged with a sex-related crime — a far higher percentage than those named publicly by dioceses and orders, the AP found.

Dioceses varied widely in what they considered a credible accusation. Like Poster, some of the priests criminally charged with child pornography weren’t listed because some dioceses said a victim needed to report a complaint.

Other dioceses created exceptions for a host of other reasons, ranging from cases being deemed not credible by a board of lay church people to the clergy members in question having since died and thus being unable to defend themselves.

“If your goal is protecting kids and healing victims, your lists will be as broad and detailed as possible. If your goal is protecting your reputation and institution, it will be narrow and vague. And that’s the choice most bishops are making,” said David Clohessy, former executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who now heads the group’s St. Louis chapter.

The largest exceptions were made for the nearly 400 priests in religious orders who, while they serve in diocesan schools and parishes, don’t report to the bishops.

Richard J. McCormick, a Salesian priest who worked at parishes, schools and religious camps in dioceses in Florida, New York, Massachusetts, Indiana and Louisiana, has been accused of molesting or having inappropriate contact with children from three states. In 2009, his order settled the first three civil claims against him. Yet he does not appear on any list of credibly accused clergy members.

McCormick finally faced criminal charges after one of his victims spotted the priest’s name on a very different list — one posted in 2011 by a Boston lawyer who represents church sexual abuse victims.

Thirty years had gone by, but Joey Covino said he immediately recognized a photo of McCormick as the priest who had molested him over two summers at a Salesian camp for underprivileged boys in Ipswich, Mass.

When he and his brothers returned to the camp for a second year, “I was petrified — petrified — and I couldn’t say anything,” said Covino, now 49 and a police officer in Revere, Mass.

“I’ve always told myself I should have done something. I should have fought back.”

His decision to come forward led to McCormick being convicted of rape in 2014 and sentenced to up to 10 years. The priest since has pleaded guilty to assaulting another boy.

The Salesians, based in New Rochelle, New York, have never posted a list of credibly accused priests.

“Our men who have been credibly accused and have had accusations have been listed in the various dioceses that we serve,” said Father Steve Ryan, vice provincial of the order. Ryan said he was certain McCormick’s name appeared on several lists, including Boston’s.

But when Boston posted its list in 2011, Archbishop Sean Patrick O’Malley wrote that he was not including priests from religious orders or visiting clerics because the diocese “does not determine the outcome in such cases; that is the responsibility of the priest’s order or diocese.”

O’Malley since has called on religious orders to post their own lists, spokesman Terry Donilon said.

The AP found the Boston archdiocese has the most accused priests left off its list, with almost 80 not included. Nearly three-quarters, like McCormick, were priests from religious orders.

Pennsylvania Atty. Gen. Josh Shapiro told the AP that he had to fight church leaders to release a groundbreaking 2018 grand jury report that named more than 300 predator priests and cataloged clergy abuse over seven decades in six of the state’s dioceses.

Several bishops played a direct role in covering up the abuse in Pennsylvania, Shapiro said.

“You can’t put much stock in the lists that the church voluntarily provides because they cannot be trusted to police themselves,” he said.

This is an abridged version of a story that ran in the Associated Press. Read the full version here: Hundreds of accused clergy left off church’s sex abuse lists

Here is a list of museum openings and Critics’ Choices in L.A. and Orange County for Dec. 29-Jan. 5.

Openings

Seven Stations: Selections from MOCA’s Collection Iconic works and recent acquisitions from the 1950s to the present. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. Now on view. Closed Tue. $8-$15 (includes same-day admission to the Geffen Contemporary; jurors and under 12, free; Thursdays after 5 p.m., free. (213) 626-6222. moca.org

Marks on Land & Mind Paintings by Soheila Siadate and photography by Tom Lamb. Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 117 N. Sycamore St., Santa Ana. Starts Sat.; ends Jan. 25. Closed Mon.-Wed. Free. (714) 667-1517. occca.org

Critic’s Choice

Max Hooper Schneider For his spectacular Hammer Projects show, Schneider has built a dystopian extravaganza of trash and downscale treasure, fascinating in its alienness, disturbing in its familiarity. Is this an alternate world or the underbelly of our own? A portent of the future or a mirror to the present? The L.A.-based artist’s first solo museum show reads as many things, including as a model — outrageous and incisive — of the beset planetary island we call our own. (Leah Ollman) UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. Ends Feb. 2. Closed Mon., Christmas Day. Free. (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu

Things to do

TOKYO — 

Japan on Friday approved a contentious plan to send naval forces to the Middle East to ensure the safety of Japanese ships transporting oil to the energy-poor country that heavily depends on imports from the region.

The Cabinet’s decision reflects tensions that have escalated between Iran and the U.S. since President Trump withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal.

