ARLINGTON, Va. — President Donald Trump is set to deliver remarks at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate Memorial Day.

Trump on Monday also placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a somber tradition for U.S. presidents. The president paused after placing the wreath, then stepped back and saluted during the playing of “Taps.” Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined him.

But Trump began the day with a decidedly different tone. In an all-caps social media message, Trump ranted at former President Joe Biden, calling him the “SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS” and accusing him of allowing “AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE”

Trump also went after federal judges who have blocked efforts to enact his mass deportation agenda, calling them “USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY.”

“HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

That was after he posted a separate message proclaiming “HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!” Saying “Happy Memorial Day” is considered verboten because the day is considered a solemn day to honor soldiers killed in service.

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Eli Mau made sure to save one of the breakfast muffins from the school cafeteria for his grandma on Thursday.

It is, after all, originally her recipe.

Mau, 21, is a student at Focus Beyond, a district transition program for St. Paul Public Schools students with disabilities ages 18 to 22. He works two days a week at the district’s Lighthouse Coffee cart in the lobby of the district’s central administration building.

An avid baker, Mau wanted to add a homemade item to the coffee cart’s menu this past winter. But because its employees aren’t permitted to sell home-baked goods to the public, Focus Beyond work coordinator Jenelle Kelly connected Mau with the district’s nutrition center manager, chef Bono Gbolo.

“I asked Chef if he would be open to meeting with Eli, kind of chef-to-chef, just to talk about what it’s like to be a chef, to give him some ideas and some, maybe some career advice,” Kelly said. “And Chef brought the dreams.”

Mau had considered blue velvet cake and other ideas, but Gbolo suggested Mau bring some recipes to share.

“Eli told Chef stories about the recipes and why they were meaningful for his family, and then together, they kind of narrowed down to this apple muffin,” Kelly said.

Decisions were in part based on staying in compliance with nutrition requirements – blue velvet cake wouldn’t work, for example, because it would require a blue dye. Eventually, the two decided on Grandma’s apple cake recipe, which would need to be converted into a muffin.

“Since we already had muffins in our system, it was easy for us to take that recipe, change the configurations and the dimensions that were needed to make it more palatable, and then also omit some ingredients too, so that we were in compliance,” Gbolo said.

The next step was inviting Mau to the district’s central kitchen for a taste test of existing products and two new versions of his grandma’s recipe.

Besides needing to meet nutritional requirements, the recipe was adjusted to make enough to feed the thousands of students served by SPPS. The district of more than 33,000 students serves food to about 21,000 daily, Gbolo said.

With a recipe selected, Mau then designed and drew the label for the muffin, which features his grandma mixing ingredients in a smiling pot. ChatGPT helped him pick a name for their creation, Golden Hug Muffin. On Thursday, his classmates tried the final product at Focus Beyond for the first time. It will be served districtwide starting in the fall.

“I was looking for the one that tasted most like this, and what my grandma would like too,” Mau said.

It’s Mau’s last year with Focus Beyond, so he won’t be with the district when the muffins are served next school year, but he still has other baking opportunities and encouragement in mind.

“People should try to make more recipes and just get your recipes out there and stuff,” Mau said.

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By Sheila Yasmin Marikar, Bloomberg News

At Nashik International Airport, there are so many posters advertising vineyards and wine tastings, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve landed in California’s wine country rather than India’s west, 100 miles north of Mumbai.

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Yet in the past two decades, Indian wine production has, in fact, become a thing, and Nashik is its epicenter. The greater wine industry is taking notice: Sula Vineyards, India’s leading winemaker, won the gold medal for cabernet sauvignon from the Global Wine Masters last May, the highest honor an Indian bottling has received at that annual competition. A viognier from Grover Zampa, which has vineyards in Nashik as well as Bangalore, in India’s south, was named best of show at January’s Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America competition.

Beyond winning awards, Nashik is fueling a thirst for wine in a country where alcohol consumption is restrained and mostly limited to whiskey. Its recent successes are not only resonating with locals but also generating renewed interest in international travel to India and bringing a new audience to the region. Ten years after Chandon, part of the LVMH-owned Moët Hennessy portfolio, opened its first winery in Nashik, the brand’s president, Arnaud de Saignes, touts the region’s “potential to produce premium grape varieties” and calls India a “dynamic market,” “with a growing appreciation for high-quality wines.”

