The Brief

Updated January 03, 2026 at 18:15 PM ET

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Hours after the United States carried out airstrikes overnight in Venezuela and captured the country's President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, President Trump said the U.S. would temporarily take control of the government.

"We're going to run it, essentially," Trump said at a late-morning news conference at Mar-a-Lago. He said that would continue "until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition."

He said "we are designating various people" to run Venezuela and declined to rule out "boots on the ground."

Just prior to the news conference, Trump posted to social media a photo he said showed a blindfolded Maduro in handcuffs. "Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima" the post read.

Later Saturday, Maduro arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., according to video footage on CNN.

Trump said Maduro had been captured in "the dead of night," noting that the lights in Caracas "were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we had."

The president made several references to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, a U.S. policy that was originally meant to warn European powers away from interfering in the Western Hemisphere, but eventually came to justify U.S. interventions in Latin America.

"The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe Doctrine," Trump said. "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."

He said Venezuela's oil business "has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time."

"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, going to spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country," he said.

In an answer to a question about the cost of running Venezuela, Trump said: "It's not going to cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is substantial."

"We're going to get back our oil," Trump said.

In a statement, a Chevron spokesman said the petroleum company "remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets."

Trump's statements followed a series of explosions and fires reported around Caracas in the early hours of the morning.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug, arms and conspiracy charges.

"They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," she said.

The Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment against Venezuela's president and his wife, adding to previous indictments from 2020.

In an interview on Fox News, Trump said Maduro had tried to negotiate with the U.S. in the final days before his capture -- a request Trump says he refused. "I didn't want to negotiate," Trump said. "I said, 'Nope, we got to do it.'"

Trump described the strike as "unbelievable."

"I think we had nobody killed, I have to say, because a couple of guys were hit, but they came back in. They're supposed to be in pretty good shape," he said.

Trump added: "we were prepared to do a second wave ... but this was so lethal ... but didn't have to."

The Venezuelan government swiftly accused the U.S. of launching what it called a "grave military aggression" against the country. In a statement posted on Telegram, the government said U.S. forces targeted civilian and military locations in Caracas as well as in the nearby states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, calling the attack a "flagrant violation" of the United Nations Charter.

On state television, Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said government and military officials had been killed by U.S. strikes across Venezuela. She added the government does not know the whereabouts of President Maduro and his wife and demanded proof of life.

Early Saturday morning, Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared flanked by police, saying the Venezuelan government will not be cowed.

Videos circulating on social media platforms and first-person accounts indicated the blasts began around 2 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EST).

A journalist in Caracas, who NPR is not naming for safety reasons, told us they woke up to two explosions at La Carlota military airport, located across the street from their home. They saw two fires on the runway that were quickly extinguished. Immediately afterward, they reported hearing similar detonations in other parts of the city and planes flying low over Caracas for at least an hour.

Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.

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Matias Delacroix

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AP

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The explosions come as the U.S. has been increasing pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has accused Maduro of leading a drug-trafficking organization known as the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns.

Since late August, the U.S. has deployed aircraft carriers and warships to the Caribbean. The U.S. military has struck dozens of small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific it claimed were transporting drugs toward the U.S. At least 115 people have been killed in at least 35 known strikes on the vessels.

The U.S. naval flotilla is the largest such deployment to the Caribbean in decades.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted earlier comments by Rubio saying that Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela but instead the head of "a narco-terrorist organization which has taken possession of the country."

In a letter posted on social media, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, said that Edmundo Gonzalez, who is widely regarded as the legitimate winner of the 2024 Venezuelan elections, should assume the presidency. Gonzalez is currently living in exile in Spain.

"Venezuelans, the HOUR OF FREEDOM has arrived!" she wrote in the letter, reacting to Maduro's removal.

"Nicolás Maduro, as of today, faces international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations. Faced with his refusal to accept a negotiated exit, the United States government has fulfilled its promise to uphold the law."

The White House briefed congressional leadership only after the operation, according to a source familiar with the matter who is not authorized to talk publicly.

