Trump Media Says It Lost More Than $400 Million Last Year

NEW YORK — The parent company of President Donald Trump’s social networking site Truth Social says it lost $400.9 million last year and its annual revenue declined 12% to $3.6 million.

Trump Media & Technology Group reported its earnings late Friday, blaming the losses in part on a revenue-sharing agreement with an undisclosed advertising partner.

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After winning the U.S. presidential election in November, Trump in December transferred all of his shares — worth around $4 billion on paper — as a “bona fide gift” to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Trump’s shares amounted to more than half of the company’s stock.

Donald Trump Jr., the oldest of the president’s five children, is the sole trustee and has sole voting and investment power over all securities owned by the trust.

Trump created Truth Social after he was banned from Twitter and Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Citing its “early development stage,” the parent company based in Sarasota, Florida, said it doesn’t report “traditional key performance indicators” used by other social media companies, such as how many people have signed up for the service, use it on a daily or monthly basis or see its ads.

Trump Media became publicly traded last March after merging with a shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., an example of what’s called a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, which can give young companies quicker and easier routes to getting their shares trading publicly.

source https://time.com/7225652/trump-media-says-it-lost-more-than-400-million-last-year/

White South Africans Gather In Support of Trump and His Claims That They Are Victims of Racism

PRETORIA, South Africa — Some white South Africans showed support for President Donald Trump on Saturday and gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria to claim they are victims of racism by their own government.

Hundreds of protesters held placards that read “Thank God for President Trump” and displayed other messages criticizing what they see as racist laws instituted by the South African government that discriminate against the white minority.

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Many were from the Afrikaner community that Trump focused on in an Executive Order a week ago that cut aid and assistance to the Black-led South African government. In the order, Trump said South Africa’s Afrikaners, who are descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers, were being targeted by a new law that allows the government to expropriate private land.

The South African government has denied its new law is tied to race and says Trump’s claims over the country and the law have been full of misinformation and distortions.

Trump said land was being expropriated from Afrikaners — which the order referred to as “racially disfavored landowners” — when no land has been taken under the law. Trump also announced a plan to offer Afrikaners refugee status in the U.S. They are only one part of South Africa’s white minority.

In a speech to Parliament this week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the forced removal of any people from their land will never be allowed in South Africa again after millions of Blacks were dispossessed of property under the apartheid system of white minority rule and hundreds of years of colonialism before that.

“The people of this country know the pain of forced removals,” Ramaphosa said. He said the land law does not allow any arbitrary taking of land and only refers to land that can be redistributed for the public good.

The Trump administration’s criticism and punishment of South Africa has elevated a long-standing dilemma in the country over moves to address the wrongs of centuries of white minority rule that oppressed the Black majority.

According to the government, the land law aims to fairly address the inequality that the majority of farmland in South Africa is owned by whites, even though they make up just 7% of the country’s population.

White protesters on Saturday held banners referencing the expropriation law but also other affirmative action policies put in place by the government since the end of apartheid in 1994 to advance opportunities for Blacks. Those laws, known as Black Economic Empowerment, have been a source of frustration for some white people.

Influential Trump adviser Elon Musk — who was raised in South Africa — has also criticized South Africa’s government and claimed it is anti-white for years, although some have questioned his motivations. He has recently failed to get a license for his Starlink satellite internet service in South Africa because it doesn’t meet the country’s affirmative action criteria.

While race has long framed South African politics, the country has been largely successful in reconciling its racially diverse people in the years after apartheid. The current government is made up of a coalition of 10 Black-led and white-led political parties that are working together.

—Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa

source https://time.com/7225641/white-south-africans-gather-us-embassy-support-donald-trump/

The White House Is Criticized Over ‘Offensive’ Valentine’s Day Social Media Post

To mark Valentine’s Day, the White House posted a meme across its X, Instagram, and Facebook social media accounts. The post included a new take on the popular “roses are red, violets are blue” refrain. But in lieu of a traditional love poem, the White House instead came up with a rhyme that targeted illegal immigration.

