Politics

SAN FRANCISCO —  Crouching at the entrance of San Francisco City Hall, Jason Jacobs brushed gold paint onto the ornate doorway of the Beaux-Arts building.“Whether I paint the gates or not, they’re gonna get their breath taken away,” said Jacobs, a San Francisco native who often marvels at the stunning architecture.Fresh paint. Street cleanings. Homeless sweeps. Colorful art. Workers like Jacobs beautified the city, days before politicians, executives and journalists from around the world descend on San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. From Saturday to Nov. 17, the international event is expected to bring more than 20,000 people to the city and attract thousands of protesters.APEC is made up of 21 member economies, including the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and ...

Amber Hollibaugh, a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights over the last five decades, died last month at the age of 77.A former sex worker and self-described Marxist feminist, Hollibaugh was active in a number of LGBTQ+ organizations, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Gay Men’s Health Project and the group Queers for Economic Justice, which she co-founded.“Amber really pushed our movement to go beyond where it was,” said Roberta Sklar, a fellow activist who worked alongside Hollibaugh for more than 30 years. “She could see a need where other people didn’t see it.”Hollibaugh was born June 20, 1946, to a poor working-class family in Bakersfield. She had a difficult childhood, and was the victim of incestuous abuse. After graduating high school, she moved out of her parents’ h...

After years of secrecy, the B-21 Raider emerged from its Palmdale hangar Friday morning and took its first flight, soaring through the sky and giving plane enthusiasts, contractor employees and the public its first glimpse of the futuristic-looking bomber in air.The B-21 bomber, which is being built by Northrop Grumman Corp., took off from the secretive Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale before heading north toward Edwards Air Force Base, said Matt Hartman, a photographer who was out in Palmdale in hopes of taking photos of the plane after he’d heard rumors that a flight might be imminent.About 80 people crowded near the Palmdale Regional Airport to try to see the first flight with their own eyes. Once the bomber flew by, “you could hear a pin drop,” Hartman said.The U.S. Air Force confirmed t...

Six months after picket lines first formed outside iconic studio gates, Hollywood can finally return to work.Wednesday’s hard-fought tentative agreement on a new contract between SAG-AFTRA and studios sparked jubilation, with performers flocking to local watering holes, including a brewery near the guild’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters. Sound stages mothballed since last spring are poised to reopen, welcoming back thousands of actors and film crew members. There was palpable relief among studio executives who were desperate to salvage the current television season, awards shows, film festival appearances and their 2024 movie releases. Union leaders hailed the proposed three-year accord, saying it would make acting a more sustainable career. But the industry isn’t expecting to quickly bou...

Over the last 16 years, I’ve managed a major military base, run a government contracting business, appeared in two motion pictures and made motivational speeches before hundreds of audiences all over the country, most notably to the New York Giants when they beat the New England Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl. Do these sound like the accomplishments of a disabled person? In 2007 I lost both my legs above the knee in an IED explosion in Iraq. My first job was to recover. But my next task after being wounded was figuring out how to stay in the Army. I am a 26-year Army veteran. During that time, I served in every major conflict in which the United States was involved, including Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Kuwait, Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation Enduring F...

The current baseball free-agent market is stocked with quality starting pitchers. Yet it’s a starter who can’t pitch until 2025 that could sign the largest contract in baseball history. Shohei Ohtani, 29, spent the six seasons leading into free agency with the Angels, establishing himself as perhaps the best hitter in the major leagues and one of the best pitchers. So even though recovery from surgery to repair a torn UCL in his right elbow will restrict him to designated hitter duties in 2024, Ohtani is projected to come away with a contract worth in excess of $500 million over 10 to 12 years. No other free agent this offseason will come anywhere close to that number, although the next-most lucrative contract could also be a player from Japan: right-handed starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Star...

Nov. 7, 2023 2 AM PT ABOARD THE OCEAN WARRIOR ON THE SOUTH ATLANTIC —  On the high seas roughly a thousand miles north of the Falkland Islands, an 18-year-old Chinese deckhand working on a Chinese squid ship nervously ducked into a dark hallway to whisper his plea for help.“Our passports were taken,” he said to the reporters who had just come aboard. “They won’t give them back.”Fearing he would be overheard, he typed out a message on his cellphone: “Can you take us to the embassy in Argentina?”Few workplaces are as brutal as distant-water fishing ships from China, and there are a lot of them: The nation today operates the world’s largest fleet, which is more than double the size of its next competitor. It’s rarely easy for crew members to leave these ships, and often it’s forbidden. Work...

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court on Tuesday confronts a major test of the 2nd Amendment and its protection for gun rights, including whether they extend even for people who are subject to a domestic violence restraining order. At issue is the broader question of whether modern gun control laws may deny firearms to potentially dangerous people, including felons and drug addicts.The court’s conservatives strongly support the 2nd Amendment, and last year Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an opinion for a 6-3 majority that threatens many of the nation’s gun laws enacted since the 1960s.Thomas said the government may not deny an individual’s right to bear arms unless it can “affirmatively prove” the restriction is “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition.”Few gun laws can meet that test b...

Not LeBron James.Not Stephen Curry.Not Kevin Durant.Not Victor Wembanyama.Not Nikola Jovic.Nobody in basketball has executed a move better than the one South Carolina freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley pulled off during the second quarter of her first collegiate basketball game.That’s coming from no less of a basketball authority than Lakers legend Magic Johnson.First, here’s Fulwiley’s spectacular play during the No. 6 Gamecocks’ 100-71 season-opening win over No. 10 Notre Dame on Monday in Paris.Now here’s what Johnson had to say about it. I’m watching the women’s basketball game between South Carolina and Notre Dame right now and I just saw the best move in all of basketball including the pros like LeBron, Steph, KD, Victor, and Jokic. Everyone must see the coast-to-coast, behind-the-back mov...

GAZA STRIP —  Life in Gaza is a numbers game these days, where you try to calculate the odds of surviving even the most mundane tasks.Do you risk going out to find drinkable water, despite word of Israeli tanks up the road? How long can you stand in line outside a bakery before the drone circling overhead drops a missile nearby? Which neighborhood has shelter for you and your family, doesn’t have a Hamas member or tunnel nearby, and could possibly be spared the relentless bombing? Since the the Gaza-based militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack inside Israel spurred the bombardment inside the Palestinian territory, such calculations have become crucial.Through voice recordings, messaging apps and phone calls over several weeks, our correspondent worked with Times staff writer Nabih Bulos to gi...