Why travelers should go

“The concept of wine in India doesn’t make sense, initially,” says Lisa Alam Shah, the director of Micato Safaris India, a luxury tour operator that’s arranged subcontinental adventures for the likes of Hillary Clinton and the Ambani family. Part of that, she says, is because India heavily taxes alcoholic beverages, which makes it difficult for residents to access quality wines and spirits made abroad.

But her clients are increasingly “looking for something new beyond the Taj Mahal and the palaces of Rajasthan.” So Shah has helped develop Micato’s new tour to Nashik, on offer since last year. “The word ‘authentic’ is overused, but that is what people want, whether they completely understand it or not,” she says. “Nashik, right now, feels quite authentic.”

The highway that leads from Mumbai to the vineyards is modern, but sections of it involve winding dirt roads and wayward cows. (It’s a good idea to hire a driver, as Micato does for its guests.) And while wine is central to the experience, it’s hardly the full extent of what to do there. This is a place to sample brut rosé and cabernet-shiraz and then take a sunset boat ride on the reservoir of Gangapur Dam, one of Asia’s largest. The region also houses Trimbakeshwar, a revered and architecturally significant shrine to Shiva that dates to 1755 and contains a special three-faced representation of the Hindu god, and the 2,000-year-old Pandav Leni Caves, once frequented by Buddhist monks.

The game changer

Chandon may be a name known around the world, but Sula Vineyards has put Nashik on the map for international wine lovers. Founded in 1999 by Rajeev Samant, a former Oracle engineer who returned home after quitting his Silicon Valley job, it produces more than 50% of the wine consumed in India.

Sula’s production is encyclopedic: It makes more than 70 labels, from a pineapple-y sparkling rosé to an oaky chardonnay to a tannin-thick cabernet sauvignon that could pass for something out of Napa. Sula’s Nashik tasting room— billed as India’s first when it opened in 2005 — features a bar that can easily accommodate 100, a gift shop filled with kitschy T-shirts (think: “Partners in Wine”) and a theater that plays a short movie about Sula’s rise.

Sula Vineyards has put Nashik, India, on the map for international wine lovers. (Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS)

Since 2010 it’s also operated a vineyard resort, the Source, which looks like a cross between a Spanish hacienda and a Tuscan villa — albeit with an intricately painted elephant sculpture in the lobby. Suites look out onto vineyards of chenin blanc and groves of queen of the night, intoxicatingly redolent when they blossom after dark. Instead of mimosas at breakfast, there’s a “build your own chai” bar and an accompanying “chaiwala,” which is essentially a mixologist but for tea. The rates start at about $100 per night.

“My dad was born in Nashik,” says Samant of his connection to the land. While attending Stanford University in the 1980s, he visited Napa Valley. A decade later, his father showed him a parcel of land he was thinking of selling. “It reminded me of California,” Samant says of the area’s verdant rolling hills and dirt roads. “I said, ‘I don’t think you should sell this. I‘m going to try to do something here.’”

Now more than 350,000 visitors pass through the tasting room each year — as of April, more than 331,774 have come through in 2025 alone. “The notable spike reflects the growing popularity of wine tourism in India,” says Sula representative Kinjal Mehta, as well as the fact that the cooler months are the most popular time to visit Nashik.

While the majority of visitors are domestic, Sula says that the share of international visitors is growing. On a recent Thursday evening, the tasting room was packed with swillers of all stripes, from sari-clad grandmothers to polo-shirt-wearing bros broadcasting big bachelor party energy. A sign hung near the cellar door bears a believable, albeit unverifiable claim to fame: “More people taste their first wine here than any other place in the world.”

A caveat of selling wine experiences to a new-to-wine market, however, is that the 30-minute tastings feel very Wine 101. “Don’t drink it like a shot,” one employee admonishes during my visit, dispensing sparkling rosé into proffered glasses, then clarifying that it’s not in fact made from roses. Around a horseshoe-shaped bar, heads reverently nod. Afterward, many guests head to an on-site pizzeria bustling with parents and kids, washing down slices of paneer-topped pies with jammy zinfandel. Instagram opportunities abound.