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“Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally, and we’ll deport you,” the text of the Valentine’s Day message read. Against a pink backdrop, the poem was accompanied by the faces of President Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan. The caption read “Happy Valentines Day,” with a red heart emoji.

Various organizations have since spoken out to condemn the post.

Read More: What Donald Trump’s Win Means For Immigration

Voto Latino, an organization that works to engage Latino communities in the voting process, called the post “offensive and divisive.”

“This post was deliberately crafted to provoke and sow division, but the struggles of immigrant families are not a joke,” the organization said. “Using a lighthearted holiday to demean and target communities is not only irresponsible—it is beneath the dignity of the presidency.” 

Happy Valentine's Day ♥️ pic.twitter.com/6d7qmo7gtz

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 14, 2025

Elsewhere, the Hispanic Federation spoke out against the post, saying that more people need to “step up” and say they will not tolerate this kind of commentary. Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of Hispanic Federation, said: “Let me be clear, this action from the White House is not a lighthearted joke.”

Miranda went on to reference when a comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at a Trump rally last year, highlighting that “this is already a pattern that is beneath the Office of the President of the United States.”

Read More: Trump Launches New Immigration Measures, Prompting Abrupt Shift in U.S. Border Policy

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also responded to the poem on X. “You may not take your job seriously, but we do,” the organization posted. “Your deportations are inhumane, they’re killing the American economy and they’re separating our families.”

The White House’s Valentine’s Day post comes as Trump begins to implement his immigration enforcement efforts and policies, which include targeting sanctuary cities, the intent to progress with mass deportations, efforts to redefine birthright citizenship, and the declaration of a national emergency at the Southern border of the U.S. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also embarked upon raids to ramp up deportation efforts.

source https://time.com/7225608/white-house-valentines-day-social-media-post-illegal-immigration-backlash/

The 20 Best Cheesy Rom-Coms on Netflix

If you like your romantic comedies like you like your pizza—that is, extra cheesy—then this is the list for you. Just like the mildly addictive dairy product, the best cheesy rom-coms on Netflix are hard to resist. They are the kinds of movies that will surely brighten up your day, possibly have you reaching for the tissues (to catch those happy tears of course!), and undoubtedly will make you laugh—even if it’s sometimes at their expense. Whether you’re folding laundry and only have one eye on the screen or need an escape after a long, difficult day, these movies are sure to satisfy your viewing appetite.

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Since there are so many varieties of cheesy rom-coms to choose from, we’ve broken this list down into different categories to help you find the perfect one for you. So whether you’re looking for a romance with a punny title, a sweet teenage dream, a laugh-out-loud romantic getaway or something starring Netflix’s favorite romantic lead Christina Milian, we’ve got you covered. Below, the 20 best cheesy rom-coms on Netflix to watch right now. 

Punniest titles

A Perfect Pairing (2022)

Lola (Victoria Justice) is too busy launchingher own wine import company to even think about love. Yet when the L.A. exec heads to Australia looking to land her first major account, she finds herself vibing with a handsome ranch hand (Netflix’s resident Aussie hunk Adam Demos) who holds the key to her professional success—and, possibly, her heart.

La Dolce Villa (2025)

Experience love Italian style in this rom-com from the director of Mean Girls. La Dolce Villa stars Scott Foley as Eric, a successful American businessman who comes to Rome with every intention of convincing his daughter (Maia Reficco) not to buy a dirt cheap villa with her life savings. Best laid plans though since the former chef quickly finds himself rediscovering his passion for cooking and falling for the town’s comely mayor (Violante Placido) who shows him that you’re never too old to love again.

Falling Inn Love (2019)

After a disastrous breakup, Gabriela Diaz (Christina Milian) mends her broken heart the way anyone would: she takes over an inn she won in a contest. But that’s not all: the property is in New Zealand and it’s a real fixer upper. To get it back up and running, she enlists the help of Jake, a studly local contractor with a complicated romantic past of his own (Adam Demos, again). Falling Inn Love is an enemies-to-lovers rom-com that could be the tool to fixing your own romantic woes. 

