As the count currently stands, nearly 80 million Americans voted for Joe Biden. With this vote against the authoritarian bigotry of Donald Trump, the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief.But the election results did also reveal something that should be a cause for concern. Trump received 11 million more votes than he did in 2016, increasing his support in many distressed communities – where unemployment and poverty are high, healthcare and childcare are inadequate, and people are hurting the most.For a president who lies all the time, perhaps Donald Trump’s most outlandish lie is that he and his administration are friends of the working class in our country.The truth is that Trump put more billionaires into his administration than any president in history; he appointed vehemently anti-labor members to the National Relations Labor Board (NLRB) and he gave huge tax breaks to the very rich and large corporations while proposing massive cuts to education, housing and nutrition programs. Trump has tried to throw up to 32 million people off the healthcare they have and has produced budgets that called for tens of billions in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and social security.Yet, a certain segment of the working class in our country still believe Donald Trump is on their side.Why is that?At a time when millions of Americans are living in fear and anxiety, have lost their jobs because of unfair trade agreements and are earning no more in real dollars than 47 years ago, he was perceived by his supporters to be a tough guy and a “fighter”. He seems to be fighting almost everyone, every day.He declared himself an enemy of “the swamp” not only attacking Democrats, but Republicans who were not 100% in lockstep with him and even members of his own administration, whom he declared part of the “deep state.” He attacks the leaders of countries who have been our long-standing allies, as well as governors and mayors and our independent judiciary. He blasts the media as an “enemy of the people” and is ruthless in his non-stop attacks against the immigrant community, outspoken women, the African American community, the gay community, Muslims and protesters.He uses racism, xenophobia and paranoia to convince a vast swath of the American people that he was concerned about their needs, when nothing could be further from the truth. His only interest, from day one, has been Donald Trump.Joe Biden will be sworn in as president on 20 January and Nancy Pelosi will be speaker of the House. Depending upon what happens in Georgia’s special elections, it is unclear which party will control the US Senate.Democrats’ job during the first 100 days of the Biden administration is to make it clear whose side they are onBut one thing is clear. If the Democratic party wants to avoid losing millions of votes in the future it must stand tall and deliver for the working families of our country who, today, are facing more economic desperation than at any time since the Great Depression. Democrats must show, in word and deed, how fraudulent the Republican party is when it claims to be the party of working families.And, in order to do that, Democrats must have the courage to take on the powerful special interests who have been at war with the working class of this country for decades. I’m talking about Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance industry, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the private prison industrial complex and many profitable corporations who continue to exploit their employees.If the Democratic party cannot demonstrate that it will stand up to these powerful institutions and aggressively fight for the working families of this country – Black, White, Latino, Asian American and Native American – we will pave the way for another rightwing authoritarian to be elected in 2024. And that president could be even worse than Trump.Joe Biden ran for president on a strong pro working-class agenda. Now we must fight to put that agenda into action and vigorously oppose those who stands in its way.Which Side Are You On? was a folk song written by Florence Reece, the wife of an organizer with the United Mine Workers when the union went on strike in Kentucky in 1931. Democrats need to make it absolutely clear whose side they are on.One side is for ending starvation wages and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. One side is not.One side is for expanding unions. One side is not.One side is for creating millions of good paying jobs by combating climate change and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. One side is not.One side is for expanding healthcare. One side is not.One side is for lowering the cost of prescription drugs. One side is not.One side is for paid family and medical leave. One side is not.One side is for universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old in America. One side is not.One side is for expanding social security. One side is not.One side is for making public colleges and universities tuition-free for working families, and eliminating student debt. One side is not.One side is for ending a broken and racist criminal justice system, and investing in our young people in jobs and education. One side is not.One side is for reforming and making our immigration system fair and humane. One side is not.Democrats’ job during the first 100 days of the Biden administration is to make it absolutely clear whose side they are on, and who is on the other side. That’s not only good public policy to strengthen our country. It’s how to win elections in the future. More