"We got no notice at all from the White House or from anyone," said Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, who is ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

Castro told NPR that Secretary Rubio told lawmakers "that they would come before Congress to get elements and authorization for use of military force for anything that required it."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., praised Trump's actions and said he expects Congress will learn more about the strikes when lawmakers return to Washington this week.

"President Trump's decisive action to disrupt the unacceptable status quo and apprehend Maduro, through the execution of a valid Department of Justice warrant, is an important first step to bring him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States," Thune said in a statement.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said Rubio briefed him on the strike, telling him he anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody. Lee said he looked forward to learning what might constitutionally justify the Venezuela operation in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.

"I definitely support Maduro facing his own people for the crimes he committed in terms of holding power illegitimately," he says. "Whether or not it's up to the United States to make that happen, I think is a different question."

Todd Robinson, a former charge d'affairs in Venezuela during the first Trump administration, who was expelled by Maduro's government in 2018, called the military operation in the country "virtually unprecedented."

Speaking to NPR, Robinson said: "The idea that in our hemisphere, we would go into another country and … arrest the de facto leader of the country.

"Obviously, it doesn't happen every day. … and I think there are a lot of legitimate questions about what comes next," he said.

Maduro has repeatedly accused Washington of attempting to remove him from power in order to gain access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves, among the largest in the world.

Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Rubio confirmed to him that Maduro is in U.S. custody and "will face justice for his crimes against our citizens."

"The interim government in Venezuela must now decide whether to continue the drug trafficking and colluding with adversaries like Iran and Cuba or whether to act like a normal nation and return to the civilized world," Cotton wrote on X.

Congressional Democrats have blasted the action, with Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern calling it an "unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela."

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said the strike "sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the U.S. government."

"Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress," Kim wrote in a post on X. "Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war."

Regional reaction has been swift. Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel, a close ally of Venezuela that depends heavily on its oil, denounced the attack as "criminal." Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said his forces are deploying to the Venezuelan border and promised additional support "in the event of a massive influx of refugees." By contrast, Argentina's President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, praised the operation, posting on X: "Freedom advances."

Eyder Peralta contributed reporting from Mexico City. Kelsey Snell and Scott Neuman contributed reporting from Washington.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Angelenos crowned the region’s worst intersection Thursday in a social media competition — a tangle of streets on the border of Los Feliz and Sunset Junctions.

The intersection is at Virgil Avenue and Sunset and Hollywood boulevards near the Vista Theater.

“It took me so long to go to the Vons to the Vista and nothing was happening. It wasn’t like it was constant traffic,” said Mr. Glen Dale, the anonymous account holder of Americana at Brand Memes and the mastermind behind the competition. "There is something wrong here that this is so disorganized.”

After a month of voting across about 30 rounds, the Beverly Hills six-way stop came in second place, which seemed to upset some of the account’s more than 115,000 followers.

“I was shocked at the amount of comments each day,” Mr. Glen Dale told LAist. “It felt like a therapy session in the comment section of people complaining about each intersection and really diving into which one is worse.”

This year’s basketball-less twist on March Madness, the “One Bad Intersection After Another” bracket, pitted dozens of infamous intersections against each other with rounds divided by general geographic area: “East Side-ish,” “West Side-ish,” “Central LA-ish” and the “Valley-ish.”

Mr. Glen Dale said he designed it to be a democratic process for people to collectively crown the worst in L.A. once and for all. The results are more based on bad vibes and voters’ personal experiences rather than traffic volume and accident data.

To celebrate the winners Thursday, Americana at Brand Memes shared some of what the account does best — curated L.A. memes.

Mr. Glen Dale also drove to each of the final intersections with numbered balloons to represent their rankings, including third place’s Fairfax Avenue / Olympic / San Vincente Boulevards and Lankershim Boulevard / Vineland Avenue / Camarillo Street in fourth.

Angelenos voted the Virgil Avenue, Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards intersection by the Los Feliz border as the region's worst intersection in a competition run by Americana at Brand Memes on Instagram.

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Courtesy Americana at Brand Memes

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Mr. Glen Dale

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The Beverly Hills six-way stop came in a close second. Mr. Glen Dale celebrated each of the top winners with balloons.