Vacation destinations

Happiness for Beginners (2023)

Happiness for Beginners, based on the bestselling 2015 novel of the same name, stars Ellie Kemper as Helen, a recent divorcée who embarks on a beginner’s Appalachian Trail hike with a bunch of eccentric strangers. (Yes, the source material is very Wild coded.) Helen’s hope is that this scenic hiking adventure will teach her how to tackle the world on her own. But when she finds herself falling for a fellow hiker, who happens to also be her younger brother’s friend (Luke Grimes), she begins to wonder if she’d prefer to tackle life’s challenges with someone by her side.

Resort to Love (2021)

One year after her fiancé Jason (Jay Pharoah) suddenly calls off their wedding, aspiring pop star Erica Wilson (Christina Milian, once more) books a gig in paradise, the East African island of Mauritius, only to discover she’s been hired to perform at his nuptials. Oh, and his bride-to-be (Christiani Pitts) doesn’t know about their previous engagement so Erica will have to pretend they’ve never met before. But it’s when she develops a crush on Jason’s brother, a retired Navy SEAL played by Sinqua Walls, that things really get complicated in this rom-com that doubles as the perfect getaway.

Love in the Villa (2022)

Julia (Kat Graham) always dreamed of going to Verona, where Romeo and Juliet took place—just not like this. After getting dumped by her boyfriend of four years, the dogged third-grade teacher decides to turn her couple’s trip to Italy into a solo one. From the moment she lands, everything that could go wrong does. This includes her hotel double-booking her room, which now means she’s stuck sharing a villa with a complete stranger (Tom Hopper), who is as cynical as they come about relationships. Nothing a little quality time in the City of Love couldn’t cure, right? 

A magical romance, literally

Irish Wish (2024)

Lindsay Lohan is already Netflix’s reigning queen of Christmas. With Irish Wish, she becomes its high priestess of St. Patrick’s Day, too. At the wedding of her secret crush, author Peter Kelly (Alexander Vlahos), Maddie (Lohan) wishes that she was his bride-to-be. The next morning, she magically is. (There’s a fairy involved, but don’t get too caught up in the logic.) As Maddie gets to know Peter better, she begins to question whether he really is the man of her dreams. Luckily, the wedding photographer she hired (Ed Speleers) is there to help her find the answer. 

When in Rome (2010)

While celebrating her sister’s wedding in Rome, successful art curator Beth (Kristen Bell) falls for Nick (Josh Duhamel), the best man, who, like her, is comically unlucky in love. In hopes of changing her luck, she steals from the city’s fountain of love, which is so not what Romans do. Her theft results in the throwers of those coins—played by Will Arnett, Danny DeVito, Jon Heder, and Bell’s future husband Dax Shepard—falling madly in love with her. Now she must figure out if Nick’s interest in her is for real or just the result of her magical Italian faux pas.

When We First Met (2018)

What if you could get a do-over with the one who got away? Well, thanks to an enchanted photo booth, Noah (Adam Devine) is about to find out. With some Groundhog Day-esque enchantment, he is able to travel back three years to the first time he met Avery (Alexandra Daddario) and blew his chances of being more than friends. The next day, she goes on to meet her fiancé Ethan (Robbie Amell). Now, using everything he knows about her, all her likes and dislikes, he must steal her heart or end up in the friend zone forever.

Unlikely lovers

A Family Affair (2024)

For two years, Zara (Joey King) has been the personal assistant and personal punching bag to self-absorbed movie star Chris Cole (Zac Efron). But her job only gets more complicated once she discovers that her mom (Nicole Kidman) is hooking up with him. You can’t help but feel bad for the girl, but Kidman and Efron’s chemistry is so good, you may find yourself rooting for their May-December romance against your better judgment.

Lonely Planet (2024)

At a writer’s retreat in Morocco, broken-hearted bestselling author Katherine Loewe (Laura Dern) and adrift businessman Owen (Liam Hemsworth) have their meet-cute. While their more than 20-year age difference may give her pause, it’s his relationship status—he’s at the retreat as a plus one to his novelist girlfriend—that convinces her nothing can happen. Yet the two find themselves naturally drawn to one another, specifically their shared loneliness. Their forbidden love is what makes this late romance so thrilling.

