Time was, to compete for a seat at Yosemite‘s annual Bracebridge Dinner, you had to enter a lottery. Not so anymore. Tickets went on sale in August — and some are still available for anyone who wants to attend the national park’s quirky, majestic December holiday tradition that began in 1927.

“It’s one part pageant, one part musical, one part immersive comedy, with a fabulous seven-course meal wrapped around it,” says Sarah Coykendall, producing stage director. “It’s really like nothing else.” Coykendall follows in the footsteps of Ansel Adams, photographer and park lover, who directed and acted in several of the Ahwahnee Hotel‘s Bracebridge Dinners in the late 1920s.

This year Bracebridge will take place Dec. 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21. Tickets for dinner only, excluding tax, cost $320 for adults and $252 for children 12 and younger. Dinner plus a two-night stay at the Ahwahnee starts at $783 a night, plus tax and fees. Check out the menu, which includes Peacock Pie (made with duck), beef tenderloin and plum pudding. Dinner, by the way, may be customized with vegetarian and gluten-free options.

For those clueless about this rather obscure tradition, Bracebridge takes place in the Ahwahnee’s dining room, which is transformed into an 18th century English hotel. The show is based on the fictional “Bracebridge Hall,” written by Washington Irving in 1821. The lead character, a jester known as the Lord of Misrule, runs the manor for the evening with lots of over-the-top pomp.

Coykendall has been tasked with freshening up the show, which she feels carries a message about “the interconnectivity of life, the importance of protecting nature and the idea of peace.”

“We want to reach a new generation, and the generation after that,” she says.

What will be new? This year, for the first time, the jester will be female (though she will still be called the Lord of Misrule). And some of the jokes and story lines have been modified to keep up with the times.

The performing cast works year-round to produce the 3½-hour pageant. It takes about 100 people, including lead characters, chorus members from the San Francisco Opera, cooks, waiters, wine stewards, hotel staff, lighting and production support and others, to pull it off.

Info: The Bracebridge Dinner at Yosemite

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Free this weekend? You can choose your perfect pumpkin, feast on Japanese street food and walk for HIV/AIDS awareness in Southern California.

Throughout Santa Ynez Valley

Six wine-centric towns host events during the four-day Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley, an excuse to spend the weekend in wine country. Highlights include the Solvang Grape Stomp, the family-friendly Los Alamos Day in the Country festival, and cooking classes in Ballard, Buellton and Santa Ynez.

When: Oct. 17-20. Check website for event dates and times.

Cost, info: Events $25-$150. Refer to event websites for policies on children and pets. Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley

Costa Mesa

Bring an appetite for sushi, ramen and Japanese fried chicken to the 10th OC Japan Fair at the OC Fair and Event Center. Anime fans can hang at the cosplay show on Saturday, while Mario Kart experts can play in a gaming tournament all weekend. Other entertainment includes performances by Japanese artists and cultural demonstrations on sake, calligraphy and kimonos.

When: 5 p.m. Oct. 18, noon Oct. 19, 10 a.m. Oct. 20

Cost, info: $8, or free for children 6 and younger and adults 65 and older. Family friendly. Only service dogs permitted. OC Japan Fair

Silverado

Explore the Helena Modjeska Historic House for free in celebration of the actress’ birthday. The tour includes Shakespearean performances, samples of Modjeska’s preferred marshmallow candies and tales about her journey from Poland to California in the late 1800s. Registration by phone required.

When: Noon Oct. 19

Cost, info: Free. Family friendly. No dogs. (949) 923-2230

Pasadena

The 25th Pumpkin Festival at Brookside Park has a pumpkin patch, fall crafts, carnival games, food trucks, and interactive performances by local dancers and musical groups. Proceeds benefit the Kidspace Children’s Museum, which offers half-price museum admission for $7 per person during the event.

When: 9:30 a.m. Oct. 19 and 20

Cost, info: Free admission to the festival; tickets for food and activities cost $1 each. Family friendly. No dogs. Pumpkin Festival

Los Angeles

Walk to raise money and awareness for HIV/AIDS at the 35th AIDS Walk Los Angeles. The morning begins in front of City Hall with an aerobic warmup and a ceremony featuring activists, celebrities and musical performers. Celebrate the end of the four-mile walk with live music, food trucks and free ice cream back at the starting point.