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Courtesy Americana at Brand Memes

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Mr. Glen Dale

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Third place for the region's worst intersection went to Fairfax Avenue / Olympic / San Vincente Boulevards from the "Central LA-ish" round.

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Courtesy Americana at Brand Memes

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Mr. Glen Dale

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About the finalists

One Instagram user wrote that they’ve been waiting at the winner “the entire duration of this competition,” with another adding that their “years of suffering at this intersection are finally seen.”

But the six-way stop didn’t go down easily, with a user arguing that it’s the real “essence of chaos” with “no lights, no order, no sanity.”

“EVERYONE IS HONKING,” the user wrote. “Pedestrians are running to cross because there is ALWAYS a car coming at you with a wide-eyed driver white knuckling it while somebody else screams at them.”

The memes took on a voting theme, elections and the Oscars included.

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Courtesy Americana at Brand Memes

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Mr. Glen Dale

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To celebrate the infamous intersection winners, Americana at Brand Memes shared some of what the account does best — curated L.A. memes.

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Courtesy Americana at Brand Memes

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Mr. Glen Dale

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But after spending more than four hours visiting the final contenders on Wednesday, Mr. Glen Dale said the Beverly Hills stop felt pretty breezy and easy compared to the others.

“I think it goes Fairfax 1, Lankershim 2, Virgil 3, Beverly Hills 4,” Mr. Glen Dale said. “So, I'm very different on this one, but I think after going to each one yesterday and having to deal with it, that's my official ranking.”

‘No matter who wins, it's all bad’

On LAist’s AirTalk program last month, Brian in Hollywood nominated Highland and Franklin Avenues for the region’s worst intersection, saying it's actually two combined.

Brian said the intersection is affected by Hollywood Boulevard closures and Live Nation events that bring in thousands of people into the area while commuters are trying to get through the Cahuenga Pass.

“It actually has people stopped and blocked in the intersection, not allowing others to go through because of this,” Brian said, who described being hit by a vehicle while walking nearby. “That intersection is a domino effect to all the other intersections surrounding it in the radius.”

Gina in Glendale told AirTalk that the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Olympic Boulevard is a “horror show.”

“Whoever designed it, if there was a design — a monster,” Gina wrote. “It's always backed up and confusing.”

Rana in Pasadena told AirTalk the Academy Road and Stadium Way intersection in Elysian Park during the morning commute is both “terribly dangerous” and “extremely inefficient”

As with any election, not every voter is happy with the results.

At least one Instagram user wrote that they’re “still pissed that Koreatown beat out Silverlake Trader Joe’s” in last year’s March Madness competition.

For that bracket, Americana at Brand Memes pitted the region’s worst parking against each other, with the dense L.A. neighborhood sweeping the competition after multiple submissions in the comments.

Will LA’s twist on March Madness be returning next year? 

Mr. Glen Dale said he felt the heat from his followers as the results were revealed, but he knows it’s all in good fun.

“You talk to me now, I'm like so exhausted and tired of it that I'm like, I can't imagine doing this again,” Mr. Glen Dale said. “But … you forget, and I'm sure next year I'll want to do it.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Emma Lopez, a mother of two in Koreatown, can picture a new green space in the vacant, dirt lot in her neighborhood.

The lot Kingsley Drive and 4th Street is expected to become a new pocket park through a deal between the city and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. The deal has not been finalized yet. But Lopez has her concerns.

Lopez, 44, said many of the parks built in recent years have not been consistently cleaned, making them difficult for families like hers to use.

“I have to take my children outside of the city for clean playgrounds,” she said. “If they’re not going to have regular cleaning and disinfecting of them, then I would be against it.”

The roughly 7,400-square-foot corner parcel would be transferred to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which would oversee its conversion into green space.

The proposal is scheduled to be discussed Thursday morning during a meeting of the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners. The meeting will take place at the Westchester Recreation Center with a Zoom option also available to the public. 

Emma Lopez, a mother of two in Koreatown, can picture a new green space in the vacant, dirt lot in her neighborhood.

Commissioners are expected to consider final authorization to acquire the property for park use along with a commitment of park fees, environmental clearance under the California Environmental Quality Act, and acceptance of Measure A technical assistance funds.

