Suddenly, it looks like it’s over. The butchers of Tehran are winning. The uprising that “felt different this time,” with millions of courageous Iranians marching for their freedom and an end to their oppression, feels like a memory. As The New York Times reported on Friday: “A heavy police presence and deadly crackdowns on protesters […]
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French Polynesia has a way of imprinting itself on you. The colors linger. The calm stays with you. And even after decades of travel to more than 100 countries, this part of the world still feels singular. Sailing with Windstar Cruises through Tahiti and the Society Islands was an entirely different experience from my earlier […]
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There have already been several documentaries and one television series about the events of Oct. 7, 2023. Now, there is also a feature film, “12 Hours in October,” directed by Danny A. Abeckaser. The film portrays the horrors of that day through the perspectives of several fictional characters as they face the terror and chaos […]
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“They let us burn.” The phrase appeared across black T-shirts handed out at a rally in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, marking one year since the Palisades Fire tore through the community. The rally, titled “They Let Us Burn,” was organized by Jeremy Padawer, a Pacific Palisades resident and toy industry executive. Addressing a […]
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I’m sure State Senator Scott Wiener felt he was being courageous when he announced on Sunday that Israel committed a “genocide” in Gaza. A few days earlier, Wiener, who is running for Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, had declined to make that accusation during the first candidates forum, drawing heavy jeers from the audience who shouted, […]
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Who would ever have guessed that frigid Minneapolis, situated in America’s great north, would become the battleground for the kind of rising national temperature that in 1861 precipitated a civil war? Minneapolis may become the new Antietam. The city, after all, is where rioting ensued after the death of George Floyd in 2020. And this […]
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I love to say celebrate early and often—and I live it. Birthdays, milestones, Tuesdays that feel like Saturdays. I don’t wait for a single date on the calendar to give myself permission to feel joy. I spread it out. I stack it up. I let it travel. This year, celebrating my birthday became a journey—across […]
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How many suitcases does it take to carry $94 billion? I’ve been asking myself that question ever since my friend Dan Williams from Reuters alerted me today to this latest news: “Israel’s military intelligence now believes the Tehran government could fall, a change in its assessment as Iranian protests spread.” Then I read that U.S. […]
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One week after its release in Israel, “Hostage” by Eli Sharabi became a national bestseller, selling more than 20,000 copies. The book repeated that success in the United States following its release on Oct. 7, 2025, quickly climbing The New York Times’ bestseller list. Sharabi is the first hostage taken by Hamas to publish a […]
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For many, many years, on Friday nights, my mother-in-law Becky would walk into our Los Angeles home carrying her yellow Dutch oven. The heavy pot was tightly wrapped in a towel and inside sat her red rice. She would look at Neil and say, with quiet pride, “El arroz salió uno por uno,” meaning the […]
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