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea delivered the following televised address on Saturday morning:My fellow citizens,I declared emergency martial law at 11 p.m. on Dec. 3. About two hours later, at around 1 a.m. on Dec. 4, I ordered the withdrawal of the armed forces in accordance with the National Assembly’s resolution to lift martial law, and lifted martial law after a late-night cabinet meeting.The declaration of martial law was born out of desperation as the president, the ultimate head of state, but it caused anxiety and discomfort to the people in the process. I am deeply sorry for this, and I sincerely apologize to the people who must have been greatly surprised.I will not dodge my legal and political responsibility for this declaration of martial law. There is talk of martial law being imposed again, but let me be clear: There will never be a second martial law.My fellow citizens, I will entrust my party with the task of stabilizing the country, including my term in office. My party and the government will be responsible for the management of the country’s affairs in the future.I would like to bow my head and apologize once again for the worry I caused to the people. More

The former president is making the case to his supporters that he is being wrongfully prosecuted. And it might bring him more support.Former President Donald J. Trump is expected to attend the opening of the civil trial in the New York attorney general’s fraud case against him on Monday, as his political team seeks to turn it into a rallying cry for supporters.The decision to show up voluntarily in court by Mr. Trump, who has already been compelled to courthouses in four different criminal arraignments this year, underscores how personally aggrieved Mr. Trump feels by the accusations of fraud, as well as his own self-confidence that showing up will help his legal cause.The move also reveals how inverted the norms of politics have become in the Trump-era Republican Party: Being accused of wrongdoing could be politically beneficial despite the very real legal jeopardy.In a political age in which candidates are defined as much by their critics and opponents as by their stances, some of Mr. Trump’s advisers see an opportunity in a case first brought by a Democratic New York attorney general, Letitia James, even if the accusations cut to the heart of his identity.In some ways, the Trump campaign, which has seen his supporters galvanized by the criminal charges he’s faced, is trying to turn the civil case into something akin to a fifth indictment — a moment to motivate his base.“Trump seems to be approaching his legal troubles like a hand of hearts — one or two indictments hurt you politically, but if you collect them all, you might shoot the moon,” Liam Donovan, a Republican operative, said. “The sheer volume and variety obscures the individual cases and their fact patterns, and plays into Trump’s argument that his opponents are trying to take him down by whatever means they can.”For Mr. Trump, his attendance at trial is far more personal than political, according to a person familiar with his thinking. The former president is enraged by the fraud charges and furious with both the judge and the attorney general. And Mr. Trump, who is a control enthusiast, believes that trials have gone poorly for him when he hasn’t been present, and he hopes to affect the outcome this time, according to the person.The former president, for instance, never attended the civil trial earlier this year in which the writer, E. Jean Carroll, accused him of raping her in the 1990s, despite publicly toying with the idea of appearing. Mr. Trump was found liable for sexually abusing Ms. Carroll and defaming her.People close to Mr. Trump cautioned that he could decide against appearing, since he was not required to do so, but they were planning for him to attend at least the first day and possibly the second day as well.Over the weekend, Mr. Trump’s campaign openly sought to take advantage of the attention, sending fund-raising solicitations that teased his possible attendance and accusing Democrats of “trying to keep me off the campaign trail.”“After four sham arrests, indictments, and even a mug shot failed to break me, a Democrat judge is now trying to destroy my Family Business,” Mr. Trump wrote in a fund-raising message on Saturday.The push to highlight the trial comes at a critical juncture for Mr. Trump’s primary challengers, who face a narrowing window to show signs of life in a race that Mr. Trump has threatened to run away with.The specifics of the case can seem almost beside the point. A New York trial judge, Arthur F. Engoron, issued a surprise pretrial ruling last week that found Mr. Trump liable for overvaluing his properties. The ruling left his assets, including Trump Tower itself, vulnerable to seizure. The point of the trial is to determine the scope of damages that Mr. Trump and his company must pay — as much as $250 million. Mr. Trump and his lawyers have argued that the ruling is illegitimate and doesn’t follow the facts of the case.Years ago, a decision like the one that Justice Engoron issued would have been a source of embarrassment for a candidate and might have been considered by that candidate’s supporters as a reason to back someone else.But this is the new post-shame period of politics, in which candidates have observed over time that the mistake is allowing oneself to be thrown out of the ring. That sentiment affects both parties, to a degree: A Democratic senator, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, was indicted on corruption charges, and gold bars were found in his house. He has pleaded not guilty and vowed to stay in the Senate.However, a number of his colleagues have called for him to resign, in stark contrast to how the vast majority of Republican officials have gingerly handled — and continued to support — Mr. Trump, echoing his repeated claim that he’s the victim of political persecution.Mr. Trump’s single previous highest day of fund-raising, according to the campaign, came after his mug shot was released in his Georgia indictment, which accused him of being part of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.Corry Bliss, a veteran Republican political strategist, said all the previous indictments and legal cases have blended together for most Republican primary voters into a single picture of a former president wrongly under attack.