Up to $2 million in park fees collected from nearby developments could be used to purchase the site, according to city records, though additional funding and planning approvals would still be needed before construction can begin.

Some Koreatown neighbors say they welcome the addition of a park, especially since the area  lacks accessible green space.

Andy Rider, who for seven years has lived about a block from the site, said there are few nearby places where residents can spend time outdoors.

“It’d be nice to have a small park for kids here locally that maybe aren’t able to get bikes or drive there,” he said. “I just like something other than looking at a dirt hill every time I pass by there.”

The property has long been eyed for development, with previous plans for a five-story building with 19 residential units.

Now, city officials are looking to preserve it as green space in a part of Los Angeles that has limited park access.

The Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust has led efforts on the site since 2024 and is expected to hand it over to the city if the plan moves forward, according to a staff report from the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

Still, not everyone agrees that a park is the best use for the land.

Chance Morgan, who lives about five blocks from the site, said he would prefer to see the space used for housing. 

“Nothing against it, but personally I would always love more housing above all,” Morgan said. “This is a very cramped area and there’s a lot of people who don’t have a place to live.”

While he acknowledged that a park could benefit some residents, especially those with kids and dogs, Morgan said the need for housing outweighs it.

Others are also thinking about how the space would be used — and who it would serve.

“Hopefully it’s a safe place for homeless people to spend the night,” said Olivia Yoon, who previously experienced homelessness and is now living close to the vacant lot. 

Yoon emphasized that unhoused people are often misunderstood and should not be excluded from public spaces.

“Homeless individuals… they’re very nice people,” she said. “Just because they’re struggling does not mean they use illegal drugs.”

She added that basic resources like water would be critical if the park is built.

“Hopefully there’s a water fountain so they can get water and it’s a safe place for us all, ” she said.

Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents the district, has voiced support for adding green space in Koreatown.

Spokesperson Devyn Bakewell said Hutt is working with the Recreation and Parks Department to move the project forward more quickly, and that they will soon launch community meetings so residents can help shape what the park will look like and how it will serve the neighborhood.

There are no firm dates for any meetings. 

Tori Kjer, executive director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, said in an interview earlier this year that Koreatown is so “thoroughly developed” compared to other neighborhoods in LA that there is very little available property for new parks.

The site on Kingsley Drive was the property the land trust ended up buying after nearly two decades of trying to understand and identify different sites in the area, she said. 

Steve Kang, president of the city’s Board of Public Works and a Koreatown resident, said the project — similar to the Pio Pico Library Pocket Park — is part of a broader push to bring more green space into one of the densest neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

“This is a partnership between the city of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department and the community,” Kang said, noting the site is in an area with many families and seniors.

Kang added that additional funding will be needed to build out the park, and that neighbors will play a key role in shaping what amenities are included.

Based on conversations he’s had, Kang said there is broad support for the project, though some residents have raised concerns about how the space will be used. 

“When you activate a site like this into a beautiful community space, that actually is more of a deterrent for any types of encampments,” Kang said, addressing those concerns.

He said the commission is expected to approve the proposal, which would allow the city to take control of the site and move into the next phase of planning — gathering community input.

California Republicans have an unusual shot of claiming an upset victory in the governor’s race this year — but to win, neither of their candidates can get too far ahead of the other just yet.

With eight major Democratic candidates splitting the liberal vote, both Republican candidates, former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, could come in first and second in the June 2 primary and move on to the November ballot.

That would shut out Democratic general election candidates, an extraordinary event that pollsters and strategists of both parties agree is the only viable chance for a Republican to become governor. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one in California and the GOP hasn’t won a statewide race in two decades.

Both Republicans can only advance to November if they split the Republican vote essentially evenly, giving each enough to surpass their Democratic opponents. That’s thanks to California’s top-two primary system, in which the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election regardless of their party.

Democrats insist it won’t happen, though they face mounting pressure over the risk in a year when the party is hoping to turn out liberal voters for U.S. House races in November.

