The 49ers might get their 2026 season opener in the prime-time Thursday Night Football slot. But the game will be in Melbourne, Australia, which is about a 16-hour flight each way, and Niners players are none too thrilled.

NFL fans (and especially players) generally hate Thursday Night Football. That is, with the exception of the Week 1 opening night game, because we’ve been jonesing for that shit all off-season and we’ll take it any way we can get it. And that Week 1 Thursday Night Football game may be shaping up to be 49ers-Rams, as KRON4 reports that the 49ers and Rams will play an international game in Melbourne, Australia.

Not long after that announcement dropped Thursday, NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco confirmed that game would be Week 1, and might even be the Week 1 Thursday Night Football game. “Time and date is TBA,” Maiocco tweeted. “It seems because of the 16-hour flight to Melbourne, the best way this works is if it’s the season-opener on the Thursday of Week 1."  

Fair enough, but it also might be the special Friday night Week 1 game. Remember, this past season, the Chiefs and Chargers played a Friday night Week 1 opener in Sao Paolo, Brazil. So the Rams and Niners playing on Friday night in Week 1 in Australia would make sense too.

But it doesn't make sense to some 49ers players, who are not at all pleased with the prospect of a 16-hour flight (each way) to Australia.

“That’s not fair. Then the NFL, I feel, is doing us a disservice,” 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk told the Bay Area News Group. “Because if we’re going to talk about health and safety, to do two international games like that is almost like playing three games in 13 days.”

Running back Christian McCaffrey was slightly more diplomatic.

“Australia is pretty far,” McCaffrey told the News Group. “I’d love to see how the schedule would work. Transparently, that might be a little too far.”

You may have noticed that Juszczyk mentioned “two international games.” That’s because it’s been long-rumored that the Niners will play another international game in Mexico City in the 2026 season, and team CEO Jed York basically confirmed as much this week in a Super Bowl press conference.

"We will most likely give up a home game this season to play abroad, and Mexico is always No. 1 on my list,” York told reporter Emilio León of Imagen Sports, per the News Group.

To clarify, the 49ers would give up a home game in order to be the “home team” in a Mexico game. The Rams are giving up a home game in order to be the “home team” in the Melbourne, Australia game. And that’s probably fine by the Rams, as so many Niners fans pack their home stadium for Rams-49ers games in LA that people routinely refer to the Rams’ SoFi Stadium as “Levi’s South.”

Related: 49ers Get Glorious 23-19 Playoff Win In Nailbiter Over Philadelphia Eagles [SFist]

Image: SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 09: A San Francisco 49ers fan reacts during the third quarter against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi's Stadium on November 09, 2025 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

• Despite informing patients it will soon be ending gender-affirming care for transgender youth last month, Sutter Health has reversed course. Families were relieved to discover that their trans children could continue receiving care through the network, despite the federal administration’s continued pressure to ban it. [KQED]
• The Vallejo City Unified School District voted to close three elementary schools this week, which include around 1,000 students and 100 staff members. The district cites a swift decline in enrollment rates, as the number of students in the district has gone down from 20,000 students in previous years to 10,000 currently. [KPIX]

• Hazie’s restaurant in Hayes Valley has seen a significant boost in business following a viral video involving the antics of an unfortunate drunk woman last week, which ultimately got her fired from her job at Strava. [KRON4]

National:

• Thousands gathered Thursday to honor the people killed and injured during a Hanukkah celebration last weekend at Australia’s Bondi Beach, the first day the park reopened after the attack. [Associated Press]

• Applications for Trump’s new gold card opened last week, geared toward enabling wealthy foreigners to bypass US immigration laws to the tune of $1 million, plus a $15,000 processing fee. [CNBC]
• After New York Governor Kathy Hochul banned phones in public schools in September, students have gone analog in the cafeterias, including playing Dominos and poker and listening to CDs via Walkmen. [Boing Boing]

Video of the Day:

The stunning City Hall Winter Lights display kicked off December 6 and runs through January 2, featuring a 10-minute show that begins with an homage to the history of City Hall, including the original architectural drawings by architect Arthur Brown Jr. projected onto the magnificent Beaux Arts structure. The presentation then transforms into a carousel of holiday-themed visuals that “fill the façade with warmth and color.”