A wild west for world-class wines

Sula is not the only game in town. About a half-hour drive from the Source is Vallonné, a humble winery producing some of the best wines in the region, owned and operated by Sanket Gawand. A Nashik native, Gawand cut his teeth at wineries in Bordeaux, France, and Bologna, Italy, before opening his own outfit. He also serves as Vallonné’s winemaker and runs its tastings, which take place in the cellar amid stainless steel tanks. He manages a team of 10 that harvests nine lakefront vineyards by hand. Vallonné’s viognier and Anokhee cabernet sauvignon stand up to their French inspirations more so than any other wines sampled in Nashik this fall — in my opinion — but Gawand admittedly lacks the public-relations prowess of more popular neighbors like Sula.

“We’re not good at marketing,” he says, with an amiable shrug.

Maybe he doesn’t need to be. The four rooms at Vallonné’s upstairs inn — quaint furnishings, vineyard views, priced at about $70 per night — are consistently booked, and its restaurant serves what might be the best food in the region. The all-day menu, which is also available to walk-in guests, includes succulent lamb kebabs and toothsome Hakka noodles made all the better with a glass of Vallonné’s crisp chenin blanc.

Diamonds in the rough such as Vallonné are best reached with the help of a local guide like Manoj Jagtap, a Nashik native who began conducting tours 10 years ago under the moniker “The Wine Friend.”

“I’ve got a group of eight Aussies coming tomorrow,” Jagtap tells his charges — me, my mother and a family friend — midway through a recent day trip that included Vallonné, Chandon and Grover Zampa. “During the winter harvest season, it’s nonstop.”

When to go

Fall and winter are prime time for the region, and the success of the past season signals that planning for next year will be more essential than ever. Since 2008, Sulafest, a wine and music festival akin to Coachella, has brought about 20,000 visitors to Nashik every February. Hotels drive up their rates; locals sell yard space to day trippers in need of parking. It’s the marquee event for Sula Vineyards and Nashik as a whole.

“There is potential for India to produce far, far better wines,” says Gawand, who believes that he and his peers are just getting started. “Many Indians are traveling abroad,” tasting quality wines and returning home with an elevated thirst. “Once consumers start understanding quality, the winemakers here will be forced to level up.”

A sip of Vallonné’s 2016 cabernet sauvignon — rich, smooth and redolent of sun-ripened red fruit — suggests that India’s winemakers are well on their way. To his competitors, Gawand raises the proverbial glass.

“We are a dense population,” he says. “Even if there are another 1,000 wineries, everyone will be well. There is more than enough business to go around.”

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Someone was recently telling me about a vacation they took with their partner, and when they mentioned some moments of friction that came up, my mind immediately went to “Couples Therapy.” Everyone experiences conflict in life, even with those closest to you, and it can be tricky to work through that. But the show’s psychoanalyst Orna Guralnik is wonderfully perceptive when it comes to helping people talk about what’s really going on.

The unscripted series returns on Showtime for the second half of Season 4, which premiered last year. Featuring all new couples, it’s functionally a new season. (I’m unclear why Showtime makes this confusing distinction, but if I were to guess, it’s related to money and maybe results in a cheaper deal on the network’s end.)

Sometimes people just aren’t compatible. But in many cases, the bickering and fights in these relationships are about something deeper. Picking at one another endlessly or obsessing over something that doesn’t really matter is a way to fill the space between two people who are trying to make some kind of connection, Guralnik says. But it’s all noise and you’re “nowhere real.” The reason analysts might be able to help is that they are trained to “listen for that and to find a way to move from noise to signal.”

Four couples are featured. Rod and Alison have been married for nearly 20 years and they have a dynamic we’ve seen on the series before: She comes across as a harpy, whereas he is passive-aggressive and then retreats into himself. At one point, the energy feels so contentious that Guralnik stops to ask: Are you fighting right now? No, you’ll know when that happens, Alison tells her. To which Guralnik says: “I’m just curious about the tone.” Alison doesn’t deny it: “Oh, I have a tone.” I couldn’t help but laugh because Alison is brusque and abrasive — at least she’s self-aware! “This is how it’s always been,” she says of her marriage. “We have no patience for each other.”