Love, Guaranteed (2020)

Civil litigator Susan (Rachael Leigh Cook) doesn’t have time for anything other than work, which she often does pro bono. After a wealthy client, played by Damon Wayans Jr., convinces her to take on his case against a dating website that guarantees its users will find a match in less than a thousand dates—he’s gone on 986 and is still desperately single—she finds herself wanting to spend time with him outside of business hours, putting her professionalism at risk. It may just be a chance Susan is willing to take in this sweet rom-com that —like the Tiffany song heard throughout the film makes clear —wants you to feel less alone now.

Wedding bells are in the air

Love Wedding Repeat (2020)

This zany remake of the 2012 French rom-com Plan de Table follows multiple guests as they try to survive a wedding where everything that can go wrong does. When Marc (Jack Farthing), a former classmate of the bride, shows up high on cocaine and hell bent on ruining the nuptials, her brother Jack (Sam Claflin) is enlisted to stop him by drugging him with sleeping serum. As if he doesn’t have enough on his plate, he’s also trying his best to make nice with his vindictive ex-girlfriend (Freida Pinto) while attempting to reconnect with his missed connection (Olivia Munn).

The Wedding Planner (2001)

First rule of wedding planning: don’t fall for the groom. But to be fair to Mary (Jennifer Lopez), a wedding planner so committed to her craft she hasn’t gone on a date in two years, she didn’t know Eddie (Matthew McConaughey), the guy who saved her from a runaway dumpster, was going to be her next client. Now that she does, she has sworn to put her feelings aside and get to work planning his spare-no-expense nuptials. What could possibly go wrong?

The Royal Treatment (2022)

For fans of Beautician and the Beast: a kooky Cinderella story in which Laura Marano (channeling Fran Drescher right down to the leopard print) plays Izzy, a Manhattan hairdresser who is hired to work the royal wedding of Prince Thomas (Mena Massoud). His parents arranged the nuptials and he’s having major second thoughts. After Izzy puts the Prince of Lavania (a country east of Aldovia, FYI) in his place, he recruits the outspoken New Yorker to help him understand what life is really like beyond the palace walls.

A second chance at love

Love at First Sight (2023)

American girl (Haley Lu Richardson) meets British boy (Ben Hardy) in JFK airport on her way to her father’s wedding in London. They spend the whole flight talking and he gives her his number when they land, but her phone dies, leading her on a wild goose chase to find him and tell him how she feels. By the end of the film based on the 2011 novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight you will be reaching for the tissues and putting an order in for an extra phone charger.

Find Me Falling (2024)

After his latest album bombs, aging rocker John Allman (Harry Connick Jr.) moves to the idyllic Mediterranean island of Cyprus to escape his life only to have his past catch up with him in the form of an erstwhile love with a big secret.

Teen romances

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between (2022)

Before heading off to college, high school seniors Clara (Talia Ryder) and Aidan (Jordan Fisher) make a pact to amicably break up. To celebrate their last night together as a couple, they plan the perfect final date in which they celebrate all their relationship firsts only to have it all feel so bittersweet. Think Before Sunset for Gen Z.

The Kissing Booth (2018)

In this smooch-heavy rom-com based on the 2012 novel of the same name, Elle (Joey King) attempts to enlist her not-so-secret childhood crush Noah (a floppy haired Jacob Elordi), to take part in their school’s kissing booth fundraiser in hopes of impressing the cool girls. He says no, only to end up locking lips with her at the booth—her first kiss ever—under false pretenses. But that monumental makeout session results in the pair embarking on a secret relationship that puts Elle’s friendship with her bestie, who also happens to be Noah’s little brother, at risk. Be warned: you’ll have to watch The Kissing Booth 2 and 3 to see how this whole thing ends.