When: 9 a.m. Oct. 20

Cost, info: Free participation; donations can be made online or at the event. Family friendly. Dogs OK, but pet owners should be mindful of potentially hot asphalt. AIDS Walk Los Angeles

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Google on Tuesday showed how it will attempt to get its high-end Pixel phones out of their rut: a combination of familiar Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. technology, the addition of juggernaut carrier AT&T Inc. and cutting-edge camera and digital-assistant features that showcase the company’s lead in artificial intelligence.

The new models — the 5.7-inch Pixel 4 and 6.3-inch Pixel 4 XL — have redesigned cases with a new camera bump and an additional lens alongside a much-improved display with smoother animations and facial recognition to replace yesteryear’s fingerprint sensor. Google also increased the memory to 6 gigabytes, addressing a pervasive complaint about overly frugal specs on last year’s devices.

A new radar-based motion sensor lets people control the Pixel with hand gestures in the air, and it will also detect users’ presence and attention to keep the screen on while reading. Google Assistant is more capable and more deeply integrated than ever, extending a lead on Apple’s Siri voice assistant and Samsung’s Bixby.

Google started designing its own consumer hardware a few years ago to generate new revenue growth beyond advertising. The home-grown gadgets also help the company control the distribution of its web services, reducing reliance on other hardware makers.

Still, the Pixel line has never sold particularly well, despite some of the best tech and consumer reviews. The company will be hoping this fourth iteration, with its new features, addresses the malaise.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google also showed off new Nest-branded Wi-Fi routers and Home Mini speakers as well a Pixelbook Go laptop.

The facial-recognition sensor on the Pixel 4 appeared to start up quickly in a demonstration, working in concert with the new Motion Sense feature, which alerts the phone that a user’s hand is approaching to pick up the device, which in turn triggers the facial sensor to turn on and start scanning, leading to a quicker unlock. Apple has had Face ID on iPhones since 2017, but Google‘s implementation is a different approach.

The Pixel’s face authentication will work with some payment apps, including one from Citigroup Inc., and face data will be securely stored on the device, according to Google. The motion sensor also lets users navigate between songs, snooze alarms, and decline calls with a hand gesture.

Google highlighted its new zoom lens on the back of the Pixel as the most significant 2019 addition to a device that gets its name from its emphasis on photography. Apple added a second lens in 2016 with the iPhone 7 Plus, but Google has long maintained that it can make up the hardware gap with software. That story doesn’t change this year: Google argues that its imaging software is the best and the new lens only helps it extend that capability across a wider range of zoom. The company has developed a whole new image-processing pipeline for its zoom feature, borrowing from its advancements in nighttime photography with Night Sight.

The new Pixel cameras will show a live preview of what the image will look like before it is captured — a subtle but important improvement in an era of sophisticated image processing. Google has also added a dedicated slider for controlling shadow exposure for more advanced photographers, and a so-called astrophotography mode will let even amateurs capture detailed images of stars at night with a tripod and four minutes of exposure.

The Pixel’s updated voice assistant has a new swipe gesture for launching, on-device processing for tasks that don’t require the internet, and the ability to open specific pages or menus within apps upon a user’s command. Google has added a new voice-memo app with on-the-fly transcription, which worked well in a demonstration. The new phones also include car crash detection and can automatically call emergency services.

The smaller Pixel 4 has a 5.7-inch screen, slightly bigger than last year’s model, though the overall size hasn’t increased. That matches the dimensions of the iPhone 11 Pro. The Pixel 4 XL, at 6.3 inches, sits in between the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max screen sizes.

The new Pixel phones will cost $799 or $899 depending on screen size, and extra storage will cost more. That pricing positions the Pixel 4 $100 above the iPhone 11 but $200 below the iPhone 11 Pro line. Despite the unique new technology, such pricing will likely continue to be a pain point for the high-end Pixels as the new models are no more affordable than the Pixel 3 of last year.

In the first quarter of this year, Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said the Pixel 3 didn’t sell well, attributing a year-over-year decline to heavy promotions in the smartphone market. Google wasn’t the only phone maker to struggle in the quarter, with Apple reporting its first annual holiday quarter sales decline in nearly two decades on the heels of lower-than-expected iPhone sales.

Pixel sales trail far behind Apple and Samsung, though new cheaper Pixels launched in June have slightly offset the poor performance of Google’s high-end models.

The Pixel 4 phones go on sale Oct. 24 and pre-orders begin on Tuesday. Google will be selling the phones through all four major U.S. carriers for the first time. They will come in 64 GB and 128 GB capacities, with 6GB of RAM, and in a choice of orange, black or white.