”Taking into consideration the escalating tension in the Middle East, it is necessary to strengthen our information-gathering effort,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said during a news conference. Citing Japan’s heavy dependence on oil imports from the region, Suga added that “it is extremely important to secure the safe navigation of Japan-affiliated ships.”

Despite being a U.S. ally, Japan’s troop dispatch is not part of a U.S.-led coalition protecting Middle East waterways, apparently an attempt to maintain neutrality in a show of consideration to Iran.

Under the plan, Japan will send about 260 Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel with a destroyer and a pair of P-3C reconnaissance aircraft, mainly for intelligence-gathering in the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Defense Minister Taro Kono issued an order for the troops to start preparing for the operation, which is planned for one year beginning early next year.

Kono is to visit Djibouti on the eastern coast of Africa and Oman this weekend to discuss Japan’s mission. Japanese troops have been based in Djibouti as part of an international antipiracy effort off the Somali coast, and a P-3C unit currently in that operation will be shifted to the new mission in January, he said.

Japan will stay away from the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S.-led coalition is operating.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe explained the plan to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani when Rouhani visited Tokyo last week.

Japan, which has friendly ties with both Iran and the U.S., also seeks to serve as a mediator between the two and play a greater role in restoring stability in the region, officials said.

The Middle East supplies more than 80% of Japan’s oil needs.

Sending warships to areas of military tension is a highly sensitive issue in Japan because its pacifist post-World War II constitution limits the use of force by the military strictly to self-defense. Abe, however, has gradually expanded Japan’s military role in recent years.

In June, a Japanese-operated tanker was attacked in the Gulf of Oman. Washington said Iran was responsible and urged Japan to join the U.S.-led military initiative.

Takashi Tsukioka, chairman of the Petroleum Assn. of Japan, welcomed a troop dispatch in a statement: “The Middle East situation continues to be uncertain and we believe it will contribute to the safety of ship navigation in the Middle East.”

Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto believes that F1’s 2021 regulations will have a positive impact on the playing field, but only after several years.

Formula 1, the teams and the FIA have adopted a new set of rules that will govern the sport from 2021.

The changes will hopefully steer Grand Prix racing into a new era, in which the gap between F1’s top tier teams and the midfield players will be significantly reduced, in terms of both performance and financial fairness.

Cowell: Honda development rate ‘way ahead’ of Ferrari

Binotto believes the transformation will indeed have a beneficial bearing on F1 and deliver a better spectacle on the track.

But any immediate changes to the current pecking order are unlikely according to the Scuderia chief.

“These new rules will provide stability to F1 for the next five years, but next year I think the teams with more resources will have a competitive advantage over the others,” said Binotto, quoted by Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“In 2021, the scenario will not be very different from what we have today.”

Have the changes therefore been decided in vain? Not exactly insists Binotto.

“Certainly the new regulations are designed in such a way that the degree of freedom of development will be greatly reduced compared to today,” he added.

“I am quite convinced that we will arrive at a ceiling of performance soon enough

“Within three years of the regulations’ introduction, the performance gap between the first and last will be reduced.

“In short, the goal that Liberty Media has set itself to level the playing field can be achieved, but it won’t happen immediately.”

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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Le décès tragique de Johnny Hallyday a laissé le monde de la musique en deuil, dans la nuit du 5 au 6 décembre 2017. Les hommages ont fleuri en France, mais aussi outre-Atlantique. Son ami Mickey Rourke lui a adressé des mots touchants, plus d’un mois après la mort du rockeur.

Johnny Hallyday et Mickey Rourke étaient de bons copains. L’acteur américain de 65 ans rendait souvent visite au rockeur français à Los Angeles, ils allaient ensemble se faire dessiner la peau chez Mark Mahoney, le tatoueur des stars, Laeticia Hallyday a même immortalisé l’une de leurs virées sur son compte Instagram. Mickey Rourke assistait même aux concerts de Johnny Hallyday. L’acteur a donc été très peiné par la mort de son cher ami, survenue dans la nuit du 5 au 6 décembre dernier. Il s’est fendu d’une photo publiée mardi 30 janvier sur les réseaux sociaux, du rockeur et de son épouse sur le tapis rouge. “Te voilà parti Johnny. Repose en paix. Je t’aime“, a-t-il écrit, accompagnant son message de plusieurs coeurs violets.

Les internautes ont, à leur tour, rendu hommage à la star française. “Ce magnifique Johnny était un roi”, “Un sourire éclatant… C’est tellement bien de se souvenir de la personne par des émotions aussi positives… Repose en paix”, “C’est gentil de ta part de te souvenir de Jonny, il était un homme qui accompagnait nos jours avec ses chansons. Il restera toujours dans nos coeurs !”, “Johnny toujours et éternellement dans notre coeur“, peut-on notamment lire.

Crédits photos : BESTIMAGE