And neither Republican is strategizing to shut the Democrats out. Instead of trying to keep the other alive through the primary, Hilton and Bianco are running campaigns like any other candidate: seeking to defeat each other. Hilton has spent the past few months attempting to consolidate Republican support by attacking Bianco, who has been happy to return the ire.

“There’s an amazing irony there, that they need to beat each other but they both need to succeed at the same time,” GOP strategist Rob Stutzman said. “It cuts against human nature and cuts against the way you put together campaigns.”

An intra-Republican primary

Despite very different backgrounds, Hilton and Bianco are running on similar policies.

Hilton is a British political strategist who’s written extensively about populism, reducing bureaucracy and decentralizing power, and Bianco is a bombastic local sheriff who is pushing the boundaries of police authority over elections.

Both are pushing a deregulation agenda, railing against Democratic-backed environmental policies they blame for raising the state’s cost of living. Their targets include the landmark California Environmental Quality Act, which requires environmental reviews for new construction.

Both Republicans also want to reverse prison closures, boost oil production to lower gas prices and reduce or eliminate the 61-cents-a-gallon gas tax.

Hilton wants to shield the first $100,000 of earnings from the state income tax (a goal Democrat Katie Porter shares) and significantly lower taxes on higher earners by cutting 18% of the state budget, including areas he claims are fraudulent or wasteful such as using cannabis tax revenue to support substance abuse programs. Bianco also wants to cut, and bring in oil revenues to eliminate the income tax entirely.

Hilton, one of the race’s top fundraisers, has raised more than $6.6 million so far, exceeding Bianco’s haul by more than $2 million. The two are second and third to Democratic former Rep. Katie Porter in the total number of campaign donors — one measure of popular support.

Polls show they remain neck-and-neck at or near the top of the pack, with one survey released last week by the California Democratic Party showing Hilton and Bianco statistically tied with 16% and 14%, respectively. To be competitive, they each need to win over independent and undecided voters, some of whom lean Republican and most of whom are fixated on the state’s cost of living crisis. The California Republican Party is slated to take an endorsement vote at its convention next weekend.

Each has tried to outrank the other on conservative credentials.

Hilton has attacked Bianco for having “too much baggage” related to liberal causes, pointing to a video showing the sheriff kneeling during the 2020 Black Lives Matters protests, as many police officers did then to de-escalate crowds, and later describing his actions as praying. Under Trump, the FBI this year fired several agents who had done the same.

“It’s a question of character and honesty and judgment,” Hilton said in an interview.

Bianco pointed to the two Republicans’ continued tie in the polls as proof Hilton can’t carry the party. He’s called Hilton, who worked for the conservative U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, “a fraud amongst Republicans” in part because a political crowdfunding startup Hilton co-founded in 2013, Crowdpac, later rebranded to exclusively support Democrats.

And each has aimed to align himself with Trump without saying the president’s name directly. While both are vocal fans of the president, nearly three-quarters of California voters disapprove of him, and Democratic voters in particular are motivated this year to vote against the president’s agenda. Hilton and Bianco have both blasted Democrats for linking the gubernatorial race to Trump.

Hilton, who once called for an audit into Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, is promoting “CalDOGE,” a program to look into reports of fraud and waste in California government. It’s a nod to Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that slashed federal spending and employment last year. So far, as part of the project, Hilton has held press conferences criticizing state grants to nonprofits with advocacy wings that support liberal causes, like stricter environmental laws and holding voter registration drives; he’s vowed to cut them as governor.

Bianco, who endorsed Trump’s 2024 re-election by saying America should “put a felon in the White House,” told KTLA last fall if he had the president’s support he’d downplay it on the campaign trail. Asked last week if he’s seeking the president’s approval, he said he instead wants “the endorsement of every single person in this country.”

“You have an entire Democrat field trying to label me as Donald Trump, and the reason why is because they have absolutely nothing to run on,” he said in an interview.

He has embarked on an unprecedented effort in Riverside County to recount ballots from last year’s special election based on what local elections officials say is inaccurate and flawed raw ballot data, a move that mirrors the Trump administration’s seizure of 2020 ballots in Georgia. But Bianco has insisted it’s not political. The investigation, he said this week, is on hold amid legal challenges.

Who is Bianco?