The new models, like Apple’s latest iPhones, lack fifth-generation cellular connectivity despite many 5G networks kicking in over the next 12 months. Google said it is working on 5G technology, but wouldn’t say when a 5G Pixel model would launch. Apple plans to launch a 5G iPhone around next September, while Samsung started shipping 5G phones earlier this year.

Google also showed off new Pixel Buds headphones that are built to rival AirPods. Unlike the previous version, they are cordless this time. They will launch next year for $179 and have five hours of battery life.

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Bankers who two months ago were fighting for a piece of WeWork’s highly anticipated share sale are now scrambling to just keep the company alive.

WeWork and its backers are furiously trying to line up two rescue plans before it runs out of cash as early as next month: one by SoftBank Group, the company’s largest shareholder, and one by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which won WeWork’s IPO mandate but ultimately didn’t pocket a fee as the plan for the initial public offering collapsed and cut off WeWork’s access to new cash.

JPMorgan is sharing its proposal — an unusually risky $5-billion debt package that is WeWork’s preferred option — with about 100 investors, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. Several have expressed skepticism about WeWork’s ability to service the debt, and news of the proposal’s eye-popping terms sent the company’s existing bonds reeling to a new low Tuesday.

At the same time, SoftBank is trying to pull together a backup option. The Japanese investment powerhouse would inject capital into WeWork and take a controlling stake, a move the company’s management hopes to avoid. To help it craft a proposal, SoftBank hired advisors at investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore options for easing WeWork’s cash crunch, said people with knowledge of the discussions.

Both proposals share one thing: a lot of uncertainty.

“WeWork’s credit metrics remain off-the-chart ugly,” Vicki Bryan, chief executive of Bond Angle, a high-yield credit research company, said in a note Tuesday.

JPMorgan’s plan would raise $5 billion in one of the riskiest junk debt offerings in recent years that could include $2 billion of pay-in-kind bonds yielding 15%. The bank is casting an unusually wide net for this type of offering, pitching investors ranging from some of the world’s largest asset managers to credit hedge funds with expertise in distressed investing, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Payment-in-kind notes, known as PIKs in industry parlance, give issuers the option to pay interest on debt with more debt. In buying PIK deals, investors are in effect betting that a cash-strapped company will be able to make good on a ballooning debt obligation when it matures. PIK debt has historically been favored by the likes of struggling energy companies and firms exiting bankruptcy.

Although terms remain under discussion, the potential WeWork PIK could pay 5% interest in cash and 10% interest in debt that would accumulate and become due at maturity. That means that a $2-billion obligation with a 10% payment-in-kind option would grow to $2.7 billion after three years and $3.2 billion after five.

WeWork’s board has hired investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners as it weighs its options. With funds running low, the company expects to cut potentially thousands of jobs from its staff of about 12,500 this month, as it focuses on its core business of renting out office space.

Lending to WeWork is so potentially dicey that one junk bond investor, Diamond Hill Capital Management’s John McClain, said anybody brave enough to do it would “be taking on substantial career risk.”

The proposed yield in the new debt package underscores skepticism among debt investors that the company will be able to stem its cash bleed and become profitable anytime soon. It’s a costly option that may reward investors handsomely in the event of an actual turnaround.

The market’s initial reaction wasn’t encouraging. WeWork’s existing notes, $669 million of 7.875% bonds due in 2025, fell the most on record Tuesday morning after Bloomberg reported on the potential terms for a new debt package. The junk bonds dropped to a record low of 79 cents on the dollar to yield 13.4%, according to Trace, before recovering a bit.

SoftBank’s advisors at Houlihan are working on cutting liabilities as WeWork mulls over the debt package. Other measures for restructuring WeWork’s balance sheet could include renegotiating or terminating some existing leases to reduce WeWork’s indebtedness and cash burn. Future lease payment obligations as of June 30 were $47.2 billion, according to the prospectus for WeWork’s aborted IPO.

The new debt could come with a coupon nearly twice that of the junk bonds the company sold less than 18 months ago.

“If they are talking about doing a PIK note at a yield of 15%, the existing unsecureds have to reprice,” McClain said.

SpaceX has bet its future on a network of small satellites that could beam the internet down to Earth. This month, the company’s plans got a whole lot bigger.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has requested permission from an international regulatory group to operate as many as 30,000 satellites at a specific frequency, power level and location in space. The company had received prior permission from the U.S. government to operate about 12,000 satellites and launched 60 initial satellites in May.