The Perfect Date (2019)

Desperate to raise money for college, Brooks Rattigan (Noah Centineo) gets paid to take wealthy outcast Celia (Laura Marano) to her high school semi-formal. He’s so good at faking their relationship, Celia suggests he launch a service where (mostly rich) girls hire him to be their plus one for any occasion. She also agrees to help him win over her classmate Shelby (Camila Mendes) by pretending to be his girlfriend. But when their fake relationship becomes a little too real, Brooks must decide what kind of guy he wants to be in this romance for Some Kind of Wonderfulfans.  

source https://time.com/7222428/best-cheesy-rom-coms-netflix/

Trump’s Dismantling of USAID is Anarchy Masquerading as Efficiency

Nothing about Donald Trump’s hasty and illegal attempted dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—and with it, the decapitation of American power—is remotely efficient. Just this week, USAID’s now-former Inspector General found that there is currently half a billion dollars’ worth of American-grown food stranded at ports and warehouses across the country, on the verge of spoiling. That’s corn and rice and lentils and soybeans, grown in Iowa and Kansas and Texas and Oklahoma, that would have otherwise fed children in a school in Bangladesh or famished refugees at a camp in war-torn Sudan. (The Inspector General was subsequently fired for disclosing this information.)

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Similarly, there’s no efficiency being achieved by obstructing one of the most successful global health programs in history—the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief—which has saved 26 million lives over the past two decades. PEPFAR currently provides HIV treatment to over 20 million people around the world, meaning every day aid isn’t flowing inches us closer to the very outbreaks we’ve worked so hard to prevent.

Whether it’s delivering clean water to communities across Africa; or promoting economic development through education in Mali and small business support in El Salvador; or providing life-saving care in Thailand and Syria; or fighting human trafficking in Nepal and Liberia, thousands of USAID workers and contractors make miracles big and small happen every day.

But USAID succeeds as more than just a moral matter. Each year, it pours billions of dollars back into the U.S. economy, supporting farmers and businesses that provide food and other supplies. It also helps fight terrorist groups and drug cartels that endanger Americans, while deepening American values and interests in every corner of the globe. But perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of USAID’s work is its singular ability to forge relationships with unlikely partners which help combat the harmful influence of adversaries like China and Russia.

It’s no surprise, then, that Beijing and Moscow are now cheering on our sudden retreat. They’re not wasting any time filling the void, either. Within days of USAID’s closure, China sent aid and dispatched workers to take on projects we’ve abandoned in the Indo Pacific and Africa. Intended or not, that will be the enduring consequence of this episode of chaos: an emboldened China, all-too-eager to exploit American isolation to grow its own power and influence.

Like any organization, USAID is not perfect. There are inefficiencies and redundancies, and evolving challenges and emerging technologies present opportunities for improvement. It’s also entirely legitimate to question whether U.S. funding is aligned with our current priorities and interests and seek to adjust it as needed within the four corners of the law. Doing that is one of Congress’ most fundamental responsibilities—and something I was eager to work on when I became the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid last month.

But the abrupt and total shutdown of USAID—in defiance of multiple federal laws through which it was codified and funded—reveals a simple truth: The Department of Government Efficiency is not actually about achieving efficiency. Rather, it’s about Trump trying to wish away whichever parts of the government he doesn’t like. Were a purge of this nature to happen in a country halfway around the world, we would rightly call it an authoritarian takeover. The fact that it’s happening at our own doorstep doesn’t change that.

Much of what DOGE claims to have newly unearthed are either outright lies or were already publicly available for all to see. Worse, there’s no telling what funding they deem unnecessary—except for vague, baseless descriptions like “woke” and “radical” and “criminal.”

The way to make reforms is through the lawmaking process—not the lawbreaking process. If you believe that a program needs to be narrowed in scope, reformed a great deal, or even eliminated altogether, the way to do that is by proposing a law—not by rampaging the federal government and stripping it for parts. Our government with three separate but co-equal branches exists precisely to prevent this kind of anarchy operating under a thin veneer of fiscal responsibility and shrewd cost-cutting.