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks with the press after announcing his bid for governor at Avila’s Historic 1929 Event Center in Riverside on Feb. 17, 2025.

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Gina Ferazzi

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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The ballot seizure is one of the many ways Bianco has courted controversy as county sheriff, a seat to which he was first elected in 2018 with hefty campaign contributions from the union that represents sheriff’s deputies.

The three-decade law enforcement officer and one-time member of the far-right militia group Oath Keepers gained attention in 2020 for fighting state orders to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, refusing to enforce masking or stay-at-home rules or to mandate vaccination for deputies. He also opposes school vaccination laws.

He’s often criticized the state’s sanctuary law that limits police cooperation with federal immigration agents, simultaneously insisting he’ll do everything he legally can to help immigration agents but clarifying to Riverside County residents that deputies do not enforce immigration laws and take reports of crimes from anyone. He’s presided over a spike in deaths in county jails that he’s attributed to fentanyl and suicides, though the state attorney general’s office has opened an investigation.

He has ties to an evangelical pastor in Temecula who helps elect Christian conservatives and is pushing to increase the influence of Christianity in government.

His pitch to voters is that he’s an outsider — and he’s prone to using hyperbole to prove it, calling environmental activists who sue to stop development “terrorists,” promising to “completely destroy special interests” and saying if elected he’d “take a nuclear bomb” to the decisions made in California government.

He’s running, he said, to offer a change from the “crime and corruption” he says has defined state politics and claims he’s the only candidate with strong executive experience (though several Democratic opponents have led state or federal agencies, or major cities.)

He’s endorsed by several law enforcement groups, some of which have also jointly endorsed a Democrat, and funded by campaign contributions from dozens of officers and police chiefs, various business owners and the powerful Peace Office Research Association of California, a special interest with outsize influence at the Capitol. The law enforcement association extends to his title as Riverside sheriff on the ballot, which will give him an edge over Hilton, GOP strategists say.

“Every other person in this race is nothing but a career politician,” he said. “We're over career politicians, millionaires, billionaires, bright, shiny objects and career politicians and strategists. California is sick of that.”

Who is Hilton?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton speaks at a press conference outside the California attorney general’s office in Sacramento on Aug. 5, 2025. Hilton announced legal action to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta from pursuing mid-decade redistricting.

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Fred Greaves

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Hilton, meanwhile, is making lofty promises like $3-a-gallon gas and halving electricity bills, and says he has experience from London to achieve such cuts.

The son of Hungarian immigrants to Britain, Hilton got his start in the Conservative Party there before moving to the private sector and returning to politics as Cameron’s director of strategy from 2010 to 2012.

The British press noted Hilton’s penchant for casual dress and credited him as the ideological force pushing the party to loosen workplace regulations, cut welfare, shrink the size of government, lower taxes and withdraw from the European Union. Hilton was disillusioned with Cameron’s progress, the Washington Post reported, when he left his team after two years to join his wife, tech executive Rachel Whetstone, in California and take a sabbatical at Stanford. The couple still maintain several properties in central London.

“The government has lost its ultimate radical,” The Economist declared of his departure from 10 Downing Street in 2012. “In his visceral disdain for the state, reverence for local communities and commitment to enterprise, he might be the most deeply conservative figure at the very top of this government.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton speaks at a press conference outside the California attorney general’s office in Sacramento on Aug. 5, 2025. Hilton announced legal action to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta from pursuing mid-decade redistricting. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters He founded Crowdpac in 2013 with two partners, a Stanford professor and a Google executive, with the stated goal of getting more people engaged in politics by using software to match their views with candidates they could support financially. The platform, he highlighted at the time, was used by a Black Lives Matter leader to crowdfund a run for Baltimore mayor and by anti-Trump Republicans hoping for a Paul Ryan presidential run. In 2015, he wrote a column in the Guardian supporting a higher minimum wage in Britain and walking back his own prior campaigns against one.

Years later, Hilton left the platform when Crowdpac, having mostly been used by Democrats, stopped helping Republican candidates in what executives called “a stand against Trumpism.” It later shut down and relaunched again as a Democrats-only platform. By then, Hilton had already endorsed Trump for president in 2016 and landed a weekly Fox News show, which ran from 2017 to 2023. He’s now returned fully to his conservative roots, pushing to “massively reduce spending” and regulation the same way he did in the U.K.