The new batch of 30,000 satellites are set to be in orbits ranging from about 200 miles to 360 miles above the Earth, according to filings submitted Oct. 7 to the International Telecommunication Union, which allocates radio spectrum and satellite orbits. The filings did not include details of when the satellites would be launched.

A SpaceX spokesperson said in a statement that the company was taking steps to “responsibly scale” the total network capacity and data density to “meet the growth in users’ anticipated needs.”

SpaceX makes its money by launching satellites for commercial and government customers and ferrying cargo for NASA to the International Space Station. But company Chief Executive Elon Musk has said SpaceX’s launch revenue probably tapers off at about $3 billion a year.

The global internet connectivity market, on the other hand, is worth about $1 trillion. Musk has estimated that with the company’s Starlink satellite constellation, SpaceX could capture at least 3%, or $30 billion, of that sector.

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Musk also intends to use revenue from Starlink to fund his passion project: a Mars spaceship known as Starship that would be capable of ferrying up to 100 people to the red planet. The company has started building prototypes of that spaceship near Boca Chica Beach in Texas and in Cocoa, Fla., and Musk estimated last month that a test launch reaching 60,000 feet in altitude could occur in one to two months.

“SpaceX is relying on Starlink to provide a lot of profit for them,” said Laura Forczyk, owner of space consulting firm Astralytical. “They have a lot of ambitious projects going on that they need funding for.”

But the company faces daunting technical challenges to build the high-tech satellite components cheaply enough to be affordable for users, with a level of reliability that can place it above competitors on the ground and in the sky.

Several other broadband-beaming satellite constellations have either launched or are in the works, including London’s OneWeb, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com Inc. has also entered the race with its Project Kuiper and asked the Federal Communications Commission in July for permission to launch more than 3,200 satellites.

With this in mind, part of SpaceX’s goal in filing for 30,000 satellites may be to reserve its place and prevent competitors from taking its desired orbit and frequency first.

The large number of proposed satellites might also be to ensure seamless global coverage that can provide high data rates and increased reliability, said Kerri Cahoy, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. SpaceX said it was investing in the future of Starlink to increase the system’s total network capacity and density, and that demand for fast and reliable internet service has escalated around the world.

With so many satellites from various constellations set to enter space, industry insiders have become increasingly concerned about potential collisions between spacecraft.

Last month, a satellite belonging to the European Space Agency had to fire its thrusters to avoid colliding with one of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. SpaceX has said that an on-ground operator missed a message from the U.S. Air Force showing that the chance of a collision had increased, and that it is implementing “corrective actions.” The company said it has automated collision avoidance in its satellites and will be sharing spacecraft-tracking data with all other satellite operators.

SpaceX said it planned to offer service in the northern part of the U.S. and Canada as early as next year, with global coverage of more populated areas after 24 satellite launches, or a total of 1,440 satellites in orbit. More satellites could mean the company wants to serve more users, particularly in areas that are rural or semirural and have few options for internet access.

Musk said in May that SpaceX had not yet signed up any customers because it wanted to wait until the system was working well but that the company was interested in partnering with governments or telecommunications companies. Musk said he didn’t think Starlink would displace any telecommunications firms.

“The greater global coverage they can provide, the greater their market is,” Forczyk said. “The way they can increase their profit from Starlink is to increase their coverage and really make them No. 1 compared to their competitors.”

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MARIANNE. About 18 months ago, my friend @valerie_von_sobel suggested that I meet someone she greatly admired, Marianne Williamson, who was interested in commissioning a portrait. We made a date at the Baccarat hotel in New York, over-looking MOMA. Almost before I’d sat down, Marianne announced that she was going to run for President in 2020 and wanted to use the portrait as her campaign image. After 35 years as an illustrator I am not surprised by much, but I remember very little of the rest of the conversation. I did my homework; Marianne – in case you didn’t know- is a best selling author, spiritual guru and friend of Oprah (who claimed to have experienced 157 miracles after reading one of her books). She is also a Democrat. As a British citizen I cannot vote for her, but for using drawing to get her message across in a photo saturated world, she has my undying admiration. It was an honour @mariannewilliamson

A post shared by David Downton (@daviddownton) on Mar 25, 2019 at 2:22am PDT

Although author Marianne Williamson didn’t meet the requirements for the upcoming debate, she deserves a shout out for the single most stylish candidate portrait of the 2020 race. Done by world-renowned fashion illustrator and celebrity portrait artist David Downton (whose work has appeared in the pages of Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar among others), the image appears on both T-shirts and campaign buttons on her campaign website.