Therapist Dr. Orna Guralnik in Couples Therapy. (Paramount+ with Showtime)

Another couple, Boris and Jessica, have been together about half as long, but the tension between them is just as intense. They’ve recently relocated to New York City. She is thriving, but he hates everything about their new life, even though they’ve finally achieved some stability. “We are just aliens to each other,” he tells Guralnik.

(Boris is the novelist Boris Fishman, and this raises some questions about when the season was filmed; according to his Wikipedia page, in 2024 he began teaching at the University of Austin “where he lives with his wife and daughter.” Presumably they moved. Presumably they are still together. This is important, considering where they live is a primary source of discord between them.)

Kyle and Mondo have been together for six years. The former is deaf and immigrated to the U.S. from Poland as a child. Sometimes he feels smothered by his partner. At other times, because of his disability, he feels left out of things or prefers to spend time with his deaf friends. Kyle also wants an open relationship and Mondo is unenthusiastic about this, while also dealing with other issues, including grief for a mother who died from COVID. Despite their problems, they come across as the couple who seem to have most retained the feelings of affection that first drew them together.

Mondo and Kyle in “Couples Therapy.” (Paramount+ with Showtime)

Finally, there’s Nick and Katherine. “We’re on our own islands,” one of them says. “We take care of things, the bills are paid. But there isn’t love.” He’s still working through a difficult experience he had in college that he is initially reluctant to reveal. She has some lingering issues with disordered eating. Both avoid talking about the feelings of insecurity they feel individually, lest those emotions explode beyond their control.

I generally find “Couples Therapy” to be free of the usual gimmicks and tricks that are used to juice most reality TV. But at least one moment gave me pause. A couple is sniping at each other in the waiting area outside Guralnik’s office and she can hear them — or so we’re led to believe. Whether that’s actually the case or a trick of editing, I don’t know. We see Guralnik gently stroking her sweet dog Nico, an Alaskan Klee Kai who often accompanies her to work, and it’s almost as if she’s trying to calm herself before opening the door and inviting them in. But again, this was a rare moment when I questioned if there was some manipulation happening in how that moment is portrayed. Also, the female half of one couple consistently wears an assortment of sweatshirts that have sleeves covered in sequins. It’s a distinctive look, so much so that my cynical side wondered if she had a line of sweatshirts she was covertly promoting by wearing them to each and every session.

I’ve always wondered why people agree to bare their lives and messy relationships on the show. It’s a question that probably applies to all reality TV, but this one especially requires a vulnerability about one’s sexual behaviors, embarrassing flaws and personal history (and what can feel like shameful remnants of long-ago trauma) in ways that seem unique. The participants are not just revealing this to strangers who make up the bulk of the show’s viewership, but also, by default, to potentially gossipy friends, neighbors, colleagues and professional acquaintances. Even if your relationship is hanging on by a thread, this feels like a deterrent. Then again, there is no fee paid by the couples here. Guralnik typically charges $700 per session. And she’s really good. Maybe, if you’re feeling desperate enough — and also exhibitionist enough — it’s worth the tradeoff.

Nico, the dog belonging to Dr. Orna Guralnik and is often sleeping off the side during her sessions, in “Couples Therapy.” (Paramount+ with Showtime)

Whatever the factors compelling people to take part, I’m grateful they’re willing to let us see inside the most private moments of their relationships, because with Guralnik’s guidance, I always feel smarter and more compassionate about humans in general. The idea that conflict doesn’t have to be intractable is so profound as to be easily overlooked.

“I think it’s very frightening for people to have a raw, honest experience — in real time — with their partner,” Guralnik says, and as a result, “there are many ways people avoid real communication.”

“Couples Therapy” is a look at what it means to break down those walls and see what’s really behind them.

“Couples Therapy” — 4 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: 8 p.m. Fridays on Showtime (streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime)

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.