Amplified sound is available every night except Christmas and Christmas Eve. Spectators can also access the playlist through the app. The show runs every half hour from 5:30 pm to midnight, every night through January 2, visible from Polk Street and Van Ness Avenue. — via Secret San Francisco

Image: SF Office of Protocol

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• Congressional candidates, Connie Chan, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Scott Wiener, who are all running for Nancy Pelosi’s old seat, discussed how they’ll address the climate crisis at an event Friday night organized by the popular youth-led climate justice group, Climate Defiance, as part of its national fundraising tour. [Climate Defiance/Instagram]

• Acclaimed comedic actor Dick Van Dyke turned 100 Saturday, which he says is not enough as he plans to live many more years. [KRON4]
• SF-based Reddit is suing the country of Australia over its new ban on social media for kids under 16, explaining that the platform is not a social media site, and the law inhibits free political discourse, as outlined in the country’s constitution. [Engadget]
• The SFPD is asking for the public’s help finding Hank, a French bulldog who was stolen while his owners walked him in the Castro Wednesday night. [KGO]

• Last-minute shoppers: turn your procrastination into an adventure with this lovely, hyperlocal gift guide — all while supporting local artisans and small businesses. [48 Hills]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• Leading up to their show at the Warfield Saturday, drag queen and environmentalist Patty Gonia hiked 100 miles to San Francisco. The Nebraska-based drag queen’s meandering, week-long hike — in full drag — began at Point Reyes National Seashore and raised $1 million for eight nonprofits. [GoodGoodGood]

• European Union regulators fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X $140 million for breaching transparency laws. The European Commission says now that X allows anyone to pay for a blue checkmark, users can no longer verify the authenticity of accounts. [CBS News]
• Actress Halle Berry criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom during a talk this week for previously vetoing a bill that would expand the Menopause Care Equity Act, and Newsom responded that his administration will actually be funding the expansion next year. [Chronicle]

National:

• Famed architect Frank Gehry, notable for high profile projects such as the Guggenheim Museum, as well as a portion of Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, has died at 96. [Associated Press]
• A New York City teen who lit a sleeping subway passenger on fire, severely burning them, was jailed Friday on a federal arson charge. [ABC News]
• Australian influencer Sam Weidenhofer, who uses his platform to spread kindness, awarded an 88-year-old grocery worker in Michigan $1.7 million during his visit to the US. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

Watch the massive waves produced by the kings tide this week, which flooded the streets of Pacifica.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• The Pickett Fire in Napa County, which has surpassed 3,000 acres, reached 7% containment Friday afternoon. The fire was reportedly more manageable on Friday than on Thursday afternoon when it was “very aggressive.” [SFGate]
• Blockchain gaming startup Ex Populus Inc., which registered the XAI trademark in May, is suing Elon Musk's AI company, xAI. Ex Populus says xAI has been trying to bully the company into giving up its rights to the trademark. [SF Business Times]
• Local community group Black Men United and the East Bay chapter of national nonprofit Live Free held a meeting Thursday night discussing how they’ll protect young people if the National Guard is deployed in Oakland. They’ve been hosting ongoing outreach events for at-risk youth, including a violence prevention youth summit and vigils honoring homicide victims. [KTVU]

• Students at a few Berkeley Unified School District schools have tested positive for COVID amid the current surge. [Berkeleyside]
• That fancy Cupertino Whole Foods that closed in April due to multiple pest infestations, including an "adult female roof rat in the deli" and “German cockroaches near the bakery,” is still closed as the building undergoes an extensive remodel. [Hoodline]

National:

• A new report by MIT revealed that only five percent of companies have succeeded at effectively integrating generative AI into their businesses. Additionally, the best AI tools on the market were only able to effectively complete 30% of every-day office tasks as of July — many of which performed much worse. [Futurism]
• On a related note, a bank in Australia reportedly fired — and then rehired — its workers after its chatbot failed to deliver the expected results. [Gizmodo]
• Social media posts have been spreading misinformation about the number of non-citizens living in the US — inflating the number by “tens of millions” — after the Trump administration announced its reviewing the valid visas of over 55 million people. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

• A look at Bay Area mascots throughout history. Agreed, Sourdough Sam seems kind of creepy.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A September 2023 head-on crash that killed two elderly people in San Mateo County has been attributed to an Australian motorist driving on the wrong side of the road, which would have been the correct side in Australia, so that motorist got a plea deal for just two months in jail.  