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TOKYO — 

Japan’s government said Wednesday that the death toll from a weekend typhoon that caused widespread flooding has climbed to 63, with another 11 presumed dead.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that another eight people were missing in typhoon-hit areas in central and northern Japan. At least 200 people were injured, 30 of them seriously.

Suga said the government would spend $6.5 million from special reserves in the budget to cover food and other necessities primarily for evacuees. The full extent of damage from the typhoon is still unknown, and the government is open to further spending if necessary, Suga said.

Typhoon Hagibis hit Japan on Saturday with historic rainfall that caused rivers to overflow and left thousands of homes flooded, damaged or without power. More than 200 rivers overflowed, and more than 50 of those now have damaged embankments.

Rescue work in hard-hit areas in Nagano and Fukushima is gradually shifting to cleanup as receding floodwaters revealed more damage.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation said it was dispatching experts to investigate damaged embankments at seven large rivers including those in Nagano and Fukushima where massive flooding occurred. A panel of construction and river experts is expected to examine the cause and discuss reconstruction methods in coming weeks.

As of early Wednesday, 12,000 homes lacked electricity and more than 116,000 households lacked fresh water, Suga said. Water supply trucks were sent to storm-hit areas and residents were advised to not bathe or do laundry to reduce the burden on sewage capacity. Television footage showed schoolchildren eating rice balls, delivered individually wrapped in plastic wrap instead of in a bowl, to conserve water.

Life in Tokyo was largely back to normal, except for some neighborhoods along the flooded Tama River. A power outage at one high-rise apartment building, due to the flooding of its backup generation system in the basement, raising questions over safety and risk management at riverside buildings.

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WASHINGTON — 

President Trump met Tuesday with the parents of a British teenager who was killed in a car crash involving an American diplomat’s wife.

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The White House declined to say what message the president had delivered, but a spokesman for the family suggested they may have been disappointed by it.

“Meeting with President Trump complete,” tweeted the spokesman, Radd Seiger. “We will review where we are up to and determine next steps shortly when we will comment further. In the meantime the search for #Justice4Harry continues.”

Harry Dunn, 19, was killed in August when his motorcycle collided with a car allegedly driven by Anne Sacoolas, the U.S. diplomat’s wife, outside a British air force base in southern England used by the U.S. military.

Sacoolas left Britain shortly after, though police released a statement saying she had previously told them she had no plans to depart. Her current whereabouts are uncertain.

Dunn’s parents have been pressing for Sacoolas to return to Britain and held a news conference in New York on Monday to press their case. Charlotte Charles, Dunn’s mother, tearfully urged her to “do the right thing” and to “face us as a broken family,” along with the U.K. legal system.

“She needs to set an example to her own children that you can’t run away,” Charles said.

Trump last week called the collision “a terrible accident” and said he planned to intervene by potentially arranging a meeting between the Dunns and Sacoolas.

Still, he seemed sympathetic to Sacoolas, saying that accidentally driving on the wrong side of the road in England, where drivers drive on the left instead of the right side of the street, is something that “can happen,” and that he had once done so himself.

A statement previously released on Sacoolas’ behalf said she intended to continue to cooperate with authorities.

“Anne is devastated by this tragic accident. No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne extends her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunn’s family,” it read.

AKCAKALE, Turkey  — 

Russia said it was working to prevent a conflict between advancing Turkish and Syrian government forces on Wednesday, as Turkey’s president defied growing pressure and sanctions from Western allies for a cease-fire in northern Syria.

Russia has moved quickly to further entrench its leadership role in the region after President Trump ordered the pullout of American forces in northeastern Syria. The American move effectively abandoned the Kurdish fighters who were allied with the U.S. and cleared the way for Turkey’s invasion aimed at crushing them.

America’s abrupt reversal pushed the Kurds to strike a deal with the Russia-backed government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, inviting its forces to return to regions of northern Syria it had abandoned at the height of the eight-year-old civil war.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is committed to ensuring security in the region as it works to mediate between the Syrian government and Turkey.

Russia already announced that it had deployed troops to the flashpoint town of Manbij to keep apart advancing Syrian government and Turkish-led forces.