Moving fast and breaking things may be an acceptable way to conduct business at a tech company. But a break now, fix later strategy doesn’t work when you’re the leader of the free world. What’s on the line is not advertising revenue and the user experience, but lives and livelihoods. Hundreds of millions of them, in fact. People will die, diseases will spread, and famine will grow. Trump is trying to hoodwink Americans into thinking the only way to achieve efficiency is by exacting maximum chaos and cruelty. It’s a false choice and we must reject it.

source https://time.com/7225290/trumps-dismantling-of-usaid/

Judge Sets Five-Day Deadline For Trump Administration to Start Lifting USAID Funding Freeze

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to temporarily lift a funding freeze that has shut down U.S. humanitarian aid and development work around the world, and he has set a five-day deadline for the administration to prove it’s complying.

The judge’s ruling late Thursday cited the financial devastation that the near-overnight cutoff of payments has caused suppliers and nonprofits that carry out much of U.S. aid overseas.

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The ruling was the first to challenge the Republican administration’s funding freeze. It comes amid a growing number of lawsuits by government employees’ groups, aid groups and government suppliers asking courts to roll back the administration’s fast-paced dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and U.S. foreign assistance overall.

Trump and his aide Elon Musk say the 6-decade-old aid agency and much of foreign assistance overall is out of line with the Republican president’s agenda.

Administration officials “have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended” contracts with thousands of nonprofit groups, businesses and others, “was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” Judge Amir H. Ali said in his ruling.

Contractors, farmers and suppliers in the U.S. and around the world say the Trump administration’s funding freeze has stiffed them on hundreds of millions of dollars in pay for work already done, has forced them to lay off staff and is rapidly putting many near the point of financial collapse.

Farmers and other suppliers and contractors describe fortunes in undelivered food aid rotting in ports and other undelivered aid at risk of theft.

The judge ordered the administration to notify every organization with an existing foreign-aid contract with the federal government of his temporary stay. He set a Tuesday deadline for the administration to show it had done so and was otherwise complying with the order.

There was no immediate public response from the Trump administration.

The judge issued the temporary order in the U.S. in a lawsuit brought by two organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations receiving U.S. funds for work abroad.

In his order, the judge noted that the Trump administration argued it had to shut down funding for the thousands of USAID aid programs abroad to conduct a thorough review of each program and whether it should be eliminated.

However, lawyers for the administration had failed to show they had a “rational reason for disregarding … the countless small and large businesses that would have to shutter programs or shutter their businesses altogether,” the judge added.

The ruling also bars Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump officials from enforcing stop-work orders that the Trump administration and Musk have sent to the companies and organizations carrying out foreign aid orders.

The judge also rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it was buffering the impact of the funding freeze, offering waivers to allow funding to keep flowing to some aid partners. He cited testimony that no such waiver system yet existed and that the online payment system at USAID no longer functioned.

In a separate ruling in another lawsuit Thursday, a judge said his temporary block on a Trump administration order that would pull all but a fraction of USAID staffers off the job worldwide would stay in place at least another week.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols closely questioned the government about how it could keep aid staffers abroad safe on leave despite the administration’s dismantling of USAID. When a Justice Department attorney could not provide detailed plans, the judge asked him to file court documents after the hearing.

USAID staffers who until recently were posted in Congo had filed affidavits for the lawsuit describing the aid agency all but abandoning them when looting and political violence exploded in Congo’s capital last month, leaving them to evacuate with their families.

source https://time.com/7225256/judge-five-day-deadline-trump-administration-lifting-usaid-funding-freeze/

Here’s Where Everyone Ends Up After Six Improbably Entertaining Seasons of Cobra Kai

Spoiler alert: This piece discusses the final season of Cobra Kai.

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At last, Cobra Kai has come to an end. Over six wild seasons, creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg managed to deliver something far more fun and more ridiculous than most imagined possible for a Karate Kid sequel: an unapologetically nostalgic reunion of countless cast members from the 1980s original franchise, combined with a new crop of karate kids to pass Mr. Miyagi’s legacy on to the next generation.