“If anything, it’s reinforced a belief among the large segment of the base that Trump is treated unfairly and the Democrats dislike him so much that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to defeat him — whether that’s electorally or in the judicial system,” Mr. Bliss said. “The legal facts that most Republicans are interested in are the Hunter Biden facts. Period. End of discussion.”Any attention on the Trump case is also likely to rob Mr. Trump’s rivals of the political oxygen they need to close the substantial advantage that the former president holds in the polls. None of his opponents, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, have yet to figure out a way to turn Mr. Trump’s multitude of legal troubles against him, or to cut through the extensive media coverage.“It starves them,” said Raheem Kassam, editor in chief of The National Pulse, a conservative news site, who interviewed Mr. Trump last week. “It starves them.”For Mr. Trump, Mr. Kassam said, “every step of the way it drags on, it only empowers him” in part because “notoriety at this point” is an advantage itself. And that trend, he noted, is not exclusive to Mr. Trump, citing Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a Trump ally, who faced an investigation related to sex-trafficking that was eventually dropped.“If you look at what happened to Gaetz, his star rose because of it,” Mr. Kassam said.Mr. Trump’s family has explicitly tried to frame the coming trial as an example of political persecution, deploying the same language as they have in his criminal cases. Mr. Trump has called Judge Engoron “deranged,” the very same term he has sought to apply to the Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith.“I’ve never even seen anything like it,” Donald Trump Jr. said in an interview last week on The Charlie Kirk Show. “This is sort of like the start of the Bolshevik Revolution — we don’t like you, so we’re going to confiscate property.”He added, “Hey, our last name is Trump, so we have to be punished.” More

A diverse cast of characters and a murder to solve each school year have helped make this teen drama one of Netflix’s longest-running original shows.Shooting the eighth and final season of Netflix’s teen crime drama “Elite” last November, crew members yelled “silencio” so often it could have been mistaken for a chant.Dozens of young actors, dressed in black tie, talked and laughed as they milled around a set on the outskirts of Madrid that depicted a nightclub. The Brazilian actor André Lamoglia seemed used to the chaos as he waited, perching on the bar in a black suit with white trim, to lead another of the show’s rowdy party scenes.After the cameras finally started rolling, and with the extras making much less noise, Lamoglia’s character, Iván, took a seemingly casual selfie with his half sister Chloe (Mirela Balic) that was actually part of a scheme to discover who murdered his friend.Unruly teenagers, expensive clothes and mysterious dead bodies are all typical for the Spanish-language show which, since its premiere in 2018, has become one of Netflix’s most popular original titles, and one of the longest-running. (The final season is being released Friday.)In its first season, “Elite” used a setup familiar from other successful teen shows, including “Gossip Girl” and “Beverly Hills, 90210”: inserting beautiful outsiders into an exclusive social setting. In this case, three scholarship students join Las Encinas, an expensive private high school. But at Las Encinas, every year (and season) there is also a murder for students and the police to investigate.This blending of soapy teen drama and tense murder mystery has helped the show run for eight seasons, and by its fourth, “Elite” was ranking in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 chart in more than 70 countries, according to data from the streamer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The former ambassador to the U.N. is reserving her first ads in Iowa and New Hampshire as she looks to outstrip Gov. Ron DeSantis in the race for second place.Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign plans to reserve $10 million in television, radio and digital advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire starting in the first week of December — its first investment in advertising this cycle and a move meant to give the candidate a boost as the clock ticks for the field to make significant gains against former President Donald J. Trump.Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Mr. Trump, has seen steadily rising numbers in surveys of early voting states. A series of standout debate performances has brought in grass roots donors and more high-dollar backers after months of campaigning, with campaign officials saying it raised more than $1 million in the 24 hours after the debate last week.She is now polling second in New Hampshire and third in Iowa, according to some surveys, but Mr. Trump remains the dominant front-runner in those states and nationally.Ms. Haley after the Republican primary debate last week.Maansi Srivastava/The New York TimesHer campaign is betting on an eventual Haley-Trump showdown in South Carolina, her home state and the third on the nominating calendar. Senator Tim Scott, her home state rival, dropped out of the race late Sunday, without endorsing anyone. But Ms. Haley is now looking to outstrip her main challenger for second place, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, to become the clear alternative to Mr. Trump.The Associated Press first reported the ad buy on Monday. It far outpaces Mr. DeSantis, who plans to spend more than $500,000 starting in December, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm.Ms. Haley, a former accountant, has stuck to her playbook for winning tough races in the past: keeping costs low while saving the money she had for television ads.While the super PAC backing her has already spent more than $22 million on advertising in early primary states, according to AdImpact, her campaign has not reserved advertising until now.Alyce McFadden More