Moscow will also continue to encourage Syria’s Kurds and government to seek rapprochement following the U.S. withdrawal, Lavrov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

Lavrov also blamed the United States and Western nations for undermining the Syrian state, saying this pushed “the Kurds toward separatism and confrontation with Arab tribes.”

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During a visit to Iraq last week, Lavrov met with the leaders of the Kurdish autonomous region and said that Moscow is sympathetic to their need for autonomy.

Now in its eighth day, Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters has increasingly strained relations with its NATO allies.

Late on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed he would not accept a cease-fire in northern Syria, despite growing pressure from the U.S. and Europe.

Speaking to a group of journalists late Tuesday on his return from a trip to Azerbaijan, Erdogan said Turkey would only consider a cease-fire once it had cleared the border region of Kurdish fighters that it considers a threat for links to an insurgency within its own territory.

“It is not possible for us to declare a cease-fire until it is cleared,” the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan’s comments came as Washington, which has announced limited sanctions on Turkey, said Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and national security advisor Robert O’Brien are traveling to Ankara on Wednesday to try and negotiate a stop to the fighting in Syria’s northeast.

Trump had announced on Monday new sanctions to try to pressure Turkey to accept a cease-fire.

But Erdogan told journalists that he had rejected U.S. offers to mediate. Referring to Syrian Kurdish fighters, he said: “We would never sit around [the negotiating] table with a terror organization.”

He also said Turkey was “not concerned” by the sanctions.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said Erdogan accepted an invitation to visit Russia in the “nearest days,” without providing further details.

France has suggested it will also work more closely with Russia in Syria.

French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian said in an interview Wednesday on French television channel BFM that France is notably now looking to Russia, given their “common interests” in defeating the Islamic State group in Syria.

He called on European and other members of the coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria to regroup as the U.S. appeared to abdicate its leadership role in the region.

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

Elizabeth Warren in the Spotlight

A record 12 Democratic candidates took to the debate stage in Westerville, Ohio, last night, and there was one thing they mostly agreed on: denouncing President Trump. Beyond that, they struck a more fractious tone on a range of issues, including healthcare, gun policy and money in politics.

But while Trump has hammered away at Joe Biden (and son), the Democratic candidates on stage took aim at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who now leads Biden in many polls, testing her strengths and vulnerabilities as a candidate. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders looked none the worse for wear in his first debate since a heart attack this month, and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg tried to position himself as the moderate alternative to the more left-leaning Warren and Sanders, if Biden stumbles.

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Here are seven takeaways from the night.

More Politics

— Amid growing political pressure from Republicans, House leaders began seriously gauging support among Democrats for holding a vote to formally establish the impeachment investigation of Trump. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided Tuesday there would be no House vote for now.

— Trump has vetoed legislation that attempted to overturn his use of emergency powers to divert military base construction funding to pay for his long-promised border fence. Congress is unlikely to have the votes to override the veto. In all, 127 military construction projects totaling $3.6 billion would lose funding.

— New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading voice of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing, plans to endorse Sanders for president, according to his campaign.

Exit, U.S.; Enter, Russia

In northern Syria, there is a race to control the city of Manbij, which is part of the territory overseen by Kurdish fighters backed by the United States until Trump decided to pull that support. Turkish troops and Syrian rebel proxies appeared on the verge of rushing in, while the Kurds have turned to Syria’s government. Filling the void left by the U.S. is Russia, which is taking over as a power broker in the Mideast. And as this news analysis shows, an emboldened Russia is far from the only geopolitical fallout; even Israel is worried about whether Trump would turn his back.

How Californians Think About Immigration

Here’s something most California Democrats and Republicans agree on: Immigrants make the U.S. a better place to live. More than 80% of registered voters here say as much, per a UC Berkeley poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times, including 92% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans — reflecting the state’s long rift with the Trump administration on immigration. But voters are more split on how immigrants are treated. On that question, 56% say they’re treated unfairly, while 28% disagree.

The Future, and the Foes, of #MeToo

A British-Greek billionaire heir to a Coca-Cola bottling fortune has fashioned himself the ambassador for men who consider themselves wronged by #MeToo. As Alki David fights the seventh sexual harassment case against him in as many years, he’s working with a lobbyist to draft legislation to keep such cases from becoming public. With his penchant for litigation, he’s an improbable emissary for the cause, even as he says he relishes his “villainous image.” Meanwhile, as the #MeToo movement turns two, its founder Tarana Burke unveiled a new hashtag — #MeTooVoter — to mobilize people heading into 2020.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this day in 1995, hundreds of thousands of black Americans converged on the Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Million Man March, where “strangers embraced as brothers” in “a celebration of their new image of unity and hope,” as The Times reported at the time. “The tidings were of redemption and reconciliation: The Rev. Jesse Jackson said that each man should leave the rally with the declaration, ‘I turned pain into power and promise.’”