For the most part, the show has stayed consistently and improbably entertaining, even if some would say it outstayed its welcome by lasting this long. In many ways, the stakes are higher than ever in this last leg of the journey, a season split across three batches of five episodes broadly structured around the Sekai Taikai world karate tournament in Spain—a tournament relocated to the San Fernando Valley a month later after a Korean competitor named Kwon (played by Brandon H. Lee) dies.

So how did Cobra Kai pick up from that cliffhanger in Barcelona and send off its cast of adult and teenage fighters in the final batch of episodes that dropped this week? Let’s go through each character, one by one.

Johnny Lawrence

This whole show is built around a grown-up version of the teen villain from the original Karate Kid, someone whose life went downhill the moment he lost that All Valley tournament against a rookie named Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). In the final stretch of the show, the now adult Johnny (William Zabka) is still working on moving on from his fear of being eternally viewed as a loser. That includes a pair of surprisingly cathartic conversations between him and John Kreese (Martin Kove), the sensei whose verbal and even physical abuse kicked off his slide into self-loathing and eventually alcoholism after that loss in 1984. Through their tentative reconciliation, Johnny is finally able to move on mentally, especially when Kreese helps him regain control of the Cobra Kai karate dojo to face off against the rival Iron Dragons in the Sekai Taikai finals.

Because the two teams’ point totals are tied after the students compete, Johnny is put in an unexpected position: He must fight the younger, stronger Sensei Wolf in a tiebreaker round. By listening to Daniel’s pep talks and remembering his lessons, he’s able to balance his offensive Cobra Kai tactics and his defensive Miyagi-Do skills, pulling off the win for his dojo. It’s an expected but triumphant conclusion for the show’s unlikely underdog, and his ultimate happy ending—buying a house for his family and running a Cobra Kai dojo in conjunction with Daniel’s Miyagi-Do dojo—feels totally deserved.

Daniel LaRusso

The majority of Daniel’s psychological roadblocks this season revolved around the revelations about his old sensei: Not only did Mr. Miyagi once rob and assault a man, but he accidentally killed a competitor in the Sekai Taikai. This temporarily upended Daniel’s understanding of his famously pacifist mentor, but a dream conversation with Miyagi (with some slightly distasteful AI replacing the late Pat Morita) and some new info about the robbery—he was acting in self-defense while looking for the necklace stolen by an internment camp guard from Miyagi’s late wife—allows him to move on and return to the real meaning of Miyagi-Do.

At this stage in the tournament, team Miyagi-Do is too far behind on points to plausibly catch up and win as a dojo, but Daniel’s newfound inner peace helps him accept that loss and move on to support Johnny at Cobra Kai. Just like it’s always gratifying to see Johnny apply Daniel’s (and Miyagi’s) lessons, it’s also fun to watch Daniel take on Cobra Kai values. He even says the phrase “Cobra Kai never dies” this season, which the old Daniel would never do. Oh, and it’d be wrong not to mention Daniel’s wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler), still a charming secret weapon in keeping the show grounded in these episodes.

Miguel Diaz

All hail the new boys’ world champion of karate. Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) may have lost the Miyagi-Do captain spot to Robby (Tanner Buchanan) for the Sekai Taikai, but in the final episodes, he gets the opportunity to redeem himself by stepping in to replace Kwon on the Cobra Kai squad, once again overseen by his longtime sensei, Johnny. That offers some nostalgic parallels to his All Valley win for Cobra Kai in the Season 1 finale, though Axel from the Iron Dragons is a formidable opponent who’s willing to play dirty. But Miguel pulls off the win, and later that same day he gets the news of his acceptance to Stanford.

Samantha LaRusso

Exploring Barcelona in the previous stretch of episodes made Sam (Mary Mouser) discover a real desire to get out of her comfort zone and spend more time away from the Valley. In the last episodes, she decides on a one-year program in Okinawa, inspired by her dad’s stories about that time in his life, and this time her boyfriend, Miguel, is mature enough to unequivocally support her. He’s even coming along for the first few weeks. When it comes to the Sekai Taikai, Sam makes the decision to step down and let Tory (Peyton List) go to the finals, a satisfying payoff to their seasons-long enemies-to-friends arc.