“I have a very clear message of change that's practical and positive and not ideological,” he told CalMatters.

Hilton has raised the third most in the race, behind Democrats Tom Steyer, a self-funding billionaire, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who has pulled in millions of dollars primarily from Silicon Valley. Hilton has put $200,000 of his own money into his campaign, and counts among his supporters Uber, Fox Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch and tech executives who have also supported Democrats: Google founder Sergey Brin and Ripple executive Chris Larsen.

Will Democrats really be shut out of the race?

Experts say a Democratic shutout is unlikely, unless the field remains entrenched.

“It depends upon those two Republican candidates who are splitting the Republican vote fairly evenly right now, doing that, and then having more than a half a dozen Democrats with no one that is a leading favorite, which is what we've seen so far,” said Mark Baldassare, director of polling at the Public Policy Institute of California. “But one thing I would say is it’s still early.”

Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks has also used that reasoning. He has started an incremental public pressure campaign to prompt lower-polling Democratic candidates to drop out, but the candidates have resisted so far.

Hilton, too, dismissed analyses that both Republicans must advance for either to have a shot of winning the seat, calling it a hypothetical exercise from GOP strategists.

“They don’t know what they’re talking about, I mean these are the kinds of people who have been losing for 20 years,” he said. “The idea that the Democratic Party is just going to concede California is obviously ridiculous. … It’s going to be a Republican against a Democrat.”

Bianco said he’s running against Hilton, whom he called a “career strategist,” as much as any of the Democrats. He said he hasn’t thought too much about who his opponent would be in a general election.

“It really doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I’m not doing this for Republicans. I’m not doing it for Democrats, independents, anything like that.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

FIFA is once again raising prices for a substantial number of games in the upcoming World Cup tournament that will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico in June and July.

The price increases took place in FIFA's latest sales window that kicked off on Wednesday, with 40 out of 104 games now costing more than in the last sales window, according to an NPR examination of prices.

The hikes can be stark. The most expensive "Category 1" tickets for the final will now cost $10,990, a broad area that covers most of the lower two bowls of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the last game of the tournament will be held in July.

That's significantly more than the nearly $8,700 at which these tickets were priced in FIFA's previous sales window earlier this year — and much higher than the $6,370 at which they were priced when sales kicked off last year.

The increases come even after FIFA has faced heavy criticism about the record prices being charged and its adoption of dynamic pricing for the first time. A group representing European fans and consumers called FIFA's prices "exorbitant" and filed a formal complaint this month with the European Commission in a bid to get the soccer body to lower prices.

Meanwhile, a group of Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to FIFA accusing the organization of "price gouging at the expense of the people who make the World Cup the most-watched sporting event in the world."

FIFA has not replied to NPR's queries. But previously FIFA has justified its prices citing strong demand for tickets as well as noting it's adapting its pricing to the North American market. FIFA has also repeatedly said it's a non-profit that steers the vast majority of revenue from the World Cup to grow soccer around the world.

Price increases cover a wide range of games

Most of the price increases in the initial stage of the tournament were for teams that tend to draw more fans such as Brazil, Argentina, England and Germany — as well as co-host Mexico.

Although price hikes tended to be of less than $100, they still mark a substantial escalation from the initial prices at which FIFA started selling those tickets. Some increases were quite big though. Mexico's opening game against Saudi Arabia now costs as much as $2,985, up from $2,355 in FIFA's last sales window and up from its initial price of $1,825.

Most of the knockout games also increased in price, including the one being held in Philadelphia on July 4th — and the hikes tend to get more substantial for match-ups later in the tournament.

For example, the two semi-finals of the tournament also saw hefty price hikes. The game that will be held in Dallas in July will now cost as much as $3,710, up substantially from $3,295 in the last sales window.

The current sales window will last all the way through the tournament. FIFA has not said how many tickets are left to sell, only that it will continue to drop tickets periodically, including potentially for games that appear to be sold out.
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