Twenty years later, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, instrumental in organizing the original march, returned to lead another, one year after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Also on the 20th anniversary, The Times caught up with men who had marched — from a young Watts teacher who wanted to be “a walking example” for his fifth-graders to a real-estate developer who would later create the Taste of Soul family festival in Crenshaw — about the watershed event’s legacy.

CALIFORNIA

— Two moderate earthquakes in Northern California 100 miles from each other in less than 15 hours unnerved the Bay Area just days before the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. They proved a stark reminder of the danger that awaits.

— In a stopgap effort to block no-fault evictions and rent hikes before new state rules kick in next year, the L.A. City Council moved to institute a moratorium on both.

— Dozens of new apartments for homeless people could rise in Chatsworth after the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to fund a rare proposal to build such housing in the northwestern San Fernando Valley.

— One in four undergraduate women at leading universities nationwide say they’ve been sexually assaulted on campus. At USC, the share is higher; one in three say they have been.

— Felicity Huffman has reported to a federal prison in Northern California where she’ll spend two weeks for conspiring to rig her daughter’s SAT score amid the college admissions scandal.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Julie Andrews spoke with columnist Mary McNamara about her new memoir “Home Work” and the hardest part of writing it. Next month, Andrews will discuss the book with readers with the L.A. Times Book Club. (Sign up for the club’s newsletter here.)

— Joni Mitchell made a rare public appearance this week, wearing her familiar braids and gaucho hat, to attend Brandi Carlile’s live tribute to her canonical album “Blue.”

— Among this year’s nominees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are Biggie, Whitney Houston and the MC5, plus 13 others.

— Mindy Kaling is glad the Television Academy changed its rules on Emmy credits after her own bad experience.

NATION-WORLD

— With the Trump administration sending Central American asylum-seekers back to Mexico pending their applications, Mexico itself has opted to bus them south in the hope they’ll return home, even if that imperils their asylum claims.

— The toll of death and destruction from Typhoon Hagibis that tore through central and northern Japan has climbed, as the government said it was considering approving a special budget for the disaster response and eventual reconstruction.

— France is reconsidering the legacy of Marie Antoinette.

BUSINESS

— In making amends for a massive data breach that affected billions, Yahoo is offering users up to $358.80 each — but there’s a catch, columnist David Lazarus writes.

— Amid all our reporting on the streaming wars, we asked some Angelenos how they watch TV.

SPORTS

— Federal agents have interviewed at least six current and former Angels players as part of their investigation into the drug-related death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, according to a person with knowledge of the interviews.

— For LeBron James, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere — well, except in China, columnist Bill Plaschke writes. In Hong Kong, protesters are slamming James for his comments about free speech, and celebrating Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey for his.

— The Rams, coming off a three-game losing streak, traded cornerback Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens and then went all-in by acquiring cornerback Jalen Ramsey in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Rams traded three draft picks for Ramsey, including first-round picks in 2020 and 2021.

— Even with the addition of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, Patrick Beverley remains one of the Clippers’ leaders. Doc Rivers credits the 31-year-old’s personal development, and looks forward to “the human step.”

OPINION

— Rudy Giuliani wants Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine investigated — but what about his own, asks Jon Healey?

— That the president’s supporters decry the younger Biden for cashing in on his name while Trump’s children run a global company that bears theirs only shows “a new level of malignant hypocrisy,” Robin Abcarian writes.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— There’s water ice on the moon, but how much? For NASA, figuring that out is only one small step. (The Atlantic)

— Some colleges are tracking students even before they apply. (Washington Post)

ONLY IN L.A.

For the first episode of the show “Off Menu,” our food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson spent an afternoon with Jazz Singsanong, the woman behind the beloved Thai Town restaurant Jitlada — first shopping at the giant supermarket known as Thai Costco, then returning to Jitlada’s kitchen to make a few dishes that aren’t on its regular menu. In the process, he learned about her community and her journey to becoming an ambassador for it, and her family recipe for a funky, salty and fiery shrimp dip.

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