Robby Keene

When Robby was chosen as a Miyagi-Do captain for the Sekai Taikai, it seemed like this might finally be his time to shine. But when he comes back for the boys’ semifinals a month after the tournament paused, Axel’s sensei is unwilling to accept a loss—so the villainous Axel straight-up breaks Robby’s leg there on the mat, somehow winning and avoiding disqualification. Robby’s dreams of winning are dashed, which actually allows for a pretty thoughtful moment of reflection. Besides, in the end he has everything that matters: a family, friends, a girlfriend who loves him, and even an opportunity to compete professionally, despite the warnings of his skeptical guidance counselor.

Tory Nichols

After losing her mom during tryouts for the Sekai Taikai lineup, Tory isolated herself from everyone outside the strangely comforting familiarity of Cobra Kai. Now she has her friends back in her life, especially Sam. In the girls’ final, Tory faces off against Zara from the Iron Dragons, a secretly vicious but publicly beloved karate influencer, but overcomes her taunts when Robby says “I love you” and they kiss very publicly, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. From there, Tory easily crushes Zara, even knocking one of her teeth out and saying, “Welcome to the Valley, bitch” to echo Zara’s jab back in Barcelona. Sweet justice—and Tory even gets offered brand deals that would allow her and Robby to both fight competitively.

Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz and Demetri Alexopoulos

The self-styled “Binary Bros” spent most of the first two thirds of this season in a funk, locked in a petty fight revolving around college plans. But by the end of their trip to Barcelona for the Sekai Taikai in Season 6’s second installment, they’d made up, and by now they’re back in bromance mode. When Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) gets into Caltech, they immediately start making plans to visit each other and take summer classes together—then Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo) decides he’s not interested in MIT after all, and he’d rather go to Caltech with his best buddy (and, you know, their robotics program).

On a slightly less interesting note, Demetri’s girlfriend Yasmine eventually takes him back after that awkward moment when she spotted him, via FaceTime, dancing with a Spanish girl. That means that like the other graduates, both Demetri and Eli are still with their respective girlfriends going into college. It’s all sticking with the show’s slightly-over-the-top series of happy endings, though this is the type of show where a little fantasy is understandable.

John Kreese

Who saw a Kreese redemption arc coming? After escaping from prison and joining Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hanah-Kim) to hone some killers out of Cobra Kai students for the Sekai Taikai, Kreese finally expressed some interest in making real amends with Johnny, especially after Johnny saved his life from Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) during the chaos in Barcelona. He sincerely apologizes to his old student and recognizes that the love he has for Johnny is a strength rather than a weakness—but he’s also still determined to kill Silver no matter what, especially at any sign that he’s screwing with Johnny’s life, so he stows away on his yacht and blows it up with them both on it, with “mercy” as his last line instead of his customary “no mercy.”

Terry Silver

The death of this other longtime Karate Kid villain was coming either way; early in the final episodes, Silver learns that he’s terminally ill and has six months at most to live. His last doomed efforts to win glory with his dojo at the Sekai Taikai come from an effort to solidify his legacy, but Kreese stops him before he can even see the grand finale. Their fight to the death is exciting and funny, capped off with an especially over-the-top explosion.

Kenny Payne, Devon Lee, and Anthony LaRusso

The younger second-stringers hardly got any screen time in these last episodes, mostly because they dealt with the majority of their drama in the last batch, shenanigans involving spiking water with laxatives. It might’ve been nice to check in with them once or twice more, but the show does confirm that they’re still training with both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do at the end of the series.

Chozen and Kim Da-Eun

In Barcelona, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) unexpectedly connected with the first woman to successfully distract him from his heartbreak over Kumiko: Kim Da-Eun, the notorious and slightly abusive sensei for Cobra Kai originally brought on by Silver. And while she only appears significantly in one episode from the final five, the finale shows a glimpse of Chozen showing up to her dojang, implying the two end up together.

source https://time.com/7222066/cobra-kai-season-6-finale-recap/