It was September 21, 2023 when two people were killed in a head-on, wrong-way crash in the southern San Mateo County community of La Honda, as the Bay Area News Group reported at the time. The victims have since been identified as married couple Linda and Jack Davis (the News Group identified them as “in their 60s,” other more recent reports have identified them as both being 80 years old). Two other passengers riding with the Davises were also hospitalized when they were struck by a BMW M4 going the wrong direction on Highway 84.  

But the driver who crashed head-on into them, 32-year-old Luke Nardini, was an Australian tourist who had only been in the US a short time. And in Australia, they do drive on the opposite side of the road as in the US. Which may have created some leniency for Nardini, as KRON4 reports that he was sentenced to two months in jail.  

Nardini was originally sentenced to stand trial last month, but San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Jackson offered him a plea deal. Nardini took the plea deal, and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges.

Additionally, Nardini must give vehicular safety speeches at three area high schools, as well as with the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office’s Save A Youth program. He’s also getting ten days lopped of the two-month jail sentence for time already served.

Nardini is scheduled to surrender himself to San Mateo County Jail on November 1.

Related: Two Die In Wrong-Way Crash On I-280 In Daly City [SFist]

Image: DO NOT ENTER, WRONG WAY Warning Sign at the Exit of Interstate 405, Los Angeles. (Getty Images)

After the Australian state of Queensland passed legislation to stamp out Uber last month with punishing fines to drivers using the app, the $50 billion valued company did what any imperious, overvalued child would do when met with resistance: It staged a series of self-righteous hissy-fit PR stunts. In a tactic reported on by CNet and others, Uber printed out 15,000 emails objecting to the fines, stuffed them in burlap sacks, and carried them, on horse-and-buggy, to the office of Queensland's government, making a serious and adult point about technology and, like, the future, bro.

The Brisbane Times reports that the horse-and-buggy runaround gambit followed news that roughly 15,000 constituent emails had been blocked, essentially as spam, by the local officials to whom they were addressed. But as Mashable explains, the emails were also a sort of "squeaky wheel" tactic, if a more common one. Each was a form email, blasted out from Queensland constituents at the company's behest, only to be blocked due to their volume and seemingly identical content.

As one official put it, "Whether these emails were, in fact, being generated by individuals or individuals utilising some sort of feeder system, or simply being auto generated and were a type of email bomb or blast, one result of these emails was to compromise the Parliamentary Service's email system and members' ability to communicate."

Uber obstinately claims to see matters differently. "Unfortunately, thousands of these emails were deliberately blocked by the parliament and were not received," the company's General Manager in Queensland, Sam Bool, told Mashable. "To ensure the voices of those that want ridesharing in Queensland will still be heard, today we hand delivered these emails to the premier's office." As Bool snidely reiterated to the daily Mail, "We'll be interested to see whether the people who wrote to their premier will receive a response in the mail or through updated, modern regulations that [recognize] their right to choose how they get around."

The above promotional video generated from the event shows a company awfully proud of its literal gamesmanship. Previously, Uber created a version of its app, highlighted by the Brisbane Times and Mashable, named after a local politician. In a sarcastic dig at the fines in question, it displayed no cars available. Good one, kids.

Related: Uber Surge Pricing Getting Nixed, Says Engineer, But Company Quickly Denies That

Just moments after musician/actor/beautiful person Prince learned that his one-time protégé Denise "Vanity" Matthews had died at a Bay Area hospital, he had to take the stage in Melbourne, Australia. According to reports, what resulted was an emotional performance filled with reminiscences of the fallen artist.

