Trump to Visit Wildfire Victims | Abrams Bows Out in Georgia

The growing death toll has topped 70. There are more than 1,000 missing from deadly wildfires ravaging California. In Sacramento and the Bay Area, home to 9 million people, air pollution was worse than anywhere else on Earth Friday, closing schools and businesses as residents donned filtration masks. Visiting this unprecedented disaster area today is President Donald Trump, who angered Californians with unsupported accusations that forest management caused the fires. Saying “now is the time to pull together,” the state’s current and incoming Democratic governors plan to accompany Trump.

Next week, congressional leaders may work on something the country hasn’t done in decades: reforming federal sentencing laws. That requires something rarely seen in Washington: Republican and Democratic lawmakers cooperating, and this time with President Trump. The First Step Act will get “very much tougher on the truly bad criminals,” Trump said in announcing his support, while relaxing 1980s and 1990s get-tough policies that disproportionately incarcerated Black defendants. There’s a major hitch, however: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says there are bigger immediate priorities, so GOP backers are chiding him for blocking Trump’s agenda.

She’s bowing out. Democrat Stacey Abrams admitted Friday there was no way she could bring GOP opponent Brian Kemp’s vote percentage below 50 percent and force a runoff — but she hasn’t quite conceded. Instead, she’ll sue the state for “gross mismanagement” of the contest to “protect future elections.” Abrams has accused Kemp, who was Georgia’s top election official during the contest, of deliberately disenfranchising minority voters with his purge of more than 1 million from state voting rolls. For his part, Kemp urged Georgians to set aside “divisive politics” and focus on the future.

After Crimea’s annexation, U.S. election meddling and ex-spy Sergei Skripal’s poisoning in the U.K., a slew of sanctions aimed to put Moscow in a diplomatic timeout. Yet Russia has sold S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey, India and China. Germany and France are still involved with Russian energy projects. Even Boeing set up shop in the country. Russia may be just too big — and lucrative — to be punished. And as countries determine their independent Russia polices, it’s the U.S. that’s increasingly on the outside, looking in.

The Week Ahead: On Tuesday, the author who created the Game of Thrones universe, George R.R. Martin, will publish his first book in seven years, Fire and Blood, a history of the Targaryen family. Americans will reportedly pay less than they have in eight years for Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast. And France will host Croatia for the Davis Cup tennis final, starting Friday.

Know This: The CIA has reportedly concluded that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last month. A year after it disappeared with 44 crew members, Argentina reports that its San Juan submarine has been found 2,620 feet under water off the country’s Atlantic Coast. And CNN correspondent Jim Acosta can again attend presidential press conferences after a court determined that the White House inappropriately took away his press pass last week.

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A variety of recent research shows that despite hookup apps, free contraception and a greater acceptance of intimacy outside of marriage, younger people seem to be having far less sex than earlier generations. The reasons are endless, including women’s wariness of men increasingly influenced by unpleasant, sometimes painful porn-inspired practices, the awkwardness of asking someone out and anxieties about in-person interaction of any kind. Whatever the reason, the phenomenon is stunting both birthrates and intimacy while fostering an acceptance of lonely, celibate lives.

Let your mind wander. Two key 1990s studies showed that the brain is more active at rest, and that such activity, involving the body’s most complex machinery, is envisioning the future, relating it to our past and linking causes and effects. It’s during such random episodic silent thought, or REST, that inventions and other great ideas are often born. But today adults have smartphones to concentrate thoughts during what could be free-form musings. And so do kids — whose neurons, if constantly focused, may not develop that crucial ability to simply daydream.

They’re beacons of free speech, taking stands on a range of issues. But outside of the U.S., those views are filtered by business considerations — something that’s been magnified following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Tech firms, Uber in particular, haven’t turned down $11 billion in Saudi investment, while Google, Twitter and Facebook have acquiesced to government censorship and data access in Turkey. Google’s CEO says the company’s presence in China, even with government compliance, helps ordinary people with things like medical information, but human rights groups say it helps oppress those same users.

Hagiography has long surrounded the Marvel genius, who died on Monday, obscuring the cracks in his origin myth. Lee’s longtime creative partner, Jack Kirby, was not unlike a comic book nemesis in human form, replete with motivations rooted in shared history. As Lee’s fame evolved from the magazine rack to a blockbuster cinematic machine, artists like Kirby, who died in 1994, came to feel abandoned as Lee basked in the spotlight. But fans argue that Lee injected nuance and emotion into Marvel’s stable of characters, allowing them to fly off the page into immortality.

The 23-year-old Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is crushing his first pro season. For those who know him — and his arm — his success is not surprising. Ever since T-ball, the son of MLB pitcher Pat Mahomes has thrown with pinpoint accuracy. He connected for 50 touchdowns as an East Texas high school senior and became a legend at Texas Tech. As of Week 9 Mahomes was leading the NFL in touchdowns and yards. His talent seems innate, but will he evolve — and does he need to?