As previously reported, Matthews, who collaborated with Prince throughout the 1980s before shunning the spotlight as a born-again Christian, died in Fremont earlier this week following a battle with sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis.

According to News Corp Australia, Prince had "just found out about" Matthews' death before hitting the stage, saying “Someone dear to us has passed away, I’m gonna dedicate this song to her.”

What resulted was "a touching version of Little Red Corvette with a touch of Dirty Mind — songs from the era when they were together."

He then altered the lyrics to The Ladder, singing “This Prince, he had a subject named Vanity who loved him with a passion, uncontested.” He also referenced her when singing The Beautiful Ones, saying "I’m trying to stay focused, it’s a little heavy for me tonight. Just keep jamming ... She knows about this one," then changing the final lyrics from "my knees" to "Denise."

“Can I tell you a story about Vanity? Or should I tell you a story about Denise?" Prince reportedly asked the crowd, before saying "Her and I used to love each other deeply. She loved me for the artist I was, I loved her for the artist she was trying to be. She and I would fight. She was very headstrong cos she knew she was the finest woman in the world. She never missed an opportunity to tell you that.”

He also said that during an argument, he threatened to heave Matthews in the pool, When she told the diminutive artist “You can’t throw me in the pool, you’re too little," he says he had his bodyguard toss her in.

“I probably shouldn’t be telling this story,“ Prince concluded. “But she’d want us to celebrate her life and not mourn her.”

TMZ reports that Matthews has attended services at a Bay Area church as recently as Saturday night, where she told congregants that she was "ready to go home." She was 57.

Previously: Vanity, Prince Protege And 'Nasty Girl' Singer, Dies In Fremont Hospital At Age 57

Like a clash between Tron and Endless Summer, these surfers zipped up electroluminescent wetsuits and hit some tasty waves in Bondi Beach in Australia this past November. According to Laughing Squid, the night surfing event was a promotional event by Strongbow Cider Australia. Nevertheless, it's still totally bitchin'.

Photo by Eugene Tan

[Laughing Squid, via Make]

We're not going to claim to know how Australia works, it being the land of theives and tax evaders and all, but their Attorney General is supporting a law that, "exempts private schools from any obligation to enroll or deal fairly with students who are homosexual." Meaning they can just kick those kids right out of their fancy Anglican schools without so much as a "disruption, harassment [or] even the flaunting of sexuality. Being homosexual is enough."

Apparently the Attorney General thinks it's necessary to maintain order at church-backed schools, but the churches themselves are split on whether or not they actually want such a law. Do they not get Glee in Australia yet?

[SydneyMorningHerald] (By way of the tipline.)

The insane worldwide panic preceding a potential (though unlikely?) worldwide pandemic of swine flu reached new heights today, with Australian flights from California being screened before deplaning and a woman in Hong Kong hospitalized after visiting (gasp!) San Francisco.

Australian news org ABC has reports of passengers on a Qantas flight from SFO to Sydney being greeted upon landing by health officials who boarded the plane and asked anyone with the sniffles to please raise their hand (and presumably prepare for execution on the tarmac).

Meanwhile, China Daily reports of a 27-year-old woman hospitalized in Hong Kong for testing after returning from a visit to (gasp!) San Francisco!

Australia-born actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his NYC apartment today. It is reported that he allegedly died of either a drug overdose or hanging at Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment. More details as they come in. Sad. Very much so. Read more about the actor here and here.

You may start any and all Brokeback Mountain references starting...now.

UPDATE: According to our parent site, Gothamist:

The housekeeper and masseuse tried to awake him and called the authorities when he did not respond. When the paramedics responded he was in full cardiac arrest and they attempted to perform CPR. It was unsuccessful, however, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.The police say foul play is not suspected.

He was not, as was reported in the , found dead inside MK Olsen's pad.

Weighing in with hard-boiled insouciance on the death of the Academy Award nominee (on announcement day no less! Have you no shame?), check out SFBG and SF Weekly also getting in on